Edmonton ranks 5th for traffic congestion

Although it may be hard to believe when road rage sets in during a sluggish commute, traffic congestion in Edmonton pales in comparison to several other Canadian cities, according to a new report.

The GPS company TomTom has released its annual traffic index, measuring traffic congestion for cities across around the world, Edmonton ranked 5th behind Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Based on GPS data from TomTom users across the country, Edmonton received a rating of 21 per cent. The report says, on average, drivers in the city will have the length of their commute increased by 21 per cent due to traffic snarl-ups on city streets and highways.

According to Nick Cohn, senior traffic expert at TomTom, Edmonton's rating increased 2 per cent from 2014.

"One of the surprising thing we saw, is that traffic got better in a lot of cities in Canada," said Cohn, who notes that increased investment in transit and new construction has eased bottlenecks for Edmonton drivers.

"There has been a lot of attention of the public, and also of policy for improving urban mobility and really investing. And Edmonton is one of those cities where that is the case."

According to Cohn, Tuesday mornings between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m, and Friday evening between 4:00 pm and 5:00 p.m. are the peak traffic times for Edmonton commuters, and drivers should consider mixing up their travel schedule to avoid any headaches.

"We want to show people what hours to avoid," said Cohn. "Hopefully people can  become more flexible in their daily patterns; depart at a different time, or maybe dare to use a different route so they're not stuck in the same traffic jam every day."

With a rating of 21 per cent, Calgary came in 6th on the list. According to TomTom, traffic congestion in Calgary improved 3 per cent year-over-year.