Bogota Has the Worst Traffic in LatAm
Bogotá loses 126 hours/year to traffic, fueled by poor transit and 2M+ vehicles.
If you never miss one of our charts, you know that Latin America is very urbanized, even more than Asia and Europe. One of the most common (and frustrating) aspects of urbanization is traffic. Therefore, perhaps it’s not surprising that Latin America has some of the most congested cities worldwide.
As you can see on the chart, Bogotans have to deal with the highest congestion rate in the region, living in the 4th most congested city in the world and losing an average of 126 hours per year. Why so much traffic? These are some of the reasons for Bogotá specifically:
Poor public transportation (which forces citizens to drive a car)
More bicycle lanes (leaving less street space for vehicles)
Infrastructure failures that lead to more accidents (40 accidents per hour in 2019)
Growth in automobile usage (there are more than 2M vehicles)
As shown, congestion levels went down due to the pandemic as restrictions led to more people working from home and many establishments being closed. Interestingly, traffic levels in 2021 increased little from 2020 when the pandemic was in full swing. Time will tell if the “new normal” will be a more permanent decrease in traffic and congestion compared to pre-pandemic levels.