Where Are the World's Worst Traffic Jams?

What constitutes a world-beating traffic jam? And where can they be found?

Well, when some bright spark stuck his lorry into the roof wall of the Blackwall Tunnel and gridlocked the whole of East and North London for a ten-mile radius, it wasn’t very far from home. But this tends to be more the exception than the rule.

Major cities in Africa and the subcontinent can boast some terribly chaotic traffic issues, where rickshaws, cattle, cars, bikes and lorries mix with taxis, dogs and pedestrians on a daily basis. Join us on a blood pressure-raising journey around the world as we discover the worst traffic jams in the world, so you know where to avoid on your next trip…

Jakarta, Indonesia

It seems the rush hour in Jakarta isn’t so much an hour as all day. The daily commute made worse by the introduction of bus lanes, which serve to narrow the already overly congested roads, to serve a puny, inefficient bus service. 

The traffic jams in Jakarta are such an integral part of life for the people who live there that they have their own word to describe them – ‘macet’. Don’t watch the video below if you’re easily stressed out, because that’s exactly how it will make you feel.

Bangkok, Thailand

In Thailand, the government introduced a tax refund for first-time car buyers. This had the drastic result of putting five million cars (and motorbikes) onto a road infrastructure that was capable of handling only two million. 

In Bangkok, with no real public transport alternative, this creates massive jams every weekday, with some unfortunate souls taking over four hours to get home.

Brussels and Antwerp, Belgium

For some reason, Belgium has two cities that boast the dubious title of world’s worst traffic congestion; Brussels and Antwerp being the worst in Europe, according to Forbes magazine. 

The video below offers a glimpse into how bad the traffic in Brussels can be, and while it’s not as anxiety-inducing as the jams in Jakarta, it’s still got us on edge.

Los Angeles, USA

In Los Angeles, the average driver can spend a mindboggling 59 hours a year sitting admiring the back of the car infront. You better have air-conditioning.

This mesmerising time-lapse video shows just what those poor Californian commuters have to deal with on a daily basis.

Milan, Italy

Milan, a city still spanning the centuries and with roads simply not designed to cater for the traffic of the 21st, can still have cattle herded down its streets during peak time. 

In the video below you’ll see a truly terrible example of how to handle Milan traffic (or traffic in any city) when you’re riding a motorbike, but you’ll also get a taste for the city’s traffic chaos. We’ll stick to walking.

Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu is perhaps an unlikely candidate, but their rush hour is fearsome, with enormous tailbacks that span the island and can last hours on their narrow roads.

In this vibrant video you’ll see how awful the traffic in Honolulu can be at different times of day. We probably wouldn’t complain so much if we were surrounded by palm trees instead of roadworks.

Rotterdam, the Netherlands

The busy port of Rotterdam fails dismally to deal with sheer volume of additional traffic coming off the container ships that then has to joust with the cities commuters as they negotiate their way out into Europe.

You’ll see just what we mean in this clip. We wonder if the traffic would be more, ahem, ‘chilled’ over in Amsterdam?

Sao Paolo, Brazil

Sao Paolo is renowned for having some of the absolute worst traffic in the world. On a Friday night, rather getting home, slipping on the glad rags and stepping out, you’re more likely to find yourself in one of the 112(!) mile long tailbacks heading out of the city. 

Yes, you read that correctly, 112miles. That’s the distance of London to Nottingham. On a bad day, they can stretch over 180miles… 

China National Highway 110

It’s fair to say that we’ve saved the best – well, more like the worst – for last.  

The China National Highway 110 travels through Inner Mongolia between Beijing and Tibet.  From August 14, 2010, with a combination of roadworks, heavy coal truck traffic from the mining in Mongolia and several breakdowns, recurring traffic jams built up, until it finally peaked with a sixty mile tailback that lasted for more than ten days. 

Believed to be the worst traffic jam in history, the poor unfortunates involved were able to move their cars less than a mile a day, some reporting being stuck out there for five days.

Local businesses capitalised on the event, charging ten times the normal cost for a bottle of water and noodle bars providing mobile restaurants by bicycle, to the stranded drivers, with inflated prices to boot.

Suddenly the North Circular doesn’t look so bad.