The biggest traffic slowdown happens on Tuesdays in Hyderabad. Driving on Saturdays is no longer a breeze. However, Sundays are the absolute best to go out for a ride.

Data from ride-hailing company Uber reveals what people have long suspected, the average driving time in the evening peak hours often exceeds an hour even if the distance is under 20 kilometres.

Using the Greenlands-Panjagutta as the centre point for calculating travel time, data shows how much time citizens are spending on the road in their cars. However, Hyderabad still is a city where travel speeds are much higher than several other big cities. Recently, Uber released data called Movement Speeds with more detailed street-level and hourly data. It showed that in some areas of London, even walking is faster than driving. Cycling is the fastest way to commute.

No area spared

In Hyderabad, no part of the city is spared from the slowdown in travel time.

Southern parts of the city like Bandlaguda, Charminar, or northern parts like Sainikpuri and Trimulgherry or the western areas of Serilingampally and Chandanagar are as worse off as eastern suburbs like L.B. Nagar and Nagole. It takes an average of 3.6 minutes to cover 1 kilometre during peak traffic in the city.

For commuters like Bilon Aristotle, the contrast in travel time between early morning and evening peak time cannot be sharper. “I go to a gymnasium at 6 a.m. and I cover the 14 kilometres from my home in Sainikpuri to Banjara Hills in 20 minutes. But when I am returning home around 5 p.m., it takes me up to an hour to cover the same distance,” says Mr. Aristotle.

Huge difference

The data averages reflect this huge difference in speed between morning and evening peak hours. “Earlier I used to rely on real-time map data but now the travel time keeps changing rapidly. From Mettuguda to Somajiguda the map shows 30 minutes travel time. By the time I reach Sangeet Junction, the map shows 10 minutes extra. But if I don’t cross Parade Grounds by 9 a.m. then all the calculations go haywire,” says K. Daisy, who works in an advertising firm.

Uber Movements goal is ‘reducing congestion and emissions, to improving road safety’. It remains to be seen how Hyderabad planners factor in troves of data like this to find bottlenecks and find solutions.