Despite Covid and lockdown, Mumbai second in traffic congestion globally

MUMBAI: Despite the lockdown and decline in traffic during the pandemic, three cities from India—Mumbai (2nd), Bengaluru (6th), and New Delhi (8th)—feature in a new global top 10 of congested cities in 2020.
Moscow tops the chart followed by Mumbai, Bogota, Manila and Istanbul in terms of delay over the normal or standard time taken on a given trip. Bengaluru, Kyiv in Ukraine, Delhi, Novosibirsk in Russia and Bangkok bring up the rear in the first 10.
In Mumbai, roads haven't expanded to fit more vehicles, say experts
Delhi recorded the lowest decline in traffic congestion among Indian cities, according to the TomTom Traffic Index, a report detailing the traffic situation in 2020 in over 400 cities in 57 countries. Apart from Mumbai , the other cities from India -Bengaluru, Pune (16th), New Delhi-saw an average decrease in congestion by 20%, 17%, and 9%.
Experts said Mumbai's high ranking in the top 10 of congested cities was because road length had not kept pace with rising vehicle numbers. According to the Economic Survey 2019-20 of Maharashtra, Mumbai's vehicle density of 1,900/km is 15 times that of the state's. This is also probably the highest in the country. With the road length remaining unchanged for nearly a decade and volume of private vehicle trips on the rise, vehicle density on the roads has increased 35% over the last five years.

TomTom's traffic data, which is powered by 600 million connected devices, is seen as a reliable indicator of people movement, economic activity levels, global trade. Werner van Huyssteen, general manager, India, TomTom, said congestion reduced to "almost zero" in April in most Indian cities at the height of the lockdown. Work commuting and office travel were still the biggest contributors even in this phase, he added. "With the new way of working from home, we also believe that employers are understanding the benefits that are attached to it, and they will change their policies accordingly to benefit from this."
"Although traffic congestion in India was down in 2020, it's not going to become a trend unless we take action," Werner said. "We might even see traffic levels shoot up again as people get back to work...That's why now...India's city planners, policy makers, employers-and drivers-must take stock of what they will do to make the roads less congested in the future." Flexible office hours, working from home, and using traffic data to determine the best times to travel may be the way forward.