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Article de Economic Times, 10 septembre

Bangalore 6th and Delhi 7th most-painful city for commuters in the world

Delhiites may have had to spend hours reaching their offices on a rainy Friday, thanks to the city's clogged drains, but commuting is the modern urban professional's worst nightmare, in several parts of the world.

With over a billion cars on the roads, cities around the world grapple with ways to ease the burden on choked transportation systems.

More commuters, meanwhile, believe that road traffic congestion has increased their personal stress and anger levels, negatively impacting their performance at work or school, according to IBM's 4th annual global Commuter Pain Survey conducted with 8,042 commuters in 20 cities.

The key results of the survey are captured in a Commuter Pain Index (see chart) that ranks the emotional and economic toll of commuting in cities worldwide.

Montreal has emerged as the least painful city to commute in while Mexico City is the most painful. Bangalore and New Delhi have been voted the 6th and 7th most painful cities, respectively, for commuting.

However, more people here along with Beijing and Shenzhen reported improvement in traffic conditions over the last three years.

The negative impact of traffic on stress levels, physical health and productivity is felt to be higher in emerging markets.

More respondents in Beijing (86%), Shenzhen (87%), New Delhi (70%) and Nairobi (61%) reported traffic as a key inhibitor to work or school performance.

Respiratory problems due to traffic congestion were most prevalent in China and India.

On average, drivers in Nairobi, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Beijing, Bangalore, and Moscow spend the longest amount of time (36 minutes or more) on the road to get to their workplace or school.

The survey results also reveal that in a number of cities more people are taking public transportation rather than driving.