The Annual Traffic Scorecard from INRIX also showed that London has moved up the European traffic congestion ranks to become the third most congested city in Europe in 2012. Manchester also climbed the European ranks moving from 20th to 18th place.

However, the report showed that congestion actually fell 19% in the UK last year as a result of the struggling economy, with Brits spending seven hours less in congestion. Overall motorists in the UK spent less time in traffic than fellow drivers in Germany, France and the Netherlands and a massive 30 hours less than travellers in Europe’s most congested country Belgium.

Meanwhile, all 18 UK cities analysed actually showed declines in traffic congestion throughout the year indicative of the impact of rising unemployment and fuel prices combined with declines in consumer spending.

‘There has always been strong correlation between the state of the economy and the level of traffic congestion on our roads. It tells us if people are employed and driving to work, going out to eat or doing some shopping, as well as whether or not businesses are shipping products,’ said Bryan Mistele, CEO, INRIX. ‘Considering unemployment hit record highs in 2012 and European household wealth dropped 13.6% to $10.9 trillion it’s hardly surprising that traffic levels have dropped significantly.’