London is world's slowest city for drivers, study finds

Transport for London introduced 20mph limits to make roads "safer for everyone"

London is the world's slowest city for drivers because of widespread 20mph speed limits, analysis suggests.

Journeys of 10km (6.2 miles) in central London took an average of 37 minutes and 20 seconds last year, according to location technology company TomTom.

This was the longest time among the 387 cities in 55 countries analysed.

It is the second year in a row that London tops the slow city ranking, but a spokesperson for the mayor of London described the study as "misleading".

Dublin, Toronto, Milan and Lima join London in making up the slowest five.

In the UK, Manchester was ranked second, followed by Liverpool, Bristol, and Edinburgh.

• 20mph speed limit starts in central London

• London roads are England's slowest

• Plan for 20mph speed limit targets voted down

Stephanie Leonard, from TomTom, said: "London really is the slowest place in the world to drive a car.

"Especially in the core city centre, you don't have maximum speed limits of 50mph or higher, it's a maximum of 20mph.

"You don't have the infrastructure for driving very quickly."

Transport for London (TfL) lowered speed limits to 20mph on a further 65km (40.4 miles) of roads in the south of the capital during the final four months of last year.

When the measure was announced in September, the transport body said it would bring the total length of roads with a 20mph limit to 140km (87 miles), making them "safer for everyone".

Mr Khan's spokesperson said: "This study is misleading as it only includes analysis from a very small part of the city centre, not the whole of London.

"Roadworks are the biggest cause of congestion in cities, which is why the mayor's infrastructure co-ordination service is working with boroughs and utility companies to reduce delays caused by roadworks, helping to save London road users over 1,250 days of roadworks since 2019."

TfL's director of network management and resilience Carl Eddleston said: "We disagree with this analysis of road speeds and believe it is not representative of London as a whole.

"This report only looks at data collected up to 5km from the centre, regardless of the city's overall size and density, which means that fair comparisons with other cities cannot be made."

TfL lowered speed limits to 20mph on a further 65km (40.4 miles) of roads during the final four months of 2023

In October last year, the government published a Plan for Drivers which included an intention to curb the use of those limits.

It stated: "We will make it clear that 20mph speed limits in England must be used appropriately where people want them - not as unwarranted blanket measures."

This came a month after Wales became the first country in the UK to drop the default speed limit from 30mph to 20mph on residential roads and those commonly used by pedestrians.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail]