Travelling by car is efficient, but one of the downsides of this form of transport is traffic congestion which leads to unwarranted wastage of time and money. In this piece, we are going to look at countries with the worst traffic. Reading this, you’ll probably feel grateful to be living in Singapore where bad traffic jams do not occur as often.

Thailand

Traffic jams are quite the norm in Thailand. Its cities such as Bangkok record the highest traffic levels, especially during the rush hours. Passengers have to endure the long period of time they have to sit in their cars to get to their destinations. Some of the cities, such as the capital Bangkok, boast a modern metro system, but the number of cars are still very high. It seems that the general population like to own cars as a symbol of social status, rather than a means of transport. Thus, if you are stuck in traffic for a few minutes in Singapore, just know that there is someone in a worse position in Thailand.

Colombia

Colombia is a small South American nation with a sizeable population. This country is quite famous for its drug problem and is among the top suppliers of narcotics to the world. Drugs notwithstanding, Colombia has a terrible traffic flow. The heavy traffic congestion is brought about by poor infrastructure and a big number of cars. If you are caught in traffic in most cities in Colombia in the peak hours, then be sure to spend a couple of hours on the road before you get home.

Indonesia

Traffic in Indonesia is just as bad as Colombia. However, unlike Colombia where the traffic is brought about by the poor road network, Indonesia has a high population and many cars on the roads. The roads in the country cannot sustain the high number of vehicles which often leads to traffic gridlocks in major cities of Indonesia. The public transport system is not sufficient to cater and sustain the high population and hence terrible traffic jams result. It is even worse during big holidays like Hari Raya, when many people would travel back to their hometowns to celebrate with their families.

Russia

Moscow may boast a world-class traffic system, from the metro transit to the cruise ways. However, the weather is a great catalyst for traffic jams in this country. The M10 highway recorded the worst traffic since 2012. This highway connects Moscow and St. Petersburg. The heavy snowfall caused the worst gridlock in the country. People had to stay up to three days to get to their destinations, something which could have taken hours on a normal day.

However, traffic in Russia is not defined by this isolated incident but is quite a constant problem. There have been incidents of traffic snarl-ups in Russia due to the traffic jam in the Tver region. This stretched to an astonishing 124 miles. Imagine sitting at the end of the jam waiting for the 124 miles of cars to clear off so that you can reach your nearest bypass route. Quite exhilarating! However, the government has done much to reduce such occurrences. It has employed the clearing vehicles to clear off snow falls on the roads connecting cities in Moscow. This goes a long way to reducing chances of recurrence of worst traffic jams in the country, like that one in Moscow in 2012.

United States

With all the infrastructure development and elaborate transport system, one would not expect to find the US on this list. However, the US boasts some of the busiest cities in the world and therefore traffic congestion is almost inevitable. Top among the most congested cities is Los Angeles and New York. Unlike in many countries, the majority of the people in the US live in urban areas, leading to a lot of traffic congestion. It is also important to point out that cars are very cheap there and with as low as $200 one can own a car. This low cost of cars and the high number of people in cities just make traffic one of the biggest problems in the US.