Cheer Up, Houston: Your Traffic Pain Is Way Better Than Moscow Or Madrid

By Richard Connelly Wed., Jul. 7 2010 at 11:01 AM

Categories: Traffic

There's an accident "in the clearing stage" somewhere

When IBM puts out a survey that features bar graphs and big circles somehow illustrating results, you can rest assured it is beyond reproach.

So know this, Houston: Among 20 top international cities, your "traffic pain" is about as low as can be.

Oh, and apparently, you're one of the top 20 international cities.
IBM's annual traffic report looked at cities like Moscow, London, Paris, Johannesburg, New Dehli and Sao Paolo and rated just how painful the traffic can be for residents.

Beijing, for example, has a pain index of 99; Buenos Aires, 50. And Houston? A measly 17.

That ties us with Melbourne for second-least painful. Easiest city was Stockholm, with a score of 15.

How did they come up with this? We mean, besides not getting on the West Loop at rush hour?

IBM Commuter Pain Index The index is comprised of 10 issues: 1) commuting time, 2) time stuck in traffic, agreement that: 3) price of gas is already too high, 4) traffic has gotten worse, 5) start-stop traffic is a problem, 6) driving causes stress, 7) driving causes anger, 8) traffic affects work, 9) traffic so bad driving stopped, and 10) decided not to make trip due to traffic

Two American cities topped Houston -- Los Angeles at 25 and New York at 19.

So all we can say is commuting in other cities around the world must be a truly gigantic pain in the ass.