Ottawa motorists spent an extra 50 seconds driving 10 km in 2023, survey finds

Traffic on Highway 417 in Ottawa is seen in this undated image.

Ottawa commuters are spending more time in the car.

However, a new survey finds traffic jams are not as bad in Ottawa as most Canadian cities.

The newly released TomTom Traffic Index, looking at data from the location technology company's navigation systems, shows the average travel time for a 10-kilometre drive increased 50 seconds in Ottawa in 2023 to an average of 15 minutes.

That commute time was the ninth longest out of 12 Canadian cities in the survey and Ottawa ranked 231^st for commute times in the world.

The TomTom data shows the worst times for travel in Ottawa are Tuesdays between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. (23 minutes and 20 seconds to travel 10 km), and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday (21 minutes and 50 seconds to travel 10 km.)  The survey shows commuters spend an extra 10 minutes in the car per 10 km trip during the evening rush hour.

Toronto has the slowest commute time in Canada at 29 minutes to travel 10 km, followed by Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal. Toronto has the third-longest commute time in the world, with London, England first and Dublin, Ireland second.

Ottawa drivers spent 146 hours driving in 2023, with drivers spending an extra 58 hours on the roads due to congestion.

The worst day to travel through Ottawa in 2023 was Oct. 20, according to TomTom. The average commute time for a 10 km drive was 21 minutes and 20 seconds.