GPS confirms that Rio ranks number 3 for traffic congestion

[mvan1]

Today’s Rio Times reports that a Dutch transport technology company used GPS to track and compute 146 major cities of the world to determine how cities rank traffic wise with traffic congestion.

Again, for the second consecutive year, Rio ranks number three for having the worst traffic. Worse, even than Sao Paulo -

One line in the article grabbed my attention where it states:

“Residents of Rio de Janeiro lose a hundred hours per year on average stuck in traffic.”

Remember, the above statement applies NOW - Before the Olympic start next year.

This study and confirmation cannot bode well for next year’s Olympic games.

Here is a link to the full article:
http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-real-estate/rio-has-third-worst-traffic-of-146-cities-in-the-world/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRioTimes+%28The+Rio+Times%29

[MsAnn]

Today’s Rio Times reports that a Dutch transport technology company used GPS to track and compute 146 major cities of the world to determine how cities rank traffic wise with traffic congestion.

Again, for the second consecutive year, Rio ranks number three for having the worst traffic. Worse, even than Sao Paulo -

One line in the article grabbed my attention where it states:

“Residents of Rio de Janeiro lose a hundred hours per year on average stuck in traffic.”

Remember, the above statement applies NOW - Before the Olympic start next year.

This study and confirmation cannot bode well for next year’s Olympic games.

Here is a link to the full article:

http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-real-estate/rio-has-third-worst-traffic-of-146-cities-in-the-world/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRioTimes+%28The+Rio+Times%29

Just curious, but if traffic is that bad, then I would suspect that the air quality would suffer also, and wouldn't that impact the athletes at the Olympics?

[mvan1]

Just curious, but if traffic is that bad, then I would suspect that the air quality would suffer also, and wouldn't that impact the athletes at the Olympics?

How keen of you to raise this possibility.

Although I have been to Rio many times, I never noticed any bad air quality.

After reading the below article, I wonder how dense my senses are.

According to the below article, the air quality in certain sections of Rio is not good.

Naturally, the bad air could (will and should) impact the Olympics.

I wonder how the Olympic committees are going to handle the air pollution issue during the events. It seems there is one problem after another when it involves the Olympic events.

Here is the article:

http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=6734

[Guest fourjogran]

Can't believe Rio was worst than San Paulo. In my experience, nothing is worst than San Paulo. Been to both and did not think Rio was that bad.

[ihpguy]

Rio's on the water, Sao Paulo is not. Big difference with ocean breezes. As to traffic, I dread the Marginal and traffic jams entering the city every time I travel to the city.

I haven't transited Sao Paulo enough by taxi to be able to compare traffic. I tend to stay on the Metro. But for Rio, the Aterro trough Flamengo Park is usually pretty open. And since they have reworked and finished constructions and reopened Via Binaria and the Gasometro traffic interchange, things SEEMED!!!!! to have improved.

[Guest Trench]

Polluted air is not always apparent. But speaking of water, the body of water you pass on your way to the airport stinks even on windy days. That might be a telltale sign it’s polluted.

The single most disgusting and dangerous situation I experience every time I needed to do be in the central downtown area of Rio are the unfixed burst sewer drainage that you have to jump over to get to the other side of the street. There has always been one almost in front of Confeteria Columbo unless they have fixed it recently. This was the same problem Oswaldo Cruz had been warning about at the turn of the previous century. If they cannot fix it for the benefit of their own local inhabitants, why would they fix it for the Olympics.

And the flood in front of Hotel Atlantico. Every time it rains, water washes down from the favelas from up the street. These are unserviced areas as are the bulk of favelas all over Brazil. In Rio, these favelas are usually situated in elevated areas of the city so water washing down from there is actually untreated sewage.

[ihpguy]

Totally agree, Trench. And there is even a small hole in the street right in front of the entry to Meio Mundo that seems to continually have sewage bubbling up.

I have been told by someone more knowledgable that Rio has separate sewage and storm drains but I never believed it. When Rio won the Olympics and promissed to clean up Guanabara Bay by 80%, I never believed it.

On one of my trips back to the US last year in 2014, I met another expat American on the plane. He lives in Macae, the center for Brasil's oil exploration. He was a former community organizer who came here and ended up teaching English to Brasilians. He said not to be a pessimist, that I should give the leaders a chance, blah, blah, blah. I told him that I lived on the Bay, I see the quality of its water daily and there wasn't achance they could meet the deadline. It was impossible to do the difficult work in time of digging up all of the streets, connecting the sewage lines to the water treatment facilities and then putting the streets back. And that didn't even begin to address the sewage problems in the favelas. For instance, right now CEDAE, the water company is building a new sewer line from Flamengo all the water to Ipanema to connect with a treatment facility there. Why? So there is less sewage fouling up the area in Botafogo Bay and Marina da Gloria with most of the sailing events take place. Thee types of things needed to have been started 20 years ago.