Aberdeen has the slowest rush hour traffic of any of Scotland’s cities.
The average vehicle speed during peak hours was just 12.68mph, adding around 6.5minutes to the average journey compared to other times.
Drivers in Edinburgh fared slightly better, managing 13.63mph, but their delays were not as long at 3.9minutes.
Aberdeen’s congestion was put down to several factors. The buoyant economy and high car ownership, dual-carriageways that become two-way roads, a lack of road improvements and high bus prices have all been blamed
There was a consensus over the need to improve the Haudagain roundabout and complete the Aberdeen western peripheral route (AWPR).
The congestion figures were based on nearly 3billion speed and location readings collected by the Direct Line insurance company over more than 20million miles driven across Britain.
The busiest day on Aberdeen’s roads was Tuesday, according to the results. The average off-peak speed was just 16.22mph – 1.44mph better than Edinburgh.
Neil Greig, of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said there were too many pinch-points such as Anderson Drive into Muggiemoss Road and the Parkway, Wellington Road by the former Craiginches prison, and Skene Square heading into Rosemount.
“You have dual-carriageways into two-way traffic and it just creates bottlenecks,” he said.
North-east Labour MSPs claimed the city cannot wait until 2018 for the Haudagain to be sorted out.
MSP Lewis Macdonald said: “SNP ministers must ensure that there are no more delays or Aberdeen’s rush-hours will become even more congested.”
Aberdeen Central SNP MSP Kevin Stewart agreed the Haudagain and AWPR developments were needed but said the government was committed to their completion.
“We have really high car usage here in the north-east. I think that is partly down to the fact that we have a very, very costly bus service compared to other places,” he said.
Aberdeen City Council said several infrastructure improvements were progressing, including the AWPR, third Don crossing, and the Dyce Drive link road.
A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said work on the AWPR would begin this year and when completed the bypass would shave up to 27 minutes of journeys.
