Drivers in the French-speaking city spend an average of 52 hours in relatively slow traffic every year while that figure is 51 hours in Zurich, according to the newly released Global Traffic Scorecard from US firm INRIX which specializes in traffic analytics.

Geneva drivers spent 16% of their overall driving time in congested traffic – or traffic moving at slower than 65% of the speed limit – in 2017 and for drivers in Zurich this was 17%, the scorecard results show.

These figures were nearly 30% for both cities during peak hours.

And these results put the two largest cities in Switzerland in 32nd and 33rd place globally out of the 1,360 cities and towns studied by the US firm.

At the European level, the news is even worse. Once Russian cities are taken out of the equation – seven of the most congested cities in Europe are in that country – only the megacities of London (74 hours of slow-moving traffic a year), Paris (69) and Istanbul (59) are worse for drivers than their smaller Swiss peers.

But Geneva and Zurich are a long way behind world leader Los Angeles where drivers have to put up with 102 hours of slower-moving traffic a year, or New York and Moscow, where the figure is 91 hours.

The data from the traffic study derives from 300 million users of INRIX traffic apps, according to the company.

The study results also come just a month after Swiss environmental group VCS launched a campaign to highlight the fact that air quality in many Swiss cities is poor and greenhouse gas levels exceed European standards.