SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

DRIVING

Why is Bordeaux the worst city in France for traffic jams?

The south-western French city of Bordeaux has been ranked worst in the country - even ahead of Paris - for the time drivers waste stuck in traffic jams. But why's it so bad? Share your own views in the comment section.

Why is Bordeaux the worst city in France for traffic jams?
Traffic along the banks of the River Garonne in Bordeaux. (Photo by Philippe LOPEZ / AFP)

Travelling 10km in Bordeaux at peak times takes an average of 26 minutes and 30 seconds, according to figures from GPS firm TomTom. 

The study found as of 2023 that Bordeaux was as bad as Paris when it comes to general traffic congestion, and worse than other large French cities like Lyon, Nice and Marseille.

While Paris’ streets were found to be congested more often than those in Bordeaux, with commuters spending more time behind the wheel in traffic jams, Bordeaux ranked higher than France’s capital city on world and regional rankings.

In 2023, Bordeaux ranked the 15th most congested city in the world and the 7th worst for motorists in Europe. Paris, for comparison, ranked 16th globally, and eighth in Europe.

According to the TomTom index, London is the most congested city in the world, with 10km vehicle journeys taking 37 minutes and 20 seconds, at an average speed of 14km/h; followed by Dublin (29 minutes and 30 seconds at 16km/h); and Toronto (29 minutes at 18 km/h). 

As for Bordeaux, it took 20 seconds longer to travel the same distance than it did in 2023, according to TomTom.

READ ALSO What are the most expensive autoroutes in France you might want to avoid?

Why is traffic so bad in Bordeaux?

These figures will come as little surprise to commuters in Bordeaux. An analysis of car travel times between 2017 and 2021 in Bordeaux, by the Agence d’urbanisme Bordeaux Aquitaine (A’urba), found that almost an hour was needed “to reach Bordeaux city hall from the municipalities in its urban area” during morning and evening rush hours.

Road infrastructure and pedestrianisation in the city centre, the increasing local population, congestion on the over-capacity ring road, rising post-pandemic traffic levels and a change in how the study’s calculations are weighted to include city-centre travel are cited as reasons for Bordeaux’s jump up the congestion rankings. 

The western ring road is a regular pinch-point because it is used by local traffic as an urban rat run, as well as motorists wanting to avoid the city centre.

The city has made no secret of its efforts to reduce the space in the city given to cars for environmental and human reasons.

The historic centre is increasingly pedestrianised, while bus lanes and barriers have reduced capacity for motorists even further. But with more and more people moving into the area, the inevitable consequence is an increase in traffic levels in a smaller available space. The result: increased congestion.

READ ALSO Will petrol prices in France come down in 2024?

But Bordeaux isn’t about to change tack to make it more accommodating for cars. The city – which prides itself on being cycling-friendly, and where it is now as quick to get on your bike as it is to jump behind the wheel – is working to further develop ‘soft mobility’ options such as walking, cycling and public transport to tempt motorists out of their vehicles, reduce congestion and cut pollution.

How slow is traffic in Bordeaux?

During peak times, cars in Bordeaux crawl along at an average speed of just 18km/h, putting them on a par with ordinary bicycles for speed, the study said. Electric scooters, bicycles and mopeds are able to travel faster.

In fact drivers in the Nouvelle Aquitaine capital wasted the equivalent of nearly 14 working days (111 hours), stuck in traffic, at an annual cost in petrol alone of €137. This can be compared to a lofty 120 hours in Paris and just 36 hours in Saint-Etienne, the 25th most congested city in Paris.

In total, some 20 additional minutes was added to travel times at peak times compared to off-peak hours. In effect, a third of motorists’ travel time in the city was spent moving at a snail’s pace in traffic jams.

What about other French cities?

Bordeaux (first) and Paris (second) topped the charts. Lyon, whose population is almost double that of Bordeaux, followed in third place. 

The smaller city of Nancy in eastern France, came in fourth. Nice, along the Riviera, came in fifth place – perhaps fitting for its status as France’s fifth most populous city.

The central city of Clermont took up sixth place, and the country’s second most populous city, Marseille, held seventh place.

Montpellier, which has roughly the same population as Bordeaux, was eighth, while Rouen and Grenoble ranked ninth and 10th respectively.

Do you live in the Bordeaux area? Let us know your thoughts on the traffic situation in the comment section below.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

COST OF LIVING

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

The higher-paying jobs are heavily concentrated in the French capital, but set against that is the high cost of living - especially the cost of renting or buying a home. So what is considered a 'high-earner' in Paris?

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

Centrist Renaissance candidate Sylvain Maillard, running for re-election in France’s snap parliamentary elections, was trying to highlight the high cost of living in the capital in a debate on RMC Radio 

“You have extremely expensive rents [in Paris], between €1,500 and €1,700, and then there are all the charges and taxes to pay,” he said.

But what most people seized on was his comment that anyone earning €4,000 a month after tax would not be considered rich in Paris – he predictably was accused of being out of touch with French people’s lives.

There’s no doubt that €4,000 a month is good salary that most people would be happy with – but how much do you need to earn to be considered ‘rich’ in Paris?

National averages

Earlier this year, the independent Observatoire des Inégalités calculated poverty and wealth levels in France.

READ ALSO How much money do you need to be considered rich in France?

According to its calculations, to be considered ‘rich’ in France, a single person with no dependants needs to earn more than €3,860 per month, after taxes and social charges. Around eight percent of single workers have this sum deposited into their bank balance every month, it said.

A total of 23 percent of workers take home €3,000 or more every month, while the top 10 percent clear €4,170. 

To be in the top one percent of earners in France in 2024, one person must bring in at least €10,000 per month. After taxes and social charges.

The median income – the median is the ‘middle value’ of a range of totals – of tax households in mainland France is €1,923 per month after taxes and social charges, according to INSEE 2021 data, which means that a ‘rich’ person earns about twice as much as a person on the median income, according to the Observatoire.

Paris situation

About 75 percent of people living in Paris earn less than €4,458 per month, according to Insee data – so according to those calculations, 25 percent of Parisians earn the equivalent of the top 10 percent in France. 

But that city-wide average still hides a wide degree of variation. In the sixth arrondissement, the median income is €4,358 per month, after tax. In the seventh, it’s €4,255.  Further out, those bringing home €4,600 a month in the 19th and 20th arrondissements are among the top 10 percent in wealth terms.

But still, the median income in Paris is €2,639, significantly higher than the €1,923 France-wide median.

That would mean – using the Observatoire des Inégalités’ starting point for wealth – that a Paris resident, living on their own, would have to bring home €5,278 per month to be considered ‘rich’. 

France is a heavily centralised country, with many of the highest-paying industries concentrated within the capital, meaning there is much more opportunity to secure a high-wage job if you live in Paris.

Cost of living

Even these figures should all be taken with a pinch of salt because of the relatively high cost of living in the capital, compared to elsewhere in France. Paris is objectively an expensive place to call home.

In 2023, France Stratégie published a report on the disposable income of French households, after housing, food and transport costs were deducted. It found that, on average, people living in the Paris region had more left to spend, due to higher incomes and despite the fact that housing costs more.

It’s the income paradox in action. A person with a take-home salary of €4,000 per month has more money to spend if they live and work outside Paris. But they’re much more likely to earn that much if they live and work in Paris, where it’s not as valuable. 

Someone who earns a ‘rich-level’ salary in Paris might not appear rich – because they live in an expensive area, and a surrounded by very wealthy people in property that’s out of reach all-but the fattest of wallets. But they’re still earning more than twice the median income in France.

And that’s what Sylvain Maillard was getting at, clumsily as he may have expressed it.

SHOW COMMENTS