New York shockingly doesn't have the worst traffic in North America—here's which city does
Think traffic in New York is hell on Earth? You're not wrong—but according to TomTom's 2024 Traffic Index, it could be worse. While New York City claims the top spot for worst traffic in the U.S., it actually ranks second overall in North America. That's right: Mexico City has officially snatched the crown, where it takes an eye-watering 30 minutes and 47 seconds to drive just six miles. (If you're keeping track of your wasted hours, locals lose 147 hours a year to rush hour. That's nearly a full week of your life spent watching brake lights.)
New Yorkers, by comparison, spend 94 hours a year stuck in traffic, with an average travel time of 30 minutes and one second to go the same six-mile stretch. Still brutal, but at least not the worst. (We'll take our small wins where we can get them!) Congestion pricing has offered some relief in Manhattan's busiest corridors, but its fate remains uncertain amid legal battles and logistical snags.
The TomTom Index, now in its 14th year, analyzed traffic patterns in over 500 cities worldwide using floating car data—think GPS info from connected cars, smartphones, and delivery trucks. It's a full data deep-dive, not just vibes and honks. Cities were ranked by the average time it takes to travel six miles, factoring in congestion levels, road design, and daily commuting volume.
Mexico isn't just home to the top spot; it also dominates the rest of the list, with Guadalajara and Puebla placing third and fourth. Canada also makes a strong (if unfortunate) showing with Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, and Winnipeg all in the top 10. Rounding it out is San Francisco, where 81 hours are lost annually to traffic, and even the Golden Gate Bridge turns into a golden gridlock during rush hour.
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Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Daily Mirror
'Modern travel is rotting our brains but I have found a solution'
Do you ever ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?" Like the Talking Heads, I'm sometimes confronted by that question. Most often, after a long drive. Something about being plugged into a satnav—watching the time-to-arrival tick by and the purple line wiggle through the digital landscape—removes me from the real world. Half the country can pass by, and I've barely noticed. It turns out I'm not alone in this feeling. Over the past decade, multiple studies have shown satnavs chip away at our sense of direction. Scientists at the University College London concluded that plugging in stops drivers from making memories of the world around them—perhaps explaining why TomTom-assisted travel can be so hard to recall. An increasing number of people are concerned about this. Over four in five motorists aged 35+ say using a satnav or map app has made their navigation skills worse, while three out of five young drivers would never go anywhere without some form of technological guidance. The worry is that, as the tech gets better, the negative long-term impact on our brains will only grow. A small but alarming MIT study published this month suggests ChatGPT users quickly became lazy, prone to shortcuts, and very forgetful when given essay-writing tasks—compared to those who weren't using a large language model. In broader societal terms, it's a problem for the deep-thinking future of our species. When it comes to travel specifically, each time tech takes on a bit more of the organisational burden, are we also losing some of the joy of adventure? I decided to find out (albeit in a very unempirical, non-scientifically rigorous way) by heading out on a tech-free, analogue road trip. The rules were simple: no satnav, no phone maps, no looking up anything online before or during the trip. Just me, my partner, a car, a guidebook, and an OS map. After picking up a beautiful BMW 3 Series from Sixt—which has 2,200 rental outlets worldwide, including a newly opened branch at London Liverpool Street—the first challenge was figuring out how to switch off its massive dashboard console. It immediately sprang to life, eager to offer me a spot of digital assistance. Once effectively shut down, the next task was getting out of London. As a relatively inexperienced driver with four failed tests (and one pass!) checkering my record, I hate driving around the English capital perhaps more than most. It's a blood-pressure-raising nightmare of indicating buses, swerving Lime Bikes, and three-point-turning cabbies—something I'd trade for an expensive train ticket any day. But years of cycling London's streets and hopping on tubes to its outer reaches in the cause of local journalism have left me with a decent understanding of how it all hangs together. My wife and I made it to Epping and then smoothly onto the M11 with just our bare wits, some road signs, and no arguments. Conveniently, much of the UK's motorway network is built atop Roman roads—meaning they're very straight and very long. Reach the A1, and before you know it, you're in Northumberland, no turns required. After heading west to Hexham, I realised I didn't have the address for the beautiful YHA Ninebanks where we were staying, and I'd yet to invest in a proper map (that was a Day 2 purchase). My top tip for analogue travellers in this situation? Head to your nearest Waitrose and ask the cashier for directions. Without fail, they're friendly locals with the time and inclination to help. Half an hour later, we'd settled into the YHA—a stone-brick building filled with geologists attracted to an area known for its excellent rocks and whooping curlew population. Had we searched online for accommodation instead of taking a recommendation, we may never have met the lovely owners, Pauline Elliott and her partner Ian Baker. They cook, clean, and welcome guests to this incredibly remote hillside refuge. (If you're interested, they're currently looking to sell the hostel.) The next two days unfolded as relaxed and stress-free as possible. Without anywhere we had to be—and without a satnav feeding us a false sense of urgency—we stopped off wherever and whenever we fancied. A tour around Hexham Abbey was followed by a druid-filled midsummer morning at Dilston Physic Garden, before stops at the iconic Ovingham Goose Fair, a cricket pitch in the shadows of Warkworth Castle, the chart-toppingly pretty Bamburgh, and then Holy Island. There is a small but growing movement of people embracing analogue travel, realising that tech doesn't switch itself off when the holiday begins—and that it can get in the way of a truly relaxing, restorative break. Katie King, who owns a hospitality company, 'absolutely loves switching off.' The 38-year-old works remotely and suffers from 'digital exhaustion sometimes,' which is why she chooses holiday destinations without phone signal or WiFi. The East Midlander loves to ditch Google reviews in favour of testing out restaurants herself; she saves up her holiday snaps to post once she's home; and she switches off from work completely. 'Addicted to checking emails? Perfect time to detox and reset that habit. Enjoy the surroundings—if it's urgent, they'll text you. I work in hospitality, not hospitals. I deal with ads, not A&E,' Katie told The Mirror. 'Want to navigate from one part of an unknown country to another, on the other side of the road? Map out your route and factor in 'getting lost' time. When we 'got lost,' we found some of the most incredible spots for lunch, shopping, swimming and more. When you accidentally wander off the beaten tourist track, the real adventure begins.' Hector Hughes and his company Unplugged have been at the forefront of digital detox travel for years. They welcome guests into charming cabins across the UK and invite them to truly switch off. 'We include everything people need to be offline for three days: a phone lockbox, physical map and compass, cassette radio player, instant camera, and analogue entertainment like books and board games. Our cabins are completely analogue, with the only tech being an old-school Nokia to call local eateries or contact friends and family if needed. This helps people relax, with no outside noise or distractions—so they can feel human again,' Hector explained. After burning out while working at a fast-paced tech start-up, Hector sought a 'hard reset' in a silent retreat in the Himalayas. He left relaxed, and with a new goal: to help others unwind amidst what he calls the 'screen epidemic.' 'A three-day digital detox has a magnitude of mental and physical benefits. Spending 72 hours offline and in nature dramatically reduces stress levels, improves sleep quality, boosts creativity and original thought, and brings you back to the present moment. Recent studies show that three days offline can start to curb phone addiction and even rewire your brain,' Hector said. 'Without Google or ChatGPT, you don't have an instant answer for everything. You can't just Google a question—you discuss it or think deeply about it. You also see everything through your own eyes, not through a lens. We strip all of this back and remind you what it feels like to feel and be present.' At the end of my mini-analogue trip, I completely agree. It was the calmest, most engaging adventure I've had in a long time—and I'm already planning another. The old adage is that travel broadens the mind, but I'd argue that too much satnav, Google Translate, and Instagram recommendations, and we risk shrinking it.
Time Out
18-06-2025
- Time Out
The AirTrain to JFK will be joyfully 50% cheaper all summer long
If there's one thing New Yorkers love more than complaining about the AirTrain, it's a good deal. This summer, they'll get both. Starting June 30 and running through Labor Day, the fare for the JFK AirTrain will be slashed in half—from $8.50 to a far more palatable $4.25—as part of the Port Authority's attempt to keep travelers off the gridlocked airport roadways and firmly on the rails. The timing isn't coincidental. JFK is bracing for a record-smashing summer with 18.3 million passengers expected to shuffle through its terminals, while the airport simultaneously undergoes the most ambitious (read: disruptive) construction project in its history. The $19 billion redevelopment includes expansions to Terminals 4 and 8, construction of the new Terminal 1 and Terminal 6, and a total overhaul of the airport's notoriously confusing road network. 'We are once again asking travelers to leave their cars at home and take public transit to the airport,' said Kevin O'Toole, chairman of the Port Authority, in a statement that sounds a little like pleading and a lot like solid advice. The half-price fare applies to both the Jamaica and Howard Beach AirTrain stations, which are easily accessible via subway (A/E/J/Z) or the Long Island Rail Road from Grand Central, Penn Station or Atlantic Terminal. For drivers who still insist on braving the congestion, the Port Authority recommends drop-offs at the Lefferts Boulevard AirTrain station, where a free eight-minute ride will take travelers to their terminal. Parking is limited, so either book in advance, or risk being That Person crying in the overflow lot. And if you're relying on a ride-share to Terminal 4, 5 or 7, prepare to hoof it: Uber and Lyft pickups have been relocated to off-site lots to help ease terminal frontage chaos. Free shuttles will run, but airport officials still recommend leaving an extra hour—or three. The summer's travel forecast is crowded with a 100% chance of construction dust. But at least now, getting to JFK won't cost quite as much as your carry-on.
Times
18-06-2025
- Times
This untapped Greek island is a stylish alternative to Santorini
The luggage said it all. Into Santorini airport arrivals swept a sculpted troupe of New Yorkers, fresh-faced off the connecting flight from JFK, 'priority' luggage tags bobbing upon stainless steel suitcases that were wheeled to blacked-out Mercedes SUVs. Each couple were separately whizzed off to a luxury hotel, likely with nightly room rates in the house-deposit price range. Meanwhile, as they were checking in, we had made it to Santorini's tiny port, our scruffy luggage looking like a dog's dinner on the concrete as we unglamorously removed socks and trainers from puffed-up plane feet before boarding our no-shoes boat. We weren't staying on Santorini. Instead, we were leaving instantly and sailing to Folegandros. This tiny Cycladic island has no airport or cruise ship terminal, and there's only one daily hour-long ferry from Santorini, which we had missed. We had to jump on a little local taxi vessel instead. Luckily, we kept our luggage light. But that's exactly what we wanted. While Santorini is dealing with overtourism, Folegandros is rarely visited. You'll know other small Cycladic islands have recently found fame too — Sifnos, Milos and Tinos among them — all of which are beautifully untouched and 'as lovely as Santorini 25 years ago'. However, a new hotel on Folegandros, Gundari, wants to offer the serenity of those secret Cyclades islands as well as stylish digs you would expect to find on Santorini. There's a reason Folegandros lags in the Greek-island tourism race. Take apart the Greek names 'Fole-gandros' or 'Gun-dari' and both derive from the idea of rocky places, or hard land. That was certainly evident as we bumped along the stony track to Gundari, eliciting glances from nonplussed mountain goats and lone donkeys. (Later in the trip we couldn't find a taxi driver who would agree to take on this track, so be sure to hire a 4×4 or use Gundari's private transfer buses to get around; more on those later.) Folegandros has only one road and no car mechanic or hospital, so the lack of development, having just come from hyper-stylised Santorini, was marked. As we jolted along, Gundari emerged on the horizon, as if in a desert heat haze. That's because the hotel — all 27 villas, main building and outposts — is built entirely with the island's rust-coloured stone. No white Cubist angles or Cycladic blue domes here. It's a pleasing effect, with the additional use of woven willow canopies, olive trees and wooden screens making Gundari look as if it has grown naturally out of the rock. • 16 of the best quiet Greek islands The hotel isn't on the shore but on a clifftop with screensaver Aegean views; on this side of the island guests are more protected from the Meltemi, a strong northerly wind that blows through the Greek islands in summer. It may sound a hardship to be without both beach and buzz on a Med holiday, but Gundari has a spectacular infinity swimming pool to compensate, and every room has its own private pool too. As for buzz, there is Orizon for dinner under the stars within a pretty walled garden, overseen by Lefteris Lazarou and Nikos Michailidis. The rockfish soup and squid with basil pesto were so good I ordered the same dishes on consecutive nights. Over the next 24 months, Gundari will convert a derelict farm building into a small sundowner bar and open a beach-club style restaurant on the port. But Gundari isn't really about buzz. Of the couples staying there — we were the only guests with children — few banded together to socialise, and bedtime was early. Which, if I'm not making myself clear, was a good thing. 'Our lot tends to avoid Santorini like the plague,' the owner Ricardo Larriera told me. 'Folegandros visitors are real loyalists; they've been coming here for years for peace and quiet, so we're not changing the island. We're just giving them somewhere new to stay.' Unusually for the owner of a five-star resort, Larriera lives on site throughout the season (May to October). The Australian is passionate about Folegandros, which became clear when he heard that a German guest loved Greek honey and promptly drove off to buy her a jar direct from the source ('You'll love it! If you don't try it, it'd be like me visiting Germany and drinking Japanese beer all week!'). • 28 of the best holiday villas in Greece Larriera's business partner is Eleftherios 'Terry' Seremetis, whose family hails from Folegandros. Ask to see a copy of The Island of Folegandros, a short printed history edited by Seremetis. In his foreword, he recounts the extraordinary story of his great-grandfather Eleftherios, who drowned in the waters off Folegandros when a rescue mission went horribly wrong. That was more than a century ago and this Gundari project marks Seremetis's return to the island. Gundari is obviously a labour of love rather than the first property in an empire. This was proven by Larriera, who was forever urging guests to get out and see the island, when he could have just as easily encouraged them to stay put and rack up a big hotel bill. On our first day we took the hotel minibus to Agali Beach (two trips daily; £8pp each way), a shingle cove with a handful of tavernas and B&Bs built into the steep hillsides overlooking the bay. It was absurdly idyllic for almost June — just two families playing in the shallows — and with a Mythos beer and Greek salad for £10. But it was basic too, with no shade (hikers walk over the cliff to Agios Nikolaos for shade under its pines) and an unkempt shoreline that's no match for a Balearic beach. The real pull is the peace; it was mind-boggling to compare this hushed scene with the crowds on Santorini, only 50 minutes away. On another evening, we took the Gundari transfer to Chora, the island's pedestrianised old town. This truly is Cycladic fantasy made real, with a fortified 12th-century castle to explore, tiny white-domed churches on every square, and cats posing beside bougainvillea as if they've had social-media training. Chora is also thriving, which is welcome compared with the remoteness of Gundari and the rawness of Agali Beach. Local businesses have agreed on a matching paint palette of greys, greens and Mediterranean blues, and each is marked by hand-painted wooden signs. Restaurants use only timber chairs and tables — no plastic stackables in Chora, thank you very much — and planters froth over with lavender and jasmine, the result being a postcard-perfect village that demands Mamma Mia 3 be made, if only because this would provide the dream location. On a warm midweek evening in May, the place was alive, locals and tourists alike drinking Greek white wine at open-fronted bars and sharing mezze as the moon rose higher in the sky. But there was one more encounter we needed to become true Folegandros locals, Larriera said. Tp experience total island immersion, we needed to meet Poly. Poly Gkiouri was born on Folegandros — her dad was the island's postman — and after years living in Athens (where she delivered post herself), she returned to the island and became a tour guide. When it comes to Folegandros, there's nothing she doesn't know and after only 30 minutes in her company — in which time we had shared a cigarette with the black-robed priest Papa Costadinos, gained private access to Panagia church, otherwise open only twice a year, and heard stories of pirates burnt by boiling oil — I knew she was the best person to help us tp get under the skin of the island. You can book a tour with her through Gundari (from £34pp; As we lurched along the track back to Gundari, Gkiouri still telling tales of hardship — stranded shepherds and, more recently, water shortages — I realised that was the island's attraction for travellers. You have to work hard to reach Folegandros; you have to work hard to get around the island; and you have to work hard if you want to access the best beach. But the rewards are worth it: no crowds, no noise, no traffic, no selfie sticks, no dress code, no queues, no need for restaurant reservations. When I thought back to the swarms of international arrivals at Santorini airport, there to see and be seen — and that the island welcomes 40 visitors for every single one who alights on Folegandros — it made me appreciate that such tranquillity is priceless. And with no airport, no cruise ship terminal and only one road, that doesn't look like changing on Folegandros any time soon, even with a new luxury hotel. This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue Katie Bowman was a guest of Gundari, which has B&B doubles from £372 ( and Elegant Resorts, which has five nights' B&B from £1,450pp, including flights, car and ferry transfers and a boat tour around Folegrandos ( Only a two-hour ferry from Athens and the second biggest Cycladic island after Naxos, Andros is surprisingly little known. But hikers will love its lofty mountains and intricately sculpted coastline, all served by ancient stone pathways passing springs, streams, waterfalls and sandy beaches. Wander along ancient mule tracks restored by Andros Routes, a volunteer organisation that provides pruners and gloves to Ramble Worldwide customers, who can trim back overgrowth along the way. Details Eight nights' B&B from £759pp, including all transfers, luggage transfers and maps ( Fly to Athens Meet Manon, your yoga teacher, and Kostas the skipper. Together they will take you island-hopping in style on this Responsible Travel trip, through the breathtakingly beautiful smaller Cyclades: Paros, Antiparos, Koufonisia, Schinoussa, Iraklia and Amorgos. Days start and end on board with yoga, breathwork and meditation. The daytime port stops involve exploring trendy old towns (in Antiparos), secret beaches (Koufonisia) and visiting a monastery (Amorgos).Details Seven nights' room-only from £910pp, including instructor fees and two daily yoga sessions ( Fly to Paros Andronis Suites was one of the original Oia boutique hotels that made Santorini famous in the early 2000s with whitewashed cottages tumbling into the sea, private plunge pools, blue domes and wow-factor sunsets. Greek-owned, Andronis Suites is as popular as ever, and opens a new restaurant this summer: Milto's Greek Table. A traditional Greek taverna set against the Caldera cliffs, it's as authentic an experience as you'll find in Oia. Order shrimp saganaki, cuttlefish with spinach or fried octopus, all of which were larking about in the Aegean hours earlier. The hotel's ravishingly beautiful rooms have been renovated for B&B doubles from £485, mains from £18 ( Fly to Santorini Built in 1853 for Gregoris Paikos, a leading figure in the Greek Revolution, neo-classical Argini has been returned to its former splendour and is now an 11-room boutique hotel. In the centre of Hermoupolis, the capital of Syros, Argini was restored over the past seven years by the local Polykretis family, who took particular pains to preserve its 19th-century ceiling and murals. Argini has a garden restaurant serving modern Cycladic cuisine, a rooftop bar with sea views and an indoor pool with hammam. Details B&B doubles from £200 ( Take the ferry to Syros
