Toronto has been ranked the ninth worst city in the Americas for traffic congestion and the second worst in Canada, trailing Vancouver for the dubious distinction. The new rankings, courtesy of Dutch navigation company Tom Tom, includes an evaluation of 63 cities across North and South America, which means our ninth place spot isn't exactly something to pat ourselves on the back over. Even as Toronto tends to well on public transportation and quality of life rankings, congestion is a legitimate and frustrating problem facing the city.

According to the report, a commuter facing a 30 minute daily drive will experience 83 hours of delay time during the course of a year. Just think of all the life-enriching and fun things you could do with those hours given back. The traffic analysis also questions whether or not Toronto drivers really have any ability to capitalize on short cuts, noting that use of these so-called routes can lead to 50 per cent longer travel times. And here I thought I was a hero for knowing so many alternate ways to get to places.

The worst five cities on the list were Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, San Paulo, Los Angeles and Vancouver with congest levels ranking from 55 to 35 per cent, respectively. Toronto comes in at 27 per cent. For context, a city like Buffalo was scored at 14 per cent. You can read the whole report here, presumably while you sit in traffic.

Photo by Dan...Mr. Dan in the blogTO Flickr pool.