When people think of traffic jams in France, Paris readily comes to mind. However, in TomTom’s 2025 Traffic Index, it is not the capital that has the highest level of congestion in the country. The top spot goes to Lyon, with an average rate of 47.2% over the year.
Specifically, a Lyon motorist driving during rush hour lost an average of 121 hours in traffic jams in 2025—just over five full days. The congestion level even increased by 0.7 percentage points compared to 2024.
In Lyon, a 10-kilometer trip can take nearly 36 minutes in the evening
The figures become even more telling when looking at daily commutes. In Lyon, traveling 10 kilometers takes an average of 27 minutes and 31 seconds. During the evening rush hour, that same trip takes 35 minutes and 56 seconds, with an average speed of just 16.7 km/h.
Thursday, April 17, was the worst day of the year for traffic in the city: the average congestion level reached 72%, peaking at 144% at 5:00 p.m. At that time, a driver traveled an average of only 3.1 kilometers in fifteen minutes.
Lyon thus ranks ahead of Bordeaux, which came in second with 43.5% congestion and 99 hours lost, followed by Montpellier at 41.4%. Paris came in fourth, at 40%, even though drivers in the capital still lost 109 hours in rush-hour traffic.
One detail, however, is worth clarifying: TomTom compiles this ranking based on congestion levels—that is, the increase in travel time compared to conditions with free-flowing traffic. It is therefore not simply a matter of counting the number of stationary cars. The 2025 data is based on anonymized trips collected across the entire road network studied.
Globally, Lyon ranks 119th according to this same indicator. The French city therefore remains far from the levels observed in Mexico City, Bengaluru, or Dublin, but it does take first place in France in 2025.