CCTV news cited a Baidu Map database to report that Beijing has the longest commute in China for both distance and time, clocking in at an average of 18.9 kilometers and taking 50 minutes to complete. As well, Beijing roads are among the most congested in the country, with traffic on the East 3rd Ring Road only moving at an average of 22.6 kilometers per hour. It’s also the most congested road in the city.

Guangzhou has the next longest commute in China among major cities at an average of 18 kilometers requiring 40 minutes to complete, according to the report. Guangzhou also has the distinction of having the most congested road in China, Zhongshanliu Road, whereby traffic crawls along at an average of 15.5 kilometers per hour.

Shanghai comes next, named as having the third-longest commute at 18 kilometers, requiring 40 minutes to complete.

A 2015 report from another Baidu database named Beijing as the worst commute in China for clocking in at 52 minutes and 19.2 kilometers long, revealing that some commuters from out of town were traveling as much as 50 kilometers a day just to get to to work. Meanwhile another report last year said the average daily congestion time in Beijing is an hour and 55 minutes.

But while cities like Beijing seem designed to welcome long commutes due to urban sprawl and its way of urban planning, the worst commute doesn’t belong to the capital, but to Hangzhou.

It may seem strange to give top position to a smaller-scale city in which commutes take only half the average commuting time of Beijing at 24 minutes. However, the average distance a driver commutes is a paltry 8.7 kilometers, making Hangzhou the “least effective” commute.

On the flip side, Guangzhou gets the honor of having the “most effective” commute among major Chinese cities for allowing drivers to travel 18 kilometers in just 40 minutes.

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And now, it is getting even tougher.

Deputy mayor of Beijing Zhang Tingkun wants every driver in Beijing to first buy a parking space before being able to buy the car itself.

Zhang made the announcement during a session of the 19th meeting of the 40th National People’s Congress. The “Beijing Municipal Automobile Parking Regulation” is expected to come into effect in 2016 to address Beijing’s serious shortage of parking spaces.

While things may change before then (or not), Beijing drivers were not happy at all with Zhang’s announcement.

One netizen expressed her disgust with the comment, “It’s getting easier to detest Beijing’s government!!!” while another said, “To hell with your stupid rules.”

One commentator took things to its logical conclusion by saying, “To protect the environment, the capital should just outright ban the sale of cars.”

But netizens weren’t just full of outrage and sarcasm. One commentator pointed out, “When the time comes, there will be an emergence of a new business for the certification of parking spaces, and with it a new layer of corruption.” Another made the point that “Parking spaces aren’t mobile, but cars are. Therefore, there’s no need for every car to have a parking space. It’s crazy for our esteemed mayor to ensure that every car has a parking spot. Rich people can spend money to solve problems, while poor people can only laugh.”

It may turn out that Beijing drivers will need to put it in “park” before putting it into “drive”.

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Thursday’s evening rush hour is forecast to have a traffic index of 9 or 9.5. In practical terms, this means that a commute by car will be twice as long as normal, with estimates predicting six hour traffic jams to get into the city center. Highways are expected to be hit particularly hard, with forecasts predicting some of the worst traffic in recorded history.

The Beijing Municipal Transportation Research and Development Center suggests a number of places to avoid tomorrow. They include: Jianguomen, Chaoyangmen, Dongdan, and Chongwenmen in the east; Xidan, Xinjiekou, Jinrong Street, and Xuanwumen in the west; Gongti, Guomao, Shuangjing, Yansha, and Dawang Road in Chaoyang District; Zhongguancun, and Wudaokou’s Xueyuan Road in Haidian District; and Liuliqiao, Beijing West Road, and Muxi Park in Fengtai District.

The Center expects there to be 2.1 million cars on the highway on Thursday, 10 percent more than last year.

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China is home to more than 20 of the most congested cities for traffic in the world, and five are ranked among the world’s top 20, according to a report by TomTom, a dutch company specialising in car navigation services.

China’s most congested cities are its first-tier ones, with Chongqing taking top spot in China and 12th internationally, followed by Tianjin, Beijing and Guangzhou. Chengdu rounded out the top five Chinese cities, coming ahead of Shanghai as well as making it one of the top 20 most congested cities in the world at no. 19.

A number of cities in the Pearl River Delta made it onto the list. In addition to Guangzhou are Shenzhen as China’s 11th most congested city, Zhuhai in 12th place and Dongguan at 21. Another group to note are the Chinese cities that will make up the future Beijing supercity of Tianjin, Beijing and Shijiazhuang, Hebei at the number seven spot.

Taipei also made it onto the list as the 11th most traffic congested city in the world.

TomTom compiled the data by comparing travel times during peak periods against non-congested travel times, and expressing the result as a percentage. Chongqing has a congestion level of 38 percent in which an ordinary commute that takes 30 minutes in unobstructed traffic is delayed by 27 minutes during rush hour.

As bad as traffic conditions appear in Chongqing, car travel in Beijing may actually be worse. While Beijing has a 37 percent congestion level with a delay of 24 minutes for every 30 minute commute, it has more roads than Chongqing that still get clogged up. Though they are both large first-tier cities, Chongqing’s road network is only 5,575 kilometers long, of which 196 kilometers are highways. By comparison, Beijing has a road network of 20,834 kilometers in which 1,177 kilometers are highways.

Here is the list of China’s most congested cities for traffic, followed by their international ranking:

1. Chongqing; 12th
2. Tianjin; 14th
3. Beijing; 15th
4. Guangzhou, Guangdong; 17th
5. Chengdu, Sichuan; 19th
6. Shanghai; 24
7. Shijiazhuang, Hebei; 25th
8. Fuzhou, Fujian; 28th
9. Shenyang, Liaoning; 29th
10. Hangzhou, Zhejiang; 30th
11. Shenzhen, Guangdong; 31st
12. Zhuhai, Guangdong; 33rd
13. Changchun, Jilin; 35th
14. Changsha, Hunan 39th
15. Nanjing, Jiangsu; 42nd
16. Quanzhou, Fujian; 49th
17. Ningbo, Zhejiang; 52nd
18. Wuhan, Hubei; 54th
19. Xiamen, Fujian; 80th
20. Suzhou, Jiangsu; 82nd
21. Dongguan, Guangdong; 83rd
22. Wuxi, Jiangsu; 105th

Istanbul, Mexico City, and and Rio de Janeiro are the three most congested cities in the world.

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According to the “2013 Guangzhou Economic Analysis and Forecast,” considering its size and what it needs to function as a city, the ideal population from the point-of-view of the pursuit of per capita GDP is 8.07 million. The ideal population from the point-of-view of the pursuit of social development is 12.75 million. However, the population had already reached 13.55 million by the end of 2011, Yangcheng Evening News reported last week.

This over-population is causing problems such as resource shortages, pollution, and traffic congestion that could cause the city’s development to bottleneck.

The report then sets out three rather vague ways of tackling the problem: make adjustments to the city’s industrial structure; improve people’s livelihoods, and improve the calibre of workers migrating to the city.

Also, Guangzhou’s service sector needs to be increased as a percentage of the economy, according to the report. The 2011 figure of 65% is below the international average of 70.9% and way below that of more advanced cities such as Hong Kong at 92.6% in 2010 when this was last measured.

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