ADVERTISEMENT

One Indication How The Pandemic Spoiled The Party On New Year’s Eve

Most people chose to stay indoors watching Netflix and ordering food amid the pandemic and night curfews.

A bartender wears a protective mask and gloves while preparing a cocktail at a bar in the Town Hall restaurant, during its reopening in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2020. Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg
A bartender wears a protective mask and gloves while preparing a cocktail at a bar in the Town Hall restaurant, during its reopening in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2020. Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg

The New Year’s Eve means a rush to wrap up work, dress up for a party and a night of revelry in groups. This year, that was replaced by Netflix movie marathons and ordering in as people stayed indoors amid the pandemic and night curfews.

That meant hardly any traffic congestion on roads.

The TomTom Traffic Index, which measures the additional travel time spent in traffic, tracked the congestion across India’s metropolitans —Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune — during the morning and evening peak hours and closer to midnight on Dec. 31, 2020.

Bengaluru

Termed as the world’s most traffic-congested city in 2019 by TomTom, Bengaluru saw the least congestion among the four Indian metropolitan cities tracked by the index. Congestion in terms of time spent in traffic dropped 70 percentage points in the morning rush hours and 58 percentage points in the evening rush hours from the 2019 level.

At just past midnight, the city recorded 10 traffic jams of 16.9 kilometres in length in all.

One Indication How The Pandemic Spoiled The Party On New Year’s Eve

Mumbai

Once a hotspot of Covid-19 infections, Mumbai’s average congestion in the morning hours of Dec. 31, 2020 was nearly half of what it was a year earlier. At it’s usual peak at 7 p.m., traffic congestion was lower by 37 percentage points.

Closer to midnight, the city saw 16 traffic jams in all spread more than 9.2 kilometres.

One Indication How The Pandemic Spoiled The Party On New Year’s Eve

New Delhi

In New Delhi, where active coronavirus cases surged during the festive season, traffic congestion fell 52 percentage points in the morning peak hours on Dec. 31, and 24 percentage points in the evening peak hours compared to corresponding period in 2019.

The national capital recorded 20 traffic jams of 12.5 kilometeres in total length closer to midnight, and congestion level at 12 percentage points less than 2019 level.

One Indication How The Pandemic Spoiled The Party On New Year’s Eve

Pune

Average traffic congestion in Pune, too, fell by half from the 2019 level in the morning peak hours and in evening of Dec. 31, 2020. Closer to midnight, the city recorded no traffic congestion and no traffic jams.

One Indication How The Pandemic Spoiled The Party On New Year’s Eve