Are World Cup host cities ready for the pressure of tournament traffic this summer?

Geotab analysis ranks 16 host cities on preparedness and resilience  

ATLANTA and OAKVILLE, ON, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Geotab Inc.. has analyzed billions of data points to understand how ready World Cup host cities are for the wider transport pressure the world's biggest soccer tournament will bring this summer. Using vehicle data from June and July 2025, including periods covering major sporting and public events, Geotab examined how road networks in all 16 host cities perform when sudden surges in activity put pressure on the movement of people, deliveries and day-to-day traffic.

Geotab has given each host city a score out of 10, based on four components: how congested roads normally are (35%), how much time vehicles waste idling (15%), how safely vehicles drive (25%), and how well the cities have bounced back from past large events (25%). The results, published in the Geotab Host City Rankings dashboard, paint a mixed but mostly challenging picture with the tournament starting in just 30 days.

While the tournament will bring obvious pressure around stadiums and fan travel, the wider issue is how well host city road networks maintain resilience as they absorb major event demand by limiting disruption to local traffic, commercial operations and the movement of goods.

Foxborough, a suburb of Boston, is the only city to score more than 8 out of 10 (8.01), with ten host cities scoring less than 7 out of 10. The bottom three cities (Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto) all score less than 5 out of 10. Los Angeles and Atlanta score less than 1 out of 10 (both 0.9) for 'resilience', i.e. how well they have coped with previous large events, with both cities unable to absorb crowds without significant disruption in the summer of 2025.

"The world's most popular sport is coming to cities across North America, putting the infrastructure of many cities through the ultimate pressure test this summer," said Mike Branch, VP Data & Analytics at Geotab. "The challenge is moving people, goods and services during massive events. Everyone is impacted. We want to understand how well the wider road networks cope with local traffic, deliveries and day-to-day movement to help cities improve their road planning and routing networks."

Drivers expect wider disruption on major event days 
Geotab also surveyed 3,000 drivers across Canada, Mexico and the U.S. to understand how major events affect day-to-day driving conditions in host cities. The vast majority of drivers in each country find driving in their city stressful on the day of a major event. Compared with a normal day, 76% of respondents in Canada, 89% in Mexico and 79% in the US say that driving is more stressful during an event.

In the midst of ongoing fuel price volatility, drivers are also concerned about the hit to their finances during the tournament. Almost five in six drivers (83%) in Mexico are concerned about wasting fuel due to delays or idling when major events increase traffic in their city, with over two thirds in Canada (67%) and three-quarters of respondents in the US (76%) saying the same.

"Drivers are right to be concerned about the impact of major events on their day-to-day lives," added Branch. "What this data does is show city officials and planners where road networks are likely to come under pressure, and what they could be preparing for before the tournament begins."

Host City Ranking - the four score components 
This Host City Ranking appraises all 16 host cities on how well their road networks handle large-scale events, based on commercial vehicle intelligence from Altitude by Geotab, a platform that aggregates and analyzes real-world vehicle data collected across Geotab's global telematics network. This matters not only for private drivers and fans travelling to matches, but also for commercial vehicle drivers moving food, goods and supplies through host cities during periods of peak demand.

Geotab will be analyzing how traffic in each city moves during the tournament itself, with further updates published after each round of matches

Notes to Editors:
Geotab has given each city gets a score from 0 to 10, made up of four components:

• Congestion (35% of the total score) measures how smoothly traffic flows near each stadium on a typical weekday.
• Idle Time (15%) measures how much time vehicles spend stationary with their engine running — stuck in traffic, waiting at loading docks, or caught in stop-and-go conditions.
• Safety (25%) measures how safely vehicles drive near each stadium. Geotab tracks three types of risky behavior: speeding (going more than 20% above the posted speed limit), harsh acceleration, and harsh braking.
• Resilience (25%) measures how well the road network holds up during a big event. For each stadium, Geotab looked at past large-scale events (major sports games and concerts) and compared traffic volumes on event days to similar non-event days.

Every score is measured at two scales independently, then combined: 60% of the weight goes to the area immediately around the stadium (5 km), and 40% goes to the broader metro area (20 km).

About Geotab

Geotab is a global leader in intelligent operations, video telematics and AI-powered insights. Trusted by more than 100,000 customers — from small and mid-size fleets to Fortune 500 enterprises and public-sector organizations, including the U.S. federal government, Geotab connects approximately 6 million vehicles and assets and processes 100 billion data points daily. With ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC2, FIPS 140-3 and FedRAMP authorizations, Geotab's open platform and 700+ partner ecosystem unify safety, compliance and operations in a single system. Our mission: a safer, more efficient, and more sustainable world in motion.

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SOURCE Geotab Inc.