If you’re wondering why you seem to be wasting your life sitting in traffic, TomTom’s Traffic Index has the answer. And while Cape Town and Johannesburg lead the way in South Africa, our cities are thankfully some way behind the world’s worst jams.
The most congested traffic in the world is experienced in Istanbul in Turkey, with Mexico City second.
Carey Dodd, marketing manager for TomTom’s consumer division, says the survey includes over 200 countries where the digital mapping company provides traffic data.
“The overall findings show the most congested time is evening rush hour, with drivers spending over a 100 hours more time per year in traffic.”
According to Dodd South Africa has bucked the international trend. “South Africa is not following the global trend, with the most congested time being the morning. For most South African cities, the Monday morning rush hour remains the busiest period.”
The survey is based on cars, and excludes public transport.
Commuters in Cape Town spend 90 hours a year in traffic.
Cape Town, with a global ranking of 55, retains the top spot in South Africa with commuters spending an extra 71% of time in traffic.
Johannesburg is ranked 77th globally and second in South Africa, with commuters spending 83 hours in traffic.
Pretoria is third, overtaking East London, with an average of 76 hours spent in traffic.
The most congested traffic day last year was 3 February, the same day there was severe flooding across Gauteng.
Commuters in Durban spent 67 hours in traffic and the city placed fifth on the list, behind East London.
The worst evening peak is in Cape Town on a Friday night, with other South African cities remaining most congested at the beginning of the week.
On average, congestion on highways has increased by 2% across the country, except Johannesburg which experienced a 1% decrease over last year, says Dodd. She is unable to say whether the decrease in traffic on Johannesburg roads is a result of the Gautrain, as this information is not available.
TomTom has also included China and the United Arab Emirates in this year’s survey for the first time. This has altered the results slightly, with the Chinese cities of Chongqing, Tianjin, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu moving into the top 20.
TomTom uses real-time traffic Information that is updated every two minutes. The data is collected anonymously from TomTom clients. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media
