TomTom reveals SA’s tough traffic

TomTom has released its annual Traffic Index, which highlights the impact of traffic congestion in over 200 cities around the world. Cape Town and Johannesburg were rated as two of the most congested cities among those analysed.

TomTom has released its annual Traffic Index highlighting the impact of traffic congestion in over 200 cities around the world.

According to TomTom Traffic data, the global trend reveals evening rush hour is the most congested time of day with bottlenecks nearly doubling journey times. In 2014, the average commuter spent an extra 100 hours a year travelling during rush hour. However, South Africa bucked the trend, with the morning commute the most congested for our big cities, and Monday morning being the worst.

And we don’t have the worst traffic in the world.

Globally ranked at 55, Cape Town remains the most congested city with morning commutes adding up to 72% to commuting time. Johannesburg listed at 77 is not much better with a morning travel adding up to 59% to commuting time. The evening Cape Town has the worst congestion level adding 58% to travel time and Johannesburg adding 54% to travel time.

Pretoria has overtaken East London as the third most congested city in South Africa, with overall congestion level of 24%. Interestingly for Gauteng, the most congested traffic day was 3rd February 2014, which saw the province ravaged adverse weather that lead to localised floods.

The congestion level increased everywhere with the congestion levels on non-highways still being remarkably higher than on highways, resulting in commuters spending up to 11 days per year sitting in traffic.

TomTom’s mission is to reduce traffic congestion for everyone,” says Carey Dodd, Marketing Manager for TomTom SA. “Road authorities and local governments can use TomTom’s traffic data to better manage traffic flow during the rush hour. We can help businesses plan smarter working hours to help their employees avoid travelling during rush hour. And we give drivers the real-time traffic information and smart routing they need to avoid congested roads and get there faster.

Summary:

Overall ranking of most congested South African cities in 2014: (Average of morning and evening congestion)

World rank (based on overall congestion level

City

Evening peak congestion level

Morning peak congestion level

Overall congestion level

55

Cape Town

58%

72%

29%

77

Johannesburg

54%

59%

26%

–

Pretoria

47%

52%

24%

–

East London

42%

45%

23%

–

Durban

39%

42%

19%

–

Bloemfontein

24%

25%

13%

Overall ranking of most congested cities in 2014: (Average of morning and evening congestion):

World rank (based on overall congestion level

City

Evening peak congestion level

Morning peak congestion level

Overall congestion level

1

Istanbul

109%

76%

58%

2

Mexico City

89%

93%

55%

3

Rio de Janeiro

81%

72%

51%

4

Moscow

103%

77%

50%

5

Salvador

75%

62%

46%

6

Recife

82%

81%

45%

7

Saint Petersburg

96%

67%

44%

8

Bucharest

82%

78%

41%

9

Warsaw

75%

69%

40%

10

Los Angeles

80%

60%

39%

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