- Some South African commuters are actually spending the equal of six full days a 12 months in visitors jams, new visitors information reveals.
- Traditional rush hour visitors is now bouncing again in most cities – however the pandemic has shifted some tendencies.
- Pretoria is now South Africa’s most congested metropolis for 10 km rush hour commutes, adopted intently by Cape Town.
- And Johannesburg has dropped to fifth place – beneath ranges present in East London and Bloemfontein.
- For extra monetary information, go to the News24 Business front page.
South African highway visitors is bouncing again from the times of the Covid-19 pandemic in all main cities – nevertheless it’s nonetheless a way off 2019 ranges. And in response to the newest visitors stats, Johannesburg commuters are doing higher at avoiding congestion than in earlier years, whereas Cape Town and Pretoria are preventing laborious for the highest spot of South Africa’s most congested metropolis.
Each 12 months, GPS firm TomTom ranks visitors in 390 cities – together with a number of in South Africa. It does so utilizing “floating car data” that it collects from varied sources, which it samples to create a worldwide index.
The latest index places the UK, India, Ireland, Japan, and Italy because the worst locations to drive throughout rush hour, the place a median one-way, 10km commute can take so long as 36 minutes.
South Africa fares barely higher, with our most congested cities shaving off about quarter-hour from the worldwide information.
If you’re occurring this metric alone, Pretoria is comfortably the worst South African metropolis for rush-hour commuters. TomTom locations Pretoria in 147th place globally – 9 above the following highest South African metropolis.
Pretoria commuters take a median of 16 minutes to journey simply 10km, at a median velocity of 32 km/h, in response to TomTom. This interprets into 145 hours, or six days, spent in rush hour per 12 months – and is 40 seconds longer than the identical journey would have taken in 2021.
Cape Town, constantly one in every of South Africa’s most congested cities, has slipped to second place nationally and 156th place globally.
Capetonians take about 30 seconds lower than Pretorians to commute 10km and spend about 5 and a half full days, or 132 hours, per 12 months, sitting in visitors.
Cape Town blues
Although Cape Town is now languishing behind Pretoria as SA’s most congested metropolis, it’s doing its greatest to reclaim the highest spot.
In 2022, Cape Town visitors elevated by 1min 10s in comparison with 2021 – essentially the most important leap for any South African metropolis. The nearest opponents for year-on-year will increase have been sitting across the 40-second mark.
Likely essentially the most contestable conclusion from TomTom’s examine is simply how sluggish Johannesburg visitors has been to bounce again – probably reflecting lingering work-from-home insurance policies which can be extra liberal than elsewhere.
Historically, Johannesburg was Cape Town’s greatest visitors competitor within the index – however 2022’s visitors index claims it’s now in fifth place nationally, behind each East London and Bloemfontein.
On common, it takes Joburg commuters 13 minutes 40 seconds to finish a 10km journey. And residents there spend 123 hours per 12 months in visitors – practically one full day much less per 12 months than Pretoria and 13 hours lower than Cape Town.
Durban has the bottom congestion ranges of all of the South African cities that TomTom measures. Commuters there take round 12min 20s to cowl 10km and spend 112 hours in visitors yearly.
Traffic nonetheless down from pre-pandemic days
Although all South African cities ranked in TomTom’s index have seen a rise in visitors since 2021, it seems as if there’s nonetheless some room to go earlier than they return to 2019 ranges.
In 2019, earlier than work at home was a factor, Cape Town commuters spent 154 hours in visitors – 22 hours greater than they did in 2022. And Joburgers now spend about 31 hours much less in visitors than in 2019.
However, Pretoria commuters are worse off – in 2019, they spent 131 hours per 12 months in visitors. This climbed by 14 hours to 145 in 2022.
The INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard agrees – largely – that visitors ranges weren’t again as much as full pre-pandemic ranges of 2019, however differs by how a lot.
INRIX says that in 2022, Cape Town and Pretoria visitors was nonetheless down 35% from 2019 ranges, and Johannesburg was down 17%.
Calculating petrol spend per 12 months
Coupled with the above research are estimations of how a lot cash residents commuting in every main South African metropolis are more likely to spend on petrol yearly to get to and from work, due to congestion.
Although an inexact calculation, TomTom claims congestion throughout a 10km one-way commute within the metropolis centre prices Pretoria petrol automotive drivers R1 267 per 12 months, Cape Town drivers R985, Johannesburg drivers R1 285, and Durban drivers R1 018.
How South African visitors compares
The TomTom index solely consists of continental information from Egypt and South Africa – however claims that visitors in Cairo is considerably worse. There, commuters can spend as much as 194 hours per 12 months in rush hour.
Global commuters courageous sufficient to get into their automobiles throughout rush hour are considerably worse off. Commuters spend the longest time in visitors per 12 months in London, England (325 hours); Dublin, Ireland (277 hours); Bucharest, Romania (277 hours); and Bengaluru, India (260 hours).
And though most nations measured have seen visitors rebounding from pandemic days, some look like successful the warfare on rush hour congestion.
Turkey, for instance, has minimize commute instances in 4 cities by as much as 1min 40s, the very best of any measured within the examine. And Hong Kong, Egypt, Belgium, France, and Australia have all seen important reductions in some cities throughout rush hour commutes.
