The TomTom Traffic Index for 2023 notes that the South African city with the longest travel times is Pretoria, with an average time of 16 minutes to cover a mere 10km.
This is due to the city’s unique road infrastructure combined with relatively high levels of traffic congestion.
The TomTom Traffic Index collates data from various international sources to create traffic insights for drivers, pedestrians, city planners, car manufacturers, and policymakers.
At present, the maps and location technology company boasts over 551 billion kilometres worth of data in its archives which it uses to assess and show how traffic evolves in cities around the globe.
Tedious travel times
As per the report, the five South African cities with the slowest travel times are:
City | Average time to travel 10km | Congestion level % | Time lost per year in rush hour | Average speed in rush hour |
---|---|---|---|---|
Pretoria, Gauteng | 16 minutes | 28 | 49 hours | 32km/h |
Cape Town, Western Cape | 15 minutes 50 seconds | 32 | 49 hours | 33km/h |
Bloemfontein, Free State | 14 minutes 50 seconds | 20 | 41 hours | 34km/h |
Durban, KwaZulu-Natal | 14 minutes 50 seconds | 29 | 44 hours | 35km/h |
Johannesburg, Gauteng | 13 minutes 30 seconds | 25 | 43 hours | 36km/h |
The travel times are dependent on:
- Quasi-static factors such as street categories, street capacities, and speed limits
- Dynamic factors such as traffic congestion and changes in flow
The static factors determine the optimal travel time in a city, whereas the dynamic factors provide the traffic flow changes – and the sum of both gives us the travel time.
The congestion level is the average additional time in percentage terms that is lost to traffic in comparison to free-flow conditions.
This indicates that Pretoria is the third-most-congested city in South Africa despite posting the longest travel times.
Meanwhile, Cape Town is the most congested metro but has the second-longest travel times overall.
This averages out to roughly 49 hours lost in rush hour traffic per year for the average motorist in both Cape Town and Pretoria.
Compared to the world, we in South Africa still have it relatively good.
Out of the 387 major metros from around the planet included in the TomTom Traffic Index, Pretoria is rated as the 196th slowest city to travel 10km.
Cape Town comes in at 205th, Bloemfontein at 239th, Durban at 243rd, and Joburg at 286th.
The five cities with the slowest travel times in the world are detailed below:
City | Average time to travel 10km | Congestion level % | Time lost per year in rush hour | Average speed in rush hour |
---|---|---|---|---|
London, UK | 37 minutes 20 seconds | 45 | 148 hours | 14km/h |
Dublin, Ireland | 29 minutes 30 seconds | 66 | 158 hours | 16km/h |
Toronto, Canada | 29 minutes | 42 | 98 hours | 18km/h |
Milan, Italy | 28 minutes 50 seconds | 45 | 137 hours | 17km/h |
Lima, Peru | 28 minutes 30 seconds | 61 | 157 hours | 17km/h |
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