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Thursday / 7 November 2024
HomeFeaturesHow long it takes to drive 10km in South Africa – Cape Town vs Joburg vs Pretoria vs Durban

How long it takes to drive 10km in South Africa – Cape Town vs Joburg vs Pretoria vs Durban

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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