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Cape Town is SA's most congested city

Michelle Avenant
By Michelle Avenant, portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 01 Apr 2015
Coastal cities become congested more easily than inland cities, says Carey Dodd of TomTom.
Coastal cities become congested more easily than inland cities, says Carey Dodd of TomTom.

Dutch navigation company TomTom yesterday released its annual global Traffic Index, based on data from TomTom users from 218 cities in 36 countries worldwide.

The study measured congestion by comparing the time taken to complete a given journey in the absence of congestion with the time the journey takes during peak traffic hours.

Congestion is expressed as the percentage of the traffic-free journey time that is added onto the journey by traffic. For example, Moscow's evening peak of 103% congestion means drivers take just over twice as long to travel home in evening traffic as they would in a "free flow" situation.

"Free flow" traffic times are compiled from user data as opposed to theoretical speeds, says Daan Henderickx, country manager at TomTom SA. Average travel times are calculated for each road element for each hour of the day, and the shortest average travel time for each road element is considered to be its "free flow" time, Henderickx explains.

TomTom has built up a historic database of more than 10 trillion data points, he points out.

The Traffic Index found the world's five most congested cities to be Istanbul, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Salvador, Brazil.

Cape Town and Johannesburg are the world's 55th- and 77th-most congested cities respectively, while Pretoria has overtaken East London over the past year as SA's third-most congested city.

Coastal cities tend to become congested more easily than inland cities, says Carey Dodd, marketing manager at TomTom SA. This is because the coastline limits alternate routes through the city, she explains. Five of the study's 10 most congested cities are coastal.

Congestion in SA increases year-on-year by 1-2%, says Dodd, commenting on previous studies. Cape Town's overall congestion level increased from 27-29% in 2014, and Johannesburg's from 25-26%. This increase is happening all over the world.

Congestion has negative effects on drivers' lifestyles, as their leisure time is cut short by the extra time they spend commuting, says Dodd. It also impacts the environment, as cars running for longer tally up more carbon emissions.

TomTom aims to reduce traffic congestion. While road authorities and local governments can use the Traffic Index's data to better manage traffic flow, businesses can also play a role by offering employees more flexible working hours, she notes.

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