Motoring

Cape Town among world's worst 30 cities for time wasted in traffic jams

The Mother City was also unveiled as SA's most congested city, followed by Johannesburg

10 March 2020 - 11:45 By khanyisile ngcobo and AFP Relaxnews
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Cape Town has been named among 30 of the world's most congested cities and has topped SA's list.
Cape Town has been named among 30 of the world's most congested cities and has topped SA's list.
Image: Grafissimo/ iStock via AFP Relaxnews

Cape Town has been named among 30 of the world's most congested cities in the 2019 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard

The city also again emerged as the most congested in SA, with drivers spending an average of 124 hours a year in traffic, beating Johannesburg which came second with 74 hours and Pretoria third with 65 hours.

Durban dropped from third spot where it was previously tied with Pretoria to sixth spot, with commuters spending 24 hours in traffic. 

Landing the dubious title of most congested city in the world was Bogota, Colombia, with its drivers losing an average of 191 hours a year to traffic jams. 

Overall, Latin American and European cities dominated the top 10 list, with Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City rounding out the top three spots.

The 2019 global traffic report was published by connected car and transportation analytics company INRIX. It calculates time lost in congestion and uses peak, off-peak and free-flow data to calculate daily commutes within a city. 

Nine hundred cities across 43 countries were studied.

HERE ARE THE WORLD'S 10 WORST CITIES: 

1. Bogota, Colombia 

2. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

3. Mexico City, Mexico

4. Istanbul, Turkey

5. Sao Paulo, Brazil 

6. Rome, Italy

7. Paris, France 

8. London, UK 

9. Boston, USA 

10. Chicago, USA

SOUTH AFRICA 

1 Cape Town (global ranking 29)

2 Johannesburg (global ranking 71) 

3 Pretoria (global ranking 101) 

4 Pietermaritzburg (global ranking 410)

5 Port Elizabeth (global ranking 448)

6 Durban (global ranking 470) 

7 East London (global ranking 511) 

8 Bloemfontein (global ranking 636) 

9 Vanderbijlpark (global ranking 857) 

10 Welkom (global ranking 979)


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