'Improve public transport system' - Cape Town most congested city in SA, 9th globally

John Maytham spoke to Transportation Engineer, Megan Bruwer.

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below.

Cape Town is the most congested city in South Africa and the 9th globally.

According to the 2023 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard ,that analysed more than 940 cities,
Capetonian motorists lost on average 83 hours (more than three days) due to traffic jams last year, with their average estimated commute distance being 10,9km. 

New York City took the top spot as the most congested city in the world with an average of 101 hours.

The Scoreboard measures the difference between driving during peak commute hours and driving at night with little traffic.  

More bad news is that congestion seems to be worsening in the Mother City in 2024 with data from the report indicating that there's been a  7% increase in peak period travel times for motorists in the first quarter, compared to the first quarter of 2023. 

"Cape Town's got a very interesting shape. If you look at other cities, you can get to the city centre from 365 degrees, but if you look at Cape Town, because of the mountain and because of the ocean, we only have about maybe 25 degrees that people can actually get into the city centre."

- Megan Bruwer, Transportation Engineer

Bruwer highlights that it's important to remember that this report doesn't include any other African country or cities in India, Japan and South America.

"When they say 9th worst in the world, you've got to take it with a pinch of salt because it's not measured throughout the entire world."

- Megan Bruwer, Transportation Engineer

She emphasises that a better public transport system can fix the issue of congestion on our roads.

"The only thing we can do is improve our public transport system...we need to stop driving in our cars."

- Megan Bruwer, Transportation Engineer

Scroll up to listen to the full interview.