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Traffic woes: And the most congested city in the world is...

When it comes to getting stuck in traffic on the way to and from work, Los Angeles leads the world.

Transportation analytics firm Inrix says drivers in the car-crazy California metropolis spent 104 hours in congestion during 2016.

That beat second-place Moscow at 91 hours and third-place New York at 89. South Africa ranks seventh with motorists spending 38 hours in traffic.

SA's congested cities

Cape Town is rated as South Africa's most congested city, ranking 33rd on the global list. Johannesburg is second, but 44th on the global list.

Commuters in the Mother City spend, on average, 49.1 hours in traffic, and in Jhb 46.8. Durban, Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg round out the top five. 

READ: Worst traffic in SA? Joburg no longer tops in congestion

9 most congested cities in SA: Average hours spent in congestion; 2016 world ranking

1 Cape Town (49.1 hours - global rank 33 )
2 Johannesburg (46.8hrs; 44)
3 Durban (30.2hrs; 158)
4 Pretoria (28.1hrs; 191)
5 Pietermaritzburg (19.8hrs; 384)
6 Port Elizabeth (19.1hrs; 401)
7 East London (17.7hrs; 437)
8 Bloemfontein (16.1hrs; 470)
9 Vanderbijlpark (4.9hrs; 1013)


Do you agree with the list? Which SA city do you believe has the worst traffic, and why? Tell us via emailFacebook and Twitter.

For the full table, click on the image below:

Infographic by Inrix.com

104 hours in traffic

Inrix says the US had half of the top 10 most congested cities in the world. The US was the most traffic-clogged developed country with drivers nationwide averaging 42 hours stuck in traffic last year. San Francisco was the fourth-most congested city, while Bogota, Colombia, was fifth. Sao Paulo, London, Atlanta, Paris and Miami rounded out the top 10.

Traffic jams cost drivers in the US nearly $300-billion in 2016, or an average of $1400 each, Inrix said.

Reader responds

Alan Baddeley says: "All I can say is I don’t know how and where they get their facts and info from – but as someone living in Johannesburg (and as you would probably know), most of us would tend to disagree.
 
A small good example was just this morning. I live towards the west side of JHB (not west rand), and just this morning it took me over an hour to get to work in traffic – to do all of 9km, AGAINST the traditional flow of traffic routes with no highway traffic. On an average day it takes half an hour in and half an hour out.
 
That would equate to 253 hours a year on a good day, and 506 hours on a bad day.  Take away the normal non congested travel time and we are still talking way above the number of 46 hrs in the apparent survey. One cannot believe that in JHB we only sit in congested traffic for a total of 12 mins a day, according to their calculations….?
 
If this is how surveys are done – maybe they should spend a month in JHB on the roads trying to travel around on a daily basis. I would think they would be scratching their heads and recalculating their results."

Top 10 most congested cities in the world: Average hours spent in congestion

1 Los Angeles, California (104.1)
2 Moscow, Russia (91.4)
3 New York, New York (89.4)
4 San Francisco, California (82.6)
5 Bogota, Colombia (79.8)
6 Sao Paulo, Brazil (77.2)
7 London, England (73.4)
8 Atlanta, Georgia (70.8)
9 Paris, France (65.3)
10 Miami, Florida (64.8)

More: Here's how to solve SA's traffic congestion crisis

On a global level

Of the 38 countries covered by the Inrix 2016 Traffic Scorecard, Thailand leads with the highest average hours spent in peak congestion (61 hours), outranking both Columbia (47 hours) and Indonesia (47 hours) in second, and Russia (42 hours) and the US (42 hours) in fourth. 

Image by Inrix.com

Infographic by Inrix.com

READ: Worst traffic in SA? Joburg no longer tops in congestion


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