The “commuter pain survey” was undertaken by IBM and is designed to rank the emotional and economic toll of commuting in each city into a pain index. Mexico city came in first, with Nairobi, Beijing, Bangalore and Moscow trailing behind. Jozi came in fourth, with commuters spending an average of thirty-six minutes commuting to work and school every day. When not being hijacked.

A grand total of 8 042 commuters were surveyed in 20 cities around the world.

The pain index takes into account things like commuters stress and anger, traffic jams and stop-start traffic. It doesn’t mention hawkers, gaatjies or taxi drivers.

Surprisingly Johannesburgers seemed to have a more positive outlook, with 30% believing traffic had improved “somewhat” or “substantially” in 2011, compared to 19% last year.

IBM director of intelligent transportation systems, Vinodh Swaminathan, had this to say:

If cities wanted to improve their traffic flow and congestion, they would need to move beyond knowing and reacting. Instead, they should find ways to anticipate and avoid situations.

He reckons that if people could do this, they could free up loads of time for loved ones and training, giving rise to a fitter, more affectionate city.

In an ideal world.

[Source: news24]