Getting stuck in traffic is up there with a trip to Home Affairs, and the queue at the shops on payday, as one of the most rage-inducing ways to waste your precious time.

It’s also one of the things that both unites and divides us as a country. Cape Town and Jozi have been debating whose traffic is worse since time immemorial.

At the same time, no matter who you are, or where you’re from, you’ve experienced the slow crawl home at the end of the day, while minibus taxis sidle up next to you, coming dangerously close to taking off one of your side mirrors.

A new report, the INRIX 2018 Global Traffic Scorecard, has revealed the most congested cities in the world. Business Insider reports:

The report was compiled by collecting billions of data points from diverse sources including connected vehicles, cities, road weather conditions, incidents reported in the media, and social media.

INRIX changed its congestion methodology from 2017 when the scorecard was calculated to hours lost to congestion. It now analyses not only time lost but also the severity of congestion.

South Africa features on the list, which also sheds some light on which SA city really does have it worse when it comes to traffic.

Let’s start with Cape Town Etc. and their table showing the 25 most congested cities in the world, and go from there.

OK, so we didn’t crack the top 25, which is something of a good start.

On a global scale, Bogota in Columbia sees motorists spending a staggering average of 272 hours spent in traffic every year. Moscow, in Russia, takes the top spot as the most congested city in the world.

Moving on to Business Insider with the situation in South Africa:

Jozi took the top spot in South Africa as the most congested city in the country. The average amount of time spent in Jozi traffic is 119 hours, which is the equivalent of five days every year.

Capetonians, on the other hand, lost more time to traffic, spending roughly 162 hours (almost a week) in traffic every year.

That’s a week of your life you’re never getting back.

The least congested city measured in South Africa was Bloemfontein, but that’s probably because nobody wants to live there.

Glad we can finally put the debate to rest.

[source:capetownetc&businessinsider]