Johannesburg Vs Cape Town: The Traffic

There were statistics released recently which showed that it is now more expensive to rent an apartment in Johannesburg (JHB) than Cape Town (CPT). I lived in JHB for almost two years and then moved to CPT and I have been here for just over a year now and I thought I would share my ‘two cents’ with you on which of the two I prefer to stay in. I will start off by looking at the difference in traffic between the two cities.

The life in CPT is much more relaxed than JHB. People say JHB is ‘fast’. How exactly do you define the word fast? For me when people call JHB fast I can relate to it in the sense that everyone in JHB seems to be up to something and they do not have much idle time on their hands. If they are not at work, they are at school or at home studying to get a higher qualification, or they are out at a cocktail party on a Tuesday night, or networking with colleagues. Everyone seems to be doing something at any one give time in JHB. Whereas in CPT it is easy to call someone and say, “What are you up to?” and they will say, “Nothing!”. In JHB they will say, “I’m on the M1 now driving to Woodmead to meet Tim and have a drink or two, then after that I am going to Paul’s house for a braai in Randburg then after that I have to pick the kids up from Gold Reef City.” And the one thing is, people in JHB are not ‘afraid’ to drive. People cover a lot of miles in JHB as to get from point A to B, maybe a good 30 kms, and to them that is a normal distance to travel and they will be travelling at pace! In CPT if you ask someone to drive 30kms from point A to B, they will say “Hell no! That place is too far!”

When I left JHB, I could not handle the traffic in JHB, you could be stuck in traffic for a good two hours just to travel 10 kms. So I thought moving to CPT the traffic situation would be better. It seemed that way to start off with but it looks like the same traffic problems in JHB are now being experienced in CPT. Where is stay in CPT, there is really one road, the R27, you can take from Big Bay to get in Cape Town city center. Now you can imagine if there is an accident on the road, you have no where else to turn and you stuck for hours. But even without an accident, the traffic on that road every morning is a nightmare as more and more people seem to be staying along the West Coast in CPT.

I think an important factor to consider whether you staying in JHB or CPT is the proximity of your work place to home. It would be ideal to stay a 5 minute drive away from work but that is not always possible. For example, my sister-in-law lives in Boksburg in JHB which is close to the OR Tambo International Airport and she works in Pretoria. So everyday she makes that drive to and from work. But she has kind of gotten used to it as that is just how JHB life has become. Being in traffic seems like a way of life in JHB. One thing though is, when you travelling or stuck in traffic in JHB, all you have is your radio and seeing hundred of other cars around you. In CPT, if you stuck in traffic, you also have your radio and at least you have a scenic of Table Mountain and if you lucky, the ocean will be in your sight to. I would much rather be stuck in traffic in CPT than JHB!

Another difference I have found is that, there are many different routes to get from one point to another in JHB. For example getting from central JHB to Sandton, one can take several routes if something is wrong with one route. Whereas in CPT there are not too many alternatives to get from point A to B.

What I found interesting when I got to CPT was that there are hardly any ‘off ramps’ and ‘on ramps’. I had gotten so used to those terms in JHB, and now I never use them in CPT. Another thing I have not seen once in CPT is a toll gate! There is one though if you driving along the N1 into Cape Town but you would never see it unless you have actually driven quite a distance down the N1. If I had never driven from JHB to CPT on road I would never have known that toll gate exists!

So to sum it up for now, both JHB and CPT are terrible when it comes to traffic on the roads but at this moment I would say CPT is better than JHB when it comes to traffic.

Next I will be looking at the difference in terms of Public transport in JHB and CPT so stay tuned.