ED RICHARDSON INCREASING CONGESTION on South African roads is slowing down both business and personal travel. According to a Synovate survey, some 26% of South African commuters sit in traffic for an hour to two hours per day, and 33% sit in traffic for 30 minutes to an hour. Comparatively, about three-quarters of UAE respondents and half of their counterparts in Hong Kong, Hungary and China are on the road at least one hour everyday. It appears that UAE residents in particular need to prepare themselves before getting into the car for a drive - 42% say they sit in traffic up to two hours everyday; four out of 10 claim it’s more than two hours. According to Synovate, 73% of South African respondents attribute South Africa’s worsening traffic problem to people who don’t know how to drive or those that drive selfishly, second only to rocketing private car ownership. When looking at how traffic influences the daily lives of South Africans, 60% reported that the times they left for work and home had been affected by peak time traffic. The survey on traffic was conducted among over 5 500 respondents in South Africa, Hungary, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
