With Christmas only a week away traffic in SA has already spiked to near-record levels, with another surge expected this week.
With a week to go to Christmas, traffic in SA this festive season has already reached near-record levels. According to TimesLive, tens of thousands of motorists have traversed SA’s major toll roads in the first week of holidays already.
According to the report, from Thursday 14 December to Saturday 16 December 2023, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) logged 32 767 motorists that passed outbound through Huguenot Tunnel, while 20 375 cars entered heading in bound to Cape Town.
TRAFFIC IN SA SPIKES
We already reported on what was likely to be the busiest day on South African roads, as motorists took advantage of the Rugby World Cup public holiday long weekend to get to their holiday destinations.
But the RTMC warns of traffic in SA seeing another spike this week in the run-up to Christmas long weekend, which falls on a Monday. Thankfully, traffic volumes across the country will enjoy a huge dip as families gather on the 25-26 December and then again just before New Years Day.
RTMC spokesperson Simon Zwane said the closure of SA’s remaining businesses throughout the week before Christmas will see yet more holidaymakers on the roads. The next anticipated traffic peaks in traffic will be on 21-23 December.
Routes expected to remain congested for the rest of the week include:
- N2 South – Cape Town to Garden Route.
- N2 North Coast – Durban to Tongaat.
- N4 East — Pretoria to Mbombela.
- N1 North — Pretoria to Polokwane.
- N3 South — Johannesburg to Durban.
- N1 South — Huguenot Tunnel to Cape Town.
