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Many South Africans use the festive season to unwind and go on holiday with their loved ones.
According to the Discovery Insure Holiday Drive Trends report, the most common journey is from Johannesburg to Durban. More than half of these trips happen between 15 December and 24 December.
Robert Attwell, Discovery Insure CEO says the drive between the two cities takes around six hours and 30 minutes, with one rest stop included, which takes an average of 37 minutes.
The report revealed that around 7% of drivers make the journey in one go, which gives only a marginal time-saving.
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The Discovery Insure Holiday Drive Trends report is an analysis of its Vitality Drive members’ behaviour on the roads. It covers the year-end holidays, from 1 December to 31 January.
Attwell said the data shows that not only does speeding have a minimal impact on destination arrival time, but it also increases the likelihood of being in an accident.
“During the December-January period, people are understandably eager to get to their holiday destinations as soon as possible.
“However, compared to those who stick to the speed limit, we found that those who speed only saved two to four minutes per hour travelled, depending on traffic. We encourage drivers to rather enjoy the journey and take a relaxed, safe trip down to the coast to avoid risking you and your passengers’ safety.”
“Data was gathered from Vitality Drive members across all provinces but primarily concentrated on Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape.”
Attwell adds that people who do not take a rest stop drive are 36% more aggressive in the second half of their trip than those who take rest stops.
He advises drivers to take a break so that they are well rested and on alert, which will minimise the risk of unfocused driving that could lead to an accident.
“Taking a half-hour break doesn’t delay your trip much at all.”
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Attwell says according to their report, most people drive back to Johannesburg from Durban between the 2nd and the 5th of January. “This trip takes about six hours and 21 minutes, including an average rest stop of 34 minutes.”
The report also shows that most people return from Durban on 2 January, which makes it the busiest day on the roads to drive to Johannesburg.
“As we get closer to 7 January, our data shows there are half as many cars on the road as on 2 January. And, in the week after 7 January, there are historically only 10% as many cars as on the day after New Year’s Day.”
When it comes to time and traffic, their departure after 08:00 usually results in drivers dealing with less traffic, across all journeys measured.
“According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, most accidents over the 2023/24 holiday season occurred in the first, third and fourth weeks of December, and many of these accidents were fatal.”
“Reasons for this included people driving after consuming alcohol at year-end parties to an increase in holiday traffic volumes on major routes, which heightens accident risk.”
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