Sandton Traffic

intensive said:
Agree (I am not single)

Thanks all for the advice - difficult choice to be made - work in NW and with the future looking bleak in my current company not sure if I must rather make the jump now to Jhb or wait for the boat to sink...which could take 1 to 2 years but might be longer if gold prices go-up again...

Can get a job at a very stable company in Sandton - and with the scarsity of jobs these days not sure if it will be a dumb move to pass this offer now.
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no options or choices in durban or cape town? no other companies in the Gauteng area?
 
Maverick Jester said:
If you're single, it's not bad. You avoid all the traffic, only downside is how late you get home (if you go straight home anyway).
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even if you are single, those are terrible times. just cause your single doesn't mean you don't have a life. some of the single guys i work with are out of the office at 4pm on the dot (of course they come in between 0630 and 0700)
 
Also if you do take the job, seriously consider staying in Randburg rather. I've lived in both Paulshof and Bromhof (Randburg) and Randburg is much nicer than the cluster **** that is anything between Sunninghill and Northgate.
 
Live in the eastrand and take the gautrain, you wont be disapointed I am doing it from when the gautrain started.
No traffic, you can arrive and leave when ever and not have care about traffic
 
crackersa said:
even if you are single, those are terrible times. just cause your single doesn't mean you don't have a life. some of the single guys i work with are out of the office at 4pm on the dot (of course they come in between 0630 and 0700)
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Not really. Leaving at 18:00 means you can meet friends for basically any activity, anywhere around Sandton, Bryanston, Rosebank or the greater Randburg areas. Montecasino is 15-20mins away due to the much lighter traffic load at that time. Extended times like that also give you the option of going to gym during lunch, and there are a number of gyms that are 15mins drive away.

So really, it depends on how you use the time. When I worked in Sandton, I never found it an issue to maintain an active social life, and I very much worked the exact hours simply due to my abhorrence for standing traffic.
 
Also, another note I forgot to mention- everyone recommends coming in early and leaving early. A lot of people do this already, meaning that the traffic can range from manageable to truly horrid at around 15:30 already, depending on the day. Just be mindful of that, and don't expect to not experience peak hour traffic at that time of the day in the area.
 
Frikkenator said:
Also if you do take the job, seriously consider staying in Randburg rather. I've lived in both Paulshof and Bromhof (Randburg) and Randburg is much nicer than the cluster **** that is anything between Sunninghill and Northgate.
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+1. If you have a family look at Randpark Ridge and surrounding areas (Bromhof etc.), though I wouldn't go as far west as Weltervreden Park (purely from a traffic perspective).

Northriding can also be nice depending on the exact location and complex, though traffic there is a cluster**** of note most of the time.

/Drives a manual and has a left leg three times the size of his right leg due to Bryanston/Sandton traffic crew checking in
 
Get a bike. I've been doing it for years and traffic is never an issue. I leave home and work at peak hour and what would take me 1hr in a car takes me 25mins on a bike no matter how bad traffic is.

Yes, bikes can be dangerous, but they're so much fun
 
Acid0 said:
Live in the eastrand and take the gautrain, you wont be disapointed I am doing it from when the gautrain started.
No traffic, you can arrive and leave when ever and not have care about traffic
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^^^This. My Mrs used to commute from Glen Marais in Kempton which has Rhodesfield station close by to Sandton on the Gaitrain. If you're from NW you definitely won't get along with the pretenders in Randburg. They act like they're the shiznizz but they walk out to their 1973 beetle and drive home to their one bedroom apartment in a complex resembling something from Hillbrow.
 
Maverick Jester said:
Also, another note I forgot to mention- everyone recommends coming in early and leaving early. A lot of people do this already, meaning that the traffic can range from manageable to truly horrid at around 15:30 already, depending on the day. Just be mindful of that, and don't expect to not experience peak hour traffic at that time of the day in the area.
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True but really it depends on the area.

When I lived in Sunninghill I found that people generally got out about 07h00-07h15 so leaving about 06h45 meant easy life with almost no traffic.. If heading into Sandton city add 15min ie 06h20-30

The further north you go, baring beyond central Pretoria you generally find people live a earlier lifestyle to account for traffic.

So eg I'm in centurion and if I leave just about 6am I get to work in 20-30min worse case for 18km to Midrand. 15 min after 6am, expect to add 15-30min for traffic delays. What I'm trying to say is.. Know the area you stay in. Heading home as long as I leave by 15h50 25 min commute, 16h10 35 min.. And then from there till 18h00 1hr /you will kill taxi, bus, truck and random safari drivers if you leave :-P

With Paulshoff/Sunninghill the key factor is that u need to get to Witkoppen by 16h00 or after 17h45 (assuming living not past rietfontein slit your wrists traffic.. ps this is why Sunninghill, Rivonia & Waterfall etc is slightly cool).

Uhm use Waze and stick to plan or just take a nice long relaxing lunch. On Fridays plan nights out rather than trying to head home unless you can leave early!!

Ps. Baring job role dynamics I find corporate companies here in Gauteng tend to operate 9am-3pm as core hours ie you make up the rest of hrs according to your adopted lifestyle and just kinda learn to manage workload so that non-core hours you do stuff you can do solo.. Or maybe that's just me? Oddly enough I see similar hrs (8ish-4ish) in Cpt but there people tend work the rest weekends or something (not haha).

For me.. Depends. I switch between the early worm and late vulture pending work and how I feel haha but in Jhb, due to latitude and road/life stress and early model works best..
 
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I'm not sure on how much it's changed, but your best bet is to leave at around 06:30, just at the start of the peak traffic, and then leave work at around 15:00-ish, avoiding the afternoon traffic.

Make use of traffic maps, just to be sure of any additional delays on your route, it depends on where you are going of course.
 
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