TRAVELLING TIPS

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Traveling tips

Road Travel – stay safe on the roads this Festive Season

For many South Africans, December is the time for holidays. Gauteng heads to the coastal regions, and coastal dwellers head toward the bush away from the madding crowds. This all results in increased traffic on the national highways and byways and because of the increase in traffic, there is usually a steep increase in the number of accidents and sadly, roadaccident fatalities.

People spend a lot of time planning their vacations, but when the time arrives the anticipation to hit the road and get to their destination as soon as possible becomes the overriding goal of the day.

This can and does lead to impatience and reckless driving in the urgency to get the holiday started.

We all know the excitement of going on holiday, but the journey should be part of the experience. Herewith some herewith a few tips to help you arrive safely:

1. Have a good attitude

Besides obeying the rules of the road, one of the most important holiday travel tips is to maintain a good attitude. Exercise patience, tolerance and even graciousness. Give other motorists a gap where you can and avoid aggressive driving at all costs. Know that you will encounter aggressive and dangerous drivers, give them space and make allowances, it’s not a competition, just focus on your safety.

2. Plan your route

Typically, traffic volumes on all South Africa’s major routes increase over the December break, especially on the N3, and N1 and N2 to Cape Town, as holidaymakers go to various destinations. Always have an alternative route in mind and stay up to date with road conditions and traffic issues on your planned route.

3. Get your timing right

If possible, stagger your travel dates to avoid the peak times. Traffic usually picks up in the week that school closes (this year, from 12 December). Expect heavy traffic on on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 December as many industries close for their annual shutdown. . Christmas falls on a Sunday and there is a chance that the 27th may also be declared a holiday so expect higher traffic volumes around that weekend. The same applies for the last weekend of the year, where an additional day is added on 2 January.

4. Keep your car in tip-top shape

Apart from the right attitude on the roads, you also need to ensure that your vehicle is in excellent condition as breakdowns lead to even more congestion. Another holiday travel tip is to have your car checked sooner, rather than later, as there may be a rush from many motorists wanting to make last minutes repairs.

5. Stay sane in the city

It doesn’t matter whether you’re heading to Cape Town (the most congested city in South Africa), Durban or Gqeberha, not everyone is on holiday, and there’s still such a thing as rush hour. Try and plan ahead to avoid morning and afternoon peak traffic and stay sane in the city.

The most popular national roads during the South African peak season are:

N1: The “nash” (national) highway stretches all the way from Cape Town to the Beit Bridge border post between Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is the main route between Cape Town and Johannesburg, which makes it a very busy one during the festive season as Gautengers make their way to and from the Cape.

N2: This route is the main highway along South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast, running all the way from Cape Town to Ermelo in Mpumalanga via Gqeberha, East London and Durban.

N3: Connecting Johannesburg and Durban, this route is also a much busier one as people head to the KZN seaside, which is much closer than the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape.

Remember: going on a long journey is not a race. Arriving safely is more important than reaching your destination in ‘record time.’ Plus, preparing for a road trip by having the right attitude, a clear mind, and well-maintained car is as important as the holiday itself.

Other tips and Tricks

Have a cell phone charger or power bank in the car so that you can always keep a traffic app on to advise of possible adverse conditions or crashes, giving you time to avoid and go around obstacles.

Do a playlist on your phone or USB that you can relax and enjoy as some areas have spotty signal and streaming music may be interrupted.

If you like to pack cooldrinks and snacks for consumption on the way, keep in mind that the driver will have only one free hand. Pack snacks that are easy to hold. Stay away from from stodgy, greasy heavily processed foods as these can make you drowsy. Try fruit, granola bars, pretzels, or dried fruit.

Plan a stop off in a smaller town en route to your destination, or two and stay for the night. This means that the driving time is less, and you can enjoy seeing other parts of the country that you wouldn’t usually visit. drive, if possible, if this is not possible, book a B&B along the route and take an extra day. As boring as driving can be it is equally boring for passengers who tend to nod off. It’s easy to nod off without conversation if you get tired just pull over or pop into a town along the way and recharge for an hour sightseeing.

Travelling with children

Engage the child lock on the rear doors - children get bored and do weird things like opening doors despite being on a road.

Wetwipes, a towel and a wet facecloth in a Ziplock is always a good idea and not only for the children. Although we want to clean up their sticky fingers most of the time, you may feel tired or need to change a tyre and then want to use this to wipe your face or hands.

There are always rubbish in the car so keep a few plastic bags to collect these so you can discard at a service station on the way.

Ensure that your children can watch movies or play games so be sure to have a power bank or charger for their tablets, phones and other in car entertainment. This will make the long hours pleasant for all!

During the trip, let the children wear headphones to play movies or games. Having constant electronic noise, music and conversation will make for an extremely stressful drive. This way everyone can watch a movie or play a game without annoying everyone else in the car and you as driver will be able to concentrate and listen to your playlist.

Buy games with magnets, ideally suited for travelling, like snakes and ladders, backgammon and chess. These are good fun on the road!

There are many puzzle books and arts and crafts that are car friendly. Pop past a few craft stores and see what they have that could help entertain children for a long journey.

Maybe play games like eye-spy or other car games like we had to as children, there is a whole new generation that needs to be taught!

For those travelling with a baby or toddler: make frequent stops to change diapers and feed the children. If the trip is a long one, definitely consider breaking the trip up with overnight stays at B&B’s. A baby cannot sit in a car seat for extended periods. Also, if possible, have one parent sit in the back with the baby to keep them entertained and ensure that they drink fluids or eat snacks. N.B do not take the baby out of the seat to feed or change them, rather pull into a service station or town with a child friendly restaurant.

Make a list of attractions along the way so that you can point these out to older children. They may not find it interesting now, but in time to come will remember that you have showed them these places. It also makes a good stop off so that the driver can stretch legs or even swop with another.�