Western Cape · live coverage

Lower-risk driving routes in Cape Town

Cape Town has more rated areas than any other metro we cover, and a geography that makes the routing matter more. Mountain and coastline mean there are often only two or three ways between any two points, so when a route does pass something flagged there is rarely an easy alternative. A thoughtless detour costs you much more here than it would in Johannesburg.

918risk zones mapped
276in the highest band
3ratings per zone, by time of day

What the data looks like here

918 mapped areas across Cape Town.

Every area is rated three times over, once each for daytime, evening and night, because risk in South African metros does not hold still across a day. The split below is how Cape Town's 918 zones fall across the bands at their highest rating.

Figures read directly from the live database, not typed by hand. The lowest band means an area was checked and carries no routing penalty, which is different from an area we have no data for.

  • Highest 276 30%
  • Elevated 317 35%
  • Caution 272 30%
  • No penalty 53 6%
View as table
Cape Town: 918 mapped zones by risk band
BandZonesShareHow routing treats it
Highest27630%avoided by default on the safest setting
Elevated31735%always costed, avoided on the safest setting
Caution27230%costed but never avoided, since it is too widespread to route around
No penalty536%checked and carries no routing cost

Driving here

What matters on Cape Town's roads

  • The N2 between the airport and the city is the thing people ask about most. It is mapped end to end, rated separately for each time of day.
  • The N1, N2, N7 and R300 carry protective ratings. Diverting you off a freeway onto side streets to improve a number would leave you worse off, so the router will not do it.
  • Risk here sits in specific pockets rather than spreading along the main roads. Large parts of the metro carry no penalty at all, which is why the map looks emptier than Johannesburg despite having more rated areas.

Tsamaya rates roads and routes. It does not publish a list of neighbourhoods, and the app never labels a place for anyone other than the driver about to pass through it.

Questions

Common questions about Cape Town

Is the drive from Cape Town International into the city covered?

Yes. The N2 airport corridor is mapped both ways with separate day, evening and night ratings. If the app takes you a different way, it tells you what it went around.

Does Tsamaya work over Table Mountain and the peninsula?

The full City of Cape Town municipal area is mapped, including the Atlantic seaboard, the southern peninsula and the Cape Flats.

Why does the Cape Town map look emptier than Johannesburg?

Because it genuinely is emptier. Risk here sits in specific areas instead of spreading along the main roads. Blank map is real information: it means nothing was flagged, not that we never looked.

Drive Cape Town with the risk on the map.

Tsamaya is free and currently in beta on iPhone. Ask for an invite and we'll send you a TestFlight link.