KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — The Raya holiday season is the time when the majority of us will hit the roads. Some will be heading back to their kampungs while for others, the holiday period is a good time for a short getaway.
It goes without saying that almost all of us will be using Waze during these travels. And because Malaysian drivers use Waze a lot, the app is able to compare data obtained from last year’s Raya holiday period to predict how the traffic conditions will be like for this year’s Raya.
And according to the data, there will be more people on the road during this Raya period. Up to by 18 per cent over last year’s Raya period according to Waze’s estimates.
And they will spend more time on the road too.
The increased number of traffic users will, inevitably, lead to traffic congestion. On average, earlier Waze data showed that Malaysians spend an average of 1 hour and 12 minutes per day on the road. This is expected to increase during this Raya, by up to 15 per cent according to Waze. This means drivers (and their passengers) are looking to spend about 1 hour and 23 minutes on the road on average during their travels.
Road users will also be travelling a lot more.
Waze predicts that the daily distances covered by road users during this period will double from 56km per day on average to 112km.
While it looks like we’re all destined to spend time on the road because of traffic this Raya, there are ways Waze can help reduce your time behind the wheel.
Waze recommends you leave the app on while driving so you can get real-time traffic updates and to help better estimate the time it will take for you to reach your destination.
Before you head out, pick the best route to check the fastest arrival time or to choose routes the avoid tolls or new routes that you would like to explore.
Selamat hari raya and maaf zahir batin everyone. — SoyaCincau
