The Cape Town traffic crash December 2025 on the Ben Schoeman Highway (Baden Powell Drive) between the N2 and Walter Sisulu Road brought parts of the city to a standstill as the road was closed for hours. For thousands of South African commuters, this meant gridlock, delays and missed commitments – all while cars idled and pumped more CO2 into the air. But there’s a solution already helping workers and students save money and cut emissions: carpooling South Africa style through platforms like CrabaRide.
South Africa’s transport sector is one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions, with road transport responsible for a big share of our CO2 output.
Every time there’s a major crash, like the Ben Schoeman Highway closure in Cape Town, we see just how dependent we are on private cars.
Across Gauteng, we’ve already seen how traffic changes when fewer cars are on the road.
After long weekends, parts of the N1 near Midrand and other Gauteng corridors experience noticeably lighter traffic – fewer vehicles, smoother flow, and lower fuel use.
Now imagine if that lighter-traffic feeling was our weekday norm, not just a holiday bonus.
In cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria, most rush-hour congestion is made up of single-occupant cars.
One person, one car, all stuck at the robot, all burning fuel.
That’s the core of the SA transport emissions problem.
If we keep adding more cars instead of using the empty seats that are already on the road, crashes and closures will just keep exposing how fragile the system is.
When the Ben Schoeman section near Cape Town was shut down, everything backed up.
Drivers tried side roads through Khayelitsha and surrounding areas, taxis and combis squeezed into any gap, and people sat in traffic for hours.
It wasn’t just an inconvenience – it had real costs.
can easily jump from 45 minutes to well over 90 minutes when a major road closes.
Multiply that across thousands of cars, and the emissions impact is massive.
A Sandton to Midrand commute on the N1 can swing from 20 minutes on a quiet day to more than an hour when there’s a crash near the Ben Schoeman stretch or a lane closure.
Even when traffic is “lighter”, many people still travel alone in big, under-used vehicles.
That’s money out of your pocket, and CO2 into the atmosphere, for no extra benefit.
In a cost-of-living crisis, paying full petrol and parking for an empty car makes less and less sense.
At the same time, taxis and hikes are under pressure, and not everyone has safe, reliable public transport close to home.
That’s where lift clubs and carpooling come in.
Carpooling isn’t just about sharing petrol.
It’s one of the simplest ways to cut SA transport emissions without waiting for new trains, bus lanes or major infrastructure.
If four people who usually drive alone share one car instead of four, that’s:
Scaled up, if just 10% of regular commuters in Cape Town or Johannesburg joined a lift club, we could remove thousands of cars from the road at peak hour every single day.
The Cape Town traffic crash December 2025 is a reminder that every extra car in the queue makes these incidents worse.
Carpooling shrinks that queue before the next crash happens.
Traditional lift clubs are often limited to friends, colleagues, or people you happen to know in the same complex.
CrabaRide takes that idea and makes it safe, verified and easy to manage across the whole city.
Here’s how it tackles the common worries people have.
One of the biggest concerns with sharing lifts is, “Who am I getting into a car with?”
This means your lift club is not just random strangers at the robot – it’s a community of verified users with visible reputations.
You can also choose regular routes and times, so you start to see the same people often, just like a reliable taxi driver you know.
Splitting petrol with friends can feel awkward.
For a Sandton to Midrand or Durban CBD to Umhlanga commuter, sharing a car even with two other people can cut daily travel costs by 50–70% compared to driving alone.
Over a month, that can mean hundreds of rand saved.
Because CrabaRide focuses on workplace lift clubs and regular routes, every shared trip replaces multiple solo drives.
That’s where the climate impact is strongest.
are repeated thousands of times every weekday.
Turn even a fraction of those into carpool trips, and you shave off real tonnes of CO2 over a year.
You don’t have to overhaul your whole life to start carpooling.
You just need to take a few small, practical steps.
Start with one regular route where you feel the pain most.
Note your typical departure times, preferred pickup areas, and any must-have conditions (e.g. “no smoking”, “okay with music”, “need to arrive by 8:00”).
Use the CrabaRide app, website, or even WhatsApp to:
You can then browse matching routes – for example:
Choose people with compatible times and preferences.
To keep your lift club smooth and drama-free, discuss:
This helps avoid misunderstandings and keeps everyone comfortable.
Even with platform verification, your personal safety habits matter.
Drivers should also keep the car well-maintained and avoid risky behaviour like speeding, phone use, or aggressive lane changes – especially in heavy traffic around Cape Town, Johannesburg or Durban.
But give your new carpool at least a month.
And quietly, in the background, your personal transport emissions drop – without you having to buy an EV or wait for a new train line.
The Ben Schoeman Highway closure during the Cape Town traffic crash December 2025 showed once again how fragile our car-heavy system is.
One serious incident and the whole city feels it.
But we don’t have to wait for government to fix everything before we act.
By using carpooling South Africa style – structured, verified and easy through CrabaRide – you can cut your travel costs, reduce your climate impact and spend less of your life stuck in traffic.
If you’re ready to turn your daily commute into part of the solution to SA transport emissions, start today.
Choose your route, create or join a lift club, and let CrabaRide match you with verified drivers and passengers so there are fewer cars on the road the next time a highway closes.
Get started on Crab a Ride today: online at https://crabaride.co.za or directly via WhatsApp (+27713638315).
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