Housing in Southern Africa December 2015

News

R750 million for road infrastructure

The City of Cape Town has proposed R750 million for road infrastructure to alleviate traffic congestion.

Patricia de Lille

points across the city andaddress this in terms of infrastructure, operations and behavioural change. TCT is currently responsible for the planning and implementation of the MyCiTi bus rapid transit mode within the public transport network. In real- ity, MyCiTi footprint is still relatively small and carries a small percentage of the city’s daily commuters. On the other hand, the Golden Arrow Bus Service (GABS) is providing a sched- uled bus service to hundreds of thou- sands of daily commuters and does so under amonth-to-month contract with the Western Cape Government. “TCT should be the contracting authority for GABS, since this will give us the opportunity and the responsi- bility to integrate and align GABS and MyCiTi services with each other and ultimately with Metrorail.” The City submitted an application to the National Government for the assignment of the contracting au- thority function, which relates to this scheduled bus services contract in October 2012, and for the municipal regulatory authority function in May 2013. Unfortunately the city is still waiting for the Minister of Transport to respond. With the integration of the My- CiTi, GABS and Metrorail services, commuters will start to experience flexibility with the roll-out of the myconnect ticketing system across the board. A trip will become one journey, with one fare regardless of transfers across the different modes or services. ■

T he Transport for Cape Town (TCT) Congestion Summit hosted by City of Cape Town Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille revealed that in 2013, the TomTom global traffic index rated Cape Town as the 55 th most congested city in global rankings. The survey also revealed that mo- torists are spending an extra 71% of their time in traffic. De Lille said: “We are also the fast- est growing city in the country, with a growth rate of 30% according to the 2011 Census. Congestion comes at a great cost, with time and money be- ing lost, but also in terms of pollution and its long-term effect on our living environment.” The City’s Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town, Brett Herron and delegates from Na- tional andWestern Cape government will also have towork together to find economically sustainable long-term solutions to ensure that we meet the travel demands of a population which is predicted to increase to

approximately 5,6 million by 2032. Transport for Cape Town’s latest statistics confirm that the morning peak-hour period on the city’s major arteries has already increased from 7am to 9am to the current 6am to 10am within two years. More resi- dents are leaving their homes at 5am in themorning to avoid traffic conges- tion on their way to work. The Kuils River area around Bottelary, Amandel and Saxdown Roads; Kommetjie aroundOu Kaapse Weg and Kommetjie Road; and the Blaauwberg area around Plattekloof, Blaauwberg and Sandown Roads are among some of the first pressure points to be addressed. Further pressure points that the Congestion Programme will be cov- ering include congestion along the M3, M5, N1 and N2 freeways, the V&A Waterfront and foreshore. De Lille proposes that the R750 million is spent in accordance with a Conges- tion Management Programme and approved by Council by the end of the year. This will prioritise congestion

December 2015