Cape Town's failure to act on roads starting to hurt its residents

The Mayoral Committee of Cape Town is clearly out of touch with the day-to-day experiences of residents on the roads leading into the city.

"They, obviously, do not sit in traffic jams, lose valuable time by being late for meetings or work, or arrive home long after dark because the existing road infrastructure is simply unable to cope with the growing demand," says Vusi Mona, SANRAL's head of Communications.

"We also know they are not pedestrians. Anyone with just a passing knowledge of the issues relating to unsafe pedestrian crossings on the freeways would have supported SANRAL in its efforts to upgrade the N1 and N2 which includes major safety improvements for pedestrians."

Mona says the city is hiding its years of under-investment in road infrastructure in Cape Town by attacking SANRAL, the only agency that has workable proposals on the table to alleviate the congestion, improve traffic flow and prevent the Western Cape economy from strangulation.

The Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Brett Herron, laughs off the Tom Tom survey in which one of the top technology companies in the world clearly showed that Cape Town is now the most congested City in South Africa, where the traffic jams add an average of 27% to the daily commute.

"But residents of Cape Town do not even need a survey to tell them the congestion is getting worse. There was a newspaper editorial last week that bemoaned the congestion in and around the city. The city's residents experience it when they take to the highways. They feel it when they cannot exit the modern, upgraded R300 because the city has neglected the surrounding local network under the guise of the poorly planned MyCity project.

"Visitors and tourists experience full well that they have arrived in the 33rd most congested in the world - out of 148 surveyed - when they have to make their way to some of the Peninsula's top destinations in bumper-to-bumper traffic."

Mona says: "All the city has to offer are nebulous plans and blame-shifting to SANRAL."

Herron now says the city has "indicated sections of roads that would benefit from an additional lane" to alleviate peak-hour congestion. "This holds out little hope for Cape Town residents who expect their council to move beyond the indication stage."

In contrast with the city's 'do nothing' approach, SANRAL has designed detailed plans to address the congestion on the N1 and N2. These plans are in the public domain. SANRAL has a track record of successful delivery on similar projects across South Africa.

"The city's 'do nothing' attitude is now starting to hurt," says Mona.

"It is hurting residents whose frustrations with the inadequate road network continue to grow. It is hurting the social fabric of the city with parents having less available time to spend with their children. It is hurting the economy where the cost of congestion is being passed on to consumers. And it is hurting key sectors such as tourism and the hospitality industries which are dependent on mobility."