City proposes new policy for traffic calming measures

CITY OF CAPE TOWN

5 JULY 2015

MEDIA RELEASE

City proposes new policy for traffic calming measures

A new traffic calming policy, aimed at addressing a backlog of 500 projects and protecting vulnerable pedestrians such as children on their way to school, is being considered by the City of Cape Town. Residents, role players and interested parties are requested to air their views during the public participation process that is currently underway. Read more below:

Each year Transport for Cape Town (TCT), the City’s transport authority, receives more than 400 requests for the implementation of traffic calming measures. Counting among these are requests for speed humps, raised pedestrian crossings and intersections, mini-traffic circles, road markings and road narrowing as devices to force drivers to slow down on residential roads.

‘Over the past years, we have seen an increase in the number of requests for traffic calming measures, which can be attributed to the deterioration in driver discipline and a general disregard for the rules of the road by all types of road user. Given the current backlog and the steady increase in requests, it has become necessary to revisit the current regime. As such, a new policy which seeks to prioritise the implementation of these measures where pedestrians, and particularly children, are most vulnerable i.e. at schools, parks, libraries, etc. is now on the table and ready for public comment,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member: Transport for Cape Town, Councillor Brett Herron.

There is currently a backlog of 500 traffic calming projects to the value of R30 million.

‘The purpose of the new proposed policy is to provide for a system that is financially sustainable in the long-run; responsive to critical safety problems on residential roads; and that will assist in eliminating the backlog within a reasonable time,’ said Councillor Herron.

Counting among the new policy proposals are the following:

  • That TCT implement traffic calming measures on roads adjacent to existing schools as a matter of priority with the benchmark of at least 50 schools per year

  • That Ward Councillors may identify, motivate and fund traffic calming measures in response to a proven history of accidents on a road or in response to a recent and very urgent incident that demands immediate intervention

  • That private persons or organisations may also fund traffic calming measures, subject to the prescribed conditions

‘The proposed policy also stipulates on which roads the interventions may be implemented and how the public should be consulted,’ said Councillor Herron.

The following directives are proposed:

  • Speed humps, raised pedestrian crossings and intersections, mini-circles and other traffic calming measures may be implemented at any location on a Class 5 residential road in the vicinity of public facilities

  • Traffic calming measures may only be implemented at intersections or locations where a significant number of pedestrians cross a Class 4 distributor road in the vicinity of public facilities. Calming measures may not be implemented elsewhere along Class 4 roads

  • Calming measures should not cause a hazard to any road user

  • Calming measures must be implemented in a way that minimises the effect on public transport users

  • TCT must implement calming measures at 50 schools each year, the funding of which is to be provided by Council

  • TCT must implement an additional 150 traffic calming projects from the priority list each year in an effort to eradicate the current backlog. These projects are also to be funded by Council

  • Ward Councillors may identify the need and motivate for traffic calming measures on a Class 5 residential road and Class 4 distributor road and shall reserve ward allocation funding for the design and implementation thereof

  • Other directorates within the City requiring traffic calming measures at public facilities shall provide the funding for these interventions

  • Private individuals, companies and organisations may fund the investigation, design and implementation of calming measures at public facilities, subject to the stipulated provisions

  • Ward Councillors and Subcouncils should be informed of the intended implementation of calming measures within their areas and be afforded the opportunity to comment on the proposed measures

  • Owners of property adjacent to a road on which calming measures are proposed to be implemented should be offered the opportunity to comment

‘The public participation process commenced on Wednesday 1 July 2015 and will close on 16 August 2015. I want to urge residents and interested parties to please take the time to submit their written comments about the proposed policy. We are trying our best to make our roads as safe as possible for all road users, in particular for our children, but we cannot do this on our own. Apart from obeying the rules of the road, residents can also play their part by assisting us to find the delicate balance between policy, resourcing, engineering and education,’ said Councillor Herron.

End

Issued by: Integrated Strategic Communication, Branding and Marketing Department, City of Cape Town

Here are my suggestions and comments on the City proposes new policy for traffic calming measures.

Their are 3 main points that follow in addition to those already in the policy, that I would like you to consider.

Traffic Management Plan:

- Reduce Peaks

- Create more capacity

- Calms Stressed Drivers

- Reduce the need for costly infrastructure upgrades.

- Smooths traffic flows and bottle necks.'

- Dealing with high urbanization rates.

- Complementing the goal of higher densification town planing.

- Go along way in helping prevent urban sprawling,

by creating more internal capacity in the town,city, community centers, leaving this more attractive.

How to achieve this goal

All traffic in the mornings arise from the following activities, Droping children of at school, going home or to work; Going to work, University, Technicon or collages.

Traffic in the afternoons at around 2pm is created by schools and lunch breaks.

Traffic in the late afternoon mainly by commuters going home from work or heading to amenities ( shopping malls, gyms, sport)

My proposal is that for each area, community all the roads with a lower than class 5 be highlighted on a map. Then plot to and from destination of school registered against a erf and their place of work.

This information is obtainable and their are two digital way to get hold of it one via council in future and from the schools, by combining both set of information, should have a nearly complete dataset.

If their is a problem obtaining this information I could assist in a trial run and write the missing functionality into Albion

that could visual map that information onto the main class 5 Roads and Higher.

By see all of this information on a map at once, you will be able to determine the major roads that will be used to get around the town in the mornings and their demands.

What the traffic management plan will try and do is put commuters into buckets and have the buckets all set of at different times, so that the above mention bullet points are met.

Humans will always leave their deweling as late as they can, so they will always cause a peak and congestion until we force them to all have different leaving times and destination sheadual times.

Leaving times and destination shedding times are mainly controlled by

school and work start times, which the former is can be controlled by the council.

The traffic management plan will then enforce different grades 1-4,5-7, 8-9,10-12 to start school at different times with in a 20 -25 minute period.

2.5-5 minutes should be enough to push traffic peaks apart.

Schools could just implement different bell signal or double bell signal for the different starting times. The cost of a new bell control unit should be very cheap compared with civil work.

Universities, for BA students and those students which only have halve day classes could look into having their class start an hour later,which might be problem for those that work. Alternatively, a whole facility use a single set of buildings, they could have that entire facility start 10 minutes later.

This would be and added bonus for students as it would also reduce the peaks at lunch time. Every year they can rotate the start time offset between the university facilities, to make up for any unfairness that may come about. Obviously the same thing applies to technicons.

Rates bill road class adjacent to property.

On the rates bill publish the class of roads and what their function is,

so resident understand the implication and expectations of the towns functions relative to their Erf.

All Maps - CTC, Google, Bing, Afri Gis, Should after the name of the road, feature the class type of the road. This allows residents to make informed Erf purchasing decisions and understand the implications of the town's design and function design on their properties.