Non-functioning traffic lights get a personal touch
LONEHILL - Non-functional traffic lights can exacerbate traffic and even cause accidents, but a vigilant Lonehill motorist uncovered a surprising cause of the issue.
Kelly Braum of the Lonehill Residents Association said while sitting in traffic at the corner of Main and Witkoppen roads, a resident noticed a beggar at the side of the road.
Braum said the resident watched the beggar walk to a yellow box near the traffic lights, open the box and seem to flip a switch. Immediately all the traffic lights at the intersection went out.
Braum said the resident immediately reported the incident to the association and also said there had been a tow truck stationed at the intersection at the time.
Braum said the association has asked Fidelity guards to keep a lookout at the intersection and to apprehend the beggar if he manages to switch the traffic lights off again. Bertha Peters-Scheepers, spokesperson for the Johannesburg Roads Agency, said there has been an increase in incidents such as this, where vagrants and drivers of breakdown vehicles cut off the locks of supply boxes and switch off the power.
“These acts lead to the disruption of essential services such as traffic lights and jeopardise public safety,” she said. “The end result is a negative drain on the City’s economy with traffic congestion and unproductive, frustrated commuters as well as a possible increase in traffic collisions.”
Peters-Scheepers said the agency encourages the community to report these incidents to them as well as to the police so that the culprits are dealt with in accordance with the law.
Peters-Scheepers added that all 200 uninterrupted power supply sites at traffic lights, which were implemented to cope with power outages, have been vandalised or stolen resulting in traffic signal downtime when the power supply is interrupted. She said the replacement cost of this is R11 million.
“Traffic lights are cut down for their copper wire, components and even the traffic light poles at a replacement cost of R3.62 million per year,” Peters-Scheepers said. “It is estimated that the economic impact of traffic light downtime due to stolen power or copper cables or other traffic signal equipment could run into billions of rands.”
Want more? Read this story next:
JRA tackles theft and vandalism
