According to the City of Joburg, 25km of cycling lanes linking Rosebank to Sandton, Zoo Lake, Braamfontein Spruit and Melrose are on the cards.
The cycling lanes centred around Rosebank would also see the introduction of 12km of cycle lanes linking Greenside, Parkhurst, Saxonwold, Rosebank, Parkwood and Parkview.
Earlier this year, Executive Mayor Parks Tau announced that projects to develop routes linking various areas including from Sandton to Alexandra, Diepsloot to Fourways, Sophiatown to Melville, and from Melville to Doornfontein were in the planning or implementation stages.
The route between Melville and Doornfontein would run between the University of Joburg’s Kingsway and Doornfontein campuses, and would further link Hillbrow and Park Station.
De Korte and Jorrison streets in Braamfontein had already been widened as part of the stretch from Melville to Doornfontein.
The introduction of the dedicated lanes was to promote cycling as a commuter mode of transport and to enable cyclists to travel safely, said Lisa Seftel, executive director of the city council’s transport department.
“The road alignments have not been finalised and will include numerous roads. On high order roads, there will be dedicated and protected cycle lanes while on lower order roads with less traffic, there will be signage and traffic calming measures to protect cyclists,” Seftel said.
The city council was currently finalising a detailed design for the cycle routes, however the design would vary from road to road, she said.
“On some roads, there will be road markings while on others a dedicated cycling lane will be built. There will also be signage.”
However, the city council would need to obtain a suitable budget in order to begin the construction.
“We will be talking to developers along the corridor, but in the absence of funding from developer contributions, construction from the City’s budget is likely to begin in the 2017/18 financial year,” Seftel said.
