Tempers have flared recently over traffic congestion on 4th Avenue, one of Melville’s main thoroughfares. Many have blamed the newly opened 27Boxes development for the mess, but Ward 87 councillor Amanda Forsythe disagrees, and has initiated a solution.
“While it is true that we now have more activity on this section of 4th Avenue than before, we can’t blame 27Boxes for a problem that had in fact existed before they opened,” she said.
According to Forsythe, the main reason for the traffic is because of illegal parking. “Parking has only ever been allowed on one side of the road, but motorists regularly ignore the yellow lines and park on both sides.”
In an effort to resolve the problem, Forsythe called on the JMPD to perform extra patrols and issue fines for illegal parking. But she said that this was only partially done. “The JMPD complained that road markings were so faded that the yellow lines were almost invisible in certain places and this was preventing them from enforcing the law,” explained Forsythe.
So she called on the road markings and signage division of the Johannesburg Roads Agency to resolve the problem and they have been working, not only on 4th Avenue, but also on 7th Street, and other areas in the suburb.
3rd Avenue, also adjacent to 27Boxes was a special case, according to Forsythe. “This was previously quite a quiet street with parking available on both sides of the road, but we’ve now restricted parking to one side only to improve traffic flows.”
Although there have been calls for potentially turning 4th and 3rd avenues into one-ways, Forsythe said that this will have to be explored at a later date and can only result from a suburb-wide traffic study conducted by the Melville Resident’s Association.
Details: Ward 87 councillor Amanda Forsythe 083 227 1797; Johannesburg Roads Agency 011 298 5001.
