City hosts webinar to tackle congested traffic, especially, during the traffic peak period.
Whether you use public or private transport in Johannesburg, you are bound to confront a traffic jam. The City of Johannesburg is looking to address this as they recently held a webinar to raise awareness on the various aspects required to decongest the traffic. Transport MMC Nonhlanhla Makhuba has called for brand-new ideas to be used to resolve the issue facing the streets of the city, saying “The time to think outside the box is now; we can no longer use the same remedies to manage congestion in our city. We will need to be innovative in the way forward in order to build congestion-free roads for our future generations.”
Makhuba was joined by the director for policy development and strategic planning, Daisy Dwango; operations manager: traffic engineering services, Esther Schmidt and acting Chief of Police, Angela Mokasi. The webinar also forms part of a series of stakeholder engagements being hosted during the October Transport Month 2020. The engagement further provided insight on future engineering and Fourth Industrial Revolution solutions to the traffic problems. Makhuba stated, “As an economic hub, our rate of urbanisation, issues of historic spatial planning and the rapid growth of development have exacerbated this challenge. The inadequate accessibility to integrated public transport modes also plays a role in our congestion problems.”
Dwango presented the key transport strategies on managing congestion in Johannesburg stating, “The City has identified non-motorised transport as one of the methods used to manage traffic congestion.”
This means that the City will be integrating all modes of transport when planning for the future. This includes dedicated network of high quality pedestrian and cycling, integrating cycling at public transport nodes, and amending relevant technical roads standards and planning requirements. “We need to improve sustainable transport modes and reduce travel by restructuring the City. We need to build cities that enable our people to work, live, study and play in the same areas,” added Dwango.
The City acknowledged that there are still many members of the public who still struggle to access their school and workplaces due to transport challenges. Dwango explained, “Though as a City we have made strides towards mass transit with the introduction of Rea Vaya and to a certain extent with Metrobus, there is still more that needs to be done as a collective to address the issues of our residents living far away from their places of work and education forcing households to spend over 40 per cent of their monthly income on transport costs.”
She added that the City needs to continue engaging all spheres of government and business to work towards finding innovative solutions to these issues.
