A distraught Baltimore Village resident, Brian Gold, who resides on the corner of Bassoon and Elsie streets in Radiokop, has raised concerns regarding the manner in which motorists speed in the area.
Gold told Roodepoort Northsider that he is appealing for swift intervention from the authorities with regards to the monitoring of speeding in Elsie Street.
He would like to see speed humps installed in order to reduce speeding and crashes.
The appeal comes shortly after his perimeter wall was damaged by a car on 21 May. Gold, who was convinced that the accident occurred because of speeding, added that the accident was one of many.
“This is now the fourth accident that has happened as the [cars] race down Elsie Street at terrific speed, any time of the day. Cars come down like fired bullets, and when they miss the corner, they then crash into our wall,” Gold explained.
The speed limit on Elsie Street is 60km per hour, but Gold is adamant that some cars, especially in the evenings and early hours of the morning, drive at a very high speed. Gold, in his plea for speed humps, believes that Charter Preparatory School, a school close to his residence, would also benefit from the cause.
“Charter Preparatory School is on the same street [but they still have] no speed humps built for them.”
The school’s business manager, Rudolf von Allemann, agreed that the school needs speed humps due to reckless driving.
“In front of the school, we have [motorists] speeding like crazy. We do need speed-calming measures next to the school,” Von Allemann said.
Ward 97 councillor, Leah Knott listed the application procedure for the installation of traffic-calming humps:
- Speed humps must be warranted as per SA Road Traffic Manual and City of Joburg calming policy which requires traffic assessments or studies.
- Ward councillors’ support and approval.
- A Scaled A2 engineering design drawing depicting the position of proposed traffic-calming hump(s).
- A letter of support from the City of Johannesburg’s regional director’s office.
- A letter of support from the Metro department responsible for speed law enforcement.
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