A black Land Rover drove into a resident’s gate and crashed into a children’s soccer post, the garden and hit the wall of the house. Sheila Meikle, a resident of the home, said the gate was damaged as well as the windows.
Meikle added that a couple of weeks ago a taxi also drove into the wall and six years ago, a young girl was killed in an accident. “This is going to be the second time that we have to replace the gate,” said Meikle.
Bertha Peters-Scheepers, spokesperson for the Johannesburg Roads Agency, said requests for traffic calming can be made by registering a call with the City of Johannesburg call centre. “Engineers will generally implement traffic calming measures like speed humps, raised pedestrian crossings and mini-circles,” she added.
However, there are certain restrictions in place. Traffic calming measures will be implemented only if none of the following is applicable:
- Not in front of entrances
- Not in shade of trees and other physical objects during the day
- Not where they are not illuminated by street lighting at night
- Not on gradients in excess of six percent
- Not on gravel roads (cannot be painted and there is usually no street lighting)
- Not on Class 4 or higher Class roads
- Not on designated public transport routes
- Not within a specified distance of other control mechanisms such as traffic signals.
Peters-Scheepers explained, “A structured analysis procedure enables the municipality to determine, as objectively as possible, whether it is appropriate to install traffic calming measures on a given street or in a given neighbourhood, and what types of measures should be used to achieve the desired objectives in terms of speed reduction and increased safety.”
She also said traffic and speed studies are conducted before any decision is taken. “The analysis also looks at accidents as well as the geometric characteristics of the road and its function,” added Peters-Scheepers.
Details: 0860 Joburg or 0860 56 28 74
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