CAPE
TOWN — Cape Town has introduced a
dedicated bus and taxi lane to speed up
early morning commuter traffic along the N2
from densely populated residential areas,
past the airport into the city.
Transport MEC Marius Fransman yesterday
officially opened the R65m project, the
first phase to improve the traffic flow
along the N2 into the city. The next phase
will be a project to remove blockages facing
traffic as it moves through “hospital
bend”, past the Groote Schuur hospital, at
a cost of R125m.
He said the 11km bus and taxi lane was a
radical intervention by the transport
department , with assistance from the city,
an intervention forced by the “growing
spectre of traffic congestion”.
Fransman warned yesterday that private
vehicles using the dedicated lane earmarked
only for buses and minibus taxis would face
R500 fines. He said a previous attempt in
1995 to enforce the dedicated lane had
misfired because the necessary technology
and law enforcement mechanisms had not been
in place.
Fransman said that this was not the case
now and that two years of negotiations
between the government, the council and
enforcement agencies had resulted in the
deployment of a number of television
cameras.
Enforcement officials based at the
traffic nerve centre in Goodwood would make
use of hi -tech automatic number plate
recognition cameras to offer a
“foolproof” way of identifying the
drivers of private vehicles driving in the
lane illegally.
From today , motorists using the lane
illegally would be sent a fine in the post.
Fransman warned that if the authorities
became aware of repeat offenders, he would
not hesitate to use stronger measures,
including the possibility of confiscating
vehicles.
More than a million people used Cape
Town’s roads during the morning peak
period. This particular stretch of road
carried more than 30000 commuters daily,
about 18000 travelling in 900 public
transport vehicles and 12500 in 7500 private
vehicles.
Fransman called for a change in mind-set
both from drivers of private vehicles, and
taxi and bus drivers who would now have a
stretch of road for their exclusive use. It
was estimated that the new lane would cut
commuter times for those using public
transport by 30 minutes. Capetonians who
continued to use private vehicles in the
remaining two lanes would add between 10 and
15 minutes to their journeys.