A partnership between the City of Cape Town and the Cape Town Central Improvement District (CCID) to ease afternoon traffic in the CBD starts in April. The pilot project involves six CCID-funded wardens and will run until the end of June.
The CCID will be deploying these officers, who come from the City’s Traffic Services Department, to problem intersections from 15h30 and, in a first for SA, will also equip them with body-worn video units. When they aren’t at intersections – ie outside peak – they will deal with non-moving violations in other parts of the CBD.
Says CCID CEO Tasso Evangelinos: “Traffic congestion in the Central City has become an issue. Blockages at many intersections at home time are commonplace. Driver behaviour has also become such that gridlock persists, blocking traffic in both directions. Causing gridlock – by, for example, driving into an already jammed intersection, thereby preventing a cross flow – is actually a bylaw offence. It’s the job of the wardens to monitor and deter this. We believe the initiative, which complements the work of OUTsurance pointsmen as well as V&A Waterfront-funded officers at the Buitengracht and Walter Sisulu Avenue intersection, will go a long way to alleviating congestion and modifying driver behaviour.”
If you’re a commuter who gets stuck in a jam leaving the CBD every afternoon, we’d love to hear what you think of this initiative. Once it’s up and running in April, please get in touch via Facebook and let us know if, in your experience, the presence of the wardens has improved traffic.
Did you know?
You can monitor congestion leaving the CBD and check out the peak-hour hotspots by following @CapeTownFreeway on Twitter.
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