Recently local business owners, the St Martini Evangelical Lutheran Church, the City of Cape Town and the CCID collaborated to install a set of new bollards in upper Long Street.
Humble though they might be, bollards have a crucial role to play in the urban landscape. These short columns are used to separate vehicular routes from pedestrian areas or to limit access by vehicles. A seemingly insignificant design device like this can solve a frustrating problem often encountered, namely illegal parking.
The Lutheran church rents out parking bays on their premises to people who work in the area. Some of these people have regular working hours but others, such as restaurant owners, work till the wee hours.
Often night revellers park wherever they like and it has happened on more than one occasion that people block the access to the church parking at night. Now you can imagine the frustration of someone who has just finished a late shift and just wants to go home but can’t because they are parked in.
This complaint was forwarded to the City and after an onsite meeting with the CCID precinct manager Sarel Strydom and Kirby King, manager for Ebenezer Roads Depot, new bollards were installed to combat the problem.