Philip Danford, Silverglades
The letter “Traffic control in a mess” (Echo September 1) refers.
We locals in the “South” concur with Peter Smulik’s remarks about the unacceptable situation with traffic flow, particularly south of Muizenberg.
As for the attitude of mayoral committee member Brett Herron, if it is reflective of the mayor’s office’s attitude towards the people, then it is little wonder that the South Peninsula has on-going traffic troubles.
The fact that the main road upgrade has been such a costly pain to all can only be attributed to Mayco’s inability to have arran-ged alternatives to work-ing only daylight hours from only one side of the upgrade areas at a time. Apparently the homeowners on the route objected to all other alternative working arrangements which is a reality.
However, the some 20 000 motorists per day have had no say. Not only has this been an expensive upgrade to the fiscus, the unseen cost of motorists stuck in the stop and go queues is vital to all planning.
Imagine the following scenario:
R200 per hour of lost productivity by stranded motorists.
R200 X 20 000 =
R4 000000.
R4 000 000 X 260 (actual work days) =
R1 040 000 000 per year.
R1 04bn X 7 years = R7.28bn
This horrific figure above is the lost productivity to the South African economy and does not address local business losses.
I imagine that this figure would pay most of the cost for a tunnel to be built. Now due also to the incomplete Boyes Drive upgrades, the costs of the City’s indecisive-ness came home to roost. So, because Mayco was unable to arrange alternative operating hours with contractors etc, together with the above dithering, their submission to the wishes of local homeowners en-route from Muizenberg to Clovelly has caused large proportions of the huge productivity losses to occur.
Adding insult to injury, the traffic chaos at Kommetjie Road four-way intersection is add-ing to this unacceptable situation. Any further delays in correcting the latter problem is unconscionable.
Mayco or whosoever is responsible in lo-cal government simply cannot sit wringing their hands or indeed wash-ing them off the prob-lems and leave things as they are. Any further daily delays in rectifying these important issues would be almost criminal.
More motorists using the local roads is a fact and every effort must be made to alleviate this distressing situation. In any event, if our local economy is going to grow, more motorists will be a fact of life.
Cape Town’s Transport department is duty bound to vigorously address these vexing matters instead of be-moaning the facts as they have done in the past.
Clearly their attitudes regarding the motorists being a nuisance to them must change im-mediately. The current scenario with traffic flow in the south is due to their indecisiveness and the consequent lack of action in implementing what they know is vital to the local economy (for example Southern Ring-road from Kirstenhof etc).
