Another Aggravated Motorist writes:
Your correspondent Shelle Malan’s letter, “Vehicle sorts out the taxis” of October 25 refers.
I second the shout-out of thanks to the EMPD for recent action along Pretoria Road at its junction with Beukes Road.
Also read:
• Amazing what just one EMPD vehicle in the right spot can achieve
That strategically-positioned EMPD vehicle slightly ahead of the right-turn lane (into Beukes Road from Pretoria Road, travelling from Kempton Park towards Birchleigh), forcing those taxis to then turn right when they don’t want to, was a stroke of genius.
Somewhat tongue in cheek, I take issue with Ms Malan’s reference to a “three-lane bombardment” regarding vehicles travelling along Pretoria Road towards the Elgin Road roundabout, clearly referring to two lanes on the carriageway and the ‘extra lane’ on the grass verge on the left of the roadway.
Has she never seen what I recently saw? I was on Beukes Road, in a long queue, so was parallel to Pretoria Road on a day when, sadly, no EMPD vehicle was in the vicinity. I saw taxis manage to create a fourth lane.
And how did they achieve that? Simple. Drive on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic. Now, how’s that for either sheer bravado or sheer stupidity.
You’ve then got four lanes of vehicles, all trying to merge into one by where the spruit is visible under the railway line, before the road widens again to two lanes.
My suggestion? At least where the grass verge is concerned. We’re all familiar with the metal kerbside crash barrier the roads department has installed in various parts of the town.
Why not install that, but not in a straight line, for then the vehicles will simply move further left off the road, and not in one continuous piece. Why not every, say, 10 metres of ‘straight-line barrier’, then curve it to the left for quite some distance towards the railway line, so that any vehicle attempting to travel on the grass verge finds itself trapped and unable to proceed any further.
And any idea such drivers might have of flattening such hindrance to their chosen route could be thwarted by some well-placed tall and substantial concrete bollards.
