Bearing the brunt of e-tolls
MIDRAND - A motorist who works in Midrand said he spends a lot of fuel pushing Midrand traffic.
Lukas Fourie said, “On 3 February it took me 28 minutes to travel 1.6km at a fuel consumption of 39.3litres per 100km. This 1.6km trip started on Old Pretoria Road to the K01 to the N1 north onramp via New Road.”
Fourie said most of the time it takes him longer to travel this 1.6km to the onramp than it takes him to travel from work to his home in Pretoria. “It gets worse when a truck or taxi breaks down.”
Responding to the traffic congestion nightmare tweet on Midrand Reporter’s twitter page @matt_collier77 wrote, “Harry Galaun (is the most congested), because of e-toll avoidance.”
Metro police spokesperson Edna Mamonyane said there is nothing that can be done about traffic congestion.”Midrand is known for traffic congestion, right up to the N1. The N1 is full of slow moving trucks that often break down, but those trucks are also allowed to use the roads. Most of them are delivery trucks that take food to stores so that the very motorists who are complaining can purchase what they want.”
Mamonyane said it is unfortunate that trucks and un-roadworthy taxis can set back someone sitting in traffic by over an hour. “Metro police are often visible when there is traffic congestion to move problematic vehicles off the road when they break down. That is all we can do in such cases.”
