Mrs D Jackson writes in response to Cycle lanes a challenge, week ending 7 November 2014:
While the concept of encouraging more people to cycle is laudable with the attendant green footprint and reduced pressure on traffic, it is odd that Council is creating these cycling lanes without apparently having consulted anybody in the affected areas.
If they had, they would have been advised that students prefer cars, tuk tuks, taxis, buses as well as their feet as their usual modes of transport. In addition, Council seems to be unaware that there are private buses that shuttle between the various campuses throughout the day.
The only cyclists regularly seen around Auckland Park are newspaper delivery and postmen, certainly not students.
Roads earmarked for the cycling lanes are all main roads carrying heavy traffic, and now they are being narrowed to accommodate cycle and pedestrian lanes. Safety should be a serious concern, because, at various points along their journeys, students will have to cross busy roads filled with reckless drivers.
It will take a remarkable transformation in driving attitudes to make Joburg into a cycling-friendly city.
Clearly Council has not done its homework and is wasting R65 million (of our money) that could have been better spent repairing our poorly maintained roads, regularly out of order traffic lights, collapsing pavements and blocked storm water drains.
They could even spend some of that budget on removing the squatters, erecting a secure fence and installing security at the tennis club on Kingsway Avenue and Cookham Road… or fixing the power supply?
