Hiccups for Rea Vaya
ORANGE GROVE - Councillors and residents' associations are concerned that planning flaws will compromise the effectiveness of the Louis Botha Avenue Rea Vaya development.
The provision of a bus stop every 500m to 1km along Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes is one way in which Johannesburg’s new public transport system is designed to provide easy, efficient transport to travellers.
However, in designs for the newest developments, under construction along Louis Botha Avenue, a full 2 kilometres between King Edward High School and Ivy Road is provided with not a single station, raising concerns for residents and councillors.
The design of the Louis Botha Avenue route was short-sighted, says DA Councillor for Transportation, Nico de Jaager, who has been extensively involved in the implementation of BRT in Johannesburg. The station-less section of the Louis Botha Avenue bus route passes not only the central business district of Orange Grove, but poorer areas of Orange Grove and Norwood, he said. With no parking space or loading areas on Louis Botha Avenue, business owners will suffer, while lower income residents, at whom BRT is aimed, will be isolated from it.
In an attempt at a resolution, local residents’ associations have proposed the purchase of land for a station approximately halfway along the problematic stretch, said Ward 73 councillor Marcelle Ravid, who, along with Ward 72 councillor, Steven Kruger, raised the question at a recent council meeting.
The system, suggested Kruger, seems to have been planned without proper investigation or knowledge of the suburbs in which it will operate, adding that the large number of elderly residents in affected suburbs, unwilling or unable to walk to stations, should be provided with connecting buses or park and ride facilities, neither of which appears on existing designs.
In response, MMC for Development Planning and Urban Management, Roslynn Greeff, assured councillors that such issues will be addressed in the more detailed planning phases that are approaching.
De Jaager, meanwhile, is “cautiously optimistic” that the Louis Botha Avenue development’s teething issues will be resolved.
“We will continue to highlight [the problem]… We can’t afford for this to die because it will affect the feasibility of the system,” he said.
