Fairway resident concerned about traffic lights that have not worked in four months
According to the Johannesburg Road's Agency, "On average, there are over 40,000 accidents per year in the City of Johannesburg with approximately 20 fatal crashes per month."
A frustrated and concerned Fairway resident, Michael van Rooyen is at his wit’s end regarding traffic lights that have not been working for close to five months on Corlett Drive and Jacobs Avenue.
Van Rooyen said his main worry was learners who had to cross the traffic lights on their own. “Residents keep reporting the non-working traffic lights, and JRA keeps coming back and saying that it has been fixed. Metro police officers would park outside the school to monitor traffic but have since stopped doing that.”
Ward 72 councillor Belinda Echeozonjoku also expressed her concern about the traffic lights that have been out of order for months on end.
“There are several JRA issues in our ward and some are a year old after being reported. I have escalated the matter of the non-working traffic lights on March 27 to JRA and nothing has still been done.”
He highlighted that Corlett Drive has become dangerous without working traffic lights because cars, especially taxis did not treat the situation as a four-way stop and observe before crossing the robot.
The Johannesburg Road Agency weighs in
JRA’s operations manager, Bertha Scheepers explained that, “The intersection experienced repeated faults due to power supply which City Power is working to resolve.”
She added that due to every traffic signal in the City of Johannesburg being supplied with power by either City Power or Eskom, every traffic signal was affected by load-shedding.
“When a signalised intersection is not operational the intersection functions as a multi-way stop which can harm the following road network conditions. Load-shedding also makes the intersection vulnerable to cable thieves:
- Increase in accidents: Operational intersections can potentially reduce some types of crashes.
- Pedestrians: Operational intersections provide safe pedestrian crossing opportunities which are lost when the intersection functions as a multiway stop.
- Traffic flow: Operational intersections provide for the progressive flow of traffic along a signal-system corridor and if the signal is not working, progression is lost which will lead to increased congestion.
Scheepers said the JRA is engaging Joburg’s citizens to partner with the entity in supplying backup power to traffic signals during load-shedding.
“This includes residents’ associations, schools, individual homeowners, and businesses. Many companies have already approached the JRA to partner with traffic lights power supply, and the entity is planning to pilot this in at least 50 intersections by the end of June 2023 with a bigger rollout planned from July.”
Infographic:
The following are statistics that reflect the state of the City of Joburg’s congestion, which is exacerbated by load-shedding:
- Motorists in Johannesburg spend approximately 123 hours driving per year, and 38 of these hours are due to congestion.
- From 2021 to 2022, travel time has increased in Johannesburg and the data suggests that the average time it took to travel 10 km increased by 40 seconds.
- The average travel speed in peak hours for the worst city is 14 km/h for London compared to 37 km/h for Johannesburg.
Related Article:
The no-pothole zone initiative from Craig Residents Association
