Sandton Central Management District has introduced new initiatives at Sandton Central, that of traffic signals that improve streets for pedestrians, including those with impaired vision, and all other road users.

Working closely with the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Sandton Central, which is a business and lifestyle hub in Gauteng, has introduced sensory pedestrian crossing traffic signals for the visually impaired at several intersections across the district.

The recently installed traffic signal system provides sound alerts and push buttons at intersections to enhance the safety of visually impaired pedestrians crossing the road.

With this new technology, an audible push button gives a loud signal when the light is green for pedestrians to cross, which changes to alert them when it is no longer safe to enter the intersection.

The audible signals have been installed at the intersection of Rivonia road and Fifth street/Johan avenue, Fifth street and Alice lane, Rivonia road and Pybus road, Maude street and Rivonia road, Katherine street and Johan avenue and Katherine street and Pybus road.

Another signal will soon be installed at the corner of Katherine street and Rivonia road.

“We are very proud of this project, which enables the safe and independent mobility of visually impaired pedestrians in Sandton Central. We strive to create a people-friendly, inclusive, well-managed environment in a world-class city,” Sandton Central Management District City Improvement District manager Elaine Jack said in a statement this week.

The project is among many that Sandton Central undertakes in various partnerships to ensure that the area’s busy road network offers the best experience for all its road users.

Over the past two years, Sandton Central Management District has worked in close partnership with the JRA, Eskom, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and Traffic Freeflow’s pointsmen programme.

“Because of the improved communication, we are reporting traffic signal outages as soon as they happen, and the response and repair are now much faster. This includes quickly deploying pointsmen to critical locations when signals are out until repairs can be completed,” noted Jack.

Notable results have been achieved, with traffic signal outages in Sandton Central decreasing from ten to 15 days on average, to two to three days (provided the cause is not cable theft).

Sandton Central’s six uninterrupted power supply units also keep signals at its major traffic intersections working in the case of power outages in the area.