The City of Cape Town’s Council endorsed a Congestion Management Programme on Thursday that will aim to address traffic congestion problems in the city.

The Congestion Management Programme sets out the expenditure, infrastructure projects and other interventions to improve the traffic situation.

In November, the city’s Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille committed an additional R750-million over a period of five years for road infrastructure projects to alleviate the major pressure points in the city.

“The R750-million will be spent in accordance with the Congestion Management Programme which was approved by council today.

“The programme prioritises the congestion points and specifies how the city will begin to address this – not only in terms of infrastructure, but also in terms of operations and behavioural change,” said the city’s Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Brett Herron.

Not a long term solution

The R750-million will be spent as follows:
* R125-million in the next financial year (2016/17)
* R200-million in 2017/18
* R200-million in 2018/19
* R125-million in 2019/20 and
* R100-million in 2020/21

According to Herron they are aware that building their way out of congestion problems might not be a long term solution.

“The only sustainable solution is to have significantly fewer private vehicles on our roads,” he said in a statement.

He also added that for private vehicle owners to make more use of public transport will require them to establish other reliable and attractive travel alternatives across the city to give people in private cars realistic choices.

Blaauwberg, Kuils River and Kommetjie have been identified as the three growth areas the most in need of intervention.

The following infrastructure projects have been prioritised:
* Kuils River: Bottelary Road, Saxdowns Road, Amandel Road, Belhar Main Road, Erica Drive and Okavango Road.
* Kommetjie: Kommetjie Road, Ou Kaapse Weg, Houmoed Avenue and an investigation into the feasibility of a shuttle service between Kommetjie and Fish Hoek.
* Blaauwberg: Plattekloof Road (M13), Tygerberg Valley Road, Blaauwberg Road, Giel Basson Drive (M12), Sandown Road, Link Road, and Koeberg Road Extension.

Roads most used by trucks

The Congestion Management Programme also identifies the worst congested areas in relation to freight movement, business traffic and public transport services and as such the following roads are prioritised:
* Jip de Jager Drive in Bellville
* Broadway Boulevard in the Strand
* Sir Lowry’s Pass Village Road in Gordon’s Bay
* De Villiers Road in Durbanville

News24.com