Gautengers urged to use bikes to ease congestion.

[-Az-]

TUESDAY JUN 04, 2013

Gautengers urged to use bikes to ease congestion

 

Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport Ismail Vadi has appealed to local residents to consider riding bicycles and motorbikes to work to prevent congestion on the roads.

 

He based his appeal on the ever growing population figures of Gauteng, saying Census 2011 reported that the province has 12.2 million inhabitants, and later revised the figure to 12.5 million.

 

He said the figures showed that the majority of people who own cars were middle class, who add to the congestion because of their love of using private cars.

 

"In getting Gauteng on the move, we should in our planning take into account the results of the 2011 Census," Vadi said.

 

A few weeks ago, Stats SA reported that Gauteng was the largest province by population, with 12.5 million residents.

 

Preliminary research by the 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan team suggests that in 25 years' time, Gauteng's population will have risen to 18.6 million, with an economically active population of 8.5 million.

 

However, Gauteng's population density is low compared to that of Los Angeles, a city with a similar population size. While LA's population density is at 6 999 people per square mile, Gauteng is at only 675, Vadi said.

 

He said more residential areas needed to be built along Gauteng's roads, saying "this reality should be addressed through transit-led growth. This will require transport planning to be synchronised with spatial planning to ensure greater densification".

 

"The densification of urban space will yield benefits for access to a range of transport and other government services. Densification will help considerably to reduce the cost of public transport, minimise harmful effects on carbon emissions on the environment, and make it easier and cheaper to provide other government services such as water, electricity and broadband," Vadi said.

 

He also announced that there was a possibility for the establishment of another Gautrain station in Modderfontein, after a property developer started building upmarket houses and townhouses.

 

Vadi excitedly announced that the new station would be fully funded by the property developer.

 

He said preparations to implement an effective public transport system were at an advanced stage.

 

"Infrastructure projects within the transport branch have been allocated R136 million. This money will go towards infrastructure.

 

"The department is to construct five intermodal facilities at the Germiston, Roodepoort, Vereeniging, Leratong and Pienaarspoort railway stations," Vadi added.

 

The Star

 

Posted at 07:56AM Jun 04, 2013 by Editor in Johannesburg |

[Butterbean]

Well start using bikes all the time when you start giving us proper cycle lanes on our route to work. That means every damn road. Don't they get it? We WANT to cycle to work! We just can't afford to die so young!

[MariusC]

Well start using bikes all the time when you start giving us proper cycle lanes on our route to work. That means every damn road. Don't they get it? We WANT to cycle to work! We just can't afford to die so young!

And get Metro and Putco Bus drivers to not try and run down every cyclist in their way. They are worse than Taxi's

[nickc]

I would kill to be able to cycle to work everyday - problem is I don`t want to cycle to work to be killed !!

Edited June 6, 2013 by nickc

[Markdeep]

This is a pipe dream, even with cycle lanes imagine how our awesome law abiding taxi drivers are going to abuse them. But yeah it would be awesome to cycle to work safely

[Robodog]

This is a pipe dream, even with cycle lanes imagine how our awesome law abiding taxi drivers are going to abuse them. But yeah it would be awesome to cycle to work safely

 

Relatively easy to prevent a vehicle from using a cycle lane. Pedestrians using them in busy office areas will be the biggest problem. But I'm willing to put up with that if/when we get them. Currently they can't even keep sidewalks for pedestrians usable and free of roadworks / waterworks / sewerage / cabling etc.

 

 

Edited June 6, 2013 by SLiiick

[Wyatt Earp]

Scooters for the win.

[Wez-O]

Well start using bikes all the time when you start giving us proper cycle lanes on our route to work. That means every damn road. Don't they get it? We WANT to cycle to work! We just can't afford to die so young!

Exactly what this guy said!

[slowpoke]

I would be in heaven if I could cycle to work. Unfortunately I have 2 route options to get here... Past the taxi rank on the left or past the taxi rank on the right.

 

 

[Seeker911]

How are you going to change the attitude of hundreds of thousands of motorists first. Read the comments of most people on news24. They all seem to want to run us over and of course we deserve to be run over and killed. whether you ride a bicycle or motorbike its makes no difference. I have been riding both for 20+ years and the general attitude today is worse then ever. If metro would start enforcing the laws we might have a chance against taxi's, rogue buses and highly agitated car drivers.