Cape Town danger areas

[Headshot]

1 minute ago, The Ouzo said:

could not agree more.

my daughters previous school built a MTB track, but still no bike racks for the kids to commute, to dangerous. The current school also has no facilities for commuting by bicycle, heck, you dont even see the hordes of teenagers on motorbikes going to schools anymore.

Some of the cycling behaviour that irritates motorists is us cyclists mitigating the risks, making sure we get seen, or safely getting away/past a danger area in a way that does not align with the laws.

Hell I'm awake at 3:30am in the morning in order to get out there before the roads get to busy, swapping the risk of traffic for the risk of poor visibility.

 

Solly's article summed it up very well, getting your drivers license should not be about being able to memorise the k53, it should teach about road use, your responsibilities, your social contract when you get behind the wheel, etc. , but most importantly there needs to be a huge drive towards respect to other road users (be that fellow motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, recycling collectors etc.)

You and Mamil are spot on. We rode and walked to school back in the mid 80s in the Rondebosch area. My nephew was mugged for his bike a few years ago barely 200m from his house on his way to school in the same area. The traffic is insane and getting worse. I would not let my 13 year old ride to school  even though I did. It's all rather sad. 

[cadenceblur]

I will not let my level headed 19 year old son use a scooter to UCT due to the behaviour on the roads ! 
sad but true , 

try to be as visible as possible 

be observant

ride defensively 

that’s all we can do 

[The Ouzo]

3 minutes ago, Headshot said:

You and Mamil are spot on. We rode and walked to school back in the mid 80s in the Rondebosch area. My nephew was mugged for his bike a few years ago barely 200m from his house on his way to school in the same area. The traffic is insane and getting worse. I would not let my 13 year old ride to school  even though I did. It's all rather sad. 

I was saying to someone the other day, at 15 I used to jump on my bike alone every day, ride through 3 different suburbs delivering news papers, and for as long as I can remember, the years before that were spent riding around the suburb on my bike.

But right now, even though I live in a cul-de-sac, I wont let my 15 year old daughter ride her bike in our street without me watching.

[The Ouzo]

15 minutes ago, Headshot said:

A post that popped up on my FB  feed today...

This week’s awful news about a(nother) cyclist being killed by a reckless driver has sat very heavily with me — as I’m sure it has with the rest of the cycling community. 

I was out cycling the morning Landon La Grange was hit. I went through Camps Bay maybe 15 minutes before he did. 

We cycle in groups for safety. Safety in numbers against bike jackers; to be more visible to drivers and especially as women to look out for one another. 

I’ve been hit before while cycling, by a driver who did not even “see me” in daylight in Bakoven. And I was riding in the furthest possible left of the road. I did everything “right” and yet I was still hit. But I was luckier than many. 

My heart truly goes out to the La Grange family and all the friends in the @joccycles cycling group who were out riding and were surely traumatised by the event as well. 

I’ve been thinking about this all as I set out my cycling kit to ride tomorrow. But we still go out because we love the sport and the feeling of riding on the road and the community that comes with it. 

Please, let’s be kind to one another 🙏 and be safe out there this weekend. 

📸: @camrynrobin / @thirdbase___ 
Photo context: a special group ride event for International Women's Day in March, celebrating all women who ride in Cape Town with a photographer and vehicle. 

#cycling #cyclist #cycle #capetown #cyclingsafety

popped up in my feed to

[Mamil]

11 minutes ago, Bro Derek said:

I will add this.

It isn't cyclists, it isn't car drivers, it isn't taxis, it isn't motorbikes

It is people. 

Not all taxi drivers are dangerous, not all cyclists are bad, not are drivers are dangerous BUT people, in general, are unfortunately rubbish (insert swear word here)

You put enough people together in one place and it will inevitably turn sour.

Cyclists, drivers and, if you look at the comments section on social media, there too.

Othering allows groups to deflect and dehumanize other groups, but ultimately humans coupled with a socio-economic disparity, general anger and disregard and a complete lack of human to human interaction breeds this sort of wanton disdain for other humans.

Our systems are broken, the people are broken and there is no fixing it with anything mentioned. 

The police can't police sufficiently, the taxis will exist as they do because of fear, murder and force and the aunties in their activewear in their fortuners (I fear THESE the most) will continue to drive while staring at their cell phone while gesticulating at the kids without being at all cognizant of what is going on around them

I kind of agree with what Paul is saying and I also see why there is a poor reception for it.

There is a certain resignation in accepting that as long as humans exist as we exist currently, there is no fixing this

The fixing of it is the reclamation of public space from the motor industry. The car distances people from each other and from the world. We see taxis, sports cars, bicycles, suvs, bakkies, land rovers instead of kids, moms with infants, fathers and sons. On my commute or a walk on tje neighbourhood i see the naughty little teenagers with their zol, the woman with her dog in matching jerseys, the plumbers mate waiting for his boss, etc.

I am the grumpy old.man yelling at the schoolkids to behave, the friendly geezer on the bike who waves at tje security guard at the adolescent psychiatry unit in mowbray. im not a cyclist im a person and i can relate to the other persons i share the commons with. I cannot relate to the cars because the people in them.are not inntje commons. Tjey are in their own private space, anonymised in plastic and metal.

But a change like that this takes political will. National gvt is broken. Local western cape govt thinks the economy is.going to save us (it wont). 

Write, lobby, talk, and occupy the mutha f^*kn lane.

[Bro Derek]

13 minutes ago, Mamil said:

The fixing of it is the reclamation of public space from the motor industry. The car distances people from each other and from the world. We see taxis, sports cars, bicycles, suvs, bakkies, land rovers instead of kids, moms with infants, fathers and sons. On my commute or a walk on tje neighbourhood i see the naughty little teenagers with their zol, the woman with her dog in matching jerseys, the plumbers mate waiting for his boss, etc.

I am the grumpy old.man yelling at the schoolkids to behave, the friendly geezer on the bike who waves at tje security guard at the adolescent psychiatry unit in mowbray. im not a cyclist im a person and i can relate to the other persons i share the commons with. I cannot relate to the cars because the people in them.are not inntje commons. Tjey are in their own private space, anonymised in plastic and metal.

But a change like that this takes political will. National gvt is broken. Local western cape govt thinks the economy is.going to save us (it wont). 

Write, lobby, talk, and occupy the mutha f^*kn lane.

Sharing public space skin to skin

Interacting with people as people, not a different type of person

Removing the 'safety' bubble that 2 ton death machines create and forcing people to stop seeing everyone else as 'in the way'.

I always want to ask people who skip the lines in traffic by driving on the wrong side of the road/yellow line/past the line then nipping in etc if they would do that in a shopping check out line.

But in the same breath I watch cyclist blow through lights, have zero regard for pedestrian crossings with people actually crossing and complete all types of absolute D**k moves in the short time I see/follow them.

People.... Removing cars is only one part. People at the moment are just struggling. 

I also blame cell phones, pushed news and whattsapp - coupled with a severe lack of boundaries and interpersonal respect of other people's time and space.

Our brains simply weren't made for this much information all the time - the general mental condition of the global population is terrible and it's every one elses fault

[Paul Ruinaard]

Yo - step away for a bit and this thing takes a life of its own. Happy Friday

So thanks for some of the voices, maybe to reiterate this is a healthy debate and needs to be discussed so its lekker to see it all being chewed over.

FWIW my mental health is also related to cycling - without it i would be dead many times over. Not sure how many times i have dodged a bullet on the bike as well but thats a different discussion.

As a lighty i can always remember the sheer sense of liberation two wheels gave me and independence. I have never forgotten it. I ride bicycles and motorbikes and trace a large amount of my sense of freedom to two wheels and the kick it gives me. Literally my happiest place ever.

I am not a joiner nor an advocate - i leave that for other people and will happily add my voice but i dont do my work like that so hear me out. I also like to. have a contrarian point of view to highlight the other sides - maybe to a fault. 

I always come back to the things that go along the lines of "repeating the same experiment and expecting a different result is the gravest sign of insanity". 

So what do we do now and what do we do next to make it different and to learn from what has happened. How do we avoid another bad news post and get righteously indignant about the injustice and also the fact we could have been the name on that post.

My strategy is to avoid risks or manage it as best posisble. Thats what I always advocate. It has stood me in good stead and so i will try and work out my balance.

Again i dont think anyone is wrong - we are all really dealing with it in our own way.

Tjeers

 

[Spookie]

So I was driving on coast road this morning at around 7:50am and a taxi tried to overtake me on that EXACT corner. I could see in my rear view mirror how he was overtaking other cars dangerously before he arrived behind me. There were still 2 cars in front of me, traveling at 60, cyclist coming towards us in the yellow lane on the other side of the road. Solid line due to the corner. The bro was going nowhere.
 

But still, you best believe he literally just drove next to me in the wrong lane for ages before having to slam on brakes and go behind again because there was a mycity bus coming towards us. It hasn’t even been a week. This isn’t changing without major intervention, and it just really makes me so sad. I used to see that as one of the safer roads to ride on because of the shoulder… now I’m just like if that’s not even safe…

I had a really bad crash due to an uber doing a u-turn into me on chappies 4 months ago, broke multiple bones in my face, 2 operations, plastic surgery and over a week in high care. I will admit I’m really starting to struggle with justifying the risks of getting out on our roads lately 😢

Edited April 10 by Spookie

[Solly Moeng]

19 hours ago, Mook said:

Thx @Solly Moeng for articulating the SA road user conundrum. Please ignore my cynicism, but your suggestion will lead to yet another task team or commission of inquiry - with zero impact or results. 

We have more than enough traffic laws, bylaws, regulations, etc. We also have a criminal/legal system hamstrung by inept administrators. The laws and legal frameworks are in place, BUT it appears toothless to the core if not enforced or managed properly.

In recent years, quite a number of cyclists were killed or permanently maimed by drunken/reckless drivers. I am yet to see any decisive sanction to be handed down in a court of law.  Surely our problems are 1) Law enforcement(visibility), and 2) Proper consequence management(Legal).

My 2 cents' worth

It's good. I appreciate the constructive engagement. We all seem to agree that the status quo is untenable. The laws and other regulations exist but something is not working. Doing nothing shouldn't be an option. 

[Solly Moeng]

3 hours ago, Spookie said:

So I was driving on coast road this morning at around 7:50am and a taxi tried to overtake me on that EXACT corner. I could see in my rear view mirror how he was overtaking other cars dangerously before he arrived behind me. There were still 2 cars in front of me, traveling at 60, cyclist coming towards us in the yellow lane on the other side of the road. Solid line due to the corner. The bro was going nowhere.
 

But still, you best believe he literally just drove next to me in the wrong lane for ages before having to slam on brakes and go behind again because there was a mycity bus coming towards us. It hasn’t even been a week. This isn’t changing without major intervention, and it just really makes me so sad. I used to see that as one of the safer roads to ride on because of the shoulder… now I’m just like if that’s not even safe…

I had a really bad crash due to an uber doing a u-turn into me on chappies 4 months ago, broke multiple bones in my face, 2 operations, plastic surgery and over a week in high care. I will admit I’m really starting to struggle with justifying the risks of getting out on our roads lately 😢

The accounts you share, both of the conduct of the taxi driver and the crash on Chappies, are depressing. 

People keep going about cyclists riding abreast as if it's the only/main problem. The attitudes of motorised road users, especially taxis and other aggressive drivers, needs to be checked and seriously prosecuted.

We all have a role to play.

I now, increasingly, fear the stretch from Bantry Bay to Camps Bay. 

[Eugene Oppelt]

Nothing substantial will change with regard to cycling safely. Online debating is a circular debate and it allows for some to rant, vent and let off some steam as there is, naturally a current of shock, pain and fear coursing through the community of cycling.

The yellow shoulder is not a road design feature intended for cycling. It is, however, a cyclists’ saving grace and a cyclist’s ways of showing grace to faster road users.

The 1.5 metre rule is a good concept and stays an abstract idea as it is requires spatial awareness, patience and, above all else, care from the motorists. 

The metropole of Cape Town with its population density and the implications for its infrastructure and road network is a heavy contributor, I suspect, to road rage and negligent driving.

When I throw my leg over the top tube of my Aeroad on a Saturday morning to meet my chain gang on the street corner 4 kilometres away, I recognise, appreciate and understand that I may not return home safely. 
I choose popular cycling routes, bright lights, rolling in a bunch and eye contact and coordinated hand signals with motorists. The rest is me allowing the chips to fall where they may. 

The lack of care for others and recklessness in these times is a global phenomenon. Sadly, it has become so normalised. Road user behaviour is but a microcosm of this carelessness and lovelessness. 

May you be safe out there, Peoples. 🤎

Edited April 13 by Eugene Oppelt

[Solly Moeng]

On 4/10/2026 at 2:17 PM, Mamil said:

Are we at the point where tightening the boas and clipping in to the road bike is tickling the lions nuts? 

I mean ive seen some big p0×ses on tje roads but im not really a mane ou so ... 

Riding a bike is more than a hobby or a recreation for me. Its part of a lifestyle and theres a political and social stance to it as well. 

I wont stop. I have changed the pattern of my riding but i think the proper response of this loose and heterogenous group called cyclists to this crisis is to draw attention to the absurdity of a society that views the motor car in the way @Solly Moeng article describes so well. I knock off early on a friday and i ride through the school traffic to get home. No kids on bikes. They all in the cars. Its too dangerous for the kids to ride home so the parents take @Paul Ruinaard risk management strategy and say "dont ride". Its not hard to see the escalating feedback.loop that sees another yummy mummy in an overpriced SUV overtake me and cut me off.

I cant help but imagine how the stretch from grooteschuur HS, past the primary, to bishops and Rondebosch to Rustenburg Girl's and on to st georges and tje other one wjose name i cant remember and whos kids i scolded on my bike commute for smoking a zol inntje middlenof tje road and then  in tje otjer direction to sans souci, westerford and Herschel would look if even half the kids rode to school and back

Our response ought to be one of increased advocacy, more bikes, confrontation of our useless poltical leaders, writing like sollys article, op eds on daily maverick but above all, more bikes on the roads.

Thanks Mamil;

I wrote following after my morning ride, today:

If road cyclists allow themselves to be silenced and bullied off the roads by intolerant motorists, it would be no different to good South Africans allowing themselves to be bullied and silenced by corrupt, abusive politicians, or race card emotionalists. In both scenarios, all the narrative gets to be controlled by the baddies.

I argue that there's no better way to enjoy the Cape's marvelous scenic wonders than on a road and mountain bike... okay, also by hiking. It's also good for my heart, so confirm my doctors and cardiologist.

There must be a way for mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. I will ask Premier Alan Winde to continue setting the right tone from the top.

David Bellairs , #PPA #CyclingSafety #CyclingCommunity

[karma]

On 4/10/2026 at 11:36 AM, jcza said:

Dangerous cycling causes annoyance, dangerous driving kills. 

Cyclists are not the problem, drivers are the problem. 

There's no place here for logic Oompie...

Unfortunately like any war, it's not about who's right, but who's left...

[Shebeen]

On 4/10/2026 at 4:13 PM, Paul Ruinaard said:

Yo - step away for a bit and this thing takes a life of its own. Happy Friday

So thanks for some of the voices, maybe to reiterate this is a healthy debate and needs to be discussed so its lekker to see it all being chewed over.

 

wow this got heated! It blows my mind how many cyclists can't reason the possibility that cyclists could maybe be part of the problem. The depressing thing is that they are unlikely to be part of the solution too.

No matter what is really done, I guess we will just escalate this thing until someone important like a top local high profile cyclist is taken out. Massive outcry and real positive steps could be a potential minor positive outcome to this tragedy...oh wait.

 

Speaking of things over a decade ago, here is the sentiment from a popular blogger (remember those?) on the Atlantic seaboard from 2011.  Could have been written last week.

 

 

 

[Paul Ruinaard]

On 4/11/2026 at 11:46 AM, Eugene Oppelt said:

Nothing substantial will change with regard to cycling safely. Online debating is a circular debate and it allow for some to rant, vent and let off some steam as there is a current of shock, pain and fear rubbing through the community of cycling.

The yellow shoulder is not a road design feature intended for cycling. It is, however, a cyclists’ saving grace and a cyclist’s ways of showing grace to faster road users.

The 1.5 metre rule is a good concept and stays an abstract idea as it is requires spatial awareness, patience and, above all else, care from the motorists. 

The metropole of Cape Town with its population density and the implications for its infrastructure and road network is a heavy contributor, I suspect, to road rage and negligent driving.

When I throw my leg over the top tube of my Aeroad on a Saturday morning to meet my chain gang on the street corner 4 kilometres away, I recognise, appreciate and understand that I may not return home safely. 
I choose popular cycling routes, bright lights, rolling in a bunch and eye contact and coordinated hand signals with motorists. The rest is me allowing the chips to fall where they may. 

The lack of care for others and recklessness in these times is a global phenomenon. Road user behaviour is but a microcosm of these careless, loveless and rushed times. 

May you be safe out there, Peoples. 🤎

Well said. As per ususal your photos lead me to the the question of why cant we just enjoy it all?

For me that whole stretch of road is going to be done without the joyful abandon i used to view it with. Its a bt like doing a chicken run now.

Amongst one of the most beautiful stretches of road I have had the privilede to ride....

 

[Pure Savage]

Heard someone working on a little AI project that pulls all the nasty comments on those cycling videos on social media to create a database of businesses and people that cyclists can avoid. I would like not to do business with someone that celebrates cylists dying.