Cape Town danger areas

[firewolf]

On 1/31/2023 at 8:11 AM, marko35s said:

There was an attempted bikejacking near Peddlers on the Bend section of the greenbelt yesterday at roughly 07.45hrs.

Luckily it sounds like the thieves were the reincarnation of the three stooges and it ended up with the bike recovered and two of them arrested.

I wasn't there so this isn't a first hand account but but what transpired was roughly - Female cyclist was cornered when a car drove straight at her down the dirt road that passes the stables. Three pieces of human excrement got out and one grabbed her bike and tried to ride off. It was an ebike and it wasn't charged... He was going nowhere slowly at this point, and from this point on their elaborate plan began to unravel somewhat.

The rider screamed her lungs out and POS 2 & 3 promptly jumped back in their car only to stall it. The car then refused to start so they panicked and got out. At this point another rider grabbed the car keys.

Around this point the guy on the bike was discovering just how heavy an uncharged ebike was and gave up trying to ride it away and attempted to hide it in a hedge, which he was apparently too weak to manage so he gave up and ran away.

In the meantime the cops and security had arrived and they found and arrested the two that abandoned the car. The bike was returned to the rider and by all accounts she is completely fine.

A win for the good guys for once.

Great ending to a bad situation

[firewolf]

What other bike jacking/crimes are the 3 stooges possibly (or definitely) connected too?

[milky4130]

9 hours ago, sias said:

Apparently initiation sites are also no-go areas? Stellenbosch, but still

https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/cops-probe-cyclist-for-pointing-firearm-at-initiates-dad-in-stellies-4b87ad14-2af6-4f1e-b9bf-52f0e50294db

I've encountered this before, usually the security guard won't let you through at the bottom gate, I can only imagine the cyclist entered from the top of Helshoogte as you can maneuver off road around that gate.

[pbp2007]

Speaking of Helshoogte, what’s the safety situation like on the ride up and over from the Idas Valley side? (On the road.) Thinking of parking at the Spar and pedalling to Franschhoek and back. We did this ride regularly a few years ago, but haven’t been back in a while. 

[openmind]

5 minutes ago, pbp2007 said:

Speaking of Helshoogte, what’s the safety situation like on the ride up and over from the Idas Valley side? (On the road.) Thinking of parking at the Spar and pedalling to Franschhoek and back. We did this ride regularly a few years ago, but haven’t been back in a while. 

I live close by and often ride over the pass alone. It's fine, just ride in daylight and keep an eye on people walking on the side of the road (very rare) - give them a wide berth and be prepared to sprint past or turn around if you feel unsafe. There are so many cyclists in the area at the moment that there should be someone coming past every few minutes that you could hook up with to ride the pass if you want. 

[mikkelz]

I live in Stellenbosch and regularly ride to Franschhoek over Helshoogte and back. Haven't spotted anyone or anything dodgy in the past two or so years. I'm actually quite surprised at how popular it is with not only cyclists, but runners too. It's not exactly Sea Point promenade busy, but I've seldom been alone on the road.

Edited February 8, 2023 by mikkelz

[Graham S]

On 1/23/2023 at 8:43 PM, Jbr said:

ride opposite traffic after the market is alright, that's my usual route, if you are on a roadbike just cross by the petrol station exit as yes, it gets busy with pedestrians by the petrol station, and with them seeing you coming it can create opportunity and keep riding the shoulder all the way to the n1, then take the ramp off the n1 to woodstock. I think this ramp is also a hotspot, I'm super careful when I take it (which is not often).

If you have a gravel bike or MTB, you can take the petrol station exit road the wrong way, cycle through the petrol station, then keep going opposite trafic in the grass, all the way to the bridge. There are paths (pretty steep) that allow you to get to the top of the bridge and get to the road there. There is a small settlement on the right side, on the left side you can ride a MTB or gravel but it's full of glass and seems pretty dirty, only used it once and didn't like it so much, but I didn't puncture though

I rode this route for the first time yesterday. Besides the INSANE wind at 5:30 am the route was totally fine. 

I went up the side of the highway and lifted my bike over the railing and then cycled over the bridge and down to the robots and turned right. 

The entire route felt safe tbh, I didnt come across anyone dodgy and the ones on the paths moved out the way when they saw me coming. 

My MTB tyres however...

lots of slashes and a few thorns this morning, luckily the sealant did the job but if I rode in every day I think id be using a set of tyres every month. 

Just the section from the end of marine drive to the bridge has so much glass its insane.

[tedza]

My ride from northern suburbs to Woodstock today...

…was uneventful, maybe a bit lonely though. Was surprised by the lack of cyclists, saw a total of 4 on my route, all in the opposite direction.

The last time I commuted by bicycle was pre covid days, and at this time of year there were plenty of cyclists getting saddle time in preparation for the cycle tour – did not see any of that today.

I departed around 6:30 and arrived in Woodstock slightly under an hour later.

Route started from Bosmandam. Avoided Montague Drive/Bosmansdam intersection by taking a detour through century city.

Joined Marine drive cycle track until Steve Johnson, then continued straight on the incoming lane. Was OK till I got to where the trucks were parked. There it was a bit uncomfortable with the narrow shoulder and oncoming traffic.

Previously I tried using the service road, but with all the traffic it wasn’t much better.

At the port entrance/Caltex garage I continued straight on the grass verge. Only came across 1 ‘pedestrian’. At the Woodstock bridge I pushed the bike up the embankment, and climbed over the guard rail to join the bridge road, and into Woodstock via lower main.

At this stage I am not prepared to use the cycle track along Paarden Eiland to town until the squatter problem is resolved. I noticed that the situation has gotten quite a bit worse, especially down by Oswald Pirow.

Was thinking this morning that it may be beneficial to email the CT traffic authorities about the trucks using the yellow lane shoulder as a parking lot – not sure if it would achieve anything, but they are not supposed to park on the shoulder.

Return journey in opposite direction - more of the same, only a single cyclist spotted.

So a mostly uneventful ride – maybe this feedback would benefit someone who is trying to decide whether to get back on the saddle to commute.. Commuting by car is becoming more and more congested and frustrating.

 

Ride safe

 

[NeverNotRolling]

2 hours ago, tedza said:

My ride from northern suburbs to Woodstock today...

…was uneventful, maybe a bit lonely though. Was surprised by the lack of cyclists, saw a total of 4 on my route, all in the opposite direction.

The last time I commuted by bicycle was pre covid days, and at this time of year there were plenty of cyclists getting saddle time in preparation for the cycle tour – did not see any of that today.

I departed around 6:30 and arrived in Woodstock slightly under an hour later.

 

Route started from Bosmandam. Avoided Montague Drive/Bosmansdam intersection by taking a detour through century city.

 

Joined Marine drive cycle track until Steve Johnson, then continued straight on the incoming lane. Was OK till I got to where the trucks were parked. There it was a bit uncomfortable with the narrow shoulder and oncoming traffic.

Previously I tried using the service road, but with all the traffic it wasn’t much better.

At the port entrance/Caltex garage I continued straight on the grass verge. Only came across 1 ‘pedestrian’. At the Woodstock bridge I pushed the bike up the embankment, and climbed over the guard rail to join the bridge road, and into Woodstock via lower main.

At this stage I am not prepared to use the cycle track along Paarden Eiland to town until the squatter problem is resolved. I noticed that the situation has gotten quite a bit worse, especially down by Oswald Pirow.

Was thinking this morning that it may be beneficial to email the CT traffic authorities about the trucks using the yellow lane shoulder as a parking lot – not sure if it would achieve anything, but they are not supposed to park on the shoulder.

 

 

Return journey in opposite direction - more of the same, only a single cyclist spotted.

So a mostly uneventful ride – maybe this feedback would benefit someone who is trying to decide whether to get back on the saddle to commute.. Commuting by car is becoming more and more congested and frustrating.

 

 

 

Ride safe

 

The businesses in paarden eiland have already been up in arms about the container trucks, nothing has been done about it. 

[Jbr]

And they often leave some unidentified liquids on the road… not nice to roll through that

[RustyHWR]

12 hours ago, NeverNotRolling said:

The businesses in paarden eiland have already been up in arms about the container trucks, nothing has been done about it. 

The problem is the port. No more space for exports, no plug in points for refrigerated containers, equipment (cranes) breaking down by the hour and wind bound and Unions. Port is going down faster than Eskom by the day. There is a holding area, but not big enough and when the port go wind bound all trucks must leave port and wait outside. Problem is not just going to go away - there is a bigger picture to why they park on Marine Drive and yes i am in the trucking industry. These trucks sometimes stand 48 hrs waiting to get a slot to take the container into stack with no toilet facilities available, but it does not justify that the truck drivers can leave their unidentified liquids on the road.

[ChrisF]

4 hours ago, RustyHWR said:

The problem is the port. No more space for exports, no plug in points for refrigerated containers, equipment (cranes) breaking down by the hour and wind bound and Unions. Port is going down faster than Eskom by the day. There is a holding area, but not big enough and when the port go wind bound all trucks must leave port and wait outside. Problem is not just going to go away - there is a bigger picture to why they park on Marine Drive and yes i am in the trucking industry. These trucks sometimes stand 48 hrs waiting to get a slot to take the container into stack with no toilet facilities available, but it does not justify that the truck drivers can leave their unidentified liquids on the road.

 

ALL goods ?

 

This must be very bad for the cold-chain products ....

[RustyHWR]

Just now, ChrisF said:

 

ALL goods ?

 

This must be very bad for the cold-chain products ....

Killing the smaller companies. Cold stores to capacity with fruit, but cannot export due to port not able to cope. Tons of fruit getting wasted. Took us 18 hours to get one import container out of the port last week. That is inside port and not standing outside trying to enter port. 

[ChrisF]

Some of our clients export table grapes.. and various other fresh products.

 

FIRST thing when the ship docks in Europe ... check the cold chain ....

 

VERY expensive when it gets rejected then.

[Robbie Stewart]

7 hours ago, ChrisF said:

Some of our clients export table grapes.. and various other fresh products.

 

FIRST thing when the ship docks in Europe ... check the cold chain ....

 

VERY expensive when it gets rejected then.

I work with a very large retail company, and today they said that stores in SA better stock up on things like toilet paper, chicken, bread, flour etc. since there are massive shortages about to hit our consumers. Prices are about to skyrocket due to the inability to maintain the cold chain during loadshedding.

One local bread manufacturer needs to produce around 1.2M loaves per day to break even, but there are struggling to meet 400k per day. 

Milk is another product at heightened risk.

HKGK

[Mongoose!]

5 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

I work with a very large retail company, and today they said that stores in SA better stock up on things like toilet paper, chicken, bread, flour etc. since there are massive shortages about to hit our consumers. Prices are about to skyrocket due to the inability to maintain the cold chain during loadshedding.

One local bread manufacturer needs to produce around 1.2M loaves per day to break even, but there are struggling to meet 400k per day. 

Milk is another product at heightened risk.

HKGK

Toilet paper also part of the cold chain or is it needed for the HKGK coming?