Designated routes only for Tshwane trucks

17/10/2012. A member of the National Traffic Police inspect buses and trucks during an operation at Moloto Road. Picture: Masi Losi

17/10/2012. A member of the National Traffic Police inspect buses and trucks during an operation at Moloto Road. Picture: Masi Losi

Published Jul 4, 2016

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Pretoria - Heavy-duty vehicles will in future use dedicated routes to their destinations when travelling through and within the capital, the City of Tshwane has proposed.

This is in accordance with the freight transport strategy, part of the long-term comprehensive integrated transport plan approved by the council at the penultimate sitting of the current term last Thursday.

The idea behind the plan was to ensure a sustainable and safer city as well as integrated social development. It also makes provision for public transport, road safety and parking.

In consultation with the Gauteng government, the city has committed to establishing dedicated routes for heavy duty vehicles, it was stated in the plan.

In line with the freight strategy, the city will provide adequate and purpose-designed signage and billboards to direct heavy vehicles, abnormal vehicles and hazardous vehicles through and around the city.

The report further highlighted that there was a large number of heavy vehicles that moved through the city’s roads to avoid paying tolls on the highway. There were other heavy duty vehicle operators who used the city routes to find the shortest way to their destination.

The fact that the city has no dedicated weighbridges, coupled with overloading, were highlighted in the report as a major problem.

The freight strategy is part of the 36 capital and 27 planning projects to be implemented at a cost of R1.2 million and R166 million respectively within the next five years.

The plan said the public transport system in the city was characterised by inefficient and unreliable services. It identified a demand for non-motorised transport mobility. However, lack of proper facilities and awareness for non-motorised transport discouraged its use, the report said.

Huge backlog

A huge and growing backlog in the city’s roads upgrading and development programmes also needed to be addressed.

Problems related to the unavailability of street parking, illegal use of parking bays and double and triple parking in roadways were identified in the report as some of the major problems for the city.

A comprehensive integrated transport plan also emphasised the need for the city to use a compressed natural gas strategy. It will thus expand its fleet of CNG and battery-powered vehicles for the city.

Through the Wonderboom Airport development plan, the city will procure a private operator to run the airfield, the report said. Included in the plan is the city’s intention to provide improved transport access to the airport.

The document also mentioned a plan to deal with utilising data to identify continuous offenders and apply the correct law enforcement procedures.

The strategy focuses on awareness programmes, a central database system, monitoring and evaluation, and engineering solutions, among other projects.

“Road safety is a concern mainly to the previously disadvantaged areas, which have the highest level of pedestrian accidents and fatalities, owing to poor infrastructure and the high volumes of pedestrians,” the report said.

The city will develop camera surveillance of the road network and public transport facilities to monitor traffic flow and detect incidents.

It will also implement a transport strategy to ensure safety of pupils.

Pretoria News

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