Traffic volumes drop on highways

Published Jan 5, 2004

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With the Christmas season now over, South African holidaymakers are heading home in their tens of thousands.

Arrive Alive's general manager for land, transport and safety regulation, Wendy Watson, said that so far, the volume of holidaymakers choking up the country's highways was "slower than expected".

On Sunday morning, 1 500 northbound vehicles an hour had been counted at the Mooi River toll plaza on the N3 between Durban and Gauteng, and this figure had dropped to around 1 300 by Sunday afternoon, she said.

Nearly 2 000 vehicles an hour were recorded passing through the Mariannhill toll plaza as motorists from Gauteng and the Free State returned home.

In Cape Town, 3 000 vehicles an hour were counted on the N1 and N2 highways out of the city on Sunday afternoon, while 12 000 an hour were passing through the Du Toit's Kloof tollgate.

Volumes on the N1 south were down to 1 000 vehicles an hour.

According to Fatima Davids, spokesperson for Tuncor, the company in charge of administrating the tollgate, this was well below the 16 000 an hour recorded early last month.

Watson said traffic authorities were optimistic that the campaign to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries had been successful. However, she warned that the worst might not be over because many travellers would be returning home this weekend.

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