Main Road Upgrade
February 1, 2008 – 4:23 pm | by JohanNew Here? You’re Invited To Simon’s Town News Updates Subscribe here.
On Tuesday I attended a meeting, arranged by Simon’s Town Civic Association, with Paul Booth, the Cape Town City man in charge of the Main Road Upgrade. What a pleasant man. He lives in the area; he cycles and knows what we all want.
What do we want?
- We want a safe Main Road - for vehicles and runners.
- We want a durable Main Road - for many many years to come.
- We wanted a cycle lane - to keep us moving and them safe.
- We want a predictable road - no width changes around every corner.
- We don’t want nasty cambers.
- We want the least amount of hassles during the upgrade.
- We want business to continue.
- We want tourists to keep visiting our area.
- We want adequate parking.
- We want the Argus Cycle Tour to continue on the same route - many people do.
- We want Metro Rail to come to the party.
- We want no traffic problems during the December break.
- We want lots more….
Main Road Upgrade: Can Paul and the City deliver?
From what I gathered from Paul we will get most of the “wants”. But he cannot give us a flowing Main Road and a side walk and parking and a cycle lane. Paul only has between 12 and 13 meters of width to work with and unfortunately the cycle lane was sacrificed.
The project consists of three phases with the first phase commencing soon, starting north of the Police Museum. All the work in Phase One will be before the southern entry to Boyes Drive at Kalk Bay meaning that Simon’s Towners will not be affected if they use Boyes Drive. Ok. Boyes will carry more traffic.
Most of Phase Two will still allow access to Boyes drive at Kalk Bay. But Phase Three will be another story. A story that commence after 2010. [click to enlarge. It's not a great image]
At anyone time there will only be one “stop-and-go” and the distance will not be more than 400 meters on one side of the road. This is great news because a longer distance will delay traveling time even more. The first stop-and-go will only be erected after this year’s Argus Cycle tour.
The traffic lights at these stop and go areas will be manned by trained people to ensure optimum flow of traffic.
They are also considering addition traffic lights. For example should you go north on your way to the airport via Boyes drive into Old Boyes, the right turn into Main road will be impossible with no traffic light. Let’s assume you take Boyes and continue to Main Road on your way to Blue Route. You need to turn left into Main but the road gets clocked with people waiting to turn right into Main Road. We need more traffic lights and left turn lanes at main intersections!
You can get to your destination quicker if we can limit “misplaced politeness”.
I did not know that being a polite driver is causing the traffic to flow slower. It’s actually a misplace politeness. Because trying to be polite has a sting. Well this is what happens: Listen
Drivers, because they are moving slowly along Main Road northbound, are encouraging left turners to enter from Boyes Drive on a one for one basis. This results in nil tailback on Boyes Drive and an ever increasing tailback on Main Road. This then results in rat running with vehicles at the back turning into the side roads and appearing again at Span Road, Putter Road and Boyes Drive. Again the overly polite Main Road Drivers let them in on a one for one basis making the queue on Main Road even longer. Paul Booth.
Paul mentioned that traffic will be disrupted but everything possible is being done to limit it. Unfortunately Metro Rail is currently not present.
Yes, they manage the most beautiful train route in the world but that’s where it ends. One of the proposals is to have a “hop-on-hop-off” ticket for tourists and cyclists (even taking their cycles on the train) but Metro Rail is not part of the solution at their own choosing.
If you have any questions or comments on the Main Road Upgrade please use the forum.
I need to thank the Civic Association for the arranging the meeting and Paul for making time to share the Main Road Upgrade with us.
Regards
Johan Horak
SimonsTownRealty: Sell, Buy A Simon’s Town Property? Phone Today 021-7864028 or 082 870 2004
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Tags: Civic Association, Main Road, Roads
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