Sandton streets shutdown

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Sandton will host the EcoMobility World Festival in October and the City of Johannesburg will be making drastic changes to the area's traffic flow to accommodate it. At the festival, to be held at the Sandton Convention Centre, delegates from 86 countries will discuss environmentally friendly mobility.

Sandton is one of the most congested areas in South Africa. Between 7.30am and 8.30am every weekday about 95,700 people move into Sandton and just over 50,000 leave. Of all the traffic on Sandton streets during peak hours, 70% is private cars.

But Johannesburg wants to use the festival to test a new system to fight traffic congestion. "If more people do not switch to public transport, walking or cycling, congestion in the CBD area of Sandton will go from bad to worse and traffic will eventually grind to a halt, creating a giant parking lot," Johannesburg executive mayor Parks Tau said.

Over the past two years, the city has been working to develop its Sandton Transport Masterplan. It is designed to get people to cut back on using cars and to prefer public transport, walking or cycling.

During the festival, Sandton's roads will be restricted to public transport but park-and-ride facilities will be made available. The city is currently spending R300-million on constructing 100km of cycling lanes over two years in and about the city. A mere kilometre of cycling lane can cost between R1 million and R3 million. Some of the cycling lanes will have CCTV systems installed to ensure the safety of cyclists.

Source: The Times