To ease traffic congestion in the City of Johannesburg (COJ), executive mayor Herman Mashaba has set out to overhaul the city's transport network.
Unlike Cape Town that is reportedly mulling introducing flexible work hours and allowing officials to work from home as a means to alleviate traffic congestion, SA's economic hub is looking towards a smarter step.
The DA-led COJ will enhance the use of a smart traffic system to remotely monitor traffic signals and ensure faults are quickly repaired by the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), according to Mashaba.
The executive mayor made the comments at the unveiling of the city's 24-hour traffic hotline yesterday.
Factors that attribute to the city's traffic congestion include theft of traffic cables, vandalism, accidents, broken down vehicles, road construction and flooding, Mashaba stated.
He explained: "For years, Johannesburg's motorists have not been shy in expressing their displeasure at the little which has been done to make the city's transport network fit for purpose.
"Countless productive hours have been lost by residents sitting in traffic simply trying to get from one point to another. Equally, businesses, particularly small to medium enterprises, have singled out our poor traffic system as one of the city's top challenges inhibiting growth opportunities and business confidence."
Hotline bling
According to Mashaba, to further improve the COJ's transport network, the administration has moved to introduce a 24-hour traffic hotline.
This traffic hotline will be a tool for motorists to have their traffic-related complaints attended to by operators supported by a specialised team of 640 Johannesburg Metro police officers.
The hotline and task force will seek to address the city's pressing traffic congestion challenges and change the way motorists move around, said Mashaba.
The hotline will also be able to assist the JRA in indicating which traffic signals at key intersections are in need of repairs, he added.
"I urge all residents to effectively utilise this hotline. We will continue to express our commitment to turning this city around by effectively utilising the resources at our disposal and create a traffic network which allows us to move this city."
Pothole fix
For the adjustment budget for infrastructure upgrades, Mashaba said a further R60 million has been allocated to the JRA, to procure the requisite material for pothole repairs.
The JRA has been committed to deploying smart solutions to deal with road issues. In 2014, the roads agency introduced the Find & Fix mobile app, which allows users to report road infrastructure problems, such as potholes and broken storm water drains.
Apart from being a tool to report where potholes are located, the JRA uses the app to communicate with the public.
The Find & Fix app runs on Android, Windows and iOS smartphones.
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