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Belgravia Road in Athlone does not meet the City of Cape Town’s Traffic Calming directives for building of speed humps.
This is the reply by Felicity Purchase, Mayco member for transport, after a complaint by Belgravia resident Tabrez Sayed, who said motorists are using the road as a racetrack.
“I have been living in Belgravia for the past ten years and have witnessed animals being ripped apart or drunk drivers that ignore stop signs. The noise from the cars speeding down Belgravia Road is enough to give you a heart attack and we have sickly, senior citizens living in the area. In Belgravia we also have a lot of schools and crèches and the kids are using the road,” Sayed says.
His suggestion is to put humps in Belgravia Road as there are four blocks separated in each avenue from Lower Klipfontein to Veld roads and the humps will reduce speeding early in the morning.
Sayed also mentions that schools, churches, crèches or mosques are only found from 1st to 8th Avenue in Belgravia.
“There is a speed hump by the Wembley Roadhouse and the owner paid for it himself. According to my research speed humps would assist our kids to cross the busy and dangerous Belgravia Road,” Sayed says.
Purchase said Belgravia Road is a Class 4 Collector Street and/or Class 5 Local Street, close to public facilities and schools.
“The highest concentration of vulnerable road users are typically encountered here and is the primary focus of attention,” Purchase says.
“Belgravia Road is a Class 4 Route, which functions as a Class 3 Route, as it is a public transport and emergency route through the area and plays a vital role in supporting the greater road network, linking Klipfontein Road (M18), Kromboom Road (M43), Repulse Road, Lawson Road and (further South to Lawson) Turfhall Road (M24), in which case it is important for mobility to be retained.
“Belgravia Road has relatively straight and even alignment with a travel way of approximately 8.5m from kerb to kerb and offers good sight distance along its length. One of the accesses to Heatherton Primary School fronts onto Belgravia Road, and there is an access to the rear of the College of Cape Town, where the City has installed a signalised pedestrian crossing and advanced school warning signage,” she says.
Following a meeting with business owners and the City’s Traffic Services, the Transport Network Development department supported implementation of a large 30m long raised table at the intersection of Belgravia and Denchworth roads, due to high vehicle and pedestrian activity. This was to be implemented at the cost of a local business, Purchase says.
“Further to this, we have assessed most of the roads identified in the letter. However, they have not all met policy directives either.
“We are supporting speed humps for Seventh Avenue, Veld Road and St Athans Road and these will be constructed in the coming financial year 2020/’21.
The current Traffic Calming Policy does however make allowance for consideration of non-school sites “where there has been a recent serious incident”.
If, therefore, there is a history of such recent serious incidents that we are unaware of, there may be opportunity to consider a request for calming in terms of that policy provision (subject to compliance with other policy provisions). Typically, this option would require external funding,” Purchase says.
