The heavily crowded beach days of 26 December and 1 January are to be controlled by the City of Cape Town, to make the traffic flow more bearable. Not all Capetonians are in favour of this proposed quota system.
The City media statement announced: The ‘City’s Traffic Service will actively manage the influx of vehicles along the Atlantic Seaboard in an effort to prevent a repetition of the gridlock conditions that have become a regular occurrence in Sea Point, Bantry Bay, Clifton and Camps Bay on 26 December and 1 January in previous years‘. Anyone living on that side of Cape Town will agree that the traffic mayhem is unbearable, it taking one hour from Bakoven to the Camps Bay beachfront on 26 December last year, for example.
Unsurprisingly the City is promoting its MyCiTi Bus service, recommending that beachgoers, those heading for Camps Bay in particular, park their cars in the city centre, and take the bus or any other public transport to get to the Atlantic Seaboard. Mayoral Committee Member for Transport Brett Herron said: ‘We urge beachgoers to please work with us so that we can create a pleasant environment for road users and fun-seekers alike. Those who have visited the Atlantic Seaboard on these days in prior years will know that parking is very limited and that it can take easily two to three hours to travel between Sea Point and Camps Bay by car. If we all leave our private vehicles behind and opt for public transport or, where possible, walk or cycle, it will be much easier to move around’.
The City’s Traffic department plans to control and curb traffic between 9h30 and 19h00 on 26 December and 1 January on Somerset Road, Helen Suzman Boulevard, and Beach Road in Green Point; on the corner of Victoria and Houghton Roads in Bakoven; and at the top of Kloofnek Road (from experience this makes the traffic blockage from the city to Camps Bay even worse)! It plans to close one lane of each of these roads, with the exception of Kloofnek Road. At these blockades MyCiTi Buses, minibus taxis, and other buses will be given preference to enter the areas, while private vehicles will have to wait their turn…‘it is expected that queues will form at these points’. The City is adding more MyCiTi Buses between the Civic Centre and Camps Bay, Sea Point and the Civic Centre, Hout Bay to Sea Point, and Melkbosstrand, Big Bay and Table View over the festive season.
Interesting will be the impact of the forecast of light rain and a very mild 22°C for Friday 26 December on the guaranteed traffic nightmare. The City’s traffic plans may curb the number of vehicles on the Atlantic Seaboard, but it does not appear that it will curb the number of beachgoers on 26 December and 1 January, which makes Camps Bay so unbearable that international and domestic visitors to Cape Town are advised to go elsewhere on those days, and that almost all restaurants in Camps Bay close their doors due to the danger of theft!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here
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Bad luck on the poor tourists who arrive at CPT mid morning & are then unable to travel to their Camps Bay hotels & guest houses.
What a totally cocked up idea!
You are right Nick.
Boxing Day is exactly the day on which the international tourists fly in to Cape Town!