NO NEED TO SPEED

It’s no mystery that for many of us, a work commute is an unavoidable and chaotic part of our lives. Shockingly,  1 third of all deaths on our roads are caused by motor pedestrian collisions at speed. Closely followed by passenger deaths, making up 32% of road fatalities. This leaves countless families shattered simply because drivers were in a rush. Our speeding initiative shares our top insights on how to curb speeding in your area.

A common occurrence we see daily in the Elsies River City Improvement District (ERCID) is this. Imagine there is a truck or a visitor is pulling into an opposite bay, and you are a driver speeding. You overtake the truck quickly but don’t see the pedestrians walking in front of the vehicle. Leaving you with 0 reaction time to brake.

This causes a potentially fatal collision for the pedestrian. Derails the driver’s life who is liable to criminal charges. Costs the business cleaning up the accident dearly. Most importantly, it is incalculably devastating to the passengers, drivers, and pedestrians’ families.

The solution to stopping speeding? Simple, slow down.

Every morning and afternoon, thousands of dedicated employees make their journey to work by foot, taxi, bus, and car. Here is the good news – we have a simple solution. Simply slow down, pay attention and obey our speeding laws and safer South African streets are just around the corner.

As the ERCID we are helping to stop speeding by:

• Making sure all traffic and speeding signs are clearly visible and in good condition.
• Continuing to develop creative ways of implementing sustainable road safety strategies. We are also working together with the Elsies River City Improvement District population to adjust these programmes to your specific needs.
• Collaborating with the City of Cape Town to implement and maintain traffic speed enforcement measures. These include cameras, speed management obstructions and traffic officers patrolling the greater ERCID area.

As a driver, you can help us curb speeding by:

• Slowing down. In industrial areas, the National Road Traffic Act states that drivers should not exceed 60 km/h. This ensures that you have sufficient time to react to unforeseen situations and will avoid unnecessary fines.
• Remaining aware and vigilant. Keep your eyes on the people, other drivers, and potential obstructions in your line of sight and off your cell phone. 
• Being aware that the ERCID is an industrial area and likely to have pockets of congestion throughout the day. Be mindful to allow yourself more time to get where you are going.
• Being patient. We have many slow-moving vehicles carrying remarkably heavy loads that are too large to manoeuvre quickly so don’t pass when it is not 100% safe.
• Our streets are lined with driveways, side streets and loading bays that trucks need to turn into. Please do not park in any of these zones, as this will lead to a traffic jam until you are found and move your car out the way to safety.
• Maintain a safe following distance. If you are unsure of what this is for the different vehicle types, watch this excellent video guide on “The Time Distance Ratio”   by Arrive Alive.

As a business owner, you can:

• Create parking zones for clients and 3rd party suppliers. This will prevent them from needing to slow down and to park either in an open employee bay or illegally on the opposite side of the road.
• Respect the boundary markings of roads. Red lines, pavements, pedestrian walkways, and cyclist paths are carefully calculated to keep the flow of people into the area safe and swift. Please do not park vehicles in these designated areas.
• Make provisions for pedestrians so your employees and the employees of the businesses around you are not forced to endanger themselves by walking on the road.
• All your employees who come to work in their own vehicles should be educated on the dangers of speeding and carpool where they can to save on parking space.
• Ensure that all employees who need parking bays are provided with a place to put their vehicles. The best time to make these alterations would be during a Facade Improvement intervention.
• If you are a fleet manager – have multiple company cars or have an internal employee transport system – introduce a telematics system. This will allow you to target your speeding awareness interventions to the drivers who need them.

According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), traffic accidents cost our already strained South African economy a whopping R176 Billion in 2020. We also missed the target set out in the UN decade for action road safety amendment by miles, despite a months-long lockdown that restricted movement.

Traffic Enforcement 

Traffic enforcement is a last resort for the Elsies River City Improvement District. While we would prefer not to implement these measures, we are charged with the duty of making the ERCID area safer for all. Traffic enforcement to curb speeding vehicles will be a necessary consequence if we all don’t slow down.

In a time where so many of us are only just scraping by financially, we simply shouldn’t waste money paying expensive traffic fines for speeding incidents that are 100% easily avoidable.

We truly believe that together we can make the roads of the Elsies River City Improvement District a safer space for our community and would love to hear your #GoodNews and suggestions, simply mail us at info@ercid.co.za    

If you have any safety concerns to report, please contact one of the following numbers:

• SAPS (South African Police Services) – 10111 
• City of Cape Town Disaster Management. – 107
• Geocentric Control Room – 021 565 0900