Driving alone on Gauteng’s highways might soon be unaffordable.
Tolls, big brother cameras for Âtraffic offenders and electronic devices attached to cars are to become the rage if the provincial government has its way.
This is one of government’s strategies to force Gauteng residents to make use of public transport.
A comprehensive plan to change the face of transport in the province was recently announced by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).
The scheme consists of at least seven separate projects, which will be rolled out by 2010.
The multimillion-rand traffic Âsystem compares with London’s Âso-called Ring of Steel, which was built in the early 1990s to curb crime.
Sanral’s i-Traffic pilot project was implemented in October last year and proved a great success.
More than 73 CCTV cameras have been placed on the Ben Schoeman highway between John Vorster Road in Centurion and the Buccleuch interchange. These cameras are monitored from a network management centre (NMC) in Midrand and messages are sent to electronic signs at strategic spots.
The Ben Schoeman is South Africa’s busiest highway, with up to 180 000 vehicles travelling between Johannesburg and Pretoria daily.
”The system is not running at 100% yet, but we’re getting there,” says Alex van Niekerk, Sanral’s project manager. The plan is to have CCTV installed within two months on the 200km of road that forms part of the inner and outer ring roads around Gauteng’s three metropolitan municipalities.
Funding from the Johannesburg Roads Agency has led to the extension of the project to the M1 and M2 highways.
Van Niekerk and his team have been working on the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) project since 2001 when similar schemes were rolled out in the United States, Europe and Asia.
In 2002/03 a tender for a pilot project on the Ben Schoeman was advertised and awarded to the ASTII-consortium, comprising local companies Innovative Traffic Solutions, Africon and SMV. A site for the NMC was found and fibre-optic cables were laid underground.
”We could see incidents and warn the public about them [through the electronic signs],” Van Niekerk says.
The ITS is ”closely related” to the R22-billion Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) that was reported on in various media last week. The GFIP will have extra lanes on the highways, ramp metering on some on-ramps, electronic vehicle identification (EVI) and a tolling system.
Also part of the project are new roads — the N17, PWV5, PWV9 and PWV14 — to be built, but only after 2010.
The issues of EVI and tolling are, however, subjects of controversy. South Africa is unlikely to escape the contentious topics of privacy and cost.
The plan with EVI is to add a Âcomputer chip to vehicle licences that are picked up by sensors on the highways.
”Remember that this is not a tracking device. The information is important for traffic management. ” Van Niekerk stresses that this is not a ”safety system”.
On costs, he is more cagey. ”We are now busy with a project to finalise costing models. The tariffs quoted in the media were discount tariffs [it was reported that motorists could be charged 30c per kilometre].
”The idea is that every vehicle will be fitted with an electronic device. The device is linked to your bank account, from which the amount will be deducted. It is pay as you go,” Van Niekerk says.
And herein lies the crux. Not only will this money be used to finance the project, but Sanral hopes it will discourage people from travelling by car.
”In London, no roads were built, but charges were introduced. If you want to use private transport, you have to pay.
”Here, the tolling would be a mechanism to finance the project — the upgrading of freeways costs about R40-million per kilometre. But it would also be a mechanism to make the use of private transport unattractive,” Van Niekerk says.
If you want people to change, you need to create the facilities, he says.
This includes the Gautrain, an upgraded Metrorail, new bus services and parking facilities for people who form travelling clubs.
”Currently there is a 5% growth in traffic per year on the Ben Schoeman. If this growth continues, we’ll need 36 extra lanes in 20 years’ time.
”We can’t continuously build ourselves out of congestion.”
Van Niekerk hopes building on the new lanes will start next year. Contracts for the CCTV and electronic signs are ”almost completed” and the tenders for ramp metering, underground traffic detection equipment and EVI will soon be advertised.
Tolling will only be implemented once the roads are finished in 2010.
10 facts about Gauteng traffic
1. Between 120 000 and 180 000 vehicles travel on the Ben Schoeman highway daily.
2. Each year the traffic on the Ben Schoeman grows by 5%.
3. If this growth continues, 36 lanes will be needed in 20 years.
4. Sanral has already spent R140-million on the pilot i-Traffic project.
5. Another R22-billion will be spent in the next seven years.
6. Extra lanes on Gauteng’s highways will be finished by 2010.
7. It costs the state R40-million to upgrade one kilometre of road.
8. Tolling will be done electronically — a chip in your car will be picked up by sensors on the highway and automatically deduct money from your bank account.
9. The 200km of road that connects Gauteng’s three metropolitan areas will be covered by CCTV in two months’ time.
10. Ramp metering, which works like traffic lights, will be installed on certain on-ramps to control the flow of traffic.