Jozi, our world-class African city, has an amazing resource running to within a click of its very pulsing heart: 30km (one-way) of off-road mountain-biking trail snaking up the Braamfontein Spruit from north of Bryanston to the Melville Koppies and Alberts Farm at its southern end.
As large cities go, this is a world-class-beating resource, but its present poor and dangerous state represents a missed opportunity to present 2010 World Cup visitors with a fabulous recreational asset just a stone’s throw from major stadiums and the Sandton CBD, let alone a missed opportunity to create a world-class, long-term urban amenity for the city’s residents and business visitors.
And then there’s the potential to create a sustainable, pedal-powered transport corridor to all the major business districts in northern Jo’burg, because the spruit runs parallel to the M1 to the west of the Sandton, Illovo and Rosebank, and to east of Randburg — all of these within 2km of the central spine of the corridor. Gauteng is making efforts to improve public transport through the bus rapid transport (BRT) system, so why not also create a more sustainable private transport alternative, using bicycles as the mode.
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Sure, few are likely to hazard Jo’burg’s busy trunk roads to cycle to work, but the spruit could circumvent that problem up to the last kilometre or two from the office — and then there’s potential to create cycling paths along the open space or up secondary roads leading into those business districts. Cape Town has cycling lanes all over the place, so why not Johannesburg, where millions of people don’t own a car and, for those who do, traffic conditions are becoming unbearable?
No matter the current state of the trails, Jo’burg’s hardy residents are using them in droves — early mornings on the weekends, the spruit is a veritable bicycle highway. But it’s not safe for single riders, or even groups of riders, because of the unmarked and unprotected road crossings, the increasing numbers of physical barriers (the inexplicable installation of unbroken wooden fences or booms at critical entry points) being put up by City Parks across the trail, and the failure of law-enforcement authorities to keep squatters from out of the open-space corridor.
Another issue is the erratic maintenance of the open-space corridor, with some parts becoming overrun by weeds, which are rarely cut down. In other places, access to the open space is hampered by the extent of security fencing, with pedestrian gates that are not passable by bicycles.
The map below identifies each point where there is a problem, outlines the problems and makes proposals as to what could be done to make the spruit more cyclist- and pedestrian-friendly and to turn it into the world-class urban amenity it can be.
And we’re not suggesting the city does this alone. There are cycling clubs who already make improvements along the trail, for example, by building bridges over drainage lines — albeit clandestinely — and they’re willing to do more.
But inexplicably, they all report that City Parks won’t let them. Why on earth not? Why is the city discouraging the expenditure of private money and effort to improve public amenities? If the Municipal Services Act or Local Authorities Act is at fault, then change them: the government has been punting public-private partnerships in all corners of the economy for the past decade, but when it comes to community amenity, then this model isn’t acceptable to the local authority. Why not? The City of Johannesburg should be welcoming every bit of help it can get.
So here’s what we suggest: let’s get together to see how we can make it happen.