It’s pretty hard to imagine Jo’burg without the spruit (the Braamfontein Spruit, if you want its full name). When I first moved here in the 1970s, it wasn’t even there. Of course, the river was there and it flowed, but the idea of a green connected space running right through the northern parts of the city did not exist.
Later I remember newspaper articles pointing out that it was possible to follow the spruit by foot right to the northern borders of the city on a 30km trail, 60kms there and back.
The spruit, over time, became less and less of a secret. We used to run along the banks of the river as part of our training for the Comrades Marathon, and when mountain bikes emerged people started to ride along the spruit as well. Today cyclists are up and down the spruit, particularly on weekends, as are hikers and dog walkers.
As many as 40 000 cyclists ride along the spruit during any month, says one cyclist, Paul Damhuis. “Jo’burgers should think of the spruit in the same way New Yorkers think of Central Park,” he says. Damhuis is part of a group of bikers under the umbrella of AMA Rider, the African Mountain Bike Association, which promotes the use of the spruit as a safe urban commute for cyclists.
Each cyclist who commutes using the spruit is “one less car on the roads”, he says. One idea to assist the cyclists is to build underpasses at busy roads so that commuters can cross safely. Damhuis says the authorities are likely to become more supportive as they see increasing numbers of people using the spruit. He says the city, for instance, puts effort into supporting Emmarentia Dam as a park because of its high usage.
Environmental consultant and outdoor enthusiast Caroline Henderson, in an article published by Mail & Guardian Online, says that the city should be aiming to make the spruit a showpiece for 2010. She writes: “Jozi, our world-class African city, has an amazing resource running to within a click of its 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.”
She says “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 Sandton, Illovo and Rosebank, and to the 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 sustainable private transport alternative, using bicycles as the mode?”
What do you think? We know that many Jo’burgers are already engaged in some way with the spruit. The Mail & Guardian is setting up a special mini-website as a forum to facilitate the re-thinking of this urban resource.
We’re inviting users of the spruit to offer ideas and suggestions. We’ll take them up with the authorities as part of a process of creating a more user-friendly city.