Jo'burg's answer to traffic blues

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 27 Nov 2006

Traffic management will be a hot topic in the run-up to the Soccer World Cup and the City of Johannesburg has already invested intellectual and financial capital in getting it right, delegates at ITWeb's Connect IT: Joburg 2010 conference heard on Friday.

But the Johannesburg Road Agency's (JRA's) acting general executive manager for business mobility networks, Peter Filbey, also had some bad news for motorists: The city has largely run out of space for new roads and it will have to rely on expedients such as high occupancy vehicle lanes to speed up traffic. ICT, he said, will better manage traffic and get critical navigation data to motorists, thereby easing bottlenecks.

Filbey said the city is to vastly upgrade its traffic signalling system in the next few years, with City Power replacing old wiring and trialling uninterrupted power supply. The JRA is installing an urban traffic control (UTC) system, capable of remotely monitoring and controlling traffic signals.

This will be backed up by a CCTV camera system similar to that already in place along stretches of the M1 and N1 freeways and a traveller information system giving real-time updates of traffic conditions.

Filbey said a UTC system in California reduced travel time by 7.4%, delays by 16.5% and stops by 17%. Better traffic surveillance and control in Los Angeles decreased fuel consumption by 13%, cut harmful air emissions by 14% and reduced travel time by 18%. In Helsinki, Finland, similar measures reduced delays at "robots" by 44% and decreased total travel time by 11%.

Briefing his audience on the system already in place along the N1 and M1, Filbey said: "The system has already helped with real-time incident management, allowing ambulances etcetera to reach accidents quickly." He added the system was still in trial phase and was used only for monitoring - not enforcement.

Although not yet designated, the city will have at least two fan sites operational during the World Cup, meaning that on match days in the city, fans are expected to throng, in their tens of thousands, to at least three destinations.

"The sites must be sited as not to use the same arterials," Filbey said, adding that the fan sites will likely be in use whenever a game is played during the soccer festival - which will be a challenge for both the city and commuters going about their ordinary business.