-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: Will you be subscribing to the new Disney+ R49 streaming package?
New (stupid) traffic flow plan for Jhb
- Thread starter nivek
- Start date
Afraid the government cant be credited with this 'stupid' idea. There are many places that have made use of ramp meters. Many studies have also been done and it seems it only works in certain cases. One can only hope that the transport department has done their research and is doing this on a test basis and if that doesnt work, they'll try other ideas.
See the wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramp_meter
See the wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramp_meter
I didn't give them credit, merely pointing out that it's not a solution here. A solution would be implementing better public transport, but that's not exactly acceptable to government, especially when the Transport Minister is not consulted to find out how big his slice of the pie should be.
stoke
Honorary Master
Lets see ... take traffic that is supposed to be accelerating onto a freeway, and STOP it.
Then watch as that traffic tries valiantly to accelerate onto the highway again.
Yea riiiight.
Correct solution: longer on-ramps. Make use of the yellow lane and put up speed signs indicating that traffic is supposed to SPEED UP to merge with a speeding highway. Most new drivers don't know this and expect the highway to stop for them, which it does, disappointing so.
Then watch as that traffic tries valiantly to accelerate onto the highway again.
Yea riiiight.
Correct solution: longer on-ramps. Make use of the yellow lane and put up speed signs indicating that traffic is supposed to SPEED UP to merge with a speeding highway. Most new drivers don't know this and expect the highway to stop for them, which it does, disappointing so.
The basic problem is insufficient infrastructure, be it transport, electricity generation etc. But instead of actually doing anything concrete about it government introduces temporary stopgaps like ramp meters, load shedding etc.
whats more annoying than 'onramping' traffic is people driving in the fast lane all the way upto 100m within their offramp, and then having to slow to a crawl, and stop 3 lanes of traffic so they can jump 2 lanes of traffic and get off the highway.. thats why theres such a mess on the M1 North in the mornings by grayston and corlette drive
Last edited:
Must we always be negative? Clearly as much as possible need to be done to ease congestion on our freeways, and if ramp-metering has proven successful elsewhere why should we not give it a try also? Obviously proper Public Transport (PT) is the answer, but we cannot sit and do nothing on the rest of the transport system until proper PT systems are in place. Give the guys a chance and rather complain when nothing is done. If ramp-metering fails to improve traffic flow it will be taken down. The Ben Schoeman Freeway is currently a "laboratory" where solutions are sought for traffic problems all over SA. Testing things on paper and doing traffic modeling can take you only so far. At some point you have to test things live in real-life conditions.
arf9999
MyBroadband Member
Ok, so we're going to have ramp metering at New Road. Yay! Considering that we can't keep the existing traffic lights on the interchange working, I'm a bit concerned that this is just another place for the system to break down.
ToxicBunny
Oi! Leave me out of this...
From my experience with "ramp-metering" as its implmented in Durban. Its just another way for the municipality to earn money because they'll put up a camera at the robot. Plus of course it causes absolutely CHAOS at the bottom of the onramp pretty much through out the day.
It's all fun and dandy that they put in "solutions" like this, but this is not the cause of the problem. Public transport is, and except for the Gautrain (maybe), no other solutions are worked on. Where are our always-on-time buses/trams/etc, with useful routes?
Oh yes, forgot, we must first speak to the taxi ass. in order to provide public transport, we don't want to make the pockets of the taxi bosses any less.
Oh yes, forgot, we must first speak to the taxi ass. in order to provide public transport, we don't want to make the pockets of the taxi bosses any less.
The problem at New Road is that the traffic lights (and their settings) on the interchange itself belong to the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) and the ramp-metering (and the freeway itself) belong to SANRAL. This transition zone between the traffic system (and responsibilities) of one agency and that of another is where things can possibly go [very] wrong. At some of the other interchanges on the Ben Schoeman it is Gautrans that is the responsible road agency. Ideally the various road agencies should be working together [but ...]. I suspect the JRA is completely "snowed-under" when it comes to dealing with traffic lights in Johannesburg ... and SANRAL is not known for its patience ...
commuter
As thousands other drivers, I travel every day to the centre of JHB (and back), and I enter the M1 South through Samrand avenue.
This new idea of having traffic lights on the onramps is probably the most idiotic idea I have ever heard in my life. It will now take me even longer to just get on the freeway. I will probably have to get up at 4AM just to make it to work on time.
Another idea of similar plain and simple stupidity was the one where only vehicles with 3 or more commuters were allowed to use the fast lane, thus resulting in the fast lane being completely empty (or becoming a lane exclusively for speeding taxi drivers) and the other 2 lanes being clogged up to a complete stand still.
I wonder if the 2 ideas are not coming from the same ingenious source?
I just wish some people in high places would stop wasting taxpayers revenue in such useless and imbecilic ways, and rather channel those funds in addressing more important and pressing problems such as crime prevention, AIDS, and unemployment.
As thousands other drivers, I travel every day to the centre of JHB (and back), and I enter the M1 South through Samrand avenue.
This new idea of having traffic lights on the onramps is probably the most idiotic idea I have ever heard in my life. It will now take me even longer to just get on the freeway. I will probably have to get up at 4AM just to make it to work on time.
Another idea of similar plain and simple stupidity was the one where only vehicles with 3 or more commuters were allowed to use the fast lane, thus resulting in the fast lane being completely empty (or becoming a lane exclusively for speeding taxi drivers) and the other 2 lanes being clogged up to a complete stand still.
I wonder if the 2 ideas are not coming from the same ingenious source?
I just wish some people in high places would stop wasting taxpayers revenue in such useless and imbecilic ways, and rather channel those funds in addressing more important and pressing problems such as crime prevention, AIDS, and unemployment.
semiautomatix
Honorary Master
Ha! Yeah, I had to wait 4 phases this morning to just get off the highway onto New Road - that means no one from Midrand will be able to get onto the highway... LOL. I'm going to drive through Kyalami from now on. (Question: why do I insist on torturing myself and taking the N1?)
commuter
People, let's face it. What is the real cause of traffic conjestions on the highways anyway? Minibus taxis!!!!
I travel the Ben schoeman twice a day to and from JHB and, at just about every exit, I see the same thing over and over and over again:
Taxis travelling on the fast lane wait until the last nanosecond to turn off at their offramps and therefore cut in front of everybody from the extreme right (where they should not be if the wish to turn off) to the extreme left, thus stopping whatever is in their way (because they are above the law in any case).
This is a taxi driver's common standard practice and is what causes sudden braking on the motorways. They just carry on doing this because nobody is telling them not to do it and, let's face it, they could not give a continental even if the police was trying to stop them from doing this. Even the passengers (the consumers) are too scared to complain about the fact that they are being transported on "coffins on wheels".
The traffic light idea could only have been thought up by a total moron. It has proven to be a useless idea overseas, where there are no "toyota hi-aces" ruling the roads. Are you trying to tell me it could work here?
As a law abiding citizen in this country, having to deal with all the crime and other inconveniences and costs related to crime such as extra security, extra insurance, and being overtaxed on top of it, I demand some more intelligent ideas from government. Stop wasting my time and money and do something constructive with MY tax money like curbing crime and regulating the taxi industry. Just by addressing these two aspects you would solve more than 75% of the problems this country is suffering.
Or otherwise just sit back and wait for all the qualified econimically active people to emigrate, thus leaving just the criminals and idiots behind.
People, let's face it. What is the real cause of traffic conjestions on the highways anyway? Minibus taxis!!!!
I travel the Ben schoeman twice a day to and from JHB and, at just about every exit, I see the same thing over and over and over again:
Taxis travelling on the fast lane wait until the last nanosecond to turn off at their offramps and therefore cut in front of everybody from the extreme right (where they should not be if the wish to turn off) to the extreme left, thus stopping whatever is in their way (because they are above the law in any case).
This is a taxi driver's common standard practice and is what causes sudden braking on the motorways. They just carry on doing this because nobody is telling them not to do it and, let's face it, they could not give a continental even if the police was trying to stop them from doing this. Even the passengers (the consumers) are too scared to complain about the fact that they are being transported on "coffins on wheels".
The traffic light idea could only have been thought up by a total moron. It has proven to be a useless idea overseas, where there are no "toyota hi-aces" ruling the roads. Are you trying to tell me it could work here?
As a law abiding citizen in this country, having to deal with all the crime and other inconveniences and costs related to crime such as extra security, extra insurance, and being overtaxed on top of it, I demand some more intelligent ideas from government. Stop wasting my time and money and do something constructive with MY tax money like curbing crime and regulating the taxi industry. Just by addressing these two aspects you would solve more than 75% of the problems this country is suffering.
Or otherwise just sit back and wait for all the qualified econimically active people to emigrate, thus leaving just the criminals and idiots behind.
LandyMan
Honorary Master
Hmm, I had to deal with these meters while in Silicon Valley ... there they worked quite nicely, but the traffic there was nothing compared to here ... I doubt it is going to work 
HA, and do they really believe people are going to adhere to these robots? Puhlease! they don't even stop and proper traffic robots!
HA, and do they really believe people are going to adhere to these robots? Puhlease! they don't even stop and proper traffic robots!
Koos Custodiet
Expert Member
Actually, it's the fscking motorists who have no clue how to merge.
OK, I'm speaking for Cape Town but I'm sure the same selfishness exists up there.
What's wrong with match speed & change lanes? Well, if you floor it and then shoot in and brake hard, you end up three cars ahead of where you would have been otherwise. And that's surely a Win.
Also, if you cut out of the main lane into the onramp, you can shoot past and gain maybe *five* cars.
All at the expense of the other guys but who cares about them?
OK,
So it is a complete $%#^-up. It is school holidays, so yesterday it took me 30 seconds from getting to the onramp (Samrand) until I joined the traffic on the highway (at 06h10). Today, also at 06h10 it took more than ten minutes ... nuff said.
So it is a complete $%#^-up. It is school holidays, so yesterday it took me 30 seconds from getting to the onramp (Samrand) until I joined the traffic on the highway (at 06h10). Today, also at 06h10 it took more than ten minutes ... nuff said.
LandyMan
Honorary Master
This is the best solution I've heard of in a long time. The goal is to average out the congestion over the busiest routes, and it makes perfect sense to me. Honestly people it's a step forward, I would be pissed off I heard they were doing away robots for, say, elephants with their trunks painted green or red.
Maybe this site should be called www.mybitchtodayco.za
Maybe this site should be called www.mybitchtodayco.za