In its efforts to curb speeding and illegal racing in Sea Point, the City has recently installed speed cameras, a move that has been welcomed by the area councillor. This follows a request made by the City to the directors of public prosecutions to conduct a pilot project for speed checks in the Atlantic Seaboard area which was prompted by several complaints from residents.
Although Beach Road and the Helen Suzman area in Sea Point have clearly marked speed limit of 50 and 60 km/h respectively, speeding and poor driver behavior are a regular occurrence judging by the number of complaints.
According to Ward 56 councillor Nicola Jowell, the pilot project was approved to reassure residents that the ongoing issue of speeding cars and noisy cars is getting the attention it needs from an operational and planning perspective.
However, Jowell could not give further information on the number of cameras and their locations. “I cannot provide information on the number of cameras nor locations that are currently in the area or planned in this project,” she said.
According the City’s Traffic Services’ spokesperson, Maxine Bezuidenhout, the project is going to help the City to resolve ongoing complaints received from residents about the speeding and poor driver behavior in the area which is one of the illegal street racing hotspots.
“The Sea Point and Green Point area is one of the hotspot areas for illegal street racing. The City’s traffic service conducts ongoing enforcement operations in the area, as well as other hotspots around the metropole,” she said.
Eric Ntabazalila, spokesperson for the Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority, says the directors of public prosecutions were approached by the City of Cape Town for permission to conduct a pilot project for speed-checking in the Atlantic Seaboard area.
He says the request, according to the traffic department, was prompted by numerous complaints received from residents.
“Permission was granted to do speed-checking to provide a report at the end of August this year at which time, depending on the report, the traffic department will lodge a formal application to do speed law enforcement in this area. In any matter where traffic authorities wish to obtain permission to do speed law enforcement by means of a camera, they need to provide a detailed application, which, inter alia, gives the speed profiles for the roads they apply for,” said Ntabazalila.
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