Traffic on toll routes building up
AS THE summer holidays draw to a close, traffic on major routes is building up.
The number of vehicles passing through the toll plazas is expected to continue gaining momentum through the weekend as many people start work on Monday.
With the Christmas carols and New Year revelry on pause until next December, holidaymakers are making their way back home. Those who didn’t want to be caught in the peak traffic congestion headed back yesterday.
The N1 and N4 near Tshwane were busier, but the inner city remained quiet.
Charmaine van Wyk, spokesperson for the Bakwena Plaza, said the N1 Phumulani toll route was expected to be increasingly busy with possible delays later at Kranskop. She said this would also be the case for the N4 Plaza.
By yesterday, both the N1 and N4 toll roads measured just under 1 500 motorists passing through the toll gates each hour, but the number is expected to reach the 2 000 mark by the weekend. By lunchtime yesterday, around 1 500 vehicles were passing the Mooi Plaza on the N3 every hour.
This peaked at between 1 800 and 2 000 cars by 5pm, said Praveen Sunderlall, manager of the Road Incident Management System at the N3 Concession, which manages the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng routes. He said they were expecting the figure to hit 2 500 at the weekend.
Pretoria Bus Station was also a hive of activity as people made their way back to the capital city.
Transport Minister Blade Nzimande released preliminary statistics before Christmas that painted a fair picture.
Since the beginning of the festive season campaign, 629 661 vehicles were stopped at 539 roadblocks staged nationwide. This resulted in 231 937 traffic fines being issued to motorists.
However, the number of traffic fines issued was less than those issued over the same period during the previous festive season, by 101 595.
The number of arrests has also come down from 3 052 previously to 2 915, representing a slight improvement in driver behaviour.
More than 20 000 motorists were fined during the festive period for driving while using their cellphones.
The national statistics are expected to be released later this month.