Cammie Diamond, Fish Hoek
I live in Tenth Avenue, Fish Hoek, and my 8-year-old daughter was very nearly knocked over on Friday July 14 when she tried to save her very loved cat.
Our cat was killed in a hit-and-run incident. The driver failed to stop at the stop street and then couldn't even be bothered to stop and help.
People use this road as a race track, and there is going to be a death of a child soon.
The GPS directs people down our residential street as being the fastest route out of Fish Hoek. Trucks, buses and taxis speed down here all day long with no regard to either of the stop streets that we have.
There is a school at the top of our road, and I think it’s about time that speed humps are put in place to stop the speeding, and stop another awful accident from happening.
A few months ago, a truck went up the road, took out half a tree, which, in turn, fell into the road, blocking it, and he kept going. I have lived here for 20 years, and over the years, it has gotten so much worse.
Frankie was the third cat buried in my yard over the years, and all three cats were killed by speeding motorists.
There are so many families on this road with many young kids which is of great concern to me.
• Mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas responds: The focus of the City’s traffic-calming policy is to protect vulnerable road users where they occur in their largest numbers, typically at registered education facilities or where there is a history of frequent serious incidents, on qualifying lower order streets.
A systematic programme is in place to address the main pedestrian access points to education facilities as a priority and we thereafter aim to address the busiest routes near education facilities.
The transport planning and network management department’s limited resources will therefore be primarily focused on the implementation of calming measures at the numerous education facilities City-wide as a priority.
Although it is acknowledged that speeding and/or negligent driver behaviour may well be the basis of your request, these issues are unfortunately prevalent throughout the city.
It should furthermore be noted that the potential for collisions exists on all roads across the city – such motivation would therefore not be deemed sufficient justification for the implementation of traffic-calming measures.
It has unfortunately been found by experience (through previous versions of the traffic-calming policy), that it would be neither practical nor financially sustainable to attempt to address all roads where such problems may exist.
For this reason, the latest traffic-calming policy specifically focuses on educational facilities, where the highest volumes of vulnerable road users are typically encountered.
We acknowledge that there is a school at the end of the road and have placed one speed hump close to the school, where higher concentrations of pedestrians cross the road.
The traffic-calming policy makes provision for one additional speed hump between the school and roundabout, but beyond that, the outer roads have wide road reserves with footways.
Whilst we sympathise with the loss, reactions of animals, birds and wildlife are unpredictable, and they will always remain at risk where road traffic is involved.
Speed humps will not prevent these unfortunate incidents from occurring. Further, the City simply cannot address every road where there have been incidents involving animals.
At this stage, we cannot justify additional traffic-calming in Tenth Avenue, between Kommetjie Road and Recreation Road.