Felicity Purchase, mayoral committee member for transport
We are saddened by the trauma experienced by the family with the loss of their beloved cat.
The City of Cape Town traffic-calming policy aims to protect the most vulnerable road users where they occur in the largest numbers on a Class 4 Collector Street and/or Class 5 Local Street in a residential area in the vicinity of public facilities, with roads adjacent to and leading to schools being the primary focus of attention.
This being the case, a systematic programme is in place for the treatment of all educational facilities over the next few years as a priority, which will not permit transport network development budget to be used for calming measures at other locations.
The roads surrounding Kirstenhof Primary School were assessed, and traffic-calming was implemented adjacent to all of the accesses and in close proximity, where concentrations of learners were observed.
Ferdinand Street is a Class 5 residential road, which extends from Silverwater Street to Rose Avenue, a length of 330m and has a road width of 6.8m and generous barrier kerbed verges with widths of 2.5m to 2.8m, which offers good sight distance and sufficient pedestrian refuge along the length of the road.
A portion of Ferdinand Street, of 130m, abuts the east end of the school sports fields, where there is no direct access to the school. No noticeable learner activity was observed at the time of our assessment in Ferdinand Street, in which case our department did not deem this a high priority or a road with a history of serious incidents, and therefore, speed humps were not considered.
Primary routes through an area, where pedestrian activity is high, leading to public facilities and public transport routes are considered for surfaced footways. Ferdinand Street does not fall within this category and therefore does not have a surfaced footway but the broad verges provide plenty of refuge.
We have to accept that all animals are unpredictable and irrespective of the speed of a vehicle, they will always remain at risk. Speed humps will not prevent this occurring and nor will these discourage traffic from using the road if it remains the most desirable route during a peak period.
We will implement a centre barrier line on the bend in Ferdinand Street and a priority stop control at the Road Avenue intersection.
We will review when school activity has fully resumed.