A City plan for two parallel one-way streets through the heart of Wynberg is essentially a highway that will uproot families, devalue properties, create more congestion and cause a lot of heartbreak, say critics.
At public information days, held at the Wittebome and Alphen civic centres last week, the public could speak to the City engineers about the proposed road changes needed for the Main Road/Brodie Road couplet, but some of those who will be affected by the plan are worried.
The proposal includes six new signalised intersections, six kerbside MyCiTi stops as well as directional changes or changes in access to and from the one-way streets.
The couplet is part of the roll-out of the MyCiTi bus service to Wynberg and will improve traffic flow through the heart of the business district, says the City.
Jeremy Joseph, a Wynberg resident, was not impressed with the information day he attended at the Alphen Centre, saying it resembled an art exhibition.
“It’s an excuse not to have a proper community meeting to deal with the affected people’s concerns. The plans are great in theory, but I am not in favour of it.
“This particular route is going to cause too much heartbreak and animosity. It’s an uprooting of people and taxis out of their homes and out of the area.
“The roads, at least from South Road all the way up to Brodie Road, all the council houses and the private properties along there are affected. People that don’t live on the adjacent areas or roads don’t think of those people. And that’s the problem. Those people’s properties will devalue because you have a big bypass road behind you. So who wants to stay in a private property with a highway behind you?
“I don’t think anybody who is staying in a council house should be uprooted, especially if they’ve been staying there for 30-40 years. Some of them have been there longer. Is there alternative accommodation for long-standing tenants? Where is the City of Cape Town going to relocate them if they do take this road?”
According to mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas, council approved the concept design in March 2019 and public participation took place from August 2014 to early 2015.
“At the time, public information days were hosted in 35 affected communities where residents were offered the opportunity to ask questions and submit comments.”
The current public participation process, which closes on Friday May 5, dealt with proposed road closures and directional changes and would inform the “detail design” of the couplet, he said.
“The comments will be taken into consideration as we are refining the concept design that has been approved already. The City will engage the impacted property owners and those residents living in City-owned properties on an individual basis, in coming months” Mr Quintas said.
The proposed couplet ties in with a plan for a revamp of the Wynberg public transport interchange that the City unveiled in November last year and which will include a new mini-bus taxi rank with two levels, located between Brisbane and Morom roads, bordering Wetton and Broad roads. The ground level will be for taxis serving the Cape Town CBD and the upper level for those serving the metro-south east
The Main Road Route Taxi Association and the Wynberg Century Taxi Association, which operate on the Wynberg-to-Cape Town route and Wynberg-to-Century City route respectively, have over 175 vehicles registered with road permits, and, according to Amien Carlson, a spokesman for both associations, the changes proposed to accommodate the couplet put drivers livelihoods at risk.
“The City is negotiating with the associations affected by this new proposed route for the MyCiTi. It’s an ongoing negotiation that is happening, but, realistically, it’s not going to work. What are they going to do in the interim? Main Road is already congested as is. So where is there space for the MyCiTi? The Golden Arrow buses are standing in the middle of road loading as is, so where are the MyCiTi buses going to load?
“They want to put all the taxi associations on one stacking, making place for the MyCiTi. Ninety percent of the space is going to be for four-to-five MyCiTi buses and about 20 000 taxis on five percent of land. We won’t have access to Wetton Road, and where does that put us as the taxi industry? It definitely puts us on the back foot as the taxi industry.
“We are being impounded left, right and centre. Whether the vehicle has an operating licence or not, we are still being impounded. Ultimately, the City wants to impound most of the vehicles, so that they can make way for this MyCiTi project to go through. Over the past two months, alone, the association has had 52 of its 172 vehicles impounded.
“The reality is the City is going to go ahead with this MyCiTi thing. It happened on the Dunoon-Atlantis route; it is going to happen here as well… We have been targeted daily, taking the brunt for City’s improvement for the City’s new plan.”
Public comment closes on Friday May 5. To comment, visit capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay, email transport.news@capetown.gov.za, or write to Sub-council 20, Alphen Centre, Constantia Main Road, Constantia.
