Seemingly dangerous intersections along Eversdal Road in Stellenberg won’t be changing anytime soon, the City of Cape Town has indicated.
And if the R300 is extended in the next three years, it won’t even be necessary, an accompanying report states.
This comes after the publication of a detailed report about the necessity of interventions on the road between the Old Oak and Mountain View road intersections.
This was done by an engineering company on behalf of Subcouncil 7.
Residents have been complaining about the road for years, asking for measures like traffic circles, stop street signs or robots at places like the La Gratitude Road intersection, outside Stodels Garden Centre’s entryway or at Stellenryk Road.
The report was also presented to residents at a meeting held two weeks ago.
Traffic signals not needed
The single-lane road is one of the quickest ways of getting to parts of Brackenfell, Stellenberg and Durbanville via the N1.
The report was compiled with data collected on 12 October. All intersections were surveyed on the same day, in peak hours from 06:00 to 09:00 and 16:00 to 19:00.
The report found that traffic signals were not warranted anywhere on the road, as the average length of a queue has to exceed four vehicles before it is deemed necessary.
On Eversdal the maximum queue lengths were five and four vehicles in the morning and afternoon peak periods, but the average was 2,9 and 3,06, one short of the necessary four vehicles.
The longest queue was at the La Gratitude and Eversdal Road intersection. “All other surveyed/observed intersections were substantially shorter.”
Crashes along road
Crash data in the period between January 2013 and December 2018 was also obtained. It showed 79 crashes occurred on the road during that period of time. The most crashes took place at the Mountain View Road intersection (29), with La Gratitude coming in second place (24).
The other crashes were significantly lower, at the Stellenryk Road intersection (10), the Thibault Street intersection (four), the Zonne Road intersection (four), between Thibault Street and Stodels access (four), at Stodels access (one), between Stodels access and Stellenryk Street (one).
Most of the crashes involved cars driving head-first into the rear ends of others (39).
No crashes were fatal. In three of the crashes, people were seriously hurt and in 20 there were slight injuries. A total of 147 reported no injuries. All serious crashes took place at the Mountain View intersection.
R300’s impact
The only measures the report says are needed are right turns at the La Gratitude and Stellenryk intersections. At La Gratitude a partial access intersection should be constructed with left-in and out access and a right-turn lane from Eversdal Road.
A southbound right-turn lane at Stellenryk Street should also be constructed.
This, however, is not recommended and won’t happen because of the R300.
According to the report, once the R300 is completed between 35% and 50% of traffic will be redirected along that route. This will improve traffic along Eversdal Road.
It is still unclear when this will be, but the report states the “relevant authority” says construction is expected to start in the next year.
The report then recommends traffic on Eversdal Road be evaluated once the extension is completed before anything is done, to avoid unnecessary costs.
