Publications
Partners
If you are planning a trip to Sandton this month and are stressed out about swapping your designer shoes for sneakers, we have good news for you.
City Press decided to conduct a snap accessibility test related to the EcoMobility Festival in Joburg’s commercial hub, and found that those travelling by car still get there faster outside peak traffic periods.
With traffic restrictions clustered around West Street and only affecting parts of the road network, there is unrestricted access to Sandton City, the Sandton Convention Centre and Nelson Mandela Square.
The Sandton Central Management District initially wanted to fully close the roads around the Sandton City centre, but buckled under pressure from businesses that felt they would lose out.
District manager Elaine Jack says a compromise had to be reached.
“We understand the frustrations and concerns from businesses and individuals, but we had to do this exercise because we need to find a solution to the congestion in the area,” she says.
Although City Press found driving to Sandton at just after 9am a breeze, Jack says many motorists had been put out.
“At present, it may be an inconvenience because people have to park their cars and use public transport, cycle or walk, but in the long run, it will benefit businesses and individuals,” she says.
Jack says that about 75 000 cars enter Sandton every morning and leave every evening, a figure that increases by 3.4% every month.
“If this situation is allowed to continue, it will drive out the same businesses that are concerned about the inconvenience this month because no person would want to sit in traffic for two hours while their office block is a stone’s throw away,” she says.
While some businesses are not happy with the EcoMobility Festival, which ends on October 31, Jack says some are delighted with it. “They feel that it’s a great initiative that not only decongests the city, but promotes healthy living.”
Nozuko Basson, an employee of Discovery who works in a building near the corner of Alice and West, says the EcoMobility Festival has not added to her car commute time, but has made things faster. On a normal day, it’s a 90-minute drive from her home in the south of Joburg, but this week it’s only taken an hour.
“I am not sure if it’s because of the school holidays, but driving to work this week has been a breeze. Normally, it would take me 30 minutes from the off-ramp on to Grayston Drive, but these days it takes me far less than that,” she says.
WATCH the challengers race to Sandton:
The Race
1. By car - Zinhle Mapumulo
POSITION: First
TIME: 29 minutes (including walking time)
It’s not every day that one gets to Sandton from Auckland Park in less than 24 minutes in a car. But that’s how long it took us to get from City Press’ offices in Media Park to the corner of Alice Lane and West Street.
I have to confess, though, that I was driving with South Africa’s answer to Michael Schumacher, photographer Lucky Nxumalo. But before my competitors accuse us of speeding, we were well within the 60km/h speed limit.
The thing about Nxumalo is that he has the mind of a taxi driver and it has nothing to do with the fact that he is a Zulu man. He knows Johannesburg like the back of his hand, so we were bound to reach Sandton before anybody else.
Our trip started off at 9.12am from the office parking lot and we made our way through Parktown, into Rosebank and on to Oxford Road.
At 9.27am, we were at the corner of Rivonia Road and Corlett Drive in Illovo, which was a surprise because, on a normal day, this drive would have taken us 30 minutes.
After that, there were a few malfunctioning traffic lights to contend with, but they didn’t bother us much because there were so few cars on the road, possibly because of the school holidays.
At 9.34am, we reached our destination – the corner of Alice Lane and West Street in Sandton. But the parking lot there was full, so we had to turn back and park at The Michelangelo hotel and rush to the corner, which added seven minutes to our time.
Despite this, we were excited to find that none of our rivals had beaten us. The road, which is usually congested, was cordoned off and people were walking to their office blocks.
Professional cyclist Craig Wapnick arrived four minutes later. He was surprised that he had been beaten, and insisted that he would have won if we had held the competition during rush-hour traffic.
2. By Bicycle - Craig Wapnick
POSITION: Second
TIME: 33 minutes
Cycling is my life and anything that involves it excites me. So when City Press approached me to take part in the challenge, I told them to bring it on because I knew I would be the first to arrive at the finish line.
Unfortunately, the universe worked against me on Wednesday because I was beaten by the team in the car. They arrived at the corner of Alice Lane and West Street four minutes before me, and I am still wondering how they pulled this off because the word ‘congestion’ has become synonymous with Sandton and surrounding areas.
I was sure I would win because my ride was easy and smooth, and it’s something I do often. I left Auckland Park at 9.12am, passed through Melville and travelled off-road through the Braamfontein Spruit until I got to Sandton Drive at 9:44am.
I spent 80% of the journey off the road because I don’t feel safe using the dedicated cycling lanes, which are sometimes dangerous because they start and stop abruptly.
But my main concern about riding in the cycle lanes are taxi drivers and other motorists, who often speed down the road.
This is not to say that I am not a fan of EcoMobility. I love the idea and think that it is long overdue in a developed city like Johannesburg, where every other person owns a car. We need such concepts, but the City of Johannesburg must invest more in improving the cycling tracks and educating drivers that cyclists also have a right to be on the road.
As it is, the cycle lanes are not conducive to a road bike because they start and stop in the middle of nowhere. For this challenge, I had to use a mountain bike because it allows me to climb on to pavements with ease.
All in all, the trip was great. I would certainly do it again and recommend others leave their cars at home and try cycling to work.
3. By Taxi - Jacqui Kubania
POSITION: Third
TIME: 38 minutes
It was easy to get a taxi from Auckland Park to central Joburg. I simply stood on the side of the road with my index finger raised, and a taxi stopped in front of me in less than a minute. I paid R11 for that trip, and we were in town in 15 minutes.
I’m from Kenya and find downtown Johannesburg to be a bewildering maze of streets and alleys peppered with dirty puddles, heaps of rank garbage, and heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
I explained to a kind Nigerian man where I wanted to go, and he took me firmly by the hand, marched me through the streets to MTN Taxi Rank and deposited me in front of a taxi to Sandton.
I got in the front seat, which I usually avoid because whoever sits there is responsible for collecting fares from other passengers and ensuring that everybody gets the correct change. Thankfully, someone else hopped in next to me and did the honours. The fare was R12 to Sandton.
There was minimal traffic and I struck up a conversation with my seatmate – Vusi Mdima (49), a construction company manager who usually takes 10 minutes to get from his home in the south of the city to Sandton.
“I am using a taxi today because my motorbike is in the garage for some repairs,” he said.
We got to Sandton at about 9.50am after 20 minutes on the road. We would have been faster had the taxi not stopped every few minutes to drop passengers off.
4. By Rea Vaya and Gautrain - Sipho Masondo
POSITION: Fourth
TIME: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Iwas always going to be the weakest link in the amazing race from the office to Sandton. During off-peak hours, Rea Vaya buses and Gautrains aren’t as frequent, so I was already on the back foot.
Although I suspected Zinhle Mapumulo would win and Craig Wapnick would come second, I thought I would at least come third and Jacqui Kubania would come in last. How wrong I was.
Just less than a minute after walking on to Kingsway Avenue, a taxi stopped for Kubania. Wapnick was first out of the blocks and Mapumulo left shortly thereafter.
At the Rea Vaya station, I had to wait for 10 minutes for a bus, and when I eventually arrived at Park Station, a Gautrain had just left, meaning a further 20-minute wait.
I was restive on the platform, pacing up and down. Ten minutes later, I heard a train thundering in from a distance, and my face and mood lit up. But it was clearly not my day – an announcement over the public-address system informed passengers that the train was not in service. An hour after I left the office, I eventually arrived in Sandton and walked for 10 minutes to the finish line.
I think the bright spark who came up with the idea of travelling during off-peak times didn’t think it through properly. I commute from Centurion to Auckland Park daily during peak hours using Gautrain and Rea Vaya, which takes me an hour at most. Had we left a little earlier, I would have taken less than 30 minutes to get to my destination – and probably would have won.
