I have written over the years quite a lot about the continuous traffic light problems that we have in Johannesburg.  An article in The Sunday Times on 29 December 2013 caught my eye and dealt with this problem, mocking somewhat sarcastically, as I have before, the allegation that Johannesburg is a world class African city!  Apparently the Western Cape does not have the same traffic problems and that is because it is dealt with better than it is in Johannesburg. Unbelievably, the Johannesburg Roads Agency or JRA only has 22 technicians to look after 2 113 traffic lights.  The centre that sends out those technicians is staffed by only four people who work 12 hour shifts of two people only.  In other words, when somebody lays a complaint about a robot being out of order, there are only two people that are dealing with those complaints at any given time.  One has to lay complaints because unlike other Municipalities, apparently Johannesburg does not have fully automated signals which would automatically alert the centre if there was a problem, so if motorists don’t tip them off and actually phone them, they will not know about the problem! 

The message is twofold – firstly, we need to report all traffic issues to the Johannesburg Roads Agency and secondly, we need to put pressure on the Municipality to allocate more staff, both technicians and to the management centre to deal with these problems which ultimately costs us probably billions in lost productivity as thousands of people sit unnecessarily in traffic every morning and every evening.  The registered site of the JRA is www.jra.org.za and the phone number, which you can put on your phone to call at any time when you come across a faulty traffic light or a problem is 0860 562 874 and the e-mail address is [email protected].