Attorney Michael de Broglio on: South Africa, Law, Politics, Attorneys, Sport, Photography, Technology, Gadgets, Media, Crime, Road Accidents Fund,
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One of the questions that will be answered, fairly quickly once all of the toll roads begin is whether or not that will increase congestion on the non-toll roads. In other words, will people, instead of incurring the cost on the toll road, now make greater use of roads, for example, like William Nicol and Main Road?
If that is the case, some already fairly serious congestion is going to get a lot worse. I have no doubt that at the beginning things may be more difficult than they have been previously, but to me the answer lies in a clever book written two or three years ago about crowd sourcing and the wisdom of crowds. I believe that some people will move to roads to avoid the expenses, but if too many move, the road will become so intolerable that other people who were not using the toll road before, will move to that road, and some of those who don’t feel that they can afford to use the toll road will decide to use it anyway, rather than go through the torture of a much worse traffic.
In other words, I think the people will sort themselves out and while there may be some initial congestion on arterial side roads that will very quickly subside, and the traffic flow will be back to normal fairly quickly. We will not end up with a situation where one route costing R10,00 takes 10 minutes and another route being for free takes 30 minutes. Some people may have to make tough decisions though and see what other expenses they can cut, hopefully starting with smoking cigarettes!
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Thursday 19-Jan-12
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Comments
Daniela said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 02:32 PM
I agree unequivocally with Brenda. Some people really just cannot afford it.
We subsidise so many things already that having to cut back on the one little luxury our life affords us (for example smoking or shoes – however healthy or unhealthy) should not even be an option.
Coincidentally, our ‘luxury’ is now also going to cost us more as we watch the price of food and all consumer goods increase because of these companies having to increase transport costs.
Luckily I do not use the toll route at all.
Cherise said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 02:19 PM
I feel the exact same way, I know I will be in the category of people who will jsut use the high way and pay that extra than sit in traffic for double the time.
I hate sitting in traffic and ecspecially when it is time to go home. I do know that there will be an increase in the "back roads " that we normaly take to work because people will not want to pay that extra money, when its already a cost of paying for petrol (that just keeps going up) as well.
I am interested to see ho0w this is going to go down though :-)
Brenda said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 02:09 PM
Fortunately, the way i travel 90% of the time does not require me to go through the new toll system. Leaving me to carry on with my daily travels without adjusting my expenses, and not having to worry about cutting anything out.
The solution shouldn't have to be that people have to cut anything down, the solution should be to leave the roads just as they are! People are very disgruntled about this new e-toll system as they work very hard to support their families and now they have to take a cut in salary of not 100's but 1000's of Rand's just to get to work and back!
I'm all for solutions, but not at the expense of the consumer, we already pay ridiculous tax, now we are put in this financial predicament once again.
Genevievé said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 02:02 PM
Everybody has bad habits, smoking is but one of them... People spend R1000 on a pair of shoes, where I spend R50... I still think that it is not fair that the busses and taxi are exempt from paying, they already get away with murder - metaphorically speaking. And let's be honest, the majority of people travelling by way of public transport are our black community. From now on, all of us should use public transport, and let their plan back fire on them...
Lucretia said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 01:52 PM
It is all about balancing the books. If one spends more time in the side streets in traffic, it may end up being more cost effective at the end of the day to use the toll roads. Petrol and time vs toll.
Julie said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 12:00 PM
It won't just drive me to smoking more but probably taking up drinking as well, lol. Aaahhh Michael, you're so precious! You're not going to get people to stop smoking - smokers will probably be smoking more because they will rather endure the congestion on "side roads" than give it up - which will result in longer trips, more sigarettes... I suppose the people who can afford making use of the toll roads will have a safer, less stressful and quicker trip - for those using the longer, more congested routes will probably be spending more on fuel ....
Robyn said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 11:41 AM
I agree partially here. Some people can however really not afford to use these toll roads and they will keep using the side roads even though traffic will be very bad for a while. I reckon they'll think the same way and stick to the side roads till the other people go back to the toll roads.
elaine said:
on Thursday 19-Jan-12 11:32 AM
what rubbish do people really belive that with tolls it is going to make the roads travelled better? my husband drives every day from alberton to the other side of pretoria where there are how many of these monstrosity toll things have been put up. and every day there is accidents and the traffic is insane and will still be when they have this system in place! why must we pay to sit in that traffic? there's no way! and for the record he doesn't smoke!
Johannesburg based attorney specializing in personal injury matters including Road Accident Fund claims and medical negligence matters. My interests include golf, reading and the internet and the way it is constantly developing. I have a passion for life and a desire for less stress!
