The City of Cape Town launched new traffic signals at targeted intersections in Table View in May 2022 to reduce confusion among public transport and private vehicle operators and, in turn, vehicle-related accidents in the area.
The new traffic signals only use white to indicate whether a MyCiTi bus has right of way, instead of the traditional red, amber, and green – a design that was derived from international best practices.
Before, the bus signals were often mistaken as signals for vehicular traffic, which led to private vehicles reacting erroneously and causing collisions.
In March 2024, the Mother City announced that the new system was a veritable success and that it intends to include the innovative signals in the South African Road Traffic Signs Manual for use by other metros in the country.
Now roughly five months later, TopAuto touched base with the City’s Urban Mobility Directorate to find out how effective these signals are, if it plans to expand them to more areas within its jurisdiction, and whether it has noted any interest from other metros in South Africa to integrate the signals into their road traffic management arsenal.
A positive impact on road safety
Councillor Rob Quintas, Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, said that the City performed after-studies following the implementation of the new traffic lights that indicated a positive impact on road safety.
Traffic operations were recorded on video and the rate of occurrence of common conflicts was compared between the normal and pilot intersections. Common conflicts include private motor vehicles turning right across the path of a bus that has a green signal.
“A noticeable reduction occurred in the number of private motor vehicles entering and crossing the intersection at the pilot site compared to the control site,” said Quintas.
At the pilot intersection, the study recorded 19% of all private vehicles making potentially dangerous movements, a significant reduction from the 25% at the standard intersection.
Additionally, questionnaire surveys of pedestrians, bus drivers, and other drivers were undertaken to determine the level of understanding of the new versus old signals, as well as the reactions to the new signals.
“A high proportion of residents and non-residents found the new signals to be clear. Bus drivers indicated a preference for the new signals,” said Quintas.
However, safety outcomes for pedestrians were more difficult to determine given that pedestrians tend to look for gaps in the traffic stream instead of relying on traffic signals to guide them across roads, he said.
These promising findings have supported the approval for further implementation of the traffic signal system across the City of Cape Town.
The metro will now integrate the signals on other existing MyCiTi bus routes within the broad city boundaries, as well as install them on any new bus lanes that will be built over the coming years.
On the topic of other municipalities employing these traffic signals, Quintas indicated that the City of Cape Town hasn’t received much interest from its peers around the country.
He further said that the delegation for approval of pilot projects of this nature rests with the National Minister of Transport.
“The City applied to the National Minister of Transport via the National Department of Transport to have the current pilot project extended to other MyCiTi routes within the broader City of Cape Town metropolitan area,” said Quintas.
“The National Minister of Transport, Ms. Barbara Creecy, has just approved the expansion of the pilot IRT signal project to other MyCiTi routes, this is a huge achievement for our team and we are truly excited about the roll-out of this innovative solution, which is a first for South Africa, along some of the other routes as well.”
TopAuto reached out to the Department of Transport to inquire whether it has plans to incentivise the usage of the innovative traffic intervention system by other municipalities, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
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