Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.
This paper presents the results of an on-going study and research into the work being
carried out by the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport in the Cradle of
Humankind World Heritage Site (COH WHS) in South Africa. The work entails the
implementation of traffic calming measures on the roads traversing the COH and an
attempt to balance nature versus human needs. The main objective of this paper is to
record the successes witnessed, the lessons learnt and to determine the suitability of
the various Traffic Calming applications to the local (South African) conditions. It is
hoped that the results will stimulate further research and assist engineers in achieving
practical applications of traffic calming measures and deduce an acceptable integration
of motorized and non-motorized transport in a rural setting. The paper was compiled
using a combination of methods which included
Literature Review – review of the investigation reports on traffic calming and the
implications to the road network, a look at international experiences as far as
management of traffic around heritage sites is concerned,
Interviews and Questionnaires distributed to mostly bicycle clubs who utilize the
facilities within the Cradle of Humankind to measure the effectiveness of the measures
implemented. This paper discusses some of the practical experiences encountered in
the implementation of traffic calming measures in the Cradle of Humankind. It highlights
the process followed from the status quo, identified possible traffic calming measures,
positioning of measures, challenges encountered before, during and after construction,
practical issues like road signs, speed restrictions, access control, surface treatments
etc. The results indicate that the process was partly iterative as some solutions had to
be revised after implementation due to user reaction. The paper highlights the
cornerstones of the Civil Engineering profession where the protection of human interests
and the natural environment takes precedence over the user system. The paper
concludes that while there were challenges encountered, the work is largely successful
and that there is room for further research to determine the potential for wider use of the
traffic calming measures on rural roads.
