Lights cost you half-hour daily

RESEARCH SAYS TIME LOST ADDS OVER R28 000 PER YEAR, WITH FUEL CONSUMPTION SPIKING

- Jabulile Mbatha

Johannesburg residents lose 37 minutes on average per day on the city's roads because of non-functional traffic lights, research by an expert shows.

"If the average time lost is 37 minutes per day, it will cost more than R28 000 per year," research by Dr Aurobindo Ograurban, regional planning lecturer at the University of Johannesburg, found.

"Fuel consumption is assumed to be 3.5 times higher due to traffic consumption."

However, the Joburg Roads Agency (JRA) said of its 2 023 traffic and warning lights, 75% were functional.

This was contrary to Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage saying the city's traffic light situation was a real concern.

"Our recent X poll indicates motorists are experiencing a deterioration in the functioning of traffic lights."

JRA's acting head of mobility and freight Phalanndwa Makhwathana said the issues with traffic lights were due to "electrical power supply challenges that contribute to over 25% of the experienced faults".

"Besides any other potentially attributable challenge, Eskom and City Power also experience theft and vandalism of the same network that supplies power to signals infrastructure," Makhwathana said.