Jhb gets new traffic lights

Friday, 22 July 2011

The city of Johannesburg is planning on installing solar-powered traffic lights.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) announced the initiative on 21 July and said traffic lights across the city would be fitted with uninterrupted power supply units.

This would improve traffic conditions for motorists, the JRA said on www.news24.com.

Spokesperson Thulani Makhubela said more than R11m would be spent on modernising traffic lights and monitoring systems at significant intersections.

Main intersections would be fitted with uninterrupted power supply units  so that should there be power cuts in the area, the lights would continue working.

Almost a third of the city’s traffic lights now sport light-emitting diodes, which are much brighter than normal globes and therefore improve visibility.

Many recently-upgraded traffic lights have been vandalised and Makhubela says theft and vandalism cost ratepayers and the city an additional R14.5 million.

Cape Town was the first South African city to install solar-powered traffic lights back in 2007.

At the time, the National Energy Efficiency Agency said that an eight-pole traffic light set used the same amount of electricity as a family of four in a three-bedroom house. Wow!

Back in 2008, it was reported that the Central Energy Fund announced a huge campaign to install solar-powered traffic lights at important intersections across the country to fight the congestion caused by power cuts.

The power outages were said to cause chaos and to impact negatively on the country’s economy.

So even though the project started out to be more about relieving traffic congestion and making it easier on commuters, the added benefit of reducing electricity consumption and raising awareness about solar power has definitely been a positive spin-off for the environment.