Traffic cops hope new system stems road casualties
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday September 20, 2022 06:00
The traffic control system is currently being installed amongst monitoring sites mostly at major intersections and it is expected to monitor the state of the city’s core routes and digitally feed that information to the command centre.
Furthermore, these traffic lights will be able to adjust on-street traffic signals timing in real-time in line with traffic conditions to alleviate congestion as well as to ensure smooth traffic flow.
The majority of the traffic lights have started working even though they are not 100% complete. However, there is a public outcry as these partial traffic lights are now posing a risk to motorists as the majority of them do not have arrows that make taking a turn safe.
Across social media platforms, motorists have been pleading with government to respond to the situation with immediate effect before more lives are lost on the roads due to the malfunction of such traffic lights. This malfunction has resulted in motorists planning to turn being forced to wait for a very long time until oncoming traffic is cleared for them to make a turn, causing traffic congestion.
Acting out of lack of patience, some motorists end up forcing their way through oncoming traffic causing crashes. Asked if they are aware of the malfunction of most of the traffic lights in the Greater Gaborone posing a risk to people’s lives, Divisional Traffic Officer for South Central, Assistant Commissioner, Reginald Matlhaba conceded to be aware of this malfunction amongst most traffic lights in and around the city but assured the public their programming is currently ongoing. “As traffic police, we keep on advising the government through the relevant ministry to respond to the situation. But I can assure the public and motorists that these traffic lights’ installation is not yet complete.
Engineers are still on the ground, observing the situation to respond and fix the problem. The situation used to be worse but in some areas, they have completed sorting the problem,” he said. Matlhaba further revealed that in some locations, the installation is complete and traffic lights are working, relieving the police from traffic control duty on the ground. Appreciating the danger this poses to motorists and the public at large, Matlhaba pleaded for more patience on the road to avoid accidents that could claim lives.
The completion of the project will go a long way in relieving the police from the stress of controlling traffic during peak hours because non-core duties have hindered the police from performing their core functions. In the past, the police said the performance of non-core duties like facilitation of traffic flow at traffic lights was impacting negatively on their human resources as government does not budget for such duties when funds are allocated.