EcoMageddon

They are calling it the  EcoMobility World Festival - the month-long moratorium on driving in the Sandton CBD. A "festival"?  More like an EcoMageddon.

From today, October 1st to the 31st, there will be new pedestrian zones and cycling lanes introduced, additional public transport resources available, and major traffic restrictions put in place for ordinary automobiles in the Sandton CBD. The idea is to relieve the daily gridlock by giving preference to alternative methods of transportation such as bicycles and mass transportation.  But I am still not clear on how it will actually work in practice. I am afraid. Very afraid.

Hey, I am all for reducing air pollution and eliminating gridlock; it's not that. It's just that I have not seen any real communication on how I am supposed to get to the Sandton CBD without actually driving there. Where do I hook up with these "additional public transport resources"? Is that a bus by the way?

Luckily, I do not spend that much time in the Sandton CBD. I mostly go through it - now I will go around it. (And probably so will everyone else which means the gridlock will not necessarily be eliminated but will instead just shift to outside the CBD boundaries.)

And really, I do not think the gridlock problem is as much a "too many cars" problem as it is a "too much construction" problem or a "non-working robot" problem, i.e. multiple lanes reduced to a single lane due to construction vehicles and stoplights out due to load-shedding. Maybe we should have a "construction festival" or a "load-shedding festival" instead.

I occasionally go shopping in Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square and I do take the Gautrain when I am traveling to the airport by myself - both are right in the heart of the CBD - but my only other up-close encounter with the Sandton CBD is the daily commute to Vince's office when he is in town. His office is just on the edge of the CBD on Grayston Drive. Vince is in town today so I will find out soon enough exactly what I am up against for the next month.

Countdown to EcoMageddon. It could be a very long month ...