Cape Argus (Cape Town)
Lindsay Dentlinger
2 July 2009
Motorists caught repeatedly driving in the bus and minibus taxi (BMT) lane on the N2 during morning peak hour traffic now face arrest.
The City of Cape Town has vowed to crack down on serial offenders when it kicks off a blitz to catch BMT offenders next week.
A traffic officer will act as a spotter, radioing details of the transgressing motorist to other officers further down the road, who will pull the motorist over and also check for outstanding fines.
A first-time BMT offender can expect an on-the-spot fine of R300.
Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said camera surveillance had not proved to be an effective deterrent and the city was not winning the war of trapping offenders.
While thousands of motorists simply ignored fines, subsequent summons and warrants of arrest, thousands more were making representations as to why they should not be fined.
Some 40 000 fines have been is-sued since the lane came into operation almost two years ago.
But at least 20 percent of those fines had been squashed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, 117 in the past six months alone, Smith said.
The reasons for this were not known, he said.
The 11km lane, which stretch-es from Borcherd's Quarry to the M5 incoming lane, is open only to buses and minibus taxis on weekdays between 5.30am and 9am.
A set of 17 CCTV cameras with automatic number plate recognition currently monitors the traffic.
The city will now step up its enforcement of the lane and, from next week, will conduct a random trapping operation on one day each week.
Smith said the city would also issue a name-and-shame list of re-peat offenders. These were people who had up to 30 outstanding fines for repeatedly breaching the rules of the BMT.
"We are targeting those who make a calculated decision to offend," Smith said.
"The contempt for the BMT lane by non-public transport vehicles must stop."
Smith said the city had also noticed an increasing number of government vehicles using the dedicated lane outside the permitted hours.
The use of the lane by vehicles other than buses and taxis was interfering with the city's intentions of reducing the travel time for public transport commuters, he said.
The BMT was opened in August 2007 with the intention of easing traffic congestion and encouraging more people to use public transport.
Golden Arrow buses have re-ported an average saving on travel time of between 15 and 20 minutes a trip.
In March, the provincial government increased the fine for illegally using the lane from R200 to R300.
At the time, then-community safety MEC Patrick McKenzie said he had been shocked by the number of private vehicles illegally using the lane and said the situation could reach catastrophic proportions.
He had planned to reduce the speed limit in that lane to only 60km/h.
McKenzie had also warned police officers not use the lane illegally when there was no emergency.
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