Since the introduction of the N2 Bus and Taxi Lane (B&T) two weeks ago, the Cape Town City council has issued over R850,000 in fines to 1700 motorists!

Do the math - that’s over R60,000 a day in fines!

The N2 is the major arterial highway that connects the Cape Town to Khayelitsha, Langa, Gugaletu and then onto the Cape Town International Airport.

Now normal law abiding motorists who are just trying to make a living are fined an absolutely ridiculous R500.00 each time they are caught in the B&T lane.

The council hasn’t added a lane but rather taken one away. The already congested 3 lane highway has been reduced it to two lanes.

The taxi operators now own the right hand lane.

Sure it is a dedicated transport lane but where was the research into the lane’s viability? What about a traffic management analysis to measure its impact on existing traffic flows? Why not add another lane? Isn’t the R60,000 a day in fines an indication that something is wrong?

And besides, Cape Town doesn’t have a safe, reliable and effective public transport system!

Many countries throughout the world have introduced dedicated transport lanes but been clever enough to call them T2 or T3 lanes. That is any vehicle can use the public transport lane if the vehicle has two, three or more occupants.

Many highways and roads have speed traps to catch motorists, yet non have been installed on the N2 B&T Lane. Why?

Taxis are renowned for speeding - just look at the number of taxis involved in the 12,000+ yearly road death toll. Yet the council has chosen money ahead of public safety by setting cameras up to detect lane violations rather than taxi speeding.

So, this begs the question - “For how long is the Cape Town City Council going to milk this new cash cow?”.