The long wait — Can Johannesburg's broken traffic lights be fixed before the G20?

In January, Daily Maverick started our Johannesburg Traffic Light Project, the first community-driven investigation of traffic lights and congestion in the city. Six months later, we returned to see if things are worse or better: it’s still chronically deficient, but improvements are showing the value of citizen engagement.

Information from the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) shows that Johannesburg residents lose 55 hours a year to congestion – the city ranks 31st globally in terms of hours lost due to traffic delays. Traffic light functionality is key to moving people and goods efficiently in cities.

Dead traffic lights are a symbol of Johannesburg’s urban decline.

There are 2,264 signalised sites (or intersections) in Johannesburg, run by the city, province, and national spheres of government. Until now, the three spheres of the state haven’t worked together seamlessly, which has added to networked confusion and blame games. That is being fixed (see more below).

Read more: Lights out in Joburg – thousands of traffic signals on the blink amid power cuts, budget blues and vandalism

We go back – a long drive to traffic freedom.

In June, we returned to the same routes as in January and expanded our loop to cover the 60 intersections identified by the government, which give people the biggest headaches and slow down the city’s powerhouse. We also revisited the 231 intersections noted by you, our audience.

In June, we drove for days, trying to gauge the progress. Our drive-around took us along major roadways, including Main Reef Road, up Malibongwe Drive to Diepsloot, down to Swartkoppies Road in the South, on to Modderfontein Road in and around Greenstone Mall and up Hendrik Potgieter Road.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency and the Gauteng government have identified 60 intersections that impede traffic and hinder growth. They have partnered to try to improve things. We used a JRA progress report sent to Daily Maverick as a baseline document and found that of 59 intersections highlighted, 28 were working and 31 were not. (The JRA gave us a list of 59.)

The intersections that were not working included crossroads that had been converted to stop signs, while there was evidence of previous traffic lights that had been removed. The JRA’s head of mobility, Sipho Nhlapo, said one intersection had been vandalised 14 times until the city decided to replace it with stop signs; this has subsequently become a pattern.

We also re-tracked the 231 intersections highlighted by our audience, some of which included the top 60 prominent intersections now subject to special attention.

This paints a more dismal picture, where we found 73 working traffic lights (four or more per intersection) versus 163 non-working lights along major high-traffic roads.

Without the metro police, JMPD, the Outsurance points-people and increasingly the homeless people who man the roads, there would be more chaos. But we also noted that these street angels work only during rush hours.

In our first iteration of the Traffic Light Project, a social post on X received 190,000 impressions and 3,466 engagements. Johannesburg residents helped map (see graphic above) the breakdown to expose its extent.

This first social investigation experiment revealed the extent to which the major intersections across the city, its vital commuter and economic nerve centres, are down, causing frustration to drivers, commuters and economic actors.

In the second iteration, Daily Maverick conducted an inspection by driving to build on its social media reporting.

The traffic crawl — how does SA stack up?

At a briefing this week, Nhlapo said that each December, their team waits, like matriculants, for the results of the TomTom Traffic Index. Dead robots impact on travel times, productivity, and harm the economy. Johannesburg contributes 16% to the country’s GDP.

TomTom’s report measures traffic congestion in cities worldwide. It ranks hundreds of cities based on the amount of time drivers lose due to traffic. The TomTom Traffic Index measures congestion as a percentage increase in travel time compared to free-flowing traffic over a 10km distance.

Here are the world’s most congested cities – you will see that Joburg is at number 167.

TomTom Traffic Index top 10 Most Congested Cities:

1. Mexico City – Mexico (52%)
2. Bangkok - Thailand (50%)
3. Davao City – Philippines (49%)
4. Kumamoto – Japan (49%)
5. Bucharest – Romania (48%)
167. Johannesburg – South Africa (32%)

The city also uses the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecards to measure and understand congestion. Johannesburg has a congestion level of 32%, meaning journey times are 32% longer than those in free-flowing traffic. The average travel time over 10km in Johannesburg is 18 minutes and 38 seconds, a 10-second increase from the previous year.

In South Africa, Johannesburg ranks 5th among the listed cities for average travel time per 10km and congestion level, behind Cape Town (1), where travel times are lengthening. During the morning rush hour in Johannesburg, the average time to travel 10km is 21 minutes and 13 seconds, with an average speed of 28.3km/h and a congestion level of 49%. During evening rush hour in Johannesburg, the average time to travel 10km is 21 minutes and 59 seconds, with an average speed of 27.3km/h and a congestion level of 54%, according to the briefing by the JRA and the Gauteng government.

How much time do we lose in traffic?

INRIX is a comprehensive look at traffic congestion around the world, measuring it in terms of hours lost per year. Here are the Top 10 and an indication of where Johannesburg fits in.

1. Istanbul – 105 hours
2. New York City – 102 hours
3. Chicago – 102 hours
4. London – 101 hours
5. Mexico City – 97 hours
6. Paris – 97 hours
7. Cape Town – 94 hours
8. Jakarta – 89 hours
9. Los Angeles – 88 hours
10. Brisbane – 84 hours
11. Johannesburg – 55 hours

What’s the fix-it plan?

The upcoming G20 Summit at Nasrec in November has put a bomb under city and provincial leaders because traffic light outages are such a prominent and visible sign of decline. There is a dedicated transport G20 plan with a whole team working on it to ensure that the routes for heads of state and their entourages don’t encounter potholes or traffic light outages.

The city and provincial officials stated at this week’s briefing that African hosts always roll out the red carpet and that the entire city will see improvements. JRA has a R2.5-billion capital budget this year to improve the road network, and Nhlapo was bouncing with ideas at the briefing this week.

Here is what you can expect or hold the city to for the rest of the year and in the short term, according to city officials – we will return just ahead of the G20 with another look.

A modernised traffic light system

Johannesburg’s infrastructure is dated: most of the key systems, including power and water, as well as traffic lights, have not been modernised for a rapidly urbanising country.

Better traffic flow through more modern traffic lights

Joburg has 759 “semi-actuated” control intersections, which means that only side roads are equipped with sensors or detectors. In contrast, the main road has a fixed green light unless a vehicle is detected on a minor intersecting side road. There will be more of these.

It has 25 “fully-actuated” signalised intersections, and more will be introduced. These are important because signals respond to real-time traffic conditions and enhance traffic flow. There will be more of these.

AI-powered signals: Full-vehicle actuated signals using Traficam AI have recently been implemented at two intersections: Winnie Mandela/Sandton Drive and Comaro/Bellairs.

Maintenance by driving around or using remote control

A proactive maintenance plan is in place to visit every signalised site (intersection) monthly.

Remote Infrastructure Monitoring on a dashboard that allows instant fault detection in the signal infrastructure. Syntell, a tech company, manages a third of Johannesburg’s traffic lights.

Adopt a traffic light.

Businesses have adopted 110 sites, and 50 companies have concluded service-level agreements with the JRA to ensure the intersections near their offices work. They provide back-up power for traffic lights, as power outages are one of the three key reasons that traffic lights go down.

Underground safety chambers

These protective chambers are being implemented to prevent theft and vandalism of signal infrastructure. Vandalism, such as targeting copper or deliberately sabotaging traffic lights, is one of the most significant factors contributing to non-functional traffic lights. The underground chambers will be placed at eight intersections that are regularly vandalised.

Controller cabinet brackets

Controller brackets are being used to support and secure signal infrastructure against theft and vandalism.

Reduced copper content cables

The use of cables with reduced copper content and thinner thickness is an initiative to prevent theft. Thieves destroy traffic lights to access the copper wiring. By using aluminium instead, the city hopes to achieve diminished returns.

Alarms and cameras

Using controller boxes, intersections will have alarms that trigger signals. There will be more cameras at key intersections and CCTV monitoring.

Daily Maverick highlights the following roads that came up for citizen monitoring in our first report in January.

1. Columbine Avenue – all intersections working
2. Main Reef Road – all intersections working
3. Allandale Road between Gautrain Depot and M39 – only two out of 10 lights working
4. Winnie Mandela and Republic Road – not working
5. Jan Smuts Avenue – all intersections working
6. Rivonia Road – all intersections working
7. Sunninghill area – many lights not working
8. Ontdekkers Road – multiple intersections not working
9. Chris Hani Road in Soweto between Maponya Mall and Bara Hospital – most lights not working
10. Eloff Extension down into Turfontein and Rossettenville – most lights not working. DM

This investigation was produced with the support of the SA | AJP, an initiative of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation funded by the European Union. This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Research by Shahdia Johnson and Zane Carim.