October 3, 2006
By Lucky Sindane
CITY officials took to the streets on Monday morning, 2 October as Public Transport Month kicked off, to raise awareness of its ridesharing initiative, RideSmart.
Together with other officials, the mayoral committee member for transport, Rehana Moosajee, spoke to motorists about RideSmart Rea Vaya, which is part of the City's Integrated Transport Plan. The plan was recently approved by the City council. One of the approved projects is the development of a Travel Demand Management programme.
Its objective is to cut down the total number of individual journeys during the morning and evening peak periods, so alleviating traffic congestion during those hours and saving the environment.
"We want to encourage people to stop driving on their own to work or gym and start sharing rides with people who live in the same area," said the City's deputy director for transportation management, Alfred Sam.
"Using one car with four people will minimise the traffic congestion on our roads."
Ridesharing is a flexible and convenient way to get people where they need to go, at any anytime. The programme targets people with private vehicles. Those who are interested can register their names and travel details at the RideSmart help desk on 011 407 6699 or by clicking on the RideSmart logo on the right-hand side of the Johannesburg City website.
The help desk will assist them to find a suitable rideshare partner who works and lives near them and who has a similar work schedule. Once a suitable rideshare partner has been found, the help desk agent will co-ordinate a meeting at the City's offices where the partners can get to know one another.
However, if you can't make it to the City's offices, a meeting should be held at a public place before starting to rideshare.
"The response has been good so far. We have also engaged business people in this initiative. Some companies want to roll out buses to their employees who live in the same areas," Moosajee said.
"RideSmart will help people to save petrol, to drive less and to reduce the traffic congestion on our city's busy roads. We'll continue creating awareness about this project throughout the city."
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