So, here is an uncomfortable but practical proposal. The cycling community itself should fund a targeted enforcement pilot. When enforcement is visible and consequences are certain, behaviour changes.
Last week, I rode into Camps Bay minutes after Idries Sheriff was killed by an alleged drunk driver. It could so easily have been me. Seven years ago, it was me.
His blood alcohol test was botched, so he fled the country. I’m still here, so I count myself lucky. Too many aren’t, the white memorial bicycles are testament to that.
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South Africa is not indifferent to road safety. We have campaigns, advocacy groups and memorial rides. In the Western Cape, there is even a regulation requiring motorists to leave space when passing cyclists.
But every time they head out, cyclists shoulder the burden of visibility, caution and the real chance of dying. That is not because awareness is low or because the rules do not exist. It is because dangerous behaviour on our roads remains a low-risk activity.
The probability of being stopped, charged, prosecuted and meaningfully punished is still too low to change behaviour. When enforcement is thin, the road belongs to the fastest and the most reckless. This is not a request for a handout.
It is not a demand for special treatment. It is an offer to pay, in advance, for capacity that makes dangerous behaviour a high-risk activity rather than a low-risk one. Cape Town already accepts a simple principle.
Communities may fund supplementary public safety services. We do this through City Improvement Districts to reduce theft, vandalism and assault. Crucially, funding does not equal authority.
Enforcement powers remain with the state. A cyclist-funded pilot (let’s call it Project Idries) would not outsource traffic enforcement or create private police. Traffic law enforcement must remain the responsibility of authorised officers.
What cyclists would fund is capacity around enforcement. This includes visible patrolling, rapid incident response, evidence capture and a clean evidence pipeline that makes it easier for the authorities to enforce the law. Importantly, this capacity would apply to all dangerous behaviour on the road, not only to motorists.
Cyclists who ride recklessly, ignore red lights, ride unpredictably in traffic or endanger pedestrians would be subject to the same scrutiny and intervention. Road safety only works when rules apply to everyone who uses the road. This is how City Improvement Districts already work.
They fund patrol vehicles, radios, cameras, control rooms and personnel who observe, deter and respond, then liaise with police or traffic officials who exercise arrest and prosecutorial powers. The model is established. The application to cycling safety is simply overdue.
To make this real and testable, the pilot should be specific. A six-month, weekend-only deployment along one of Cape Town’s most heavily used recreational cycling corridors, from the city centre along the Atlantic Seaboard and over Chapman’s Peak to Noordhoek.
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