City tips its hat to part time traffic attendants
29 June 2023
The attendants are a critical component of the Traffic Service's Road Safety Education Unit – helping thousands of children cross the roads safely each day to and from school. Today, they were celebrated during an appreciation ceremony at the Alphen Hall in Constantia.
The City has 128 Part-time Traffic Attendants (PTAs) who, along with 21 Traffic Officers, make up the Traffic Service's Road Safety Education Unit.
The PTAs' primary functions include helping children to safely use pedestrian crossings at or near their schools by regulating traffic, and coaching scholar patrols on how to regulate traffic at crossings.
Their deployment is determined by a number of factors, including the level of danger to pedestrians in an area around a school, the volume of child pedestrians and traffic at busy and/or dangerous intersections, as well as signage and access to pedestrian crossings. Attendants are on point duty on a daily basis, in the morning from 07:00 until 08:30 and then again in the afternoon, from 12:00 until 15:30, depending on the school times.
'Our traffic attendants play an important role in ensuring that learners are informed about road safety and learn the necessary skills to one day be responsible road users. They are on duty throughout the school year, come rain or shine, and we applaud their contribution to our communities. They are safety ambassadors with a mammoth task, and we would like to once again thank all our attendants for their willingness, commitment and perseverance in contributing to a safer environment for learners.
'The Traffic Service does not have unlimited reach with this initiative, and so there is an externally funded component, where schools can pay for their own PTA, or subcouncils or ward councillors. Schools also have the option of initiating a scholar patrol that the Traffic Service will train and equip, at no cost,' said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
MORE ABOUT THE CITY'S ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION UNIT
The unit has 113 scholar patrols under its wing, and in the last year, has presented nearly 2 300 educational lectures around road safety at schools and Early Childhood Development Centres.
The Traffic Service also has a Junior Traffic Centre at Hillstar Driving Licence Testing Centre, where they simulate real world scenarios for children, to help them get to grips with key road safety concepts.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
