Cape Town wants you to work from home (or take a bus) to reduce congestion

The City of Cape Town would much prefer you working from home, or thinking twice about those nine-to-five slogs. This after the City revealed a work-in-progress strategy for reducing traffic congestion in Cape Town.

According to an EWN report, the strategy will debut in front of council next week, and should include interesting proposals like a boost to public transport, parking perks that privilege irregular parking hours, and carpooling.

More interestingly though, the City also wants employers to introduce flexible working hours, or a reduced work week. You can now smile a little wider.

Perhaps working from home is the solution to Cape Town’s congestion woes?

This is already being trialed in Sweden, where employees are only required to work six-hour work days. But it has come under considerable scrutiny largely thanks to its cost on the country’s coffers.

For those vehemently dedicated to their jobs, the City wants Capetonians to shift to public transport where possible.

But public transport itself remains a massive issue in the city, as some commuters have noted.

Cape Town city council starting to fail badly.Traffic congestion,failed commuter rail service,failing water infrastructure,gangs,housing etc

— Don Fraser (@donscot23) March 21, 2017

Metrorail, the country’s metropolitan public rail service, has been plagued by ailing service delivery, late trains and incidents of vandalism. And while MyCiti, Cape Town’s inner city rapid transit network, is relatively reliable, it doesn’t cover the entire breadth of the metropole.

Nevertheless, the City of Cape Town has tabled around R750-million for development of the city’s transport infrastructure within the next five years.