Livin' local

About a year or so ago I read Barbara Kingsolver's book, 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle'. I really like the whole locavore concept, which is about eating food that is grown locally produced and in season. Local farmers' markets and home grown veggies are winners here; none of this eating grapes in winter, flown in from abroad (just think of all those non-green noxious airplane fumes expelled just to bring the food in).

There's a big hoo-haa in Jo'burg about the new road tolling system on the major highway around the greater city and also between Jo'burg and Pretoria. These highways are crucial to... everything.

The reasoning behind tolling these critical highways is to reduce congestion by discouraging people (financiallu) from using the roads and encouraging them to use [impractical and insufficient] public transport. Sure, if you live and work close to a Gautrain station, it makes sense to zip to work on the Gautrain. But if you don't? And what about reps and other people who are mobile all day. And what about the trucks transporting food and goods...

The toll fees are hefty - from 49 cents to 66 cents per kilometre for regular vehicles; much higher for trucks (like over R2/km).

I live close to a major intersection that allows me to conveniently zip North, South, East or West without blinking. But, within two or three kilometres of hitting the highway I pass under the tolling gantries that automatically bill for a set number of kilometres, as measured between gantries.

I usually take the highway to my dance class. It's probably about five kilometres on the highway; and another five on a major suburban road. But, I would be tolled for a full section of highway - say 11 or 12 kilometres. That means that my return trip to class could cost about R12. No train or bus heading that way. Sure, I can take back roads - and I've done so many times. But it is inconvenient and slow because of all the stop streets and traffic lights - and traffic at peak periods. Same goes for my local dam for paddling - 15 mins on the highway; 20-45 mins on back roads.

Visiting friends in the northern suburbs... that's anything from 25 to 50-odd kilometres of highway. Social visits start to cost. And zipping to an orienteering event on the other side of Jo'burg... Could be R50 in tolls plus the R40 entry fee...

I'm fortunate not to have a daily commute - it could set people back anything from a few hundred to over R2000 per month. That's a helluva lot of money on top of your existing fuel and maintenance costs. I was commuting almost daily for the last six months, passing two gantries. I'm guessing at about R20 to R25 per return trip. That's up to R500 extra per month; and there's no easy or quick or short back roads out there (nor buses, nor trains) from home.

Although it makes sense to live close to where you work - less time on the road means more time at home with family or more time for training - but it isn't always practical. Property prices near work may be out of your range; your current home may be a good location for your partner; and your children may be in school close to home.

These tolls, which are meant to come online mid-year, will certainly make me think twice before zooting off to a meeting, attending events, visiting people or just going somewhere to check something out. Maybe a solution is to designate one meeting day a week where I pack everything into one trip - but I try to do this anyway because time spent sitting in a car is time I'd rather spend doing other things.

I'm already giving even more attention to living local, which I've been doing for some time anyway. I've got local (local, like within a five kilometre distance) service providers like printers and plumbers. Most of my activities are based close to home. But, I still find that I drive big distances over weekends for events and visiting. Jo'burg is a big place.

Mmm... To a degree they're achieving their objective of encouraging people to use the highways less. I'm certainly going to try, as far as possible, to stay away from these road systems because I'm resentful about paying, paying, paying. I'm also uncertain how much of a dent this system will really make on our traffic because so many people have to commute by highway; and the suburban roads are going to get incredibly congested; and the price of absolutely everything will go up. Afterall, even if goods are transported by train, within the city they're transported by trucks; there is no other way.