City Council approves Road Safety Strategy for Cape Town
26 August 2026
The City of Cape Town Council officially approved the updated Road Safety Strategy for Cape Town recently following a public participation process where residents provided input. The strategy ultimately directs the City’s efforts in making Cape Town’s roads safer and reducing the number of accidents and loss of life. The updated strategy addresses road safety for pedestrians, other non-motorised transport road users and passengers, especially scholars and public transport users.
The City is responsible for leading the development, coordination and oversight of road safety initiatives and this updated strategy now reflects current conditions and emerging road safety challenges. The approved strategy places a particular focus on vulnerable road users. Through the implementation of the strategy, the City will continue prioritising interventions such as safer pedestrian crossings, traffic calming measures, improved road safety around schools, safer walking and cycling environments, public awareness campaigns and targeted enforcement in high-risk locations.
‘Road safety affects us all and is a key priority for us. We believe that the implementation of the Road Safety for Cape Town strategy will streamline and improve our efforts in improving road safety for residents right across our city. We thank all the residents and organisations who provided valuable input to our Transport Network Safety team. The suggestions helped our specialists with further insight to how road safety affects our various communities and their commuting across Cape Town. Bottom line, every road user deserves to travel safely; whether they’re walking, cycling, using public transport or driving and we believe this strategy will support and coordinate the City’s efforts in working towards this reality.
‘Existing initiatives involving schools, communities and local stakeholders will be strengthened and expanded where opportunities exist, recognising that road safety is a shared responsibility that requires collaboration between government, residents, educational institutions and civil society organisations so that together, we can all keep Cape Town moving, safely,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, Councillor Rob Quintas.
As an immediate next step, the City will focus on strengthening existing road safety programmes already identified in the strategy and currently being implemented across Cape Town. These interventions will be supported by the development of a detailed Implementation Framework that will translate the strategy into specific actions, responsibilities and delivery timeframes for these to be implemented as soon as possible. The team will follow a data-led and area-based approach to identify high-risk locations and vulnerable communities, enabling the City to prioritise interventions where they are most needed.
In parallel, the City is finalising a Performance Management Framework containing measurable performance indicators, targets and reporting mechanisms to enable ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the road safety outcomes that have been set out.
Residents can be assured that progress will be tracked and interventions will be refined where necessary to ensure that resources are directed towards areas where there is the greatest need.
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