Word on the street - Should Lower Main be an open street?
Following the success of the recent Open Streets event, which saw Main Road from Observatory to the city centre closed to vehicles, and Streetopia this past weekend, ObsLife took to the streets of Observatory to find out what people think about closing off Lower Main Road to vehicle traffic and creating a permanent "open street"
Here is what people had to say:
Name: Zanele Juqumisa
Occupation: Owner of store Wafwako
(Resident of Sting Bay)
“It’s nice working here but sometimes its kind of difficult because business is quiet. So [closing off the road] would be great. That will work, I like that A lot”
Name: Anselmo Doho
Occupation: Artist
Resident of Langa
“I come to Obs to make business. Just look around, its nice for art. The idea is not bad, we got many traffic. The traffic is here you see [points to lower main road]”
Name: Romisha Steemberg
Occupation: employee at Voom Voom Vintage
“That would be quite cool. I don’t like cars. But when it comes to traffic around the afternoon it wont really work out. It becomes so congested up there so cars come down to lower main.
“A lot of local taxis like the public taxis from Athlone/ Wynberg uses the roads to work, and for them the more trips they make the more money they make so with traffic they always try and cut through it. In that sense It wouldn’t be a great idea for taxi drivers”
Name: Ralph Heiden
Occupation: employee at
(Resident of Observatory )
“That would unfortunately create a lot of traffic. How would they [Obs residents]get home? You’ve got to take into consideration people live here. They could do that at St. George’s mall because there are other streets”
Name: Najlah Issacs
Occupation: owner of maids of vintage shop.
“Obs is a lovely area. I like running a business here. I absolutely agree with the idea. We have loads of huge trucks here. I think the area between station road and the top of Lower Main is the area that needs to be addressed. It would be lovely, we would have less cars on the toad”