Runciman Drive in Simon's Town is a scenic route that offers a bypass to the Simon’s Town Main Road (Saint George’s Street). Essentially, it serves several residential suburbs on the hillside above the Main Road, inter alia, Mount Pleasant, Admirals Kloof, Goede Gift, Living Waters, Flagship Way, Harbour Heights, and Simon’s Town School.  It has two episodes of peak traffic during weekdays, driven by the South African Navy and Armscor Dockyard workforce. Many of these peak-hour vehicles use Runciman Drive as a shortcut to avoid slow-moving traffic on Simon's Town Main Road. This shortcut is frequented by both taxis and private vehicles.  Additionally, the road serves as an alternative to the Main Road should it be closed for any reason e.g. roadworks, naval events and running and cycling events, etc.  In addition Runciman is used to drop students at the local Simon's Town school and many students walk home along it.

Runciman Drive provides hundreds of locals with access to their homes and is a favourite route for walkers young and old, some with dogs others with young children, joggers, cyclists, and skateboarders. Many visitors take the opportunity to stop at the lay byes for the view over the harbour and across the bay.

Speeding and/or reckless/negligent driving on this route poses a real threat to all of these road users. There is a common tendency for vehicles to ignore the 60km/h speed limit on Runciman Drive, creating many risks for pedestrians, bikes, pets, and wildlife, including porcupines, genets, tortoises etc. 

In addition  the blind corner at the intersection of Runciman Drive and Nelson Way is of concern as it is the sole access to the suburb of Simon's Kloof and many ‘near misses’ occur at this intersection.  Licence Number Plate recognition cameras record 600 vehicles every weekday and 450 on weekends entering/exiting Nelson Way from  Runciman Drive alone.  Imagine this extrapolated for the entire Runciman Drive. While there is a stop sign at the entrance to Goede Gift, this is not the case for the intersection of Runciman Drive and Nelson Way.   Apart from Simon’s Kloof, all of the residential access roads along Runciman Drive are threatened by speeding motorists.

The Simon’s Town Civic Association, Simon’s Kloof Neighbourhood Watch, and Simon’s Town Community Police Forum are in the process of jointly formally requesting the City of Cape Town’s Traffic Services and Traffic Engineers for the area to address both the speeding concern as well as the dangerous intersections by whatever means the city has at its disposal. For example, lowering the speed limit, more prominent signage, fixed speed cameras (such as the one found on Boyes drive), traffic calming measures such as speed humps or platforms (similar to Beach Road - Strand), a stop sign at the Nelson Way intersection and/or that of Living Waters & Harbour Heights - similar to the one found at the intersection of Runciman Drive and Goede Gift.

Please support this petition and to add weight to the response feedback -  please add in the comment box 'if and how' you are impacted by Runciman drive.  Your time and support is appreciated.