Keep Left
On the road or on the pavement, the rule is the same: keep left. Capetonians spend a chunk of their lives on the N1, the M3 and the promenade. The cheapest way to make all of it better costs nothing and happens in your own lane.
Take the pledge
Cruise left. Pass right. Chill.
What Keep Left is about — on the road and on the pavement
The rule is not complicated: the left lane is for cruising, the right is for passing. When people sit in the right lane at the same speed as the traffic beside them, everything behind them stacks up, people start weaving, and a normal Tuesday commute becomes a low-grade fight.
Cape Town feels this more than most cities because so much of it funnels through a handful of routes. The N1 past Century City, the N2 through Borcherds Quarry, De Waal Drive in the morning. There is no new lane coming. What we have is how we use the ones that are there.
Keep Left is also about the rest of it. Letting the minibus taxi in instead of closing the gap. Zip-merging properly at the roadworks instead of racing to the cone. Not blocking the intersection when the robots are out. Indicating, which is apparently controversial.
And it is not only about cars. Walk left on the Sea Point promenade and the runners, the prams and the dogs all get past each other without anyone breaking stride. Same on the Green Point path, same on the tunnels through town.
You cannot fix the traffic. You can be one of the drivers who makes the queue behind you a little calmer, every single day.
I'm in — take the pledge
Eight rules of the road, ours
None of these cost you more than a few seconds. All of them are felt by everyone behind you.
Cruise left
If nobody is in front of you, you are in the right lane for the wrong reason. Move over.
Pass, then move back
The right lane is a lane you visit, not one you live in. Overtake and return.
Let people in
A gap costs you three seconds and saves someone their whole morning. Wave the taxi in.
Zip merge at roadworks
Both lanes to the cone, then alternate. Racing to the front is what causes the standstill.
Don't block the box
When the robots are out, leave the intersection clear. Gridlock is a choice forty people make together.
Indicate, every time
It is free, it is on the stalk next to your hand, and it prevents most of the swearing on De Waal Drive.
Walk left too
On the promenade and the cycle paths, keep left and let the runners and prams through.
Leave five minutes earlier
Almost every aggressive thing anyone does in Cape Town traffic starts with being slightly late.
Take the pledge
“I will cruise left, pass right, let people in, and give the person behind me a break.”
No email needed. Just a decision you make before you pull out of the driveway tomorrow.
Put it on your window or your wall
Free to download, free to print, free to hand out at your next street meeting.
Three things people say, and the short answer
“But I'm already doing the speed limit.”
The right lane is not a speed award. If nobody is in front of you, you belong on the left, whatever your speedometer says.
“Letting people in slows me down.”
By about three seconds. It saves the person merging a great deal more than that, and it stops the whole lane braking behind you.
“One car won't change the N1.”
One car in the wrong lane holds up forty. That works in reverse too, which is the entire point of this page.