GOVAN MBEKI & PARLIAMENT STREET

The environmental upgrading of the old Main Street of Port Elizabeth, now known as Govan Mbeki Avenue, was the first capital project undertaken by the Development Agency. The street received an extensive and much welcomed facelift and has been reshaped to its original character and given back to pedestrians.

Vehicular through-traffic has been deterred by traffic calming and a one-way system with Chapel Street so that only vehicles seeking to do business in the CBD are attracted into the area. Using the street as a short cut from one place to another is now not easy. Furthermore, traffic speeds have been greatly reduced in an attempt to make pedestrian movement across the street safer.

Parliament Street is another of Nelson Mandela Bay's landmark entertainment areas and has also received an environmental upgrade which has proven to be very popular with property owners, tenants and patrons. The 'vibe' in the area is more conducive to the pavement café lifestyle that is so suitable to Nelson Mandela Bay because of its temperate climate.