Towards a more effective and efficient public transport system : a case study

Abstract

The Government of South Africa has recognised transport as one of its five main priority areas for socia-economic development. One of the Governments strategic objectives, as reflected in the white paper on National Transport Policy, is to promote the use of public transport with the goal of achieving a ratio of 80:20 between public transport and private car usage, as a long term vision. This is no easy task and in order to achieve this goal, an in depth analysis of the current transport situation is required. The structure and land-use patterns of most of the South African cities have forced the residents to be predominantly dependent on private transport, resulting in high car ownerships. Over the years, this has caused the traffic on the major links connecting the suburban areas leading to the city centres to be very high and some of them have already approached forced flow conditions during morning and evening peak periods