Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Experts call for safer public transport
City gridlock predicted unless commuters accept other options
CAPE TOWN will share with every other major African city the fate of being in constant gridlock within a decade, unless public transport use doubles by 2025.
That was the warning sounded following a city conference this week on keeping African cities moving. The three- day African Union of Public Transport (UATP) Workshop on Best Practice in Africa, hosted by Transport for Cape Town, drew about 230 delegates from across Africa, as well as Germany, Switzerland, France and Singapore.
“Africa is experiencing the most rapid urbanisation in the world, with surveys indicating that up to 60 percent of our residents will be living in cities by 2050… (t)he clock is ticking for all of us and we are racing against a tide of impatience and frustration,” observed Brett Heron, Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for transport.
UATP president Jack van der Merwe told the conference that cities which failed to make a decisive shift to public transport “will not survive in future”. Making it the public’s “mode of choice”, however, meant that it had to be “efficient and integrated”.
Dutch-born UCT professor Marianne Vanderschuren – who spent the first 33 years of her life riding a bicycle, then settled in South Africa 15 years ago and hasn’t been on one since – underscored the critical barrier to a shift to public transport: “I do not use public transport because I can afford to drive a car. I would love to use public transport, but not when I have to fear for my life, and I definitely will not let my children use public transport… and they should, because they are old enough.”
Vanderschuren highlighted the apparent contradiction of declining use of public transport in South Africa since 2003 – and rise in the use of private cars – against mounting investment in public mobility.
“I am playing devil’s advocate,” she said, affirming that she advocated a shift to public transport. What was important, though, was to look at why it wasn’t working effectively.
She highlighted the key public concerns of safety and security as a major barrier.
Eddie Chinnappen of rail operator Prasa – who spelt out the dismal effects of underinvestment in rail, and new plans for massive investment – agreed.
“The bottom line is we all have to put heads together.” This also meant challenging political short-termism. In a 20-year infrastructure development programme, there was not much to show after five years, but politicians needed to commit to longer-term gains.
A key feature of the debate was the emphasis on different modes of transport.
Neil Frost, chief executive of iSAHA, a firm of strategic advisers specialising in transport highlighted the vitality and importance of the “flexible, self-sustaining” minibus taxi industry, the carrier of some 15 million passengers a day across the country.
Safety and security concerns needed to be tackled, but this could only be done effectively if taxis were accepted as a growing and important part of the overall transport system.
“There is a place for each mode, and we have to plan in that way,” he said.
The same was true for bicycles in the view of Andrew Wheeldon, of the Bicycle Empowerment Network, who called cycling one of the most “democratic” forms of transport ever invented, which had the capacity to transform mobility options for the poor.
Research also showed how increased cycling promoted road safety. “In countries where the number of people cycling has increased, road fatalities have fallen,” he said, pushing for cycling to be more effectively integrated with other forms of public transport, such as buses and trains.
International transport consultant Manfred Bock highlighted integrated ticketing – across all modes within cities, regions or countries – as a key objective.
Summing up, Vanderschuren said population projections – the likelihood of a “tsunami” in city growth – indicated urgent need for a fresh, collaborative approach.
“The point has been made that with population growth, there is a place for every mode of transport. But what we are lacking is a platform, a systems approach. Unless all stakeholders come on board, no academic can pull it off… everyone needs to be involved.”
For that to happen, there had to be trust.
She suggested each sector challenge itself to “show what you can do”.
“With the taxi industry, for instance, safety and security are the issues that keep coming up. So why does the taxi industry not take up the challenge and become the safest drivers out there?”
She and other academics could help; it was possible.
“We need to make sure transport is safe, and we need to start creating a society where this can happen. At the end of the day, it’s our transport system, and our society.”