Minibus taxis as part of a sustainable public transport system in South Africa

Abstract

Paper presented at the 28th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 6 - 9 July 2009 "Sustainable Transport", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

The minibus taxi industry in South Africa is currently carrying 65% of the country's public transport passengers. It can therefore be described as the current perfect public transport solution for South African circumstances. Not taking away any positive influences that the recent initiatives like the Bus Rapid Transit, Gautrain, etc. will have on South Africa's public transport, it should be stressed that the minibus taxi industry will have a big role to play in the future of a sustainable system in South Africa. Their role will mainly be to provide feeder services to larger carriers of people. Without a sustainable public transport system it will not be possible to provide for the future transport needs of the people of the world. The minibus taxi industry evolved out of a necessity for moving masses of people in the lower income group. The entrepreneurs who started the minibus taxi industry are all individual businessmen who made the most of the opportunity at the time. It is essential that when approaching the minibus taxi industry with new ideas it must be kept in mind that you are dealing with small business owners and not a public transport entity. With these principles in mind the author is conducting research on the effect of the implementation of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in the minibus taxi industry.