Sustainable transport - the pedicab experience

Abstract

Paper presented at the 30th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 11-14 July 2011 "Africa on the Move", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

The Africa on the Move theme of the 2011 SATC conference has a focus topic on sustainable transport and this is especially significant particularly when considering the grassroots initiatives relating to the emerging non-motorised transport initiatives in the Western Cape that promotes job creation and micro enterprise development through the deployment of pedicabs to the streets of Cape Town. This paper seeks to demonstrate the achievements of a collective effort of several agencies and organisations that has created and enabling platform for pedicab operations in the Central Cape Town area of the Western Cape utilizing a combination of intermediate technologies with zero carbon emissions rating. The success of the pedicab initiative is important in understanding the role of appropriate sustainable transport technology in the feeder service to the Integrated Rapid Transport network and to the Hotel and Leisure industry of Southern Africa. Furthermore the paper explores the emerging micro-industries for the manufacture of the pedicabs locally in the Western Cape with a review of the latest designs. The paper is multifaceted and deals with several aspects of pedicabs both from an operational and from a policy perspective and explores the compatibility of this innovative mode of sustainable transport with the DOT Draft Policy on Non-Motorised Transport.