Abstract:
Public transport in Cape Town is considered unsatisfactory by many South Africans and
private vehicle usage is preferred by most users. The investment in more attractive public
transport services is one of the ways to combat the unsustainable move towards private
vehicles. Public transport projects are, generally, evaluated using Cost-Benefit Analyses.
This research aims to establish an evaluation method, which includes non-monetary
criteria, such as accessibility, reliability and convenience. Specifically, it evaluates existing
public transport in Cape Town (rail, bus, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and minibus taxis), as
well as a hypothetical integrated public transport system, using various forms of MultiCriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), assuming both weighted and unweighted criteria. The
information used in this study was obtained as secondary data through organisations
linked to the management of the systems, as well as previous studies. This information
was used to determine the criteria that the public transport projects would be measured
against. These criteria were weighted using the Analytical Hierarchy Process method with
input from academics, government employees, transport engineers and non-profit
organisations within the transport discipline. The same survey was then extended to the
general public transport users. The scenarios were then evaluated using the Simple
Additive Weighting (SAW) method, as well as the Evaluation of Mixed Data (EVAMIX)
method of multi-criteria analysis. While the results of the SAW and EVAMIX methods differ
slightly, aggregation methods were applied to establish a final ranking. Both MCDA
methods provided feasible results and can be applied in the South African context. This
project concluded that integrated public transport is the most desirable mode of public
transport, while BRT is considered the least attractive.
