Impacts of ad-hoc public transport systems provision on the physical (property) development of Dar Es Salaam city.

Abstract

Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 8-11 July 2013 "Transport and Sustainable Infrastructure", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

Development of an integrated public transport system is very essential for achievement of social, economic and environmental requirements of the people in the cities worldwide. For African cities, the need is more pronounced since public transport is almost a forgotten sector while the demand for the same is very high. Provision for public transport systems in African cities hardly considers the future socio-economic, physical and technical requirements of the systems despite the fact that the present and the forecasted modal splits for public to private transport put public transport on the higher magnitude. This paper discusses the impacts of developing public transport system on an ad-hoc basis to the city and property development. Findings reveal that ad-hoc implementation of the public transport systems has an insignificant effect on redressing the city public transport problems. It has, instead, negatively impacted the people through loss of their properties by demolition, loss of income through disrupted livelihood activities, and creation of bad relations between the people and the city authority. Other impacts include disruption of the Transit Oriented Development (TOD), existence of improper physical development especially along the major roads and loss of revenue to the government through property tax, business license fees and monthly returns from businesses. Planning and implementing an integrated public transport system that has been accepted by city residents, harmonising the land use and transport related legal provisions and exercising justice in compensation, are among the necessary actions to be taken for achievement of effective public transport systems provision in the city.