Recommendations in updating best practice in transport demand data collection practices for rural integrated transport plans: evidence from north-west province

Abstract

The Integrated Transport Plan (ITP) guidelines and minimum requirements as gazetted in 2016, state that transport plans must be developed to enhance the effective functioning of cities, towns and rural areas through the integrated planning of transport infrastructure and facilities. These specific requirements have an emphasis on travel demand management and development in rural areas. However, the status quo chapter of the ITP guidelines only provides data collection requirements centred around the current supply of transport. The guidelines for data collection and analysis for ITP and precisely their application to rural transport development, are incorrectly calibrated to an urban commuter paradigm, with an expectation that trips to and from locations should balance on the same day. This appears to be an assumption worth further investigation and study. Observations in this paper are largely based on two projects conducted in Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Bojanala Platinum District Municipality during the preparation for their Integrated Public Transport Network Plans in the period of 2018-2019. Observations were made on the passenger volume directional split in specific modes and travel patterns in rural areas. The directional split of passenger volume averaged a 50/30 split between return trips with as much as 20% of passengers not completing their return journey with the same mode of transport used for the forward trip or not completing the return trip that day. This observation was purely based on passenger volumes and not on individual passenger journey surveys. The on-site observations of trip-taking on rural roads in these two district municipalities further showed that hitchhiking (which consists of soliciting free rides on the side of the road from passing vehicles) and walking are extensively used for return journeys in rural areas, especially by school children in areas where scholar transport is not structured and organized. Approaching the data from the paradigm of the standard urban transport planning perspective may lead to the mistaken conclusion that the cordon count survey of passenger volumes in rural areas was erroneously carried out, and would require an entirely new collection – which then might yield the same “lost passenger” phenomenon. This research aimed to assess the current state of practice in the data collection guidelines set for rural areas and to conduct a gap analysis on why the phenomenon of an imbalance of passenger volume flows between the forward and return directions on rural roads is a likely outcome for a survey. Furthermore, the research provides input into updating the current guidelines on rural transport plans and data collection by providing recommendations on the data collection methodology for rural areas and providing an alternative approach that takes into consideration walking, cycling and private vehicle usage as additional data points to the travel demand and volume.