Digitisation of the regulated minibus taxi network: a case for gauteng province

Abstract

Gauteng Minibus Taxi industry and Government have identified the need to eradicate violence as well as improve public records keeping to aide better regulatory outcomes. The significance of paper represents a contribution to transport planning and MBT regulation in resolving data redundancy. There exists no reliable spatial dataset of MBT routes in Gauteng. Currently, NLTA Regulations does not prescribe physical route mapping as a requirement to the license application process but makes provision for recording detailed route description and physical verification of routes. The paper methodology is descriptive in nature and illustrates techniques and processes undertaken to develop a geo-spatial database of routes with defined network operational attributes for Gauteng Transport Authorities. Catalogue statistics includes route lengths, hypothesised variation in route navigation, regional and provincial network (km), Origin and Destination names. Paper concludes that GIS routes baseline requires continuous update to effectively enhance understanding of MBT industry operations for public transport network integration and planning purposes.