Transportation Trends and Funding in South Africa

Abstract

The funding of transportation, including both the road network and public transport, has become more of an issue than ever before. There is concern about the traditional method of road use taxation, namely the fuel levy, due to improved fuel consumption of vehicles and the potential phasing in of electric vehicles. Electronic tolling in Gauteng has been strongly opposed by motorists. The purpose of this paper is to present the latest available and relevant transportation trends, as well as to provide a perspective of the latest thinking wrt transportation funding, in an effort to contribute to the debate and possibly assist in getting some convergence in moving forward. It is concluded that motorisation is growing rapidly, with the concurrent pressure on road travel. Whilst experts are suggesting new methods of road use taxation, through inter alia a distance based charge, it is clear that such a technique will be costly to administrate and likely to be resisted by many motorists. Research in this respect is clearly warranted.