National land transport key performance indicators (KPIs) as a measurement of sustainable transport : are we measuring the right things?

Abstract

Paper presented at the 22nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 14 - 16 July 2003 "National issues affecting the movement of people and goods - strategic approaches", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT: The measurement of performance, or performance monitoring, is a requirement of the National Land Transport Transition Act (2000). At the same time performance measurement is also required from transport planning authorities at the local sphere of government through the Municipal Systems Act (2000). Through the activities in and around the recent World Summit for Sustainable Development (2002), the debate about performance monitoring has been re-opened in terms of the meaning of sustainable transport in the developing world. The paper will firstly look at the linkage between performance measurement and decision.making. This will be followed by a look at some international ideas about sustainable development and its measurement within the transport sector. From the literature it can be deduced that there is a major difference between traditional transport planning and transport planning in support of sustainability. The second part of the paper will look at key performance indicators measured in Johannesburg at the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003 in terms of the draft National Land Transport Strategic Framework (2002) and the Gauteng Provincial Land Transport Framework (2002). Some of these measurements were done in terms of data derived from the 1996 census. Some analysis will be done on the relevance of these measures to cities in South Africa, which have dual economies with a mix of modern and developing sectors. The third part of the paper will look at some emerging patterns and critically analyse the measured KPIs against other KPIs that are perhaps more relevant to South Africa given the authors. Emphasis on sustainable transport. The paper will be concluded with recommendations on the relevance of the current transport KPIs to cities in South Africa.