Universally accessible public transport systems: experiences with implementation in the thirteen integrated public transport network municipalities

Abstract

South Africa has a deeply entrenched relationship with the global Disability Rights Movement and the social model of disability, the roots of which were nascent as early as 1964 in Nelson Mandela’s Rivonia Trial speech. Since South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994, steps have been taken through legislation and policy to give expression to disability rights.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 recognises disability equality together with race and gender equity and other rights. In 2007, South Africa was one of the first countries to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and the UNCRPD was established as a national objective through the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2015 (WPRPD).

The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000 references universal design, universal access and reasonable accommodation as tools to achieve disability equality through safe, equal and dignified access. From 2008, new regulations were applied to public buildings, public space, transport and housing, and new infrastructure standards were introduced to promote accessibility.

The DoT’s Moving South Africa study (1999) identified barriers to all forms of transport for special categories of passengers. In 2007, the Department of Transport (DoT) developed the Public Transport Strategy to help guide, support and monitor municipalities in implementing accessible public transport systems, and 13 major municipalities were selected to test the implementation of the Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN): Johannesburg, Cape Town, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City, eThekwini, Polokwane, Rustenburg, Mbombela, Msunduzi, and Mangaung. A thirteenth was added in 2013/4, George. The Public Transport Network Grant (PTNG) was aimed at helping municipalities to accelerate the construction and improvement of accessible, affordable, integrated, efficient and sustainable public transport networks within the 20-year timeframe provided in Moving South Africa.

The National Land Transport Act, 2009 mandates universal access in public transport. In 2016, in pursuit of this aim, the DoT published the Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan, as well as the first standards for pedestrian crossings in line with WPRPD requirements. The DoT developed the Universal Design Access Plan (UDAP) for the 13 IPTN municipalities to record and measure progress towards a universally accessible transport system.

This master’s dissertation examines and evaluates the implementation of universally accessible transport systems in the 13 IPTN municipalities, between 2010 and 2020, within this context.