The first/last mile experience of students commuting between the Metrorail and Gautrain stations and the University of Pretoria's main campus in Hatfield

Abstract

Various strategies have been implemented in South Africa to negate historical spatial injustices, such as the Gautrain and Metrorail train systems. These systems are envisioned to facilitate geographic desegregation and access to basic rights such as education. However, hard infrastructural systems generate forms of inequality that hinder the intended purpose of the system. There is currently a gap in literature on the experience of student’s commuting to and from places of education in South Africa and the first/last mile of the daily journey. The study uses the grounded theory approach to achieve a thorough and layered understanding of quantitative and qualitative data of the study area, Hatfield. By using first/last mile spatial components and factors identified in literature, hard and soft infrastructural interactions are investigated along predominant first/last mile routes to discover factors that hinder or facilitate the journey. This is critical to study as commuting to places of education is the second most common reason people in the country commute. The study revealed that there is spatial dysfunction within the urban transportation system on various scales for student’s commuting to and from the University of Pretoria. This included injustices with regard to train systems accessibility, efficiency, reliability, and affordability, unsafe spaces of movement, and a lack of connection to the urban environment along first/last miles. These spatial components and factors demonstrate nuances of inequality. However, it is also evident that there are spaces of hard and soft infrastructure that negate spatial exclusion and isolation which should be used as examples for future urban developments. These spaces are essential to identify and understand in a developing country emerging from past spatial injustices.