User-centric public transport systems

Abstract

Over the past fourteen years the South African government has spent billions of rands on public transport projects within the country’s Metropolitan and main cities. The investment in public transport projects included mainly the integrated public transport networks (IPTN) which consist of rapid rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems. The infrastructure for such a system in most of the cities have been constructed but are yet to be operationalised. The country and cities should be celebrating and reaping the benefits of such an enormous investment but sustaining and implementing the BRT system is proving difficult. Many questions are being asked by politicians, technocrats and the public if it was time to rethink and redesign such systems to stop draining money from the already strained fiscus. Although such huge investments have been made by the National Departments of Transport and Treasury, the local cities do have an informal public system in operation which is mainly the mini-bus taxi and small bus mode. Public transport is the lifeblood of any city to stimulate social and economic growth. "An advanced city is not one where the poor own a car, but one where the rich use public transport." Enrique Peñalosa (Bogota’s Former Mayor). The aim of this presentation is to change the mindset and to discuss how public transport can become more user centred within our cities.