Moving from a reactive to proactive public transport regulatory environment in the city of cape town: phase 1 - minibus taxi special regulatory project

Abstract

In the City of Cape Town (the City), a significant increase in the use of minibus taxi services by commuters are experienced. Reasons cited for this are the rise in fuel prices, rapid decline in rail services, increased congestion on the roads and limited subsidised transport services and/or footprint in the City. The regulation of minibus taxi services in the City occur reactively - where new operating licences are considered post facto after the public transport route has already been established and without the route being verified by the City. For this reason, the City made a conscious decision, from a Planning Authority perspective, to start a process to move to a proactive environment - where the City will be in a position to determine the need for any particular public transport service prior to operators starting to operate illegally on routes they deem necessary - from a sustainable minibus taxi supply and demand perspective. To accomplish this, the City first had to get the foundation properly laid for the different building blocks in the process that will ultimately allow the City to achieve this. The first layer in this foundation is the Minibus Taxi Special Regulatory Project. This project aims to legalise long standing minibus taxi vehicles, consider and verify all proposed new minibus taxi routes, ensure that inactive members and/or operating licences go through the required process to free these up for reallocation and to determine if there is a need for merging taxi associations or register new taxi associations in the City.