SURVEY: Transport survey points to shortfalls in Tshwane
The survey found that travel within Tshwane was also much higher than travel to and from other municipalities in the province.
It appears that the Tshwane metro might need to carefully look at the structural financing of public transport in the city as concerns have been raised by some of the 7 057 households in Tshwane.
This is according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which was in 2019, commissioned by the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport to conduct a general household travel survey to examine transport patterns of households in the province.
The aim of the survey was to improve government accountability to the citizens of Gauteng province.
MEC for Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo said Tshwane had the responsibility to fulfil its mandated transport functions and recommended it investigate issues raised by households.
“The significance of the survey is that it is a strategic feed into the work that we do and will help us with insights that we will use for our integrated public transport planning,” said Mamabolo.
Mamabolo said issues of overcrowding and transport costs were raised by thousands of households during the survey.
He said the study found that the reasons for not using buses were that areas either had no buses available or often enough, buses did not service required routes, were always late or too far from destinations, expensive and that travel time was too long or too slow, while households were also more dissatisfied with minibus services.
“They particularly tend to be dissatisfied with taxi fares.”
The survey found that about a fifth of workers in Tshwane reported to work more than five days a week.
“More than 50% of households in the Tshwane have no household member with a driver’s licence, and the number of such households is on the increase, further indicating basic dependence on public transport.
“This has implications on how fare policies are formulated, as well as the need to supply public transport services during weekends.”
Mamabolo said other matters were in relation to behaviour of the taxi drivers to passengers, distance of the taxi stop to and from home and work, facilities at the taxi ranks, stops, levels of crowding, accidents, punctuality of taxis, roadworthiness of taxis and security at the taxi rank.
While reasons for not using trains were that the stops were too far from home, non-availability of trains in areas, overcrowding, travel times being too long or too slow, constant train delays, trains not going to needed areas and the issues of crime.
He said the survey had also picked up that there was a “vicious circle” in that public transport operators had a trend to decrease the number of services to reduce fare-related inputs costs, which resulted in overcrowding.
Mamabolo said it was found that travel within Tshwane was also much higher than travel to and from other municipalities in the province.
“This requires the city of Tshwane to continue to be focused on improving transport service delivery within its jurisdiction while collaborating with the Gauteng transport authority. Public transport users in the city of Tshwane tend to be largely dissatisfied with public transport services.”
Mamabolo said on average, households in Tshwane spent relatively more money on public transport.
“About 60% of households in Tshwane spend more than 10% of their income on public transport, while individuals from lower income households tend to travel earlier, perhaps to offset the lower public transport speeds and/or longer travel distances.”
He said there was a need to co-ordinate transport service delivery through the Gauteng transport authority as a result of the transport network in Gauteng province functioning as one.
“Key findings from the survey will assist with planning strengthening capacity in local government, set clear targets across the province as well as improve mechanisms to implement legislation,” said Mamabolo.
Mamabolo further said the survey would assist the Gauteng’s smart mobility plan which was aimed at repositioning transport and its infrastructure as a catalyst for sustainable economic growth and job creation in the province.
He said the plans would focus on key strategic areas of infrastructure, institutions and integrated transport systems.
“The survey data will greatly assist in building dynamic and efficient transport institutions that will be beneficial to motorists and residents,” Mamabolo said.
Mamabolo said now that there were three sets of household travel surveys carried out in the five regions of Gauteng since 2002, trends relating to travel by residents could reliably be assessed.
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