The City’s Urban Mobility Directorate kicked off Transport Month with a panel discussion about Cape Town’s congestion problem at the Concourse in the Civic Centre yesterday, Cape {town} Etc reports.
Also read: Nervous encounter leads to R5 million drug bust in Ruyterwacht
Participants emphasised the importance of an integrated public transport system with an efficient passenger train service as the foundation, supplemented by other modes of transport and development in low-income areas to provide access to opportunities.
The City’s latest Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan (CITP) for 2024 indicates that 89% of commuter trips in Cape Town are by road, which is unsustainable and pricey for both the City administration and people.
Find your perfect set of wheels with these incredible deals on cars for under 100k. Find car listings here.
However, increasing road capacity is incredibly expensive and time-consuming, and it only gives temporary relief, as evidence suggests that the extra roads and lanes are merely luring more private automobiles to the road network.
Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, and Raymond Maseko, Regional Manager of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa; Gordon Laing, an advocate for sustainable mobility; Nicky Sasman and Marli Swart, both City transport planners; and Sarah Chow, Chief Engineer of Road Traffic Design from the Western Cape Government, participated in the discussion facilitated by Niel Slingers, the City’s Director: Transport Planning and Networks.
‘The challenge is getting people onto public transport. This is our first strategy in combatting congestion. We need people on buses where the MyCiTi bus service operates with passenger rail as the backbone of public transport, as is the case elsewhere in the world.
‘The City is currently busy with the roll-out of the largest public transport infrastructure project in South Africa. In fact, the implementation of the second phase of the MyCiTi bus service to connect communities from the metro-south east with Wynberg and Claremont is the biggest life changing investment in public transport since the implementation of passenger rail many decades ago. It is a mammoth project and we are tackling it incrementally. Thus, the City is doing its part in keeping Capetonians moving,’ said Quintas.
The concept of ‘induced demand’ in relation to the development of new road infrastructure to ease traffic congestion was also considered.
Induced demand means that efforts to enhance capacity through the construction of additional road infrastructure are simply a short-term solution, as the new lanes only attract more single occupancy vehicles to the road network until the new roads are once again full. As a result, the City is looking at implementing additional lanes and infrastructure that will only be used by public transport vehicles.
Find your perfect set of wheels with these incredible deals on cars for under 100k. Find car listings here.
‘This will bring a greater return on the high costs of expanding road capacity, is aligned with the City’s objective of prioritising public transport and will facilitate a modal shift from private vehicles to public transport services over time,’ said Quintas.
He confirmed that ‘congestion tax’ is not a consideration at the moment.
‘We can only charge congestion tax when public transport is at its optimum. Until such time as a fully integrated and comprehensive public transport system is in place, it will not be fair to penalise single occupancy vehicles,’ said Quintas.
While efforts are underway to restore passenger rail service in Cape Town, the City’s Municipal Spatial Development Framework outlines how it intends to transform the city’s spatial form through public-led investment within an Urban Inner Core and transit-oriented development (TOD).
TOD is a strategy that aims to improve access to jobs and services by bringing people closer to employment opportunities and encouraging economic development along transit corridors such as railway tracks and stations, public transportation interchanges, minibus-taxi ranks and MyCiTi trunk routes and stations.
‘Thus, we need to see development happening closer to communities where resources and opportunities are few. In the end, it is about keeping people and goods moving while bringing down the cost and time of commuting,’ said Councillor Quintas.
Another panel discussion will be hosted today at the Concourse Level at the Civic Centre. The topic is ‘Innovation in Transport Construction’ with City engineers and experts elaborating on the latest technologies and interventions in urban mobility. All media are welcome to attend. The discussion will start at 10:30am.
Also read:
Hawks intercepts transportation of cannabis worth 1,7 million
Picture: Prasa Group / Facebook
