Materiality, immateriality and the replication of bus rapid transit in South Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-262
Author(s):  
Astrid Wood
Author(s):  
Prince D. Ugo

This study evaluated commuter uptake of the bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Cape Town,South Africa. As a stated preference survey was not carried out prior to the launch of the new BRT system in the City of Cape Town, it became difficult to assess commuters’ preferences,which would have provided City policymakers and planners with an understanding of customer satisfaction of the proposed bus service. The commuting trend of the BRT system in the City indicates that tickets sales and utilisation by commuters is gradually picking up, but one would have expected high commuter engagement in terms of the modernity profile of the BRT system. This study investigated commuters’ (n = 260) satisfaction levels with 30 service quality variables on a self-rated questionnaire, using quantitative research methodology.The study result showed that passengers were not satisfied with the transport fare and the availability or accessibility of ticket sales outlets. In the context of this study, this result implies that the ‘responsiveness and affordability’ variable of the service quality dimensions should be an area of interest and review to City of Cape Town policymakers and planners. Service quality trends in public transport were also highlighted.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Bartels ◽  
Tracy Kolbe-Alexander ◽  
Roger Behrens ◽  
Sharief Hendricks ◽  
Estelle V Lambert

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kgaugelo Sammy Boya

Transport forms the heartbeat of the economy, not only in South Africa but also globally. Over time the South African government has invested a great deal of resources in transport projects such as taxi recapitalization rail technology as well as bus rapid transit (BRT). The BRT project has been a point of discussion in terms of the value which it can bring to key stakeholders, particularly to commuters and the country’s economy at large. BRT is basically an urban public bus transport strategy which seeks to alleviate congestion, mostly in the Metropolitan areas. In this paper the significance of the BRT strategy is highlighted as this may guide future public transport project investment. As a strategic move, the decision for government to roll out BRT is evaluated in terms of blue ocean strategy (BOS) principles and red ocean strategy (ROS) elements. BOS strategy suggests that an organization operates in its own created market space where competition is rendered irrelevant, whereas with ROS organization relies on having a competitive edge in order to outsmart its rivals. The preliminary findings suggest that there are some elements of both BOS principles and ROS that are relevant to BRT projects. BRT is seen as a useful public transport investment particularly for countries with developing economies elements such as South Africa. However, stakeholder buy-in and cooperation should be promoted to preserve the strategic and social gains brought about by BRT and other integrated public transport projects


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emmanuel Olusegun Adewumi

Invariably, a high percentage of the population of South Africa depends on public transport. In order to continue to satisfy commuters in terms of comfort, travel time, reliability of service and traffic congestion, there is a need to improve the efficiency of moving passengers to reduce travel time, delay time and number of stops. In the quest for advancement and improvement in public transport, many countries now embark on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems based on the successful implementation of the system by cities like Curitiba (Brazil) and Bogota (Columbia). Government departments/transport authorities are often faced with the challenge of selecting the most suitable BRT system relative to the unique features of its transport demands and urban layout. Hence, this study proposes the determination of the most appropriate BRT system for the eThekwini Municipal Area (EMA). An in-depth literature review was conducted in order to determine the most adoptable BRT system amongst median, kerb side and segregated BRT systems, taking into consideration cost implications, safety of the passengers, pedestrian crossing, physically challenged commuters, vehicle option and manoeuvres. Physical assessment and critical review of the current operating BRT systems in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth in South Africa was employed in this study as well as a critical comparison among these systems. The pros and cons of the three functional BRT systems in South Africa were stated and a way forward for EMA was recommended. Lastly, an assessment of the proposed BRT system in EMA was conducted on the existing Phase 1 and the remaining three phases. The review conducted was based on route inspection, access to property, factors considered in the selection of a BRT system, demand analyses of the routes and the evaluation of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth BRT systems. Guidelines were also provided for the remaining proposed BRT routes which could be adopted by the eThekwini Transport Authority (ETA) in order to enhance a better performance in EMA over the three functional BRT systems in South Africa using the aforementioned criteria.


2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 2654-2669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Wood

Study tours, a form of ‘policy tourism’ in which local actors travel elsewhere to see best practice and meet with those in the exporting locality who implemented it, have become a basic tenet for policy exchange. In the pursuit of these lessons, hundreds of South African public transport enthusiasts visited South America, particularly Bogota, to learn of its thriving bus rapid transit (BRT) network. This paper evaluates the influence of these exchanges on BRT circulation and adoption—what takes place while delegates are overseas and how do these learning experiences influence the adoption and implementation of circulated forms of best practice? This paper reconnoiters these ‘mobility events’ and their outcomes to demonstrate theoretically that they are a necessary informal infrastructure through which best practice circulates: in particular, as a method for developing and strengthening social bonds between delegates and with hosts—relationships integral to policy adoption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 647-667
Author(s):  
Manuel Santana Palacios ◽  
Lisa Rayle

Bus rapid transit has become an increasingly popular investment in cities in the Global South, where policy discourse often positions BRT as a pro-poor investment. Planners usually expect BRT to reduce commute times in urban areas, particularly for economically disadvantaged populations, thus reducing mobility gaps between transit users across different socioeconomic population groups. Despite increased interest in BRT, there is surprisingly limited research testing these assumptions. Using data from a retrospective survey administered in Barranquilla, Colombia, and Cape Town, South Africa, we investigated whether BRT contributes to reducing commute time gaps between socioeconomic populations. Our comparative and distributional analyses indicate that, while BRT narrowed the gap in commute times in Cape Town, it did not contribute to closing the gap in Barranquilla. We argue that this contradiction may, in part, be explained by the degree to which BRT route configuration responded to the urban form and pre-BRT transit conditions in each city—two factors often overlooked in academic literature and discussions surrounding BRT planning. We close by providing policy recommendations that promote more equitable planning practices and recognize the links between transport and land uses in the Global South urban context.


CICTP 2017 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua-Wei Gong ◽  
Wen-Zhou Jin ◽  
Xiao-Dong Zang ◽  
Qiang Luo

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-hua Hu ◽  
Jia-xian Liang

Interstation travel speed is an important indicator of the running state of hybrid Bus Rapid Transit and passenger experience. Due to the influence of road traffic, traffic lights and other factors, the interstation travel speeds are often some kind of multi-peak and it is difficult to use a single distribution to model them. In this paper, a Gaussian mixture model charactizing the interstation travel speed of hybrid BRT under a Bayesian framework is established. The parameters of the model are inferred using the Reversible-Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach (RJMCMC), including the number of model components and the weight, mean and variance of each component. Then the model is applied to Guangzhou BRT, a kind of hybrid BRT. From the results, it can be observed that the model can very effectively describe the heterogeneous speed data among different inter-stations, and provide richer information usually not available from the traditional models, and the model also produces an excellent fit to each multimodal speed distribution curve of the inter-stations. The causes of different speed distribution can be identified through investigating the Internet map of GBRT, they are big road traffic and long traffic lights respectively, which always contribute to a main road crossing. So, the BRT lane should be elevated through the main road to decrease the complexity of the running state.


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