TRANSPORTATION
Bundle transport planning capabilities to improve public transport The quality of service that public transport (PT) passengers experience in South Africa is very much dependent on the planning capabilities of government, which has historically not always been adequate. The National Land Transport Act sets out the responsibilities for PT planning and includes the introduction of transport authorities and transport planning entities. By Mpilo Mbambisa* and Pieter Onderwater**
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n rural areas, PT is poorly available and unsafe, with long trips that are slow, infrequent, and expensive. In urban and metropolitan areas, PT is better available, but trips are still long, slow and expensive. Also, the different modes of PT are hardly integrated – i.e. road and rail. The National Land Transport Act (No. 5 of 2009; NLTA) requires that transport planning be developed by the lowest competent level of government. As a result, the responsibilities for PT are scattered over multiple spheres of government and entities. Planning for rural and urban minibus taxis is the responsibility of municipalities. However, licensing of minibus taxis is a duty of provinces, as are subsidised buses. The introduction of bus rapid transit systems is a metro responsibility, but metropolitan rail’s responsibility lies at a Prasa/National Department of Transport (NDoT) level. Therefore, implementing an overarching integrated PT network (IPTN) depends on too many different parties at present. Also,
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most municipalities and some provincial departments have insufficient capabilities to execute transport planning functions.
Transport planning functions as per NLTA The NLTA outlines the transport functions and locates them in the appropriate sphere of government. National government is responsible, among others, for: • formulating legislation • publishing national land transport policy, with the aim to increase the use of public transport • setting regulations and requirements for a wide array of transport issues • monitoring policies and planning • establishing national information systems • the National Land Transport Strategic Framework. The NDoT has developed numerous legislative documents, national policies and discussion papers on several transport issues. The
Mpilo Mbambisa
Pieter Onderwater
challenge, however, lies in the implementation of these policies. Provincial government is responsible, among others, for: • implementation of provincial land transport policy • ensuring the link with matters having an impact on transport in the province, including land use management, environmental issues, population growth, economic development and investment in infrastructure, to facilitate integration and efficient transport • coordination between municipalities to ensure the effective and efficient execution of land transport in the province • keeping a provincial information system • the Provincial Land Transport Strategic Framework. This list indicates that provinces are responsible for translating the national policy into planning, and the coordination of implementation. In the NLTA, the municipalities are considered to be the most appropriate sphere to perform the transport planning functions and implementation. They are responsible, among others, for developing land transport policy and strategy within their area, based on national and provincial guidelines, which incorporates spatial development policies. The NLTA comprises a long list of municipal duties, requiring a wide variety of expertise over time to be executed as transport authorities.
Transport authorities The larger metropolitan municipalities have already started the process of becoming
