Like a wrecking ball, Covid-19 has smashed through every aspect of society and with the resurgence we are seeing heading into the festive period, the havoc it is wreaking is set to continue. All crises necessitate an audit of the status quo, which presents the chance to reimagine a better future followed by tangible steps to get there.
Transport is a means to an end but mobility should be seen as a right because it is essential in enabling the effective functioning of cities and their population. Mobility in the SA context is shaped by apartheid and over the course of our democracy not much has changed. There have been grand projects, but none have had the impact they set out to achieve.
There have been two great windows of opportunity for mobility in this country – the first was the dawn of democracy where the goal was to get the country moving. Now, with the pandemic, we are being given a second opportunity to accelerate change towards a future where integrated, smart mobility is treated as a right and not a privilege.
Covid-19 has brought a magnifying glass to the fault lines and inequality that is institutionalised in our cities’ mobility infrastructure. During the height of the pandemic one sector of society was able to work remotely using Wi-Fi, while essential workers had to use public transport and their options were taxis, which were running at a loss and weren’t subsidised, and buses that were subsidised.
We saw the mess that the proposed subsidies around taxis caused recently, where they brought cities to a virtual standstill. Taxis play a big role in our country, but the government has a larger role to play. The fundamental chasm between the government and the taxi industry needs to be addressed.
There is no guarantee that work commutes will return to previous levels in the near future, and so the survival of taxis and buses is at risk. The Gautrain is also running at low volumes with no indication of when those numbers will increase.
Let’s assume it does, for argument’s sake, and I need to travel from Soweto to Midrand, and have to travel into the city centre and connect to a different mode but can’t afford the Gautrain. This will take 90 minutes. In the evening I retrace those steps. By the end of the day, my commute has been three hours. That’s 15 hours lost in a single week!
We have seen the Bus Rapid Transit System being rolled out in Cape Town, Tshwane and Johannesburg but there isn’t the money to roll this system out as envisioned. Johannesburg envisioned the corridors of freedom that were supposed to redefine the shape and mobility of the city. A grand vision, but it is clear that the entire transport ecosystem needs to be rethought and redesigned. The pandemic has accelerated this urgency.
Let’s start with e-hailing. Those that use it feel it is safer and they have control over the service. If we consider the unique context of SA cities, a question worth asking is what can SA learn from Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority’s joint venture with technology e-hailing company Careem? In the SA context, it would mean cities could lean on taxis and those operating four-seaters to streamline and modernise the way people are commuted.
The alternative is what we have today: a mishmash of uncoordinated services all servicing different customers along different routes. Each mode of transport is operating its own routes, but if demand is spotted, say when Rea Vaya doesn’t run, no-one is able to take advantage as the fixed operating routes are still in place.
Everything in our cities has been built around roads for motorised vehicles, but there is an opportunity to showcase non-motorised mobility, where people can walk or cycle as far as they can. It is obvious what the health benefits would be for our population, but to make this a reality there are other considerations such as safety.
The private sector must be allowed to come into the discussions. Consider Metro Rail: there has never been enough money to rebuild that infrastructure. Carefully considered and managed public-private partnerships are an avenue to achieve this.
The overhaul of mobility in SA requires a fundamental mind shift in the whole country. When we look at the medium-term budget statement and its allocations, mobility didn’t even get a mention, yet far from being a privilege, it should be seen as a right because every aspect of the country’s economy depends on it.
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