The Moving South Africa strategy warned as far back as 1999 that South Africa’s metropolitan cities needed to be proactive over managing car use “especially for the stubborn segment of the population”, says South African Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.
In reply on Thursday to a question from Democratic Alliance MP Stuart Farrow, the minister said this stubborn section was “mostly found in the metropolitan suburbs who perceive that they are captive to car usage for all trip purposes”.
Farrow had asked whether “any consideration has been given” to park and ride systems in order to reduce the traffic flow on the N1 and N2 into Cape Town’s city centre.
Radebe said a decision on the park and ride options would need to be made by the municipality of Cape Town “in consultation with other spheres and public entities”.
Promoting more efficient transport “is definitely in line with the spirit on national transport policy and the department will encourage municipalities to actively pursue these measures as an alternative to expanding road supply”.
“However, for demand management measures to be successful, they need to be mainstreamed into the core of transport planning and need to be of sufficient
scale with sufficient investment in planning, design, marketing and implementation,” he said.
Asked by Farrow whether his department would provide subsidies to private companies implementing such systems along the same lines that subsidies were paid to other commuter transport services, Radebe said: “The development of alternative initiatives to address and move away from building roads to address congestion is a priority. Thus in the promotion of public transport, it is believed that the pilot project will start to address congestion and make single occupancy car users pay for their bad travel habits.” – I-Net Bridge