The Eco-mobility Initiative has now passed, now it’s back to driving cars and enduring road rage incidents and traffic gridlock (for those that did heed the call of Parks Tau, the Mayor of Johannesburg). It was good to see the Mayor and other powers-that-be trying to shore up support to generally indifferent motorists to embrace the use of public transport.
From the onset, without being dismissed as an eternal pessimist, I do fully support the initiative, as it could free our roads and highways from congestion. Personally, I endure at least 2 hours of driving when between Pretoria where I live and to the place where I meet clients every working day. Surely, most of those vehicles which clog are roads are for motorists, they are only a few taxis, at least from my experience.
However, I should be allowed to be skeptical for a minute. My doubts are based on two points – lack of dedicated infrastructure for public transport to function and the attitude of organisations controlling the public transport businesses especially the so-called taxi associations.
Having been privileged to have lived in London, Paris and Washington, which we consider as developed and generally efficient cities (with some allowance of human shortcomings of course), l will use them as benchmark for how a functioning public transport should be.
In all three cities, there are dedicated areas for public transport, which minimise buses and cyclists from competing for space with motorists, reduces burden on the road. Unfortunately, this does not exist in South Africa where road regulations-abiding motorists are resigned to be subjected to unruly behaviour and bad driving practices of taxi drivers, making themselves vulnerable to road accidents and being assaulted.
Secondly, the Department of Public Transport has futilely tried consolidate the disjointed operations of the taxi business, which is greedily controlled by trigger-happy taxi bosses who eliminate rivals at the slightest hint of competition. Incidents of innocent commuters being caught in the crossfire continue being reported.
Additionally, some hotheaded taxi bosses have resisted the introduction of cheaper by some big companies as a form of public transport in some areas, fearing potential competition to their businesses. In extreme cases, they have hired assassins to shoot passengers using buses.
As a result of the politics involved in control of the public transport routes, for one to travel between short distances which would normally require one trip one has to take two taxis, an inconveniencing time-consuming task. In addition, the taxis do not operate on time. Thus, it should not be surprising that, for any for any time conscious motorist, taxis are not even an alternative, they would rather endure the torturous experience of using in their own car.
Johann Roche is a businesses consultant who drives between Pretoria and Johannesburg six times a week. He writes this piece in his own capacity
