Cape Town - Transport experts want to see the city transformed through a greatly enhanced public realm giving strong priority to public transport and the promotion of cycling with respect to general motorised traffic.
Richard Gordge from Transport Futures believes investment t” into effective public transport, cycling and a wide range of travel demand interventions and less investment into building of new roads provide vital solutions to the city’s snarling traffic.
He said responding to traffic growth by building more road space within a situation of widespread congestion is “fruitless and wasteful spending.”
“If we look at the urban mobility of the city, we must focus on moving more people along rail corridors and the ample road space we currently have through public transport and cycling and ensure fewer low occupancy cars," he said.
“While we have a MyCiTi bus that runs quite efficiently, our public rail system has collapsed. We have never properly invested in our urban transport systems, and one of those opportunities does lie in investing in cycling.
"With around 80% of all city trips made being around 5km or less, cycling does have a huge potential,” he said.
This is reflected in the Cape Town’s Cycling Strategy, which sets a target of 8% of all trips by bike by 2030.
According to Gordge it costs R1 billion a year to subsidise Golden Arrow buses, which accounts for 9% of total public transport passengers carried.
"If we could invest a fraction of this kind of the kind of money into effective cycling improvements we could reach and surpass these targets"
He said in Netherlands in excess of 30% of trips in urban areas are by bike.
“Amsterdam has been providing for bikes for over 40 years and started before their roads were heavily congested with cars. London is moving much later, with vehicle saturated roads, yet is succeeding in transforming rapidly into a bicycle-friendly metropolis”.
“Bicycles can lessen financial hardship with people that are living below the poverty line spending up to 40% of their salary on transport,” said Gordge.
According to the 2019 TomTom traffic Index, Cape Town is ranked 48th in the world for traffic congestion and number one in South Africa.
Gordge spoke at the Future Cities Solutions Hackathon an initiative hosted by Startupbootcamp AfriTech and RCS last week where problems were discussed around sustainable and affordable transport solutions, solutions for water and sanitation and smart mobility, which form part of the UN sustainability goals.
Justin Friedman was in attendance at the event and presented his thoughts around water usage.
He said while Capetonians have become aware of their water usage following droughts and have used water-saving methods into everyday living, a more creative approach is needed when “thinking about water”.
“We’re pulling from aquifers and getting lots of water from there, but how do we restore them and develop something sustainable from other efforts?” he asked.
Friedman is the founder of FLOW (For Love of Water) and has been working on behavioural change in water consumption and the environment. He said a new economy was needed around water use creating jobs and entrepreneurial success for people.
“We need to make money from cleaning up and create a restorative economy. If we can do that, we can pay people more to clean up garbage, collect plastic in the ocean and pay higher wages for green jobs.”
Friedman has been approached by Green Party of SA to help relaunch the party and contribute to the environmental policies, and has also developed a plan for harvesting seaweed.