Increase cycling and encourage walking by creating a safe and pleasant bicycle and pedestrian network of paths to serve all the citizens in the Cape Town Area.” City of Cape Town NMT vision.
Background
Research by Statistics South Africa indicates that 64% of students in South Africa walk to school as their primary means of travel. Of students walking to school, half a million walk for more than an hour – up to 6 km each way. Overall, 3 million South Africans walk all the way to work while another 5.4 million use public transport but also walk as part of their trip. Rural areas account for about 40% of South Africa’s population with about 21 million inhabitants living in rural areas (Statistics South Africa, 2013).
Challenges
South African transport policy, for a long time, almost exclusively prioritized the extension of its road network, which in turn promoted private vehicles but it is largely neglected non-motorized transport (NMT) due to the lack of awareness of the role of NMT modes of transport. Additionally, minimal funding and other basic transport infrastructural needs take preference over NMT. Consequently, thesre have been high rates of pedestrian accidents, with approximately 40% of pedestrian fatalities recorded in South Africa (Arrive Alive, 2012).
Successes
In South Africa, the cities of Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Rustenburg, Tshwane, and Stellenbosch each have prepared a number of standalone NMT commitments, as have the provinces of the Western Cape and Gauteng. These are available online.
South Africa is well served by civil society organizations that focus on NMT (mostly cycling). One such organization in Qhubeka (qhubeka is a Nguni word that means to carry on, to progress, or to move forward), which supplies bicycles to people who need them, in return for work done to improve communities, the environment or academic results.
In 2014 South Africa developed and revised and updated of the existing Pedestrian and Bicycle Facility Guidelines (2003) and developed a new NMT Facility Guidelines that aim to improve the lives of all South Africans. The Guidelines define a new way of thinking about designing South African streets and roads, and re-balancing these to address safety and sustainability issues experienced daily by NMT users.
Further Resources:
