Cape Town's bus revolution

Cape Town is going to turn one of its busiest traffic routes into a pioneering bus rapid

Klipfontein Road is a double-lane road which runs for a desolate 20km from Liesbeek Parkway in Mowbray to the foot of Devil's Peak in Khayelitsha, just outside Cape Town. The announcement of the plan came after months of careful assessment of transport schemes, led by Western Cape provincial transport minister Tasneem Essop and Danile Landingwe, the City of Cape Town executive councillor for transport and roads.

Long traffic jams, worsening air pollution and poor access to jobs and services for people without cars prompted the initiative. Essop explained the project's central purpose at the project's launch: "It is very important that poor communities who do not have access to transport in the past must be accommodated."

Cape Town mayor, Nomaindia Mfeketo, added: "For ordinary people who do not have easy access to economic opportunity, the implementation of the rapid bus transit system will make a considerable difference to the quality of their lives." The scheme will help improve the access to schools, markets and jobs.

The route is a symbolic one as it connects the three parts into which Cape Town had been split during apartheid: the white southern suburbs, the coloured Athlone area and the ethnic townships along the N2 highway.

The system has been modelled on the TransMilenio BRT system in the Colombian city of Bogota. Essop and Landingwe led a delegation to the Latin American country in November 2002 to witness the city's public transport system that had reduced hundreds of thousands of daily travel times for commuters and had provided an economic boost to communities and suburbs lining the BRT routes.

Bogota's former mayor, Enrique Penalosa, informed them that they had chosen to "build a city for people, not for automobiles". Further return visits will take place over the coming months, with funding support coming from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

BLUEPRINT FOR THE FUTURE

The Klipfontein Road 'mobility strategy' represents a blueprint for future BRT schemes in Cape Town, South Africa's parliamentary capital. Prior to implementation, there will be extensive public consultation with the people who live alongside the corridor to ascertain their transport needs.

Alongside the bus routes there will be pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure in place, taking precedence over cars. Existing car parks will be replaced with paved paths and cycle lanes. This type of scheme is most effective when the routes criss-cross each other.

But, until this first corridor is installed - estimated to be by April 2004 at the earliest - plans for additional schemes will wait. The city will urge its citizens to use the facility to ensure that the public remains behind the project so that future BRTs can spread throughout the city rapidly.

The new bus lanes will be separated from everyday traffic lanes, as previous efforts to install dedicated painted bus lanes have failed. Along the bus route there will be new safe, weatherproof bus-stations. The fleet of buses will have the advantages of a rail network without the heavy capital costs associated with that form of transport. Smart card ticket technology will be introduced to assist efficient boarding of passengers and an adherence to the timetable.

The city hopes to persuade taxi drivers to become part of the new bus consortia. In Bogota the military police had to prevent the city's taxi industry from interfering with the bus lanes. By encouraging them to join the project, this should overcome any political objections to the scheme.

Over time, feeder bus services will establish the Klipfontein Road as a destination in its own right. Alongside the bus stations - supermarkets, convenience stores, newsagents, coffee shops, other retail outlets and support services, such as creches will spring up. Barren land along the route has now acquired prime status for development. Similarly, established properties on the route are expected to attract investment for refurbishment and redevelopment.

Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo is convinced that the city has made the right choice. "As a rapidly growing city, we need to be proactive and tackle the public transport challenge to head off problems (such as) the loss of productive time with commuters stuck in traffic, a growing air pollution problem and inadequate public transport facilities outside normal working hours."

Furthermore, she recognises the significance of the project to the city's profile: "For many commuters, this will change the quality of their daily lives for ever. It will take Cape Town a step further to being a world-class city, where world-class facilities are available to all of its citizens."

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), an international NG0 that promotes sustainable transportation, has praised the city for its forward thinking: "Cape Town has made remarkable progress in just a few months.