New parking system for Johannesburg

Soon you will not park for free in the streets of Central Jo'burg, Sandton, Rosebank and in Midrand. For a very long time, motorists in Jo'burg have been parking for free and it is said that some would leave their vehicles for hours without moving them causing other car owners not to find parking at all. It is true, getting a parking in Joburg will take you time during peak hours.

Not that the new system will mean you can find parking at any time. Well, the details of how it works are sketchy and there are no mention of if whether the system is intelligent to let the parking marshalls where the parking space is available. But the question that one need to know is where is the R7.50 that motorists will be charged be going to. Will it be used to cities or will it all go to the bonuses of the authorities?

I also hope that all stakeholders in the city centers were proparly involved in the decision making...and the R7.50 is fair. Talk of the stakeholders, already the existing informal parking assistance are said to be threatened. They should not be left to find other means of survival...they should be incorporated to the new system.

A new parking system allowing motorists to park on the side of the road will be rolled out to other areas of Johannesburg in the new year, the Johannesburg metro police said.

Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the system was piloted in Braamfontein at the beginning of December.
"There are wardens allowing motorists to park on the road side for a R7.50 fee per hour," he said.
He explained that motorists would be issued with a parking slip.

Gautrain marks 1 million passengers - a success or failure?

Last Wednesday, 22 September 2010 Gautrain reached its 1 million passengers mark since its inception few days before the FIFA World Cup. According to Gautrain, the milestone coincided almost exactly with 100 days of operation. It is not known if the 1 million is based on the number of passengers who made use of the train or the number of tickets bought. If it is the latter, then it should be a concern because we all know that not everyone who buys a ticket to the movies do not necessarily watch the movie.

Now, lets check how many people were transported (average) in each day the trains operated;

1 million/100 days = 10 000 average passengers per day. As expected, most of the passengers were carried during the World Cup when 400 000 passengers were carried between OR Tambo and Sandton in its first month. This translates to 13 000 average passengers carried per day in the first month.

With international trains carrying more passengers than what Gautrain is carrying currently, can this be considered to be a failure? Considering that it was estimated that 104 000 passengers per day will be carried and the link between Hatfield to Malboro and from Braamfontein to Sandton City is not yet operational, then one should not be quick to think that. Assuming that the average 10 000 passengers carried currently remains, the questions to be raised is whether the remaining lines will carry the remaining 94 000 passengers.

For now, I can not tell and we will have to wait until the line is built. But a quick guess tells me that the 94 000 passengers will be hard to be achieved. Here are the reasons why I think so;

• First, most South Africans just love being in their cars, so convincing them to get out of them to shared seats will be a mountain to climb even when roads are going to be tolled;
• I am not sure how many people get sponsored by the companies via car subsidies, but those who are will not leave their cars as new toll roads will be easily be absorbed;
• For those who will be burdened by toll roads will find alternative routes to avoid the toll roads - which lead to more damaged local roads (what are the local authority planning to do about this is not known) - see map below;

View New Roads to be Tolled and Alternative Routes in a larger map

But like I said before, one should wait for April 2011 (note: Gautrain's website list the operational date as 06/2011), when the second phase of the Gautrain is completed.

MyCiTi fares shows creativity of the people behind the project though much still need to be done.

What a great idea.........if you are working at the Cape Town International Airport you will get a discounted unlimited trips of R400 per month when using MyCiti IRT. Yes, unlimited trips at only R400 per month. But the trips are not transferable, so you can not buy a ticket and give it to your mom to go to the airport. No, you can not even borrow your dad a ticket to go the CBD. But just how are they going to ensure that the owner of the ticket becomes the only person who make use of it is unclear. There are options that can be used and the following comes into mind;

• A photo of the designated user can be attached to their coupons;
• Designate users to put on their thumps on a machine that recognizes it whenever they board the bus;

View Larger Map

Though this is good for airport users, what about those who work along the route to the airport or those who work near the airport? I don't know how well the public transport in Cape Town operates but I am sure that there may be some passengers from the Cape Flats who would want to catch a bus at the Airport to the city center. Will they also given a discount as well or will they have to pay a normal price which will probably be higher?

Another good news is that children under 11 travelling along the airport route or shuttle as they call it will pay the half price, while those under 4 will travel for free.

On the airport shuttle, tickets for children aged four to 11 will cost R25.00 each – half the standard R50.00 adult fare. Children under the age of four can travel for free.

I am tempted to say that mini - taxis pioneered this idea in SA as it was when taking taxis back in Venda that I first learned about this but I know I will be wrong. I wonder if children under the age of 4 used to pay before the modern taxis came. Remember it used to be the private cars such as Chevrolet that were used as taxis in the 70s. I also ask myself why senior citizens were never given free seats but common sense tells you that its because you can not hold a senior citizen while a child who don't pay for a trip seats on the lap of the person travelling with. But why don't they offer this vulnerable group a discount? Agg...these are wish list isn't it? Why would I expect all these things to be done by taxis? Taxis do not get subsidized and the monopolistic position they have through their operating licenses discourages innovation in the industry.

Ahh...a little voice behind my head is saying to me "even PUTCO don't offer discounts to senior citizens and worse to children under 4 so why should I expect taxis to pay?". True, PUTCO buses I take don't even offer discounts to scholars. Only Metro buses and Tswane buses does offer discounts to the disabled/scholars/senior citizens and under under age children (except Metro Buses) while the one year old Rea Vaya does not offer non of that and not even a monthly ticket. MyCiti should immediately offer these discounts to these designated group.

So I ask, how do you know that I child is under the age of 4? Do you just take a look at make a personal judgement? Do you use an average height to make a judgement? Or do you require those under these ages to also have a special coupon which can be purchased with a proof of age? Mmmm...interesting.

Another great idea that made me say "wow" is the fact that the city is encouraging public transport usage by tourists.

Visitors to the city can purchase a ticket which provides one day of unlimited travel at R15.00.

Isn't that a great idea? I think its a cool and I will definitely make use of the MyCiti buses when I go to Cape Town. This just tells you how creative the people behind this project are and many cities have so much to learn from this. However, other special groups need to be included. However, I hope this will be included in the future.

UPDATE

I sent an email to Dawie Bosch asking about some of the reservations I had about MyCITI and here is our email correspondence;

Dear Mulaudzi

Thanks for the positive feedback!

MyCiTi is not at present offering concessions for scholars and senior citizens. However, we will be investigating this for future use.

Your feedback and comment in you blog is apprciated.

Dawie Bosch
Business Plan and Integration
Integrated Rapid Transit Project
City of Cape Town

Tel (021) 400-9135
Cell 082-557-8597

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From: Erick Mulaudzi [emulaudzi@ingerop.co.za]
Sent: 02 September 2010 11:57 AM
To: Dawie Bosch
Subject: RE: Comments

Any discounts for the disabled/senior citizens and the scholars?

I recently bloged about you’re pricing on my blog and I will welcome your comments. You can also comment there for this question that I asked you. The link to the blog is found below;

http://publictransportsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2010/08/myciti-fares-shows-creativity-of-people.html

Thanks and all the best.

---

From: Dawie Bosch [mailto:Dawie.Bosch@capetown.gov.za]
Sent: 02 September 2010 07:51 AM
To: emulaudzi@ingerop.co.za
Cc: Beverley Ball
Subject: Re: Comments

Dear Mr Mulaudzi

The R400 monthly ticket is available to all. The press release merely states that this ticket "was aimed at" airport employees.

The ticket should be available for sale from 20 Sept, but. Is valid for a calendar month, so a Sept ticket will expire end of Sept.

Kind regards

Dawie Bosch
MyCiTi

Dawie Bosch
Business Plan and Integration
Integrated Rapid Transit Project
City of Cape Town

Tel (021) 400-9135
Cell 082-557-8597

---

From: Beverley Ball

Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 07:04:59 +0200

To: Dawie Bosch; Dawie Bosch

Subject: FW: Comments

Dawie

Please reply to Erick with regard to the ticket prices.

Beverley

From: Erick Mulaudzi [mailto:emulaudzi@ingerop.co.za]
Sent: 31 August 2010 12:04 PM
To: Beverley Ball
Subject: Comments

Hi Beverly,

You just recently announced that ticket prices for those who work at the Airport will be discounted. What about those who work along the Airport? And what is the definition of Airport workers….does this include those who work near the airport? I think everyone who is a commuter, irrespective of where they work should be given a discount, especially those who work along the airport. The idea is great though…cant wait to get to Cape Town.

MyCiti Bus Inner City Distribution Axed: What does this say about our city's transport system?

What does it says about a city when its bus system does not attract enough passengers? First it was Rea Vaya when they canned their inner city distribution system back in November 2009 due to "poor patronage" as commuters preferred to walk. Now, MyCiti buses in Cape Town will no longer be operating in the inner city, their reason.....the service was only part of the world cup (enews) while Long Walk Since Freedom website reports that the inner service did not prove as popular with locals as had been anticipated.

Now, to go back to the question that I posed earlier on I think the answers lies in the way in which our cities are planned and most importantly the way in which the transport plans were rushed to be implemented. If you look at the Johannesburg trunk route for instance, the plan was to move spectators during the FIFA world cup between Johannesburg Ellis Park and the Soccer City. The planners also seemed to have bitten two birds with one rock when they added Soweto which made sense because the township has one the highest number of people going to the CBD everyday. But....here is how they failed: they forgot to put stations next to major taxi ranks at the CBD. Why should they do that.....you ask....because most passengers from Soweto (and like any other area) go through the city because they connect with other modes of transport there, so building BRT stops near these stops would have made sense.

Before I can continue any further I must warn you that I do not know Cape Town CBD well.....so I will base most (if not all) my reasoning by the experience I have about Johannesburg. Here are some of the reasons why I think the CBD distribution system is not being successful;

• The inner distribution not only compete with other modes of transport but they hardly complement each other - most taxis do not distribute passengers around the city and Rea Vaya does not take that advantage and their stops are far away from the taxi and other public transport stops (e.g. Metro Rail Stations);
• The CBD does not have good image - people are afraid in the Johannesburg's CBD because they do not feel safe. This unsafeness pushes away potential ridership.
• Lack of marketing - marketing of the brand is not a continuing initiative;
• One of the reasons why the trunk route is famous is because most people in the CBD are there for work only and not so many people stay within the city to warrant inner trips and where most people stay (e.g. Berea, Hillbrow) Rea Vaya do not operate

These are my reasons folks, what do you think?