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Poor households in Cape Town spend about 43% of their income on transport, the City’s Mayco member for urban development, Felicity Purchase, said in Wednesday.
That is why the City plans to spend a total of R2.9bn over the next three financial years on extending the MyCiti bus service in the south-eastern part of the Metro, linking Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain with, among others, Claremont and surrounding suburbs.
At the same time, the City also needs to ensure better management of the informal minibus taxi service in the city, Purchase said, speaking at the City Meets Business event. It was hosted by the Western Cape Business Opportunity Forum (Wesbof).
According to Purchase, the City is working with minibus taxi associations in this regard – with varying degrees of success.
'Revitalise rail'
"We have to revitalise the rail system in Cape Town. It must form the backbone of transport in the City," said Purchase.
She said it is government’s job to run the trains, and in this regard the City is having studies done on how the rail system can be fixed.
Two years ago about 650 000 people commuted by train each day compared to about 250 000 today. Two years ago there were 88 trains compared to 56 currently.
According to Purchase, this is one of the reasons for the congestion on the city’s roads and the City is working with Prasa to try to address issues impacting the rail system negatively.
Research shows that there are now three peak traffic times in Cape Town, namely in the morning at 03:00 and 06:00, and then again in the afternoon.
“We have to think collectively and look at more flexible working hours, promote car-pooling (including at schools); and look at working from home more."
