Responsible Transport Practices

Presented by: Mathetha MokonyamaVenue: Sandton Convention Centre

Date: 18 May 2010

Presentation Outline• Introduction• Transport system gaps and opportunities• Concluding remarks• Recommendations

Objectives of the presentation• Identify some of the critical South African

transport system gaps and opportunities related to building the “Green Economy”.

• Identify some actions that need to be taken to address the gaps and exploit the opportunities.

Household expenditure trends in the US

Source: Liman(2010)

• Transport costs have forever been on the increase.

• Low income household bear the brunt.

Household expenditure trends in South Africa

Source: StatsSA (2008)

• Transport costs rising rapidly than all the other items.

• We need to monitor changes (where, how much, what contributes, etc.)

Car emission rates in South Africa - JohannesburgParameter Unit Petrol Diesel

Fuel

consumption

l/100km 12.02 11.61

CO2 g/km 269 306

CO g/km 6.82 0.08

HC g/km 0.75 0.04

NOx g/km 1.69 1.44

HC + NOx g/km 2.44 1.48

Parameter Unit Petrol Diesel

EU regulation Euro-1 Euro-2 Euro-3 Euro-4 Euro-2 Euro-3

Year of introduction 1992 1996 2001 2005 1997 2000

CO g/km 2.72 2.2 2.3 1.0 1.0 0.6

HC g/km - - 0.2 0.1 - -

NOx g/km - - 0.15 0.08 - 0.5

HC + NOx g/km 0.97 0.5 - - 0.9 0.6

Source: Goyns (2008)

• Our car emission rates are much higher than the Euro standards. We have no equivalent standards or guidelines.

• Treasury proposes R75 per gram above 120g/km of CO2 for

new cars, but needs to be more comprehensive.

V/S

Changes in South African car age profile 2000-2009

Source: Calculations form Natis (2000) and eNatis (2009)

( mid 2009)

• South African car fleet is getting older.

• We fleet management guidelines.

Cars less that 5 years at municipal level

Source: Calculations eNatis (2003)

• Distribution indicative of the demand for new cars.

• Let’s take transport planning seriously even in traditionally smaller towns.

How South African access their nearest shop

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

Average number of cars per household

Perc

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at

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us

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old

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n c

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an

d n

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se

d t

ran

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Car NonMotorized

Source: Calculations based on NHTS (2003)

• The more cars a household have the more likely the use of car for purchasing basic household items as opposed to non-motorised transport.

South African road network design standards• Our road network design standards and “corridors” are defined in

terms of the mobility of cars (vehicles/hour) instead of person mobility (people/hour). Let’s reverse this.

Example of the severe cause of congestion – spatial planning

Roadway congestion tends to be concentrated.

Example: Scattered Origin and destinations making use of road section between Allandale and Buccleuch Interchange

Contrasting BRT performancesCity of Johannesburg• Length = 25km• 12 000 – 16 000 passenger

trips per day (to slightly improve with feeder and distributors.

Lagos, Nigeria• Length = 22km• 200 000 passenger trips per

day.

Mexico City, Mexico• Length = 20km• 350 000 passenger trips per

day.

Technology e.g. BRT alone, not the solution – land use restructuring and infrastructure design practice have a major role.

Other observations• Isolated road tolling, for example Gauteng Freeway Improvement Scheme,

is likely to create more problems than it solves e.g. secondary network congestion, accidents, etc.

• The use of South African space is expensive compared to other countries:

– Compared to many countries, South Africa’s per vehicle fuel consumption is high.

– In cities where human population is considerably higher than e.g. Johannesburg, public transport patronage is substantially more than in Johannesburg.

– Even at lower population sizes than Johannesburg, many cities in high income countries have public transport patronage higher than Johannesburg.

– In many cities, higher levels of car ownership do not necessarily translate into lower public transport patronage.

Concluding remarks• Indications are that in South Africa we are losing the battle for sustainable

transport.

• Let’s measure the right things to assess transport policy effectiveness.

• Vehicle kilometres per capita measures the efficiency of the transport system. Let’s aim to minimise it, and lets plan settlements to minimise it.

• We are still using old transport infrastructure and system design guidelines, founded on primitive planning frameworks, let’s update them.

• Without a sound built environment, the adoption of newer technology (e.g. electric cars, alternative fuels, BRT) will only have a marginal improvement, if any.

Recommendations for the way forward• Promote network design and network systems management as opposed to isolated

routes or “corridors” [Responsibility DoT and its Agencies]

• Monitor transport costs continuously and consistently [Responsibility StatsSA]

• Monitor vehicle kilometres (e.g. odometer readings and panel surveys) [Responsibility eNatis and DoT]

• Monitor passenger numbers (this is our system’s asset). [Responsibility StatsSA]

• Update old transport infrastructure and systems design standards [Responsibility DoT]

• Introduce new transport infrastructure and systems design standards [Responsibility DoT]

• Pilot and implement the design standards [Responsibility DoT]

THANK YOU

Mathetha Mokonyamammokonyama@csir.co.za