The face of Johannesburg’s public transport is to undergo a massive makeover following a major move by the City to implement an integrated and user-friendly transit system in all new residential and business developments.
The plan, unveiled at a meeting of the Transport Stakeholder Forum yesterday means that future town planning will take into account the needs and convenience of public transport users.
During the meeting, Member of Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Transport Christine Walters said: “It cannot be said that there is inadequate or even an absence of any type of transport in Johannesburg.
“There is an abundance of all modes of transport here, what the City is lacking is an integrated structural transport system.”
According to Walters, Johannesburg’s spatial design was a result of a deliberate strategy to separate its residents along racial lines.
“During the apartheid era, blacks were forced to live far away from their workplace and were provided with a single transport system between home and work, whites, on the other side of town, were mostly thought of in terms of using their own private vehicles.
“The spatial planning changed with the advent of democracy in 1994.
“Statistics show that average households spend more on transport and food than on any other item. It is therefore almost impossible to do or acquire anything else other than the two needs.”
Walters said the fact that transport was not integrated meant that users had to walk long distances to connect before reaching their destinations.
The plan is part of the City’s Growth and Development Strategy 2040 (GDS 2040), which says that by 2040 Johannesburg will be a pedestrian and public transport-oriented City.
