A survey, released by Statistics South Africa in collaboration with the Department of Transport, reports that about 10.1 million pupils around SA walk to school daily.
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The number of learners who walk, instead of using public transport, represents 59,4% of all learners.
This is a decrease from the 11 million observed in 2013 which represented 63,4% of all learners.
The time from home to school is an important factor to consider when determining the ease or difficulty one would experience when travelling to education institutions.
Most learners in the country walked all the way to the educational institution (76,9%) because it is nearby or close enough to walk from home.
The second reason provided was that public transport was too expensive (11,0%). This reason was most likely to be given in rural areas (13,1%).
Walking all the way to the educational institution was prevalent amongst learners who attended school. Those who attended a higher educational institution were most likely to use a taxi (31,5%), and driving a car/truck (24,1%) to reach their destination.
Across the provinces, the highest percentage of learners who walked to their educational institution were in KwaZulu-Natal (20,3%) and Gauteng (17,7%), followed by 14,6% in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.
For work-related travel, the use of public transport was important across all geographic locations. However, urban workers were more likely to use a taxi than a bus as their main mode of transport, while rural workers were most likely to use a bus as their main mode of transport.
The estimated total number of workers’ trips using public transport decreased significantly from 5,4 million in 2013 to 4,7 million in 2020.
Taxis accounted for most public transport users, with 80,2% of workers using taxis, which is more than the proportion reported in 2013 (67,6%).
More than fifteen per cent (16,6%) of workers using public transport used buses in 2020, whereas in 2013, the percentage of workers who used buses was 19,5%. Those who used trains in 2013 (12,9%) significantly decreased to 3,2% in 2020.
Changed patterns
The general usage patterns of public transport has changed significantly between 2013 and 2020.
There has been an increase in households who used a taxi (from 9,8 million to 11,4 million).
However, a decrease was recorded in the number of households who used a bus (from 2,9 million to 2,1 million) and a train (1,4 million to 0,5 million) as their preferred mode of transport.
Facilities at the taxi rank and taxi fare remained the highest reason for dissatisfaction with minibus taxi services among South African households.
In 2020, more than half of these households (56,9%) were dissatisfied with the facilities at the taxi rank. Regarding bus services, households were most dissatisfied with bus stop facilities, the level of crowding in the bus and security at the bus stop.
In 2013, reasons most likely to be indicated for dissatisfaction with train services were the level of crowding in the train (78,2%), followed by security on the walk to/from the train station (56,6%).
In 2020, the level of crowding in the trains (86,8%) and waiting time for trains (86,6%) were the biggest problems mentioned by households.
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