What mode of public transportation is superior: buses or taxis?

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Recommended: Effect of Apartheid policy in South Africa

1. Introduction

The spatial structure of the city has a huge impact on how transport networks function. In the case of South Africa with the effects of apartheid planning still looming in the background the ordinary citizen is the one that is affected by this in the end. Public transportation in South Africa has faced a lot problems in the past, some areas in the country are better off than others. The current government is still perpetuating elements of apartheid style planning in the new South Africa. To this day people are still being pushed to the fringes of the city, increasing the pressure on the state to provide better access to public transportation for these newly developed communities (Lucas, 2011:2). The government faces the challenge of providing safe, efficient, accessible and affordable means of public transportation. With high levels of urbanisation and inward migration from other African countries taking place, it is becoming a major problem for the state to provide adequate services for its people. The physical structure of South African cities could be argued to be the main source of all the issue facing the country’s public transportation system. The physical structure of the country and the way in which transportation planning was approached in the past could be seen as the stumbling block that prevents meaningful change in improving public transportation in the future. In attempting to answer the question this paper will be evaluating which mode of public transportation is more superior, either buses or mini buses (taxi). The paper will start off with a short history of public transportation in South Africa, followed by the social, economic and environmental factors that would be used to assess which mode of ...

... middle of paper ...

...ntry. Proceedings of the CODATU XIII Conference. Ho Chi Minh City, 2008.

LUCAS, K. 2011. Making the connections between transport disadvantage and the social exclusion of low income populations in the Tshwane Region of South Africa. Journal of Transport Geography, 19, 1320-1334.

WALTERS, J. 2013. Overview of public transport policy developments in South Africa. Research in Transportation Economics, 39, 34-45.

WOOLF, S. & JOUBERT, J. 2013. A people-centred view on paratransit in South Africa. Cities, 35, 284-293.

Web1: http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu26ue/uu26ue0g.htm [Accessed on 29 April 2014]

Web2: http://roadsafety.co.za/2013-09/24-dead-and-26-injured-in-multiple-vehicle-pile-up-in-pinetown/ [Accessed on 29 April 2014]

Web 3 http://www.belowthelion.co.za/when-will-someone-do-something-about-these-minibus-taxis/ [Accessed on 29 April 2014]

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