South Africa is still recovering from the effects of the apartheid government and spatial design that marginalises the demographic that resides at the edges and outskirts of cities. The country has come a long way from where it was, but still has a long way to go to eradicate the effects this fragmentation has had on access to socio economic opportunities. Diversifying land use and creating localised economic hubs may provide a helping hand in reducing the need to travel far distances to seek opportunity, and by extension create an attraction for surrounding communities. The dual role of nullifying past prejudice implemented through strategic spatial design while introducing the perspective of using the relationship between land use and transport to create rail contra flow and localised socio-economic hubs is one that can be achieved strategically. The modelling software that will help to demonstrate the model output of the research, which will be a simulation of contra-flow after the introduction of economic land use developments, is PTV VISUM.

This dissertation defines and describes the concept of 'transit deserts’, and the important role public transport plays in the lives of people who have few or no other alternatives. Transit deserts are defined as areas containing large portions of public transport dependent populations with limited access to private vehicles where the level of mass public transport does not adequately service the need of the populations in question (Jiao and Dillivan, 2013). The methodology to identify transit deserts (Jiao and Dillivan, 2013; Jiao, 2017) is tested in this study within a South African context, i.e. Cape Town. Since all available literature on measuring transit deserts was generated in the United States, a clearly defined modus operandi was established. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to modify and adapt the existing method to the Cape Town context. An explanation to how certain details related to the existing method were changed to be applicable to a South African city is provided in this study. The modified method involved identifying the public transport dependent population as a measure of public transport need, calculating the supply of public transport, and then measuring the gap between the need and the supply. This study will find that transit deserts exist in Cape Town and are spatially located on the outskirts of the metropolitan, in suburban and rural portions of the city. Transit gaps are also identified in previously marginilised areas known as the Cape Flats. Significantly, this study revealed the need for Cape Town to gather comprehensive transportation network data that is up-to-date and publicly available. This recommendation would allow for a more effective analysis of public transport need and supply in order to report on the location of transit deserts more accurately.

Some South African municipalities are facing challenges in performing transport planning functions. These challenges include a lack of organisational structure and human resource capacity, onerous planning frameworks, lack of guidance in preparing transport plans and lack of funding. To address these challenges, the Department of Transport has made various interventions, including the placement of interns in several municipalities across the country, reviewing transport planning frameworks and developing planning guidelines for the preparation of Integrated Transport Plans (ITPs). However, the impact on the ground has been minimal in terms of the quality of ITPs produced and their implementation. The impact of a lack of human resources and organisational capacity has not been investigated within a district municipal context. There is, therefore, a need to investigate capacity limitations and possible interventions as these factors may improve the quality and implementation of district municipality ITPs. The research reported upon in this dissertation was motivated by this need. Drawing on two case studies (the Alfred Nzo and Sedibeng District Municipalities), the study set out to assess how adequately District Municipalities (DMs) meet the minimum requirements for the preparation of ITPs. The study also set out to assess organisational capacity constraints that impact upon the performance of the two DMs surveyed. In fulfilling the aims of the study it was considered beneficial to use a mixed method qualitative survey and case study research approach, taking into account the research questions and limitations. A content analysis approach was adopted, whereby both the contents of the DITP documents, and the minimum requirements, were systematically examined. This ensured that the conclusions drawn from analysing the data collected were grounded. An assessment of the quality of the District Integrated Transport Plan (DITP), and the implementation thereof, also gave an indication as to whether the staff capacity employed by the DM was sufficient to fulfil its mandate. The study revealed that reviewing the minimum requirements might work to ensure that poorly resourced DMs are not subjected to requirements that are geared towards more affluent DMs. Learning from other countries, the study showed that having a monitoring chapter in the minimum requirements, and subsequently in the DITP, could ensure that quality control measures, as well as tools to monitor projects listed in the DITP, are put in place. The research showed that the Sedibeng DITP had an organisational structure and human resource capacity responsible for transport planning. It further revealed that the detailed nature of the Sedibeng DITP could be attributed to the fact that there is a relatively well-established organisational structure and a human resource capacity responsible for transport in the DM. Whilst on the case of Alfred Nzo DITP the research showed that there is no organisational structure and human resource capacity responsible for transport, which might account for the lack of details in its DITP. Furthermore, the research supported a hypothesis that the lack of human resources and organisational capacity have negative impact on the development and implementation of the ITPs at DMs level. In conclusion, the study recommends that transport planners should be employed by the National or provincial department of transport and be placed in DMs with the aim of increasing capacity whilst the DM is working on the reconfiguration of its organisational structure. Furthermore, the study recommends that the minimum content of the DITPs should be amended to meet the available capacity constraints and to align the categorisation of municipalities with that provided in the Municipal Structures Act. The minimum requirements should acknowledge this categorisation of municipalities, and where there is a need for the DM to scale down the minimum content of its plan based on capacity limitations or class of the DM, the minimum requirements should permit these deviations.

Apartheid era legislation, along with automobile-oriented city planning practices, have left legacies of race/class-linked spatial inequality, and unsustainable land-use transport inter-relationships in post-Apartheid South African cities. Most poor urban communities still live in peripheral settlements, which are far from employment, education, and social opportunities. Consequently, these communities are reliant on public transit services which are inadequate and often unsafe. Despite substantial democratic era public transit investment, this automobile-oriented spatial legacy, rapid urbanisation and a growing middle class have contributed to increased automobile ownership and severe traffic congestion. This, along with inner-city and surrounding precinct regeneration programmes, guided by neo-liberal market-friendly agendas, have contributed towards gentrification and consequent displacement of poorer communities from the few remaining central, but previously affordable, precincts. Intervention is required to halt this trend, and to enable poorer communities’ return to central urban neighbourhoods. Inclusionary housing in private sector housing developments could be one such intervention. Since 2007, national and municipal authorities have devoted resources to developing inclusionary housing policies; over a decade later, none have progressed beyond draft state. A core challenge has been establishing mechanisms that ensure sufficient flexibility to accommodate widely differing market conditions between precincts. Decisions by local authorities/private property developers to grant concessions/pursue projects are influenced by constraining factors applicable to the particular land parcels considered. The ease and rigour of such decision-making at both a policy and implementation level could arguably be enhanced by a GIS (geographic information system) based PSS (planning support system), that is capable of analysing spatial and non-spatial factors on multiple land parcels. This could enable a comparison of the impact that concessions (in exchange for inclusion of affordable units) may have on the financial viability of projects. The research objective of this dissertation was to establish the technical feasibility of developing such a GIS-based inclusionary housing profitability assessment PSS, capable of utilising existing GIS data (maintained by City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality), and which is capable of aiding local authorities and property developers, and ultimately, low-income communities. In conducting this research, a system intending to meet this objective was developed. Through engagement with stakeholders, five case study sites were identified. These were analysed using the system, allowing assessment of their suitability for inclusionary housing, while also allowing for the performance of the system itself to be evaluated. Case study findings suggest that moderately wealthy neighbourhoods are best suited to inclusionary housing projects, as the impact of cross-subsidisation appeared strongest. Project viability was found to be highly sensitive to market conditions, highlighting the importance of using accurate and up-to-date market data. Ultimately, it was concluded that stakeholders see value in the development of a GIS based inclusionary housing PSS, but for the system to truly meet its objective of aiding inclusionary housing policy development and implementation decisions, additional functionality would be required.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81). / This dissertation reports upon the findings of a study undertaken in Cape Town to measure the impacts of park-and-ride facility upgrades on commuting behaviour at selected rail stations. The study analysed data from two sources covering the period before and after park-andride facility upgrades at three affected rail stations (Brackenfell, Kraaifontein and Kuilsrivier) and three control stations. The purpose of including the control group was to assist in assessing whether any utilisation changes observed across the before and after periods were the result of external factors.

Rapid urbanisation is a global problem affecting most developing and intermediate countries. As the world’s urban population is set to double by the year 2050, growth in urban infrastructure and services is needed but is generally lagging behind this exponential growth, especially in most African countries. It is a reality that calls for smart responses. This implies that current resources need to be used efficiently to enable them to cater for the needs of an ever increasing urban population. Smart Transport is an innovative response to the urgent mobility and accessibility needs of urban inhabitants. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and bus priority measures are examples of smart transport. Research into High Level of Service Bus Systems (HLSB) or more commonly known as BRT in South African settings; has shown that they can successfully improve urban mobility while simultaneously reducing congestion, energy consumption, vehicular emissions and increase transit efficiencies. BRT is defined as a rubber-tired form of rapid transit that combines stations, vehicles, services, running ways, and ITS elements into an integrated system with a strong image and identity(Barker, Alvarez, Barnes, et al., 2003). However, the relatively high capital and operating costs of full specification/feature BRT systems are prohibitive to many local authorities. In many cities where they have already been implemented, this service is often subsidised. Furthermore, the road space is a limiting factor, as many of the areas that BRT systems needs to extend into, simply cannot accommodate conventional traffic mitigation strategies such as road widening or reservation of median lanes for BRT infrastructure. In the long term, BRT has been selected as the preferred model for mass urban transit by government i.e. all of South Africa’s major centres are in the process of implementing BRT systems. However, there is wide range of individual bus priority measures such as Bus Signal Priority (BSP) which have been used to improve public bus performance on urban corridors around the world. An opportunity exists to find alternative ways to extract maximum benefits of full specification/feature BRT. Hence the fundamental question this thesis will seek to answer is: Is it possible to reap the performance benefits of a full specification BRT system or full bus priority by implementation of partial Bus Priority Schemes at strategic locations along transit routes? Literature reviewed shows that; the full-feature BRT model in South Africa (SA) was adopted without being subjected to a process of due diligence and objective evaluation at the time. Enhanced bus systems that do not exhibit all the prescribed features of a full-feature BRT are dismissed as "BRT-lite" by proponents of the full-feature BRT model such as the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). The high levels of poverty among users, poor urban spatial form and financially constrained local authorities has brought the appropriateness of full-feature BRT for along SA's urban arterials into question. This roll-out of these full schemes has drawn criticism from institutions such as the World Bank who argue that the challenge in improving quality public transportation in SA lies in its access and affordability (Wood, 2014). This criticism is in light of the fact that Lagos BRT which is widely categorised as BRT-lite has demonstrated that improvements to public bus performance can be achieved in constrained African urban centres with less infrastructure and cheaper cost. Similarly, many North American cities have improved the performance of their public bus operations by using combinations of bus priority measures which are deemed most relevant for their local contexts rather than implementing full-feature BRT systems. The primary aim of this research is determine the effectiveness of alternative or partial bus priority measures compared to the baseline scenario and full priority. The study area chosen is Klipfontein Road in Cape Town (CT).

EThekwini municipality has been allocating millions of rands each year for speed humps as a traffic calming measure, to curb rat-running and ensure pedestrian safety in the city. Since 2012, the city has spent R42.1 million of its capital budget on speed humps. Despite all traffic calming efforts, there hasn't been significant changes in the city's total accidents. Between 2000 and 2015, the city's total crashes has never been below 50 000 per annum. In terms of injuries, the same trend can be observed. Person injuries have been increasing year-on-year since 2012. To date, there hasn't been a study conducted by EThekwini Municipality to assess the effectiveness of these speed humps implemented across the city. At the moment, despite the city's annual commitment to implement traffic calming, particularly in the form of speed humps, the city does not have an idea as to whether traffic calming measures put in place are successful or not, or whether they are effecting any changes at all. This research, therefore, aims to use information available to assess changes in specific roads, i.e. roads that have been traffic calmed. The study will look at these numbers which are key performance indicators before and after the implementation of speed humps. This study will assess the impact of reactive (responsive to requests) traffic calming in the form of speed humps using accident data. The assessment will look at changes relating to the number of crashes before and after implementation of speed humps, it will also focus on changes in the severity of accidents involved. The research will study changes in relation to the types of accident involved particularly pedestrians. These key performance indicators (KPIs) will be used to assess changes and answer the question of effectiveness.

Inanda is a predominantly rural area located on the northern coast of the province of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. It is bordered by the areas of Phoenix, Verulam and Tongaat. In the context of healthcare accessibility in the Inanda area, the research aimed at investigating the problem in service location planning. This was done by investigating level of accessibility to existing healthcare facilities available to the residents of Inanda. Following the classification of accessibility problems, recommendations were made on where the facility locations can be improved or expanded to provide better accessibility in terms of location-allocation. Literature that has been reviewed focused on geographic location, GIS and accessibility measures, spatial accessibility, models used to test accessibility, service location planning and accessibility measures and metrics so as to provide a background and precedent for the service location planning carried out in the research. The research aimed to confirm that accessibility to the healthcare facilities is indeed a problem and to propose alternative strategies to overcome the accessibility problems identified. The access to healthcare service locations is dependent on a number of factors. Some of these factors include travel time and distance, available capacity at facilities, existing road network, and provision or lack thereof of an efficient public transport system. This accessibility to the health service locations was assessed by using available GIS information on healthcare facilities and using accessibility analysis to identify problems in terms of the services location as well as additional location-allocation of current and additional facilities. The analysis was based on the assumption that all service locations have unlimited capacity. Flowmap was used as the tool to analyse the GIS data and conduct various accessibility models. The different models were Expansion Model Analysis, Relocation Model Analysis, Catchment Area and Clinic Allocation Analysis, Catchment Profile, Market share of Supply Locations, Regular Proximity Count, Average Distance in Competition, Proximity Count in Competition, Lowest Mean Trip Cost Alternate, Second Best Catchment Distance and Pareto Cover Set. The results of the research showed that while the locations of the existing healthcare facilities are not ideal, most are accessible to the majority of the Inanda residents. The information on actual capacity available at each of the locations was not available at the time of the research being carried out and would be worthwhile to research in the future.

Transportation planning over the years focused on providing mobility for car users. The focus on mobility has left people who cannot afford automobiles without access to different activities within their societies. The lack of access, in turn, resulted in social exclusion. In the book ‘Transport Justice' Martens showed that the distinct social meaning of the transport good lies in the accessibility. And therefore, accessibility should be the focus of transportation planning to mitigate lack of access and in turn social exclusion. Moreover, Martens developed principles of justice for transportation planning which focuses on identifying groups of people experiencing accessibility shortfalls to help planners focus resources towards those people who are socially excluded due to inadequate transportation systems. This paper aimed to use the principles of justice for transportation planning to identify population groups experiencing insufficient accessibility in the City of Windhoek by assessing potential mobility and accessibility in the city. Additionally, the paper aimed to evaluate how well the rules apply to a small city with a different land use and transport system to the Amsterdam case study from the book ‘Transport Justice'. To assess the transport system, the population of Windhoek was divided into groups based on location, income, and modal split. The accessibility levels and potential mobility levels for each population group per mode were then determined using four accessibility measures and the Potential Mobility Index (PMI-score). The groups were then assigned under 50%, 30%, and 10% accessibility thresholds based on their respective accessibility levels. Under each threshold, groups that contributed the most to the unfairness of the transportation system were identified and ranked based on their respective Accessibility Fairness Index scores (AFI). The results showed that most public transport dependent population groups contributed to the Windhoek transportation system unfairness. These groups are located in Havana, Okuryangava, Wanaheda, and Goreangab at the fringes of the city with low-income residents. Even with limited data, the application of the principles to Windhoek yielded an insightful overview of accessibility in within the city that showed gross inequalities in accessibility to jobs between the car owners and public transport users and between low income and high income earners. The application of the principles of justice for transportation planning produced comprehensible insight on the effects of the transportation system on accessibility to employment in Windhoek. The insight has shown that theory and principles developed by Martens can be useful in the African context where there are significant disparities in accessibility.

Road fatalities are one of the leading causes of unnatural deaths in developing countries, such as South Africa. According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (2017), the number of road traffic fatalities were recorded to be 11 676 in the year 2016 and 42.6% of these road traffic fatalities involved pedestrian. According to the National Road Safety Strategy 2016 – 2030 most pedestrian crashes are due to illegal pedestrian crossings mainly across high speed roads (highways) (Department of Transport, 2011). The research study aims to develop a geo-spatial model to determine the most suitable location to allocate pedestrian footbridge infrastructure along the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) network in Gauteng Province. Previously road planning and design in South Africa followed international best practices, with development of the highway road system mainly orientated to serve motorised transport by primarily providing infrastructure for vehicular traffic along the highways , as pedestrians and highways were not expected to coexist in any proximity to each other. The presence of pedestrians along highways can no longer be ignored and there is a great need to overcome the highly fragmented spatial planning formed by the apartheid policies. For most non-motorised transport (NMT) users in South Africa, highways offer the shortest and most efficient direct routes, but also represent a major obstacle for many pedestrians who are separated by them. Limited studies on the location and allocation of the pedestrian footbridge for pedestrians are reported in the literature, further research in this field should be considered, especially along the SANRAL network where there are high number of residential areas along high-speed roads, this behaviour is unique and common in South Africa. Based on a literature review the factors affecting the location and allocation of pedestrian footbridges were identified, the following were factors identified: population density (serviced by the pedestrian footbridge), land use activities, socio-economic characteristics of the population (e.g. Gender, employment, race, and income level), crash hotspots/statistics (along the route), distance to access bridge and vehicle traffic volume along the route. From these factors spatial data was gathered to carry out spatial multi-criteria analyses (SMCA). The results from the spatial analysis showed that high population densities adjacent to highway, accessibility and land use are key in the location of pedestrian footbridge. The results also show that there is a strong correlation between: land use diversity, socio-economic, crash hotspots/statistics (along the route), vehicle traffic volume and population density (serviced by the pedestrian footbridge). The higher an area has these factors, the Higher the Pedestrian Footbridge location index (high pedestrian footbridge location demand), hence the recommendation to allocate in those locations.