South African national transport policies, legislation and frameworks, as guided by the 1996 White Paper on National Transport Policy, have committed to providing a public transport system that equitably enables citizens to affordably access the goods, services and opportunities that are essential for their well-being. However, two decades after the introduction of the White Paper, quantitative studies have found that in Cape Town, lower-income households continue to experience a negative commute experience and still spend a disproportionate amount of time and money on travel in relation to higher-income households. Further, no studies have investigated what the user experience means in the lives of the commuters who are low-income earners and how these commuters must manage their travel times and travel costs in the South African context. This rich information is required as a critical input into policy evaluations and the design of appropriate user-focused policies that are founded on an authentic understanding of user needs and user experiences. In this study, a qualitative approach was employed to investigate the commute experiences of seven Cape Town women who are low-income earners. The findings suggest that while commuter rail presents the most affordable mode of travel for respondents, the service is subject to significant disruptions which result in substantial, unexpected, and unplanned-for travel cost and travel time expenditure. This unexpected expenditure adversely impacts household travel and time budgets and respondents must adjust these budgets accordingly to the disadvantage of their household consumption and personal activities. Furthermore, while commuting, respondents have all experienced fear of crime, bearing witness to criminal activity or being the victim of criminal activity. In general, all respondents reported a negative and frustrating commute experience that differs significantly from the user-focused, affordable and time-efficient public transport service that the 1996 White Paper on National Transport Policy had promised to deliver. The study recommends renewed emphasis on integrated land-use and transport planning that reduces trip distances, prioritisation of investment in public transport infrastructure, fare and ticketing integration, restructuring of public transport subsidy frameworks and increased focus on security through visible law enforcement and lighting.

Globally, road traffic injury is a leading cause of death and disability in children aged 15 to 19 and the second leading cause of death in children between the ages 10 to 14 years. This thesis reviewed literature regarding the extent of road traffic injuries involving child pedestrians, the risk factors for child pedestrians and the effectiveness of interventions aimed at road safety improvement. EThekwini Metro was used as a case study for investigating the magnitude of road traffic crashes involving child pedestrians around primary schools. The schools with the highest road traffic crashes were used to investigate the road and environment contributory factors to crashes and finally the interventions in place at these schools to reduce road traffic injuries. The magnitude of crashes was quantified by using road accident data obtained from eThekwini Metro and the investigation of the interventions applied at the schools was conducted using Google Earth imagery, onsite inspections and administering a questionnaire to educators at the schools chosen for the case study. Results suggest that, in eThekwini, 32% of pedestrian crashes involve children from 0 to 19 years. The 6 to 10 year age group has the highest risk of road traffic injury and boys are 20% more likely to be involved in a crash compared to girls. The top ten primary schools with the highest road traffic crashes are located in middle and low income areas in eThekwini, these are, Sydenham, Jacobs and Umlazi Township. Most crashes took place where three or more schools are located within a kilometre radius of each other. Child behaviour contributed to 77% of the road traffic crashes. Scholar transport driver behaviour was highlighted as a major contributor to crashes by the respondents and environmental factors that resulted in reduced visibility of the child pedestrian contributed to 6% of the crashes. The main cause of road traffic injury, 68%, was crossing the road when it was unsafe to do so. Most crashes took place away from the intersection (58%), under clear and dry weather conditions (95%) during daylight (87%), between 13h00 to 15h30 (41%). Mondays and Fridays had highest incidents of road traffic crashes compared to other days of the week. Forty five percent (45%) of crashes took place on Class 5 local roads but all top ten schools with the highest road traffic crashes are located within a kilometre of a Class 3 distributor road or a class 4 collector road and these higher order roads have the highest crashes per road associated with the primary schools in their vicinity. Traffic calming, in the form of speed humps are only provided on roads where school entrances are located and are not provided on other roads even the roads with the highest road traffic crashes. Pedestrian crossings that direct pedestrians to a safe crossing location, road signs and road markings that warn drivers about the school are also generally not provided. The study revealed that road safety education is not formally provided in the school’s curriculum, it is taught as part of the Life Skills subject. The content and type of training is decided upon by the Life Skills teachers. Practical training is only provided at two of the schools, in all other schools, road safety education is taught and tested in a classroom environment. The author recommends that further studies be conducted on child pedestrian road safety around schools to obtain a full understanding of the road and environmental risk factors, that the municipality adopts the school zone concept and develops a policy for road safety interventions within the school zones. The municipality must also constantly monitor road traffic crashes involving child pedestrians, collect necessary data and test the effectiveness of measures applied to reduce the risks for child pedestrian crashes, investigate the possibility of providing grade separated pedestrian crossing facilities on higher order roads within a kilometre radius of the schools, initiate a scholar transport driver training programme and to assist the schools in the provision of road safety education by providing facilities where practical road safety training can be taught.

No / In this paper, a similarity concept is proposed to improve student understanding on difficult and complicated engineering theory. The planned application of this approach is for the Transportation Studies module (CSE6004-A) at School of Engineering, University of Bradford, United Kingdom. In the module, noise induced by road transport and vehicles are taught in depth, where the proposed teaching method will be applied to aid student understanding on the numerical concept of the vibration effect and noise on vehicle braking system. As part of the module planning, the full numerical solution of brake judder/vibration effect, which includes shaking (forced vibration) and nibbling (torsional vibration) effects will be introduced to students where similarity concept will be adapted in its teaching. The successfully applied concept will also be able to utilize by other engineering teaching and modules.