The informal transport continues to play a crucial role in employment and many people’s livelihoods as transportation is an essential for development and socio-economic improvement of communities and countries. The transport system in Lesotho has had visible imperfections before and after independence hence mobility and accessibility has been a problem in Lesotho. Part of the problem has been due to the country’s topography and poor fiscal capacity to construct roads on the landscape that is already hard to develop and/ or requires a lot of funding. Lesotho, like other developing countries has had a difficulty in infrastructure developments. Available road developments still do not serve the population at large. Therefore most part of the population is left disconnected and marginalised. For the reasons mentioned above, formal transportation that was provided by the government was the Lesotho National Bus Service and Lesotho Fright Bus Services (LFBS). These operated towards the foothills or mountainous areas on gravel roads which were not commercially viable. The buses had defined time schedules and routes while local transport was liberated and left in the hands of private operators. This was done to enable free competition and enable innovation. Then, the country’s population increased and urbanisation become apparent as factories in Maseru and Leribe districts were established attracting people to towns to work at those factories. Mobility of people became an apparent need but available transport was inadequate. This saw an increase of informal transportation to bridge the mobility gap. However, it was still not enough as most of the informal passenger transport operated in towns and rural residents were still disconnected. At that moment many transport operators saw an opportunity to work in the informal transportation sector. This became possible as many Basotho were able to import cars from Japan and used them in the transportation sector to operate as ‘4+1 taxi’s. The model came as an alternative means of transportation because there was still an obvious need in the passenger’s mobility. As 4+1 taxis increased, their operation has been faulted and criminalised for being chaotic by causing traffic jam in the country’s small towns as in causing accidents, being involved in criminal activities and reckless driving, to mention a few. However, little attention was paid on how these taxis have helped to improve the mobility of passengers especially the poor who use them on a daily basis to commute. It is presented in this study that they certainly may be causing mayhem in the towns but they have been very beneficial to passenger mobility in Lesotho. The ‘4+1’ carry four people plus a driver; therefore, they fill in faster. They are timely and do not have fixed schedules; they navigate through traffic and settlements that sprawl out of town. Many passengers do not have to wait on long queues. They forge new routes in-to disconnected and marginalised areas to drive away competition. ‘4+1s have become very important to passenger’s mobility. Authorities need to ensure that they are registered and strictly enforce the law to make sure that they abide by the traffic laws. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Anthropology and Archaeology / MSocSci / Unrestricted

published_or_final_version / Transport Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Geography and Geology / Master / Master of Arts

M.Com. (Business Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

No description available.

D.Com. (Transport Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Modern airport terminal design approaches the needs of passengers on a primarily logistical level. Over time, genuine interest in passenger comfort and satisfaction has become diluted in the face of an increasingly efficiency and money-driven aviation industry. The airport experience has been reduced to getting in and out of the terminal as quickly as possible, simply because there is little incentive to slow down or even go in the first place. Uninspiring interior designs, crumbling infrastructure, claustrophobic spaces, security hassles, and a lack of access to food, shops, services, and entertainment are just a few of the issues that must be dealt with in order to restore a certain level of appeal and comfort. This thesis suggests that a more sensitive and responsive approach to airport design can change an ingrained mentality that characterizes airports as places to be dreaded rather than be inspired by. Over time, stress has become an inherent part of travelling, due largely to incremental increases in security checks and measures. This is an unfortunate by-product of the era we live in and is not likely be changed entirely, as public safety must remain a paramount goal in any airport design. At the same time, architects must feel compelled to design in a way that reduces passenger stress at every point along their terminal experience. Only then can passengers feel free to truly take in the architecture of their surroundings -- an architecture that should aim to satisfy functional and efficiency-related standards, as well as symbolize gateways to new places and embody the essence of flight. The design of tomorrow's airport must anticipate and respond holistically to passenger needs, on both a practical and an aesthetic level, so as to create an experience that manifests in quality rather than quantity. The degree of that response at various airports around the world is what this thesis measures, deconstructs, and reimagines as a foundation for the final design proposal.

No description available.

Coherent scatter measurements have previously shown promise as a method for detection and identification of materials. However, the time required for measurements is rather long and the computer power required to analyse the data can be quite considerable. A multiple angle coherent scatter system has been designed and built to assess the feasibility of using this technique as an alternative to a single angle coherent scatter system. An application of detecting the presence of explosives within baggage to go on board aircraft was used to test the multiple angle system. A cadmium zinc telluride detector was found to be suitable to be used with the multiple angle system. A model of the system was used to determine the number of angles required and to determine the characteristics of the collimator that would be suitable with this detector. The objective of this work was to develop a simple method of analysing the data yielded from multiple angle coherent scatter system. This has been achieved by plotting the scatter signatures in the form of energy-angle diagrams and using these plots to determine the optimum energy windows to be used with each scatter angle. Samples of 4 mm of Semtex and 6 mm of SX2 were detected with 0% false alarm rate at 100% detection rate with a single energy window centred at a planar spacing of 3.3 Å. A detector array with collimation has been built to fit within the dimensions of an existing baggage scanner. This caused an increase in the scatter volume and hence the explosive sample constituted a smaller part of it. The results were that the false alarm rate was higher than for the initial system, at 37.5% It is concluded that the multiple angle detection of coherent scatter signatures is a promising method for the detection of explosives and that it could be used for several other applications in the future.

Modern airport terminal design approaches the needs of passengers on a primarily logistical level. Over time, genuine interest in passenger comfort and satisfaction has become diluted in the face of an increasingly efficiency and money-driven aviation industry. The airport experience has been reduced to getting in and out of the terminal as quickly as possible, simply because there is little incentive to slow down or even go in the first place. Uninspiring interior designs, crumbling infrastructure, claustrophobic spaces, security hassles, and a lack of access to food, shops, services, and entertainment are just a few of the issues that must be dealt with in order to restore a certain level of appeal and comfort. This thesis suggests that a more sensitive and responsive approach to airport design can change an ingrained mentality that characterizes airports as places to be dreaded rather than be inspired by. Over time, stress has become an inherent part of travelling, due largely to incremental increases in security checks and measures. This is an unfortunate by-product of the era we live in and is not likely be changed entirely, as public safety must remain a paramount goal in any airport design. At the same time, architects must feel compelled to design in a way that reduces passenger stress at every point along their terminal experience. Only then can passengers feel free to truly take in the architecture of their surroundings -- an architecture that should aim to satisfy functional and efficiency-related standards, as well as symbolize gateways to new places and embody the essence of flight. The design of tomorrow's airport must anticipate and respond holistically to passenger needs, on both a practical and an aesthetic level, so as to create an experience that manifests in quality rather than quantity. The degree of that response at various airports around the world is what this thesis measures, deconstructs, and reimagines as a foundation for the final design proposal.