Saw this story today and it made me laugh....
He is a man of few words, but he is officially Gauteng's finest taxi driver. Mateye Makola is a bashful 30-year-old from Soshanguve, near Pretoria, who outdrove thousands of entrants to the brandhouse Number One Taxi Driver campaign to clinch the title.
Read the complete article here.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Gauteng tolls: Suburbs to suffer
Gauteng tolls: Suburbs to suffer
The Automobile Association (AA) says plans to introduce 32 tolls on Gauteng's roads without alternative public transport will result in more traffic in suburbs as motorists use back roads to avoid freeways.
The toll system, which will see motorists cough up around 50c per kilometre travelled, is being rolled out to raise money to maintain the 125km of new freeways that will be built in the province. The SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) awarded seven contracts in mid-2008 worth over R11bn for the first phase (125km) of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). A total of 500 kilometres of roads are due to be upgraded.
This article was run on Fin24.com detailing how a new proposed toll road system will put something like 7 toll roads on the route between from Edenvale to Sandton should you travel along the highway.
One of the ladies in our office did some quick calculations - it will add R600 to her monthly budget just to get to and from work each month.
While in principal the idea is great and serves a purpose, we STILL don't have a working public transport system (be it bus, taxi or rail) for us to move around with even if we did opt for public transport to and from business centres.
It is almost like we are looking at the problem the wrong way around and we are now rushing to find a way to introduce these tolls without addressing the fundamental problem that has led to there being too many cars on the roads.
The South African middle class is still growing and while the latest credit crunch might put a dent in affordability, there is going to be more and more middle class South Africans with cars on the road.
Why? Because they need to get around and our local transport system is failing us at the moment.
My grumble is that we should have addressed the bus / taxi issue, 8 years ago when this recapitalisation programme was mooted. We should have worried less about what the millitant taxi drivers were thinking and gotten a bus system in place.
Instead it has been allowed to sit up in the air for too long and now the timetable that says we need this toll road system in place, we are now pondering how this whole thing is going to work and how we are going to actually get around and how commuters are going to be able to AFFORD these toll systems.
I'll be honest I think its a pretty curious setup and unless some significant changes are made in our domestic transport system, we don't have a price of absorbing these costs into our monthly budgets.
The Automobile Association (AA) says plans to introduce 32 tolls on Gauteng's roads without alternative public transport will result in more traffic in suburbs as motorists use back roads to avoid freeways.
The toll system, which will see motorists cough up around 50c per kilometre travelled, is being rolled out to raise money to maintain the 125km of new freeways that will be built in the province. The SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) awarded seven contracts in mid-2008 worth over R11bn for the first phase (125km) of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). A total of 500 kilometres of roads are due to be upgraded.
This article was run on Fin24.com detailing how a new proposed toll road system will put something like 7 toll roads on the route between from Edenvale to Sandton should you travel along the highway.
One of the ladies in our office did some quick calculations - it will add R600 to her monthly budget just to get to and from work each month.
While in principal the idea is great and serves a purpose, we STILL don't have a working public transport system (be it bus, taxi or rail) for us to move around with even if we did opt for public transport to and from business centres.
It is almost like we are looking at the problem the wrong way around and we are now rushing to find a way to introduce these tolls without addressing the fundamental problem that has led to there being too many cars on the roads.
The South African middle class is still growing and while the latest credit crunch might put a dent in affordability, there is going to be more and more middle class South Africans with cars on the road.
Why? Because they need to get around and our local transport system is failing us at the moment.
My grumble is that we should have addressed the bus / taxi issue, 8 years ago when this recapitalisation programme was mooted. We should have worried less about what the millitant taxi drivers were thinking and gotten a bus system in place.
Instead it has been allowed to sit up in the air for too long and now the timetable that says we need this toll road system in place, we are now pondering how this whole thing is going to work and how we are going to actually get around and how commuters are going to be able to AFFORD these toll systems.
I'll be honest I think its a pretty curious setup and unless some significant changes are made in our domestic transport system, we don't have a price of absorbing these costs into our monthly budgets.
Monday, July 28, 2008
The SA Bus industry
Mention "Public transport" in South Africa and you will immediately create images in the minds of South Africans of lawless taxis with zero regulation of standards.
Despite this, South Africa actually has a relatively successful (and profitable) bus industry operating in the region. This system is going to be imperative when we host the 2010 football world cup, so we need to get this right.
Unfortunately the taxi operators are highly concerned about the introduction of the expanded bus system into South Africa. I mean - why would you want to trade in a taxi that has served you perfectly well and profitably for the last 10 years, for a bus with its increased maintenance standards and lack of manuverability??
After all its not quite so easy to take a bus up the pavement as a shortcut or perform a 180 degree turn in a full sized bus as it might be in a mini bus taxi...
But in all seriousness, the bus system has a lot of merit for the South African road system - we just need something a little more organised that we can all understand.
For the last 2 years, local government has been running with this campaign that tries to encourage South Africans to make use of public transport rather than use single person cars - thereby contributing to congestion on the roads... The only problem is - they forget to tell us guys who have never caught a bus - how the bloody system works!
The idea behind this blog is to try and work out what commuters thinks of the bus system and discuss some of the ideas that people are putting forward to improve transportation and public transport in South Africa.
Despite this, South Africa actually has a relatively successful (and profitable) bus industry operating in the region. This system is going to be imperative when we host the 2010 football world cup, so we need to get this right.
Unfortunately the taxi operators are highly concerned about the introduction of the expanded bus system into South Africa. I mean - why would you want to trade in a taxi that has served you perfectly well and profitably for the last 10 years, for a bus with its increased maintenance standards and lack of manuverability??
After all its not quite so easy to take a bus up the pavement as a shortcut or perform a 180 degree turn in a full sized bus as it might be in a mini bus taxi...
But in all seriousness, the bus system has a lot of merit for the South African road system - we just need something a little more organised that we can all understand.
For the last 2 years, local government has been running with this campaign that tries to encourage South Africans to make use of public transport rather than use single person cars - thereby contributing to congestion on the roads... The only problem is - they forget to tell us guys who have never caught a bus - how the bloody system works!
The idea behind this blog is to try and work out what commuters thinks of the bus system and discuss some of the ideas that people are putting forward to improve transportation and public transport in South Africa.
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