Integration of public transport through a structured analysis technique

Abstract

One of the strategic objectives of the present government of South Africa is to promote the use of public transport with a goal of achieving a ratio of 80:20 between public transport and private car usage by the year 2020. However, the present structures of most cities are not conducive to the development of efficient public transport systems. Occasionally, expensive infrastructures were constructed in certain areas without proper planning. Chatsworth, a major suburban area of Durban, South Africa, has been considered as a case study in this article. The area is connected to the city centre by public transport systems, namely bus, minibus and metro rail. Surprisingly, the patronage on the rail system is very low and is decreasing. With a view to increase the accessibility to the rail system, a methodology has been presented based on data flow diagrams to develop a computer simulation model for the operational analysis of minibus taxi-rail integration. The service requirements of metro rail and the minibus taxi service were analysed based on different demand scenarios in order to determine the optimum service requirement for the integrated system.