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UCT Research Report '11
152
Environment: the Centre for Transport Studies (CfTS).
Through this centre, the university is tackling the urban
crisis from the point of view of how to integrate practical
and sustainable transport into the mix.
According to Herrie Schalekamp, Research Officer at the
CfTS, one of the centre’s key initiatives is an on-going
project on paratransit operations and regulation; exploring
regulatory frameworks for a hybrid public transport system
in which formal and informal services (such as the minibus-
taxi operators) co-exist. The researchers contend that
policies recognising paratransit operators (services that
supplement larger public transit systems), and seeking
contextually appropriate complementarity with formalised
planned services, will produce greater benefits than
policies ignoring their continued existence.
Another CfTS project seeks to examine changes in travel
behaviour, and specifically the possibility of increasing
the use of public and non-motorised forms of transport,
and kerbing the number of kilometres travelled in
private vehicles. This project adopted Cape Town and
Dar es Salaam as case cities. During 2011, research
activities included a review of behaviour change theories;
analysing the before-and-after data of rail-based park-
and-ride facilities in Cape Town; and the analysis of
qualitative mobility biography survey data collected in
Dar es Salaam.
Cape Town and Dar es Salaam were also the subjects
of a project on city restructuring. This project, which also
included Nairobi as a case city, aimed to investigate
the impacts of reduced commute distance travelled by
workers. The goal of this research was to assess the
impact of restricted private and even public motorised
travel. Research on reducing motorised commuter travel
and its effects on employers was initiated in 2011.
A micro-simulation model was developed and secondary
road data analysed during 2011 as part of a project on
non-motorised travel and infrastructure in Cape Town. This
project is focused on the safety of users of other modes of
transport, and their interaction with other road users and
infrastructure measures associated with ‘traffic calming’.
The Centre for Transport Studies (CfTS), a multi-disciplinary research and postgraduate teaching body based in the
Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, is tackling the urban crisis from the point of view of how to integrate
practical and sustainable transport into the mix.