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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Trends in commuting |
Author: | McCaul, Colleen |
Year: | 1992 |
Periodical: | South African Review - SARS |
Issue: | 6 |
Pages: | 294-308 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | commuting passenger transport |
Abstract: | Since the 1930s passenger transport in South Africa has been a highly regulated affair, the protected domain of big bus companies and State-owned trains, subsidized by the Department of Transport and the South African Transport Services (SATS). The situation changed with the appearance of minibus taxis in the late 1970s. Although this transport system was not subsidized and fares were market-related, within ten years 30 percent of the country's African commuters had deserted buses and trains and flocked to the taxis. From the early 1980s the Department of Transport set up a variety of commissions to sort out the transport sector. In 1987 the government published a White Paper on national transport policy, and in April 1990 a draft Passenger Transport Bill was produced, which was, however, scrapped in May 1991. The remainder of the paper describes recent development in the taxi industry, and the plans developed by Putco, the second largest bus company in South Africa, and other bus companies and transport organizations. It also pays attention to the role of transport industry trade unions. Possible postapartheid scenarios include the allocation of land for housing close to cities in order to enable transport subsidies to be reduced, and projects to ameliorate road infrastructure. Ref. |