Browsing by Author "Schalekamp, Herrie"

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    Open Access
    CfTS workshop: Technology and systems innovation, public transport and the minibus-taxi industry
    (2017-08-30) Schalekamp, Herrie
    Introductory presentation to workshop hosted by CfTS on technology and systems innovation in the public transport sector
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    Open Access
    Effects of feeder network operations on trunk-feeder network performance: a case study of Mitchells Plain, Cape Town
    (2017) Birungi, Claire; Zuidgeest, Mark; Schalekamp, Herrie
    In South Africa, more than 65% of commuters use public transport every day. However, the public transport system which commonly takes the form of a trunk-feeder network is not structured to meet the needs of the different users. Taxis which are informal serve as feeders to an interchange while the trunk services depart the interchange in a scheduled formal manner. Because of this difference in the nature in which the two public transport services operate, it renders the intermodal system uncoordinated. It thus makes it difficult for transport planners to coordinate unscheduled feeder services to the scheduled trunk services. This study investigated how the feeder public transport service configurations and operations on trunk bus services can be integrated and coordinated. The research employed an agent-based simulation tool to model and simulate trunk-feeder operations and further investigate how the configuration and operational characteristics of the trunk-feeder public transport system impact the passenger travel performance. The modelled intermodal operations mimicked typical trunk-feeder operations as follows: passenger arrival at stops to wait for taxis; passengers boarding and alighting along the feeder route; transferring passengers alighting from taxis; and walking through the interchange to connect to their respective trunk services so as to reach their destinations. The output of the validated base simulation model i.e. system characteristics, configurations and parameters were utilized to determine the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in the system. The analysis of the KPIs showed that there is indeed no co-ordination between feeder arrivals and trunk departures, and that this is mostly a result of inefficiencies in current operations in the feeder system. Scenarios were then developed to improve the trunk-feeder model where they focused on improving the efficiency of taxi feeder operations along the feeder route, as well as integrating and co-ordinating the feeder services to the trunk services. The results of the model analysis showed that integration of trunk and feeder services can be achieved through timed transfers; whereby taxi arrivals at the interchange are co-ordinated to bus departures from the interchange. This must of course be supplemented with other improvements tested in the scenarios on the feeder network. However, the operational behaviour of taxi feeder services is not predictable as a result of route non-compliance. This makes it difficult to plan timed transfers between them and formal bus and train services in order to achieve integration. It is therefore key that the transport authority and the taxi association's work closely to ensure that the regulations set about taxi operations and route compliance are followed. Without monitoring, the taxis will tend to operate in areas with high demand as operators are profit seeking as opposed to servicing the community and this will limit the success of this objective. Key words: Trunk-feeder, Taxi, simulation modelling, co-ordination, boarding & alighting, public transport integration, passengers
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    Open Access
    Geographical Modelling of Transit Deserts in Cape Town
    (2021-01-19) Vanderschuren, Marianne; Cameron, Robert; Newlands, Alexandra; Schalekamp, Herrie
    The World Bank calculated South Africa’s 2018 Gini Coefficient to be 0.63, which made it the world’s most unequal country. Such inequality is perpetuated by land-use patterns still influenced by the apartheid past. The resulting urban form necessitates long travel distances, often relying on fragmented transit modes, each with their own geographical and temporal constraints. This study applies work on transit deserts in cities in the global north to Cape Town, aiming to assess the methodological transferability to the global south, and generating case study results. In the Cape Town case, the study first analyses transit deserts based on formal public transport supply (bus rapid transit, traditional bus and train), identifying that ten out of 18 traffic analysis zones were classified as transit gaps (some unserved demand), while three of these zones qualified as transit deserts (significant undersupply). Like its U.S. counterparts, excess supply is found near Cape Town’s city centre. In Cape Town, the transit gaps/deserts are partly filled by unscheduled minibus-taxis. When this informal public transport service is added, the transit deserts disappear; however, half of the transport analysis zones still qualify as having transit gaps. It is, therefore, concluded that informal public transit in Cape Town reduces the transit gap, but does not eliminate it.
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    Lessons from building paratransit operators’ capacity to be partners in Cape Town’s public transport reform process
    (Elsevier, 2017-08-02) Schalekamp, Herrie
    In 2013 the Cape Town municipality initiated planning for the second phase of its MyCiTi bus system. The first phase, on which preparations commenced in 2007, relied on incorporating existing road-based operators in a bus rapid transit (BRT) system. The municipality under-estimated the cost and level of effort involved in the wholesale corporatisation of paratransit operators while concurrently equipping them to become BRT operators. Learning from this experience, it developed a more incremental transition approach in the second phase, the first fruit of which was a pilot express bus service launched in mid-2014. The pilot service contract also provided for a training programme for paratransit operators in the affected parts of the city to build their managerial and technical capacity. It was envisaged that programme participants would ultimately manage and run the long-term operating companies and contracts that would be established by the end of the three-year interim period. This article provides a critical review of the programme’s context, content and participant experiences after the conclusion of its first year. In broad terms the programme has made a positive contribution to paratransit participants’ understanding of the shortcomings of their current operations and why reform might be necessary, but much still remains to be done to enable them to fill their envisaged roles in future public transport operations. In view of growing interest in BRT installation in Sub-Saharan Africa lessons from Cape Town’s reform process offer both cautionary evidence and a potential mechanism for drawing existing operators in as partners in reform.