Public transport policy and performance: The results of a South African public opinion poll

Abstract

Public opinion plays a vital role in a democracy, as democracies are, by nature responsive to the people. In South Africa, public participation is entrenched in the Constitution. Despite this, the spate of service delivery protests in South Africa in recent years would appear to indicate that the government is out of touch with the opinions of the South African citizens. Public  transport  policy  in  South  Africa  is  described  by  a  number  of  documents,  mainly the  White  Paper  on  National  Transport  Policy,  Moving  South  Africa  and,  more  recently, the National Development Plan. An annual survey of 1000 South Africans is conducted to gauge opinion on transport related matters. The purpose of this article was to compare the current public transport policies (as stated above) and the public opinion on public transport (as gauged by the survey) in order to determine the extent to which these are aligned. The results  show  that  current  public  transport  policy  is  relatively  strongly  aligned  with  the public transport needs of the South African population, however, concerns regarding public transport such as mobility, accessibility, affordability and safety have not yet to be addressed satisfactorily.