Analysing NHTS on public transport aspects

Last year, Statistics South Africa has reported on the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) for 2020, with an overview of transport aspects just prior to the Corona restrictions (the ‘old-normal’). In this paper, the results for public transport and its trend changes compared to the previous NHTS reports from 2013 and 2003 are analysed.

Public transport modal split has declined somewhat for most trip purposes (education, work, and other), despite the transportation policy objectives to promote public transport. However, absolute passenger volumes seem fairly stable, due to increase of population and economic growth.

Within public transport, the mode share of train has reduced greatly due to the deterioration of Metrorail services. Also, the bus share has reduced somewhat despite the introduction of BRT systems. Much of these passenger volumes have transferred to minibus-taxi and private car. This has led to an increase of minibus-taxi use, although transportation planning hardly caters for this mode of transport.

The NHTS has also analysed the ‘dissatisfiers’ for different public transport modes. Based on this, several recommendations are given for public transport policy implementation.