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.