Why South African cities are different? Comparing Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya bus rapid transit system with its Latin American siblings

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to shed light on the discussion about why Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) shows structural operational indicator differences between South African cities and their siblings in Latin American cities (LACs). With the premise that BRT does (and will continue to) have a role in South African mobility, South African local and national governments are working together to better understand how BRT works in the South African context to prepare for the expansion of these systems. Inspired by the success of BRT systems in Latin American cities (LACs), Johannesburg pioneered the implementation of a BRT system in South Africa, along with Cape Town. As of 2016, 43.5 km of trunk BRT corridors were fully operational in Johannesburg and their results in terms of ridership and operating cost recovery from fares were approximately one-third of initial estimates. It is widely known that, due to apartheid, Johannesburg urban form is characterized by average low density and spatial patterns where the poor reside very far from opportunities. This results in passenger travel demand patterns with long, unidirectional trips with high peak-to-base ratios, which significantly differ from the travel patterns in dense LACs where there is high turnover and much shorter journeys. This paper provides a comparative analysis of selected performance indicators between Johannesburg’s BRT and the BRTs in LACs that originally inspired their implementation in South Africa. The comparative analysis provides evidence that Johannesburg’s (and South African cities’) BRT, as implemented, may not have the conditions to cover its operating costs from farebox revenue and therefore will typically present significantly different operational indicators to those of its LAC siblings.