Assessment of the effectiveness and feasibility of a feeder-line-haul network in the City of Mbombela
Date
2021-12-08
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
The City of Mbombela, although it has not yet reached a metropolitan status, it can be seen that it is rapidly growing towards this status. An integrated public transport system is therefore required not only to improve traveling conditions around the City, but also to address the old apartheid spatial development planning which lead to black communities placed far from the City. The City has seen rapid growth away from the City centre with little or no change to its public transport system.
In general, the city comprises of a composite grid-diametrical network where major routes leading to the City intersect with or terminate at circular ring lines/roads connecting multiple areas along the boundary of the central district. This makes the City ideal for implanting a feeder line-haul system to improve the current public transport system. The project is aimed at investigating the feasibility of implementing a feeder line-haul system in the City of Mbombela. This includes the placing of stations along major routes at the outskirts of the City where mini-bus taxis will act as feeders to these stations and medium sized buses taking over the distribution role.
The current public transport system requires that commuters enter the city centre before reaching their final destinations located outside the City centre. The City is rapidly growing outwards while there has not been any change in the public transport system to accommodate this. During peak hours, the City experiences congestion and majority of the intersections operate at unacceptable level of service. This results in longer travelling times and significantly high travel costs amounting to 20% of low income groups’ annual salary spent on travel and up to 2.3 hours per day spent on work trips. The survey confirmed that around 50% of commuters have their destinations outside the City centre and that around 50% of commuters change vehicles at least once before reaching their final destination.
Intersection analysis found that mini-bus taxis contribute to congestion and poor level of service on intersections along taxi desire lines. It was found that removing taxis from the traffic stream results in reduced delay along lane groups used by taxis. The reduced delay would therefore improve travelling conditions through the City and result in travel time savings.
The study also found that there is a high number of mini-bus taxis operating along the Mbombela-Kanyamazane Corridor which result to a high passenger demand. The estimated peak demand of 1320 passengers per hour per direction, together with demand from the formal bus system, other corridors and attracted car users travelling to the City confirm that a feeder line-haul system is warranted. The study further found that implementation of the proposed feeder-line-haul network would result in reduction in mini-bus taxi fleet and subsequent reduction in operator costs.
The findings of the study can feed into the next level of network or operational design, where detailed modelling of the actual feeder-line-haul network is carried out. This can therefore form part of a future study
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Public Transport