Member of the mayoral committee for transport, Rehana Moosajee, with Gauteng MEC for public transport, roads and works, Ignatius Jacobs at the launch of the transport charter

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Transport charter will 'tackle' public transport in Gauteng A number of measures have been put in place to deal with the challenges facing the public transport sector, and an Intergovernmental Transport Charter has been launched. October 23, 2006 By Lucky Sindane ALL spheres of government are to work closely to integrate the provision of public transport, making it more efficient, and reducing the challenges in the sector. This is the gist of the Intergovernmental Transport Charter, which was officially launched by Gauteng MEC for public transport, roads and works, Ignatius Jacobs, on Friday, 20 October at Johannesburg Park Station. Jacobs and representatives of transport departments from Johannesburg, Sedibeng, West Rand District Municipality and Ekurhuleni committed themselves to working together to achieve shared transport objectives and outputs over the next five years. The charter aims to improve service delivery so that it becomes just and equitable. It is the guideline to improving the transport system and dealing with the challenges facing public transport in the province. "This document captures in a few but vocal pages, the historical wishes of the people of our province for the delivery of an integrated, effective and efficient transport system," Jacobs said. "Such a system must on the one hand redress recorded imbalances in our communities and on the other hand enable us to break new ground in pursuit of a unified, seamless and modern transport system that will unlock the potential of our growing economy." The charter is structured around several themes, namely planning, public transport, transport infrastructure, road space management, regulation, and freight and logistics. Johannesburg's member of the mayoral committee for transport, Rehana Moosajee, described the move as a historic one. "By working together we will be able to achieve common objectives." Jacobs said the charter would "serve as a 'order form' and a clarion call for the introduction and roll out of new transport technologies into our transport arena so that we can be able to keep with the pace of development in the rapidly globalising world and at the same time ensure that such transport technologies become an accessible tool for our people to break out of the vicious cycle of underdevelopment and poverty". "This joint initiative must also entail a breaking of the invisible and constructive administrative barriers, ensuring that we create a single transport authority for Gauteng." Speaking about future public transport plans Jacobs said that during Public Transport Month next year, the department would open cycling lanes because road space needed to be shared. "Plans are currently under way to make sure that people use one ticket for a bus, train or taxi. That's the kind of public transport we want in our province." Various measures are being put in place to meet the charter's objectives. A High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane pilot project began this morning on the N1 highway between Johannesburg and Tshwane. More than 160 000 cars travel on this freeway each day. The HOV lane is a dedicated lane set aside during peak traffic times for vehicles with three or more occupants. In this case it is the shoulder lane, going in both directions, along a 36km stretch from St Andrews Road in Joburg to Rooihuiskraal in Centurion. Motorists will be informed about which lanes to use via information boards set up on the N1. These boards form part of an intelligent transport system that uses cameras and message boards along the highway. Motorists will be kept informed of traffic and road conditions on a particular stretch of road via the system, which will also allow the traffic authorities and emergency personnel to respond to traffic jams, bad road conditions and accidents. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za