Abstract
Urbanisation has resulted in a rapid rise in the occupation of cities world over and has led to a high dependency on automobile transportation modes, with effects on cities such as congestion, pollution, and global warming. Many countries, including South Africa have adapted the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to provide efficient, reliant, and affordable public transportation mode and to encourage the use of public transportation. Although the BRT System is discernible as a safer, more efficient, and reliable mode of transportation averse to minibus taxis in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), a large proportion of public transport users prefer the minibus taxi system. Consequently, this study was aimed at to analysing the extent and how the BRT system within the City of Johannesburg with the minibus taxi system provide for the needs of the urban poor. It adopts a case study research design and qualitative research approach. Primary data is amassed through semi-structured interviews, survey questionnaires, and field observations. An extensive literature review of scholarly, municipal publications and conference proceedings relevant to the study is utilized to provide secondary data and inform the study and thematic analysis method is employed to analyse the data, deduce themes, and produce results. The results of the study revealed that the bus rapid transit within the City of Johannesburg has shortcoming in terms of addressing the needs of the urban poor due to various factors such as the lack of integration between the BRT System, minibus taxi system and other public transport modes. Commuters are subjected to travelling long distances to access transportation, and that affordability and the location of various stations impacts the preference of modes for commuters. Following the challenges identified, the study proposes a framework for the establishment of an effective interlink between the BRT system and minibus taxi system in the City of Johannesburg, to ensure that even the urban poor have access to public transportation, and to achieve a holistic, integrated public transport system.
Keywords: Urban transportation systems, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, Minibus taxis, Integration, City of Johannesburg.