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Cape Town’s Transport Strategy Entrenches Inequality and Excludes the Most Vulnerable

Civil society groups and commuter representatives have raised serious concerns about the City of Cape Town’s Travel Demand Strategy (TDS), revealing a disconnect between the City’s promises of inclusion and its exclusionary fare and service policies.

The post CAPE TOWN’S TRANSPORT STRATEGY ENTRENCHES INEQUALITY AND EXCLUDES THE MOST VULNERABLE appeared first on For Good.

GOOD Statement by Siyabulela Mamkeli, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:

Civil society groups and commuter representatives have raised serious concerns about the City of Cape Town’s Travel Demand Strategy (TDS), revealing a disconnect between the City’s promises of inclusion and its exclusionary fare and service policies.

The draft Travel Demand Strategy tabled before the Urban Mobility Directorate promises to reduce congestion by encouraging a shift to public and non-motorised transport; promote affordability and equity in the transport system and address the apartheid spatial legacy through integrated mobility solutions.

However, the fare system directly contradicts these goals.

At the heart of the issue is the distance-based fare system, which penalises those living furthest from economic hubs, mainly Black and Coloured communities forcibly relocated to the outskirts under apartheid. These commuters bear the highest transport costs simply to access jobs and services, undermining the City’s stated goals of affordability, equity, and redress.

Instead of reducing car use, unaffordable fares push commuters into unsafe alternatives or impose unsustainable financial burdens, trapping families in poverty.

Worse still, the TDS has excluded the Disability Sector from meaningful participation. The ongoing suspension and underfunding of the Dial-a-Ride service has left thousands without safe, dignified mobility. This exclusion contradicts the City’s constitutional obligations to promote accessibility and equality.

GOOD calls for the scrapping of the distance-band fare system in favour of a fairer zonal model, with caps to protect long-distance commuters. Subsidies should be introduced for historically displaced communities as part of meaningful redress.

We further call for the full inclusion of disabled commuters and advocacy groups in the Travel Demand Strategy consultation process.

The City cannot claim to fight congestion and promote equity while running a fare system that entrenches inequality and sidelines disabled commuters. This isn’t just bad policy, it’s injustice.

GOOD Manifesto on Environmental Protection: Commitment to sustainable development and environmental justice.

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