Gathering individual travel data with GPS-enabled smartphones : a proof-of-concept study

Policies aimed at Traffic Demand Management (TDM) rely heavily on the gathering of accurate individual level activity and travel data to understand and unpack the demand for transport. Moreover, self-report based data collection methods face problems such as a high-respondent burden and inaccuracies in the number and duration of the reported trips. On that account, this paper presents ongoing research to assess the reliability and feasibility of passively collecting high resolution spatiotemporal data on activity and travel behaviour using GPS-enabled smartphones. A small-scale pilot study was conducted in which respondents from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, were passively tracked for the course of two days by means of a purposefully designed smartphone application, termed TrackLog. The results of the small experiment indicate that while GPS technology in smartphones potentially holds a number of benefits for collecting activity and travel data, the technology is not without problems. This project has highlighted that these problems can be classified as: (1) user, (2) technology, and (3) methodology related problems. Notwithstanding these problems, the results indicate that gathering high resolution space-time data by means of GPS-enabled smartphones is feasible and that it opens doors to a range of possible applications that are unattainable by traditional survey methods.Paper presented at the 34th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 6-9 July 2015 "Working Together to Deliver - Sakha Sonke", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The Minister of Transport, South AfricaTransportation Research Board of the US

Evaluation of national road network funding in Namibia: the curse of efficient road user charges

Infrastructure development, including roads, requires large capital investments coupled with proper financial administration to ensure sufficient financing and funding. Insufficient or uncertain budget allocation undermines the planning and execution of road maintenance, which results in deterioration. The search for stable funding solutions for road maintenance and rehabilitation reinforces the establishment of second-generation road funds. Namibia established the Road Fund Administration (RFA) in 2000 to manage the Road User Charging System (RUCS) and the Road Fund. Although Namibia has established a Road Fund and implemented the RUCS, the current funding system appears to have run into serious problems. Revenue generated by the current RUCS presents limited capacity to meet the required demands of roads expenditure. This paper sought to evaluate the relationship between the road-generated revenue and its allocation towards national road network expenditure in Namibia. The research utilised data from the road agencies to evaluate road revenue generated from the RUCS. The evaluation shows that financial deficits occur on funds generated from the RUCS and the government must thus subsidise the road sector. This finding may indicate the dilemma facing many developing countries, where revenue from road users does not cover total road costs due to limited capacity and economy of use. Additional funding sources are therefore required to fund these deficits.Papers Presented at the 2018 37th Southern African Transport Conference 9-12 July 2018 Pretoria, South Africa. Theme "Towards a desired transport future: safe, sufficient and affordable"

Accessibility of Public Transport - with Focus on Access, Egress and the Line Haul Travel Time

Equity in access to opportunities is increasingly recognised as an essential component of sustainable development and transport. In South Africa most commuters live far from their workplaces, which makes their travel expensive with most spending 15 to 30% of their disposal income on transport (NHTS, 2013). These low income transport users are subjected to ever-increasing fares and long commuting hours using public transport. Public transport as primary line haul mode, with walking and cycling as feeder and distributor play a prominent role in sustainable urban mobility. The study seeks to measure the level of public transport accessibility for commuters and focus on access and egress within the metropolitan areas. In order to prepare for the research, a review analysis of the National House Travel Survey 2013 was undertaken through the use of SPSS statistical analysis software. The reality remains that the working population still travel long distances to their workplaces and spend much of their disposable income on transport. On average metropolitan working population spends 55 minutes per trip commuting to work, this includes access, egress, waiting and line haul time. The results show that train users spend more time travelling than any of the other modes.Papers presented at the 38th International Southern African Transport Conference on "Disruptive transport technologies - is South and Southern Africa ready?" held at CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa on 8th to 11th July 2019

Drive : a distance-based road user charge voluntary experiment

International research has shown that continuing reliance on the fuel levy as the main income source for road maintenance and upgrading is not viable. Technology trends such as electric vehicles and increased fuel efficiency has made the levy “unproductive”. New technology such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and mobile communication is making distance-based road user charging feasible. This paper provides a proposed design for voluntary participation of a distance-based road user charge experiment for South Africa based on the experiences of international program roll-outs. Selected American and European state’s distance-based road user charge designs and experiments are reviewed and a tailor-made program, designed for implementation in South Africa within the next couple of years, is proposed. A pilot project, tracking 18 voluntary participants, provided valuable information about the system’s technical requirements in the South African environment and how the road user charge could be calculated for economical and efficient road user cost recovery. The project involved a website where voluntary participants could learn more about this concept. They could apply to be part of the experiment, and once registered and a GPS device installed in their vehicle, they could view their daily travel behaviour through a mobility dashboard and map. An invoice accompanied the mobility information for hypothetical payment of road infrastructure use, based on the type of vehicle and road used, time of travel and travel conditions.Papers Presented at the 2018 37th Southern African Transport Conference 9-12 July 2018 Pretoria, South Africa. Theme "Towards a desired transport future: safe, sufficient and affordable"

A kilometre-based road user charge system : proof of concept study

The South African fuel levy is used to fund government?s general expenditure programmes, including the construction and maintenance of roads and support of public transport. Yet, the continuing reliance of the fuel levy to generate sufficient income is questioned due to a decrease in the average amount of fuel sold per vehicle per annum. The need exists to identify, explore and test a viable and operationally feasible alternative that is not dependant on fuel sales when generating income. The paper undertook a qualitative analysis of transportation financing sources to identify and then explore a viable alternative to the fuel levy. Furthermore, the operational feasibility of the alternative was tested and evaluated through a proof of concept vehicle tracking experiment. A kilometre-based road user charge (KBRUC) system was identified as a viable alternative which addresses many of the problems associated with the fuel levy. The system could entail an on-board global positioning system (GPS) enabled device to be fitted to a road user?s vehicles where vehicle movement data can be collected in order to generate a road use invoice at a set charge per kilometre travelled. The vehicle tracking experiment showed that a suggested configuration of the system is operationally feasible, in small scale, in South African. The paper concludes that further research is needed to assess the operational and technical feasibility of the system on a larger scale as well as policy, social and equity concerns.Paper presented at the 35th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 4-7 July 2016 "Transport ? a catalyst for socio-economic growth and development opportunities to improve quality of life", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The Minister of Transport, South AfricaTransportation Research Board of the US

Running dry : assessing the fuel levy as a long term, economically efficient road use fund

The fuel levy, a domestic transport cost component added to the basic fuel price, has long been South Africa?s main source of income to fund the construction and maintenance of roads as well as lend support to public transport (National Treasury, 2014b). During the 2012 / 2013 financial year the fuel levy contributed R40.4 billion to the National Revenue Fund administered by National Treasury (The Citizen, 2013). Of this amount, R17.6 billion (44.0%) and R19.9 billion (49.0%) were allocated to the road and public transport sectors respectively. Recent comments regarding the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (e-toll) has raised questions and strong opinions about the continuing use of the fuel levy as the main or only source of income from road users to fund land transport operations and infrastructure in South Africa. The aim of this paper is to assess if a review of the fuel levy is needed, and to be supplemented or replaced by a viable alternative, in order to secure a long term sustainable income source for the country?s aging transport road infrastructure. This paper will provide a historic overview of the South African fuel levy, from its origins in the 1920?s to the present day and will review the current demands on the fund. This will be followed by a comparison between the fuel levy in South Africa and other countries, including selected BRICS nations and selected European countries. Various societal trends will then be considered including alternative fuels, electrical and more fuel efficient vehicles and the impact of these trends on the fuel levy will be assessed. It was found through this assessment that alternative fuels, electrical and more fuel efficient vehicles have had an impact on the fuel levy whereby the registered vehicle population in South Africa grew with 47.2 % between the periods 2003 to 2012. For the same periods the vehicle kilometres driven by the registered vehicle population grew with 38.5 % while the fuel sales only grew by 21.9 %. This had a result where the fuel levy is losing productivity by experiencing declining revenues. The paper concludes that a review of the current fuel levy is needed, as increasing the fuel levy each year will only be a temporary solution. An alternative financing mechanism must be implemented that is not affected by societal trends.Paper presented at the 34th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 6-9 July 2015 "Working Together to Deliver - Sakha Sonke", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.The Minister of Transport, South AfricaTransportation Research Board of the US

Estimation of Marginal Social Costs, Issues and Suggestions: The Case for Namibian Roads

Road infrastructure while delivering economic benefits, generates negative externalities and places a heavy burden on the fiscus for funding. Road users impose various costs on fellow users, and the rest of the society when making use of the network. Normally, vehicles cause insubstantial damage to the road surface and may not only emit some emissions, but also add significant congestion costs in urban areas and increase the risk of accidents. What is generally less explored in developing countries is the internalisation of negative externalities into road pricing which do influence the present and future price of road use. The price road users pay for their road use hardly reflects the true cost of a trip. Failure by the road users to factor in the external costs when deciding to undertake a journey gives rise to various problems that have repercussions for the transport system, the environment and the society. In order to bring about more efficiency in the transport system, economists advocate charging road users at an efficient price, the so-called short-run marginal cost of road use. This paper explores the possibility of using the pavement management system (PMS) model mostly used by road agencies in Namibia. The model is used to plan and estimate the marginal externality cost of road use. The results demonstrate that it is possible to attain estimates of the marginal cost of road use in Namibia. Importantly, setting road use charge equal to the correct price does lead to road funding deficit, as reported in literature. These findings may indicate a dilemma faced by many developing countries with expansive road networks and a small vehicle population. The paper concludes with various options of how to address the deficit and support road funding without deviating from the efficient pricing principle.Papers presented at the 38th International Southern African Transport Conference on "Disruptive transport technologies - is South and Southern Africa ready?" held at CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa on 8th to 11th July 2019

Minibus-taxis as providers of scheduled, park & ride services : a concept for Stellenbosch

In South Africa the minibus-taxi industry is the most frequent, available and affordable mode of transport, and is a critical pillar of the transport sector, with approximately 65% market share. Stellenbosch experiences high usage of private cars (share of 87%), which results in congestion during the peak periods (Stellenbosch Municipality, 2016); public transport, on the other hand, remains under-used – in particular minibus-taxis. The study looks at transforming the current informal minibus-taxi (MBT) type operations into a formal, scheduled, quality public transport system. Further, we propose that the industry is recognised as a complex, dynamic system rather than a single business (Fourie, 2003; Fobosi, 2013). By formal we mean the establishment of the minibus-taxi into a formal, corporatised entity, and awarding them the responsibility of operating scheduled services, compliance to prescribed labour regulations such as drivers' hours of work, minimum wages and annual leaves (Mahlangu, 2002). This includes ‘park and rides’ as suggested by the municipality to alleviate congestion and encourage public transport ridership. It also means designing regulations specific to local problems, objectives and market conditions.The minibus-taxi industry represents an industry in which employers (taxi operators, associations and cooperatives) and employees (drivers, queue marshals, patrollers, administrators and fare collectors) are associated for the purposes of transporting passengers by road for reward in vehicles other than buses (TETA, 2016).Papers presented at the 36th Southern African Transport Conference, CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa on 10-13 July 2017.Transportation research board of the national academie

Reforming the namibian road user charging system towards a sustainable funding

Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Namibia, have established second-generation road funds for funding the road sector with road user charging (RUC) revenue streams that are deposited into the designated account. The Namibian road user charges system (RUCS) consists of charging instruments such as fuel levies, vehicles registration and annual licensing fees, cross boarder charges, mass distance charges and abnormal load fees. Among instruments in place for charging road user is fuel levy contributing about 60% to the revenue accruing to the Road Fund Administration (RFA). The principal motive driving the RUCS in many countries include gauging against the growing fuel-efficient and electrified motor vehicles that could bring about unsustainability in road funding as the fuel levy loses its prowess as the main revenue contributor. Additionally, heavy vehicles imposes substantial costs when uses the road network, however, the current mass distance charging aimed at ensuring that heavy vehicle owners pay their fair share for the cost they impose is prone to evasion. This paper sought to investigate the current RUCS towards reforming the system. The paper take a proposition that technology could be the answer to such a challenge, by exploring technology to charge per vehicle per kilometre travelled. The paper thus draws business requirements within the proposed framework.Papers presented virtually at the 39th International Southern African Transport Conference on 05 -07 July 202

Disruptive Transport Technologies: Forecasting the Impact on Road-Generated Revenues in South Africa

Disruptive transport technologies have been present since the industrial revolution, creating a future that was not directly foreseen, for instance, the invention of the steam locomotive that replaced horse-drawn carts. Modern technological innovations in the transport sector, such as more fuel-efficient vehicles, may have an immediate impact on the amount of road-generated revenue collected through countries’ road funding frameworks. This paper examines the extent to which disruptive transport technologies may impact South Africa’s ability to secure funding for roads in the future. Various road user cost recovery methods’ revenue potential are forecast up to the year 2030 which aligns with the National Development Plan’s horizon year, taking into account the impact of modern-day technological and resulting societal trends that include inter alia improved fuel efficiency, the introduction of electric vehicles, the usage of e-hailing services and policy adoption of greener vehicle technologies. Trend line forecasting and scenario writing are incorporated into this analysis, sourcing data from various government department budgets and research reports. It was found that these technological advancements, although having an impact on road-generated revenue, will rather be incremental in the short to medium terms, and not disruptive as a rule, as companies normally adopt and standardise the latest innovation in the industry over time. The article concludes by proposing that a distance-based road user charging system might be less susceptible to any incremental or disruptive technologies and can be a good mechanism to possibly use in order to apply the user pay principle.Papers presented at the 38th International Southern African Transport Conference on "Disruptive transport technologies - is South and Southern Africa ready?" held at CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa on 8th to 11th July 2019