Cape Town has been named as ‘the third most congested city in the world’ -a pretty incredible statistic for the city often named as easy-going, lazy or just, ‘chilled’. With a statistic like that, we have to ask, “What’s going on with Cape Town’s transport?”
Too many cars only transport one passenger
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We have some great roads in Cape Town and municipalities are always quick to fix any potholes that come about as a result of wear and tear. The real problem though is the bottlenecks that occur each morning as a result of some unfortunate road design as well as due to population increases. Traffic lights not programmed correctly and double lanes merging into one are also some examples of where frustrations currently occur. This is all further aggravated by our population’s lack of interest in car pooling. It is ridiculous that most 5-seater cars on the road only have one person in the vehicle. The inefficiencies with a system like this are incredible.
If we shared rides we could remove up to 80% of the traffic from our roads. In addition, a single cab doing multiple lifts, even with only one passenger in the vehicle, would overcome the parking issues also currently plaguing the city.
Cape Town wants public transport
Public transport is a great alternative to using your own car but the services generally have been fragmented and are far from optimised. As Councillor Brett Herron has stated, there is a “very clear public appetite for a decent, frequent, predictable and safe public transport service.”
It has been stated that the objective of the city seems to be to provide public transport to the majority of the population, all within 500m of their front door. We hope to help them with this, by bringing the transport to your door.
Zapacab optimizing taxis will help Cape Town transport
Competition between companies, most commonly an advantage for consumers, has resulted in serious issues in the metered taxi industry. It has become operator-focused instead of consumer-focused. The off-peak service is inefficient to non-existent and cabs generally take far longer than needed to arrive at one’s door. Instead of having access to all available cabs on the road at once, a individual has to choose a company of only 40 cabs for example.
Zapacab is changing that by aggregating all existing licensed cabs, making them available to you at the touch of a button. The company is moving to improve both the quality and coverage of the taxi transport and aims to have a cab outside your door in under 15 minutes.
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We don’t need to build more highways. This will only encourage car usage. We certainly don’t need more cars, nor do we need more buses or cabs. What we need is smarter mobility in our cities – a more intelligent and efficient use of existing services. And one of the best ways to do this is through the use of technology. This is what Zapacab is achieving. By providing drivers with technology and tools, we will connect them to you, the passengers, in a more efficient and transparent manner, that will benefit both parties.
Read this interview for more information on Cape Town’s transport.
Stats displayed in image are taken from the following IOL post.
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