What is the Public Transport Month campaign all about?

The campaign raises the awareness of all citizens to the significance of public transport towards the socio-economic development of the country. It also aims to place the subject of public transport on the national agenda. Moreover, global trends in developed countries show that the regular use of private transport on a large scale is not sustainable. Why do we have to bother about this campaign?

Transport consumes more energy than industry: it is mainly an urban problem: more than 50 % of energy is consumed in towns. Moreover, approximately 96% of transport energy comes from oil products, which are the main pollutants. The continued dependence on the ever-increasing private cars is posing serious long-term health and environmental dangers, notwithstanding the fragile oil reserves that are in short supply.

This is the major factor of fuel price increase in countries that buy oil, such as ours. It is therefore imperative that we start using public transport regularly. What are the benefits of using public transport compared to using private transport? Private motor vehicles are the primary sources of the emission of poisonous gasses in urban areas, accounting for over 80% excessive carbon monoxide.

These poisonous gasses destroy the climate, environment as well as endanger the health of both people and animals. More use of public transport will automatically contribute to lesser private cars on the road and therefore lesser or manageable rate of poisonous gas emissions. Congestion on our roads means that people spend more time, energy and resources stuck in frustrating traffic gridlock.

Such time could have been spent productively. More use of public transport could unlock traffic congestions caused by excessive use of private transport; and Massive resources are used to build more road infrastructure and maintain existing ones that are already damaged due to overuse by the ever increasing number of private motor vehicles on South African roads. If our society becomes more reliant on public than private transport, the resources used on building and maintain road infrastructure would be reduced and thus equitable distribution of these resources to other public spheres such as clinics, schools, sports and recreation or social grants could be achieved.