Historical Land Planning, Transport Poverty and Sustainable Cities: the Case of Johannesburg
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COPYRIGHT AND CITATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR THIS THESIS/ DISSERTATION o Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. o NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. o ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. How to cite this thesis Surname, Initial(s). (2012) Title of the thesis or dissertation. PhD. (Chemistry)/ M.Sc. (Physics)/ M.A. (Philosophy)/M.Com. (Finance) etc. [Unpublished]: University of Johannesburg. Retrieved from: https://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za (Accessed: Date). Historical land planning, transport poverty and sustainable cities: the case of Johannesburg Dr Michelle Claire Lawton Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies Faculty of Science University of Johannesburg Mini-dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree Masters of Science in Environmental Management Supervisor: Mrs Tracey J. McKay Co-Supervisor: Dr June Meeuwis December 2014 ANTI-PLAGIARISM DECLARATION University of Johannesburg Department of Geography, Environmental Management & Energy Studies Title: Dr Full name: Michelle Claire Lawton Student number: 909906451 Course: Mini dissertation MSc in Environmental Management 1. I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this regard. 2. I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to present someone else’s ideas as my own. I know that I would plagiarise if I do not give credit to my sources, or if I lift sentences or paragraphs from a book, article or internet source without proper citation. Even if I only change the wording slightly, I still plagiarise when using someone else’s words without proper citation. I have written my own sentences and paragraphs throughout my essay and I have credited all ideas I have gained from other people’s work. 3. Where material written by other people has been used (either from a printed source or from the internet), this has been carefully acknowledged and referenced. I have used the Harvard convention for citation and referencing. Every significant contribution to and quotation in this essay from the work of other people has been acknowledged through citation and reference. 4. I declare that this assignment is my own original work. 5. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work. ………………………… ……………………… Signature Date………………….. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Tracey McKay for her endless patience and boundless knowledge, without her encouragement this dissertation would never have been completed. I would also like to thank the GCRO for the use of the 2011 quality of life survey data. A special thanks to Wendy Job for the apartheid map in Chapter 1 and to Kerry Chipp for looking over the stats. Thank you to June Meeurwis for her part in my Environmental Management education. Thanks to Alex Moir for putting up with me while I wrote this thesis. No thank you will be complete without thanking the two very special people in my life, my mentor Prof Holzapfel and his amazing wife Jenny. Without you my life would not be complete, I love you both dearly. Abstract Rapid urbanization is currently a worldwide phenomenon and poses a challenge for the sustainable management of cities, including the provision of transport and services. This is true too for South African cities, were infrastructural capacity is small compared to the level of demand for goods and services. Furthermore, the problem is compounded by the fact that many of South Africa’s urban residents find formal employment elusive. Thus, they end up living on the urban periphery, marginalized from both the urban system and the urban economy. This outward growth means South African cities suffer from all the negative effects of urban sprawl. For the majority of South Africa’s urban dwellers, transportation is a necessity to access work, education, social services, leisure and goods. However, in a situation where urban sprawl dominated, the distances travelled are big and transport is very costly. Poor residents in particular, begin to live in transport poverty, which is a significant social and economic problem. Thus, the transportation system itself can hinder the achievement of sustainable development goals as it generates ecological damage; consumes non-renewable resources and generating significant volumes of waste. Thus, the impacts of transportation on the environment, on society and on the economy need to be reduced. A sustainable transport system, is one that caters for everybody’s needs regardless of class or racial group. South Africa’s urban and political history has played a large role in the spatial orientation of its cities and its transportation systems. It is argued in this study that apartheid urban planning has left a damaging effect on South Africa’s cities. During apartheid urban planning was used as an instrument of social engineering, with its main purpose been to separate people of colour from people who were defined as ‘white’. The intention of the state was to create self-contained areas based on race and financially independent, with separate public amenities, administrations and infrastructure. Due to state hostility towards black urbanization the townships were deprived of essential services, housing and economic opportunities. Importantly, apartheid urban planning did not merely locate black communities on the urban periphery, it purposely located them far from the urban boundary, with ‘buffer zones’ of mining land, wetlands, industrial zones and the like in between. The result was that long distance commuting in South Africa occurred more prematurely than it would have under normal urban sprawl. The massive distances involved meant that walking or cycling were not viable options as transport to work. Journeys were long and tiring and workers often had long walks between termini and their place of work (Preston- Whyte, 1982). Apartheid, therefore, artificially elongated the trip to work which the least mobile and least financially able sector of the urban community had to take. Using the GCRO’s 2011 quality of life survey data this study looks into the travel patter ns of two previous disadvantaged areas in the Johannesburg area i.e. Orange Farm and Alexandra Township. The study revealed that Orange Farm showed high levels of unemployment and poverty as a legacy of apartheid, this was exacerbated by social and economic marginalization from Johannesburg, the nearest major city (65 Km away), those that do travel do so mostly for work and rely on mini bus taxis even though there are trains and buses that run in Orange Farm. Alexandra Township is in a unique geographical position as it is nestled within what were previously known as white areas and is only 16 Km from the Johannesburg CBD. There are direct taxi routes to the inner city, however there are no bus or train routes in Alexandra so the dependency on minibus taxis is high, Unemployment is not as high as in Orange Farm, possibly due to location, and the majority of those that do travel also do so for work. DECLARATION I declare that Historical land planning, transport poverty and sustainable cities: the case of Johannesburg has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university, and that all sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by completed references. I therefore declare that I have endeavored to avoid plagiarism and I have made all possible effort to present ideas and material in my own words. Michelle Claire Lawton Signed Date: December 2014 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 The purpose of this study 3 1.3 Research aims and questions • 1.3.1 Research aims 3 • 1.3.2 Research questions 4 1.4 Rationale 4 1.5 Methodology • 1.5.1 Data analysis 6 • 1.5.2 Research design 7 • 1.5.3 Methods for analysis 7 • 1.5.4 Limitations of the 2011 GCRO dataset 7 1.6 Outline of the Thesis 10 1.7 Conclusion 10 Chapter 2 International literature chapter 2.1 Introduction 11 2.2 The rise of the developing world city and its associated challenges 11 2.3 Sustainability and sustainable cities 13 2.4 Sustainable transport systems 15 2.5 The Goldman and Gorham solutions • 2.5.1 New mobility 18 • 2.5.2 City logistics 18 • 2.5.3 Intelligent systems management 19 • 2.5.4 Liveability 19 2.6 Transport poverty 20 2.7 Conclusion 22 Chapter 3 South African Literature 3.1 Introduction 23 3.2 The impact of apartheid on Johannesburg 23 3.3 Poor urban planning and urban sprawl 25 3.3.1 The consequences of urban sprawl 25 3.4. Transport systems and land use 26 3.5. Johannesburg in the post-apartheid era 27 3.6 South Africa’s Road Network 28 3.7. Public transport In South Africa 29 3.7.1 Rail 29 3.7.2 Buses 31 3.7.3 The Minibus Taxi Industry 32 3.8 Conclusion 33 Chapter 4 Results and discussion 4.1. Introduction 35 4.2. Orange Farm: An overview 35 4.3. GCRO 2011 Survey results for Orange Farm 36 4.4 Trip Destination 39 4.5 Distance travelled and destination 41 4.6. Alexandra Township: an Overview 41 4.7. GCRO 2011 Survey results for Alexandra Township 42 4.8 Trip Destination 44 4.9. A comparison between Orange Farm and Alexandra Township 45 4.10 Comparing Orange Farm to Alexandra Township 46 • 4.10.1 Income 46 • 4.10.2 Education and income 47 • 4.7.3 Household income by gender 48 4.11 Transport data 48 • 4.11.1 Comparison of transport modes between Alexandra Township and 48 Orange Farm • 4.11.2 Comparison of trip purpose between Alexandra Township and 49 Orange Farm • 4.11.3 Comparison of trip length and destination Alexandra Township and 50 Orange Farm 4.11.4 Transport type versus income for both areas 50 4.11.5 Mode of transport by gender 51 4.11.6 Cost of transport by gender 52 Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations 5.1 Introduction 55 5.2.