Civil Engineering October 2021 | Vol 29 No 9

20 October 2021 Civil Engineering Q Q Implementing provincial land trans- port policy Q Q Ensuring a link with matters that have an impact on transport in the province, including land use manage- ment, environmental issues, popula- tion growth, economic development and investment in infrastructure, to facilitate integration and efficient transport Q Q Co-ordinating with municipalities to ensure the effective and efficient execution of land transport in the province Q Q Keeping a provincial information system Q Q The Provincial Land Transport Strategic Framework. This list indicates that provinces are responsible for translating the national policy into planning, and coordination of implementation. In the NLTA, municipalities are considered the most appropriate sphere to perform transport planning functions and implementation. They are responsible for, among others: Q Q Developing land transport policy and strategy within their area based on national and provincial guidelines, which incorporate spatial development policies Q Q Promulgating municipal by-laws Q Q Preparing Integrated Transport Plans (ITPs) for their area, ensuring the im- plementation thereof and monitoring an ITP’s performance in achieving its goals and objectives, with due focus on transport planning, infrastructure, maintenance, service and operations, monitoring and administration, as well as the financial and environmental impacts of transportation Q Q Arranging public consultation and participation Q Q Marketing, promoting and providing information on public transport Q Q Law enforcement Q Q Traffic management and travel de- mand management Q Q Integrated ticketing systems and fare structure policy Q Q Exercising control over service delivery on concessions and (subsidised) contracts. This is a rather long (and already summa- rised) list of planning and implementation responsibilities (with some functions seemingly duplicated) to be performed by municipalities as transport authorities. TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES The larger metropolitan municipalities like Cape Town and eThekwini have already started the process of becoming transport authorities. The three metros in Gauteng are so interwoven that a Gauteng Transport Authority would be better placed to integrate transport planning for the province. All relevant transport planning func- tions should be devolved to these trans- port authorities, including metropolitan rail transport, subsidised bus services, and the issuing of operating licences. This will improve the integration and quality of PT services. However, many smaller metros and rural municipalities are not yet ready or fully equipped to become transport authorities. SHORTAGE OF SKILLS With engineering (including the field of transport) identified as a critical skill, it is expected that not many of the 226 local, 44 district and eight metropolitan municipalities have the required capacity and skills to perform their transport planning functions. It is known that many municipalities have difficulty attracting and retaining properly qualified engineering profes- sionals. Allyson Lawless made this assessment in 2005 and updated her analysis in 2015, in ‘Numbers and Needs in Local Government’. The situation is improving, with more (recently graduated) engineering profes- sionals available, but many municipalities are still without or with not enough civil engineers. And as a result of the influx of recently graduated engineers, the average engineer has less experience and often lacks proper mentoring and guidance. Resultingly, the responsible official for transport at a municipality is often a gen- eral civil engineer (or a law-enforcement officer) and his/her task for transport planning is combined with other infra- structure service delivery functions like water, sewage, roads, stormwater, etc. Notably, those other functions are often a higher priority for council and the municipal department. But even a properly qualified and registered civil engineering professional would not always have transport plan- ning knowledge, as planning for PT services and contracts is a specialised expertise not always taught to general civil engineers. This makes many of the NLTA’s transport planning func- tions even more difficult to perform at municipal level. In addition, the municipal planning functions would only need to be executed once every so many years, so there is in- sufficient workload to appoint a dedicated knowledgeable official, and the expertise would diminish rapidly. As an alternative, many municipalities outsource this task to external service providers and consul- tants. Still, the lack of knowledge would also apply to the official that has to ap- point and oversee an external consultant, resulting in some consultants producing poor quality documents. This shortage of capabilities at mu- nicipalities will invariably result in less attention for (public) transport planning, and ultimately poorer implementation. NLTA’S SAFETY NET: PROVINCIAL TRANSPORT PLANNING ENTITIES The NLTA acknowledges that not all mu- nicipalities might be equipped to perform the tasks of a transport authority and includes several sections stating that the province must assist municipalities that lack capacity and resources in meeting their responsibilities and performing their functions regarding land transport service delivery. A province may enter into an agreement with one or more municipali- ties to provide for the joint exercise of their functions and may establish a pro- vincial entity. Likewise, the NLTA states that national government must coordinate and support this. And this is exactly our challenge to national and provincial governments: to take the responsibility for improving transport planning, and (temporarily) centralise transport planning functions into several provincial transport planning entities. Such entities must: Q Q Include transport planners from the provincial DoT – most provincial governments have some capabilities to perform this planning work, or at least are able to attract staff if adequate resources are available; otherwise (as stated in the NLTA) the National DoT must assist those provinces Q Q Invite the municipal officials respon- sible for transport planning for regular workshop sessions to work on ITPs for all municipalities in the province