South Africa

South Africa is experiencing record car sales and an exceptional growth in travel demand and motorised mobility. However, the unprecedented increase in vehicle sales (driven by an exceptionally well-performing economy) has resulted in increased congestion and pollution in cities and placed significant strain on the under-funded transport (road and public) infrastructure.

One of the biggest challenges facing South Africa’s transport authorities is traffic safety. The country has very high accident rates, with yearly figures of approximately 498,000 traffic accidents, 46,500 serious injuries, and 13,000 annual traffic fatalities – including around 5300 pedestrians. The need to improve road safety is recognised as a top priority. South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup has intensified efforts to mitigate and address these challenges.

Reversing road infrastructure deterioration, improving mobility for all and road safety are major transport policy issues in South Africa. The government has put in place many innovative and far-reaching policies to address mobility, safety and infrastructure management. It also aims to introduce intelligent transport systems (ITS) to deal with the increasing congestion on South Africa's urban roads and drastically improve public transport for the 2010 World Cup, which will act as a catalyst for South Africa’s general transport strategy. Besides projects to implement dedicated public transport lanes on arterial roads to serve the World Cup (to be later converted to rapid rail facilities), major cities are also implementing demand responsive traffic control systems to improve traffic flow.

In recent years South Africa has been looking towards Europe for urban traffic solutions and SIMBA will stimulate this cooperation.