Construction World March 2018

COMMENT

At its very core mobility is about how people move between places, jobs and socially. For South Africa with its complex social, economic and political problems, good mobility has been the reserve of a few as urban planning was based on a political system of separation. Sadly, even today, this practice continues and is limiting the choices of how people move between places, jobs and in the social sphere. The result is that those who are poor and live far from work, stay poor. is the 12 th most road coverage in the world – this is by no means a reflection on the country’s mobility. The 3 rd Mobility Roundtable was preceded by two events hosted in Durban and Johannesburg last year. The 1 st Future Mobility Roundtable in Durban envisaged that the MCA would be a platform for the research, testing and deployment of future Smart Mobility Solutions including electric, connected and autonomous vehicle technology. The 2 nd Future Mobility Roundtable in Sandton, brought together transport and mobility experts who shared insights on the future of mobility on the continent. The most recent roundtable focused on how it is vital to first have legislation in place before mobility can truly be tackled. Victor Radebe, Executive Director and MCA Co-founder said that, “As a tech-savvy nation, the only way we can proactively manage the mobility disruptive forces is to first develop a conducive legislative and policy environment; and government’s role cannot be overemphasised.” Wilhelm du Plessis Editor

Highlights in this issue

T he opposite is also true: as many South Africans have climbed the economic ladder, there has been a significant increase in congestion and crashes, while traffic accounts for 36% of all pollution. However, this seems to be declining slowly: whereas the average family usually owned two cars, some are choosing to have only one car now. Up to 20% of millennials choose to have no car. This shows that the nature of mobility is changing. Alleviating poverty and pollution are among the reasons why the Mobility Centre for Africa (MCA) was created. It recently hosted its 3 rd Future Mobility Roundtable in Cape Town. The discussion was the third in a series of events bringing together government, industry and academia to collaborate in a drive to prepare South Africa and the continent at large for the rapidly changing world of transportation. Global ride sharing company, Uber, was MCA’s official partner for the 3 rd Future Mobility Roundtable. The thinking behind Uber, in some way or another, can offer a solution to Africa’s mobility problem. The aim of the MCA is to start a conversation as to how access to transport can help get people out of poverty. Even though South Africa has some 750 000 km of roadways – which

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EDITOR & DEPUTY PUBLISHER Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER Erna Oosthuizen ernao@crown.co.za LAYOUT & DESIGN Lesley Testa CIRCULATION Karen Smith

PUBLISHER Karen Grant PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY Crown Publications cc P O Box 140 BEDFORDVIEW, 2008 Tel: 27 11-622-4770 • Fax: 27 11-615-6108

TOTAL CIRCULATION: (Fourth Quarter ’17) 5 024

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. PRINTED BY Tandym Cape

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2018