By Olebogeng Manhe, Chairman of the Gap Infrastructure Corporation (GIC)
For a city celebrated as Africa’s tourism capital and the Silicon Valley of South Africa, Cape Town faces a major threat to its continued success in the form of paralysing traffic.
A combination of fast-growing population numbers, the return of workers to offices, the lingering impact of poor apartheid spatial planning, and limited infrastructure space has had a crippling effect on traffic flow, becoming one of the most serious obstacles to its continued growth and development.
Pointing to the scale of the problem, the 2024 Inrix Global Traffic Scorecard ranks Cape Town among the top ten most congested cities in the world, with an estimated 94 hours lost per person, per year. This places the city in the unenviable company of major global metropolises such as Paris at 97 hours, London at 101 hours, and New York City at 102 hours lost, and represents a significant drain on productivity and citizens’ overall quality of life.
With this in mind, public transport initiatives such as expanding bus services through MyCiTi and strengthening the passenger rail network represent critical steps in addressing the issue, but other measures could also merit serious consideration.
Rethinking ‘more roads’
Notably, a longstanding approach to managing congestion is simply to build more roads and add extra lanes to existing highways. However, global evidence increasingly indicates that this tactic often results in induced demand. As soon as we provide additional road capacity, it quickly fills up with more vehicles, leading us right back to the original problem. Meanwhile, the public sector is forced to shoulder the burden of implementation costs and long-term maintenance expenses.
Furthermore, Cape Town’s space constraints also present a significant obstacle, as the natural geographic barriers of mountains and oceans limit the land available for infrastructure development, and carving out new roads in a developed city often displaces housing or businesses. If we are to achieve the goal of a fair and inclusive city, the indiscriminate expansion of road networks – without considering the human and economic implications – risks doing more harm than good.
Instead, we should focus on maximising the capacity of existing roads through adaptive traffic management, expanding dedicated lanes for public transport, and encouraging high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) usage with more HOV lanes for vehicles with at least two occupants.
Embracing multi-modal public transport
Given the limitations of traditional road expansion, public transport options offer the most viable path forward, although each mode has strengths as well as limitations. For example, subways can be fast and highly efficient, but building a brand-new underground rail line in Cape Town would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.
With their higher load capacity, a single bus or tram takes up a fraction of the space required by the equivalent number of single occupant private vehicles, and introducing an above-ground tram system would be a more realistic option than a subway. Cape Town’s tourism industry could particularly find a well-placed tram system attractive, although implementing dedicated tracks within already-congested streets would require painstaking planning and could potentially remove vital vehicle lanes.
The MyCiTi bus rapid transit (BRT) option thus remains one of the most viable contenders, especially if one day combined with an efficient, complementary tram system. With designated bus lanes and strategic station designs, the system can mimic much of a metro’s efficiency at a fraction of the cost.
We’ve already seen the MyCiTi service steadily climb in passenger numbers. This is a positive sign that Capetonians are open to public transport options when services are frequent, affordable, and reliable. Continuing to expand the BRT network outward to developing suburbs, and further integrating minibus-taxi routes, will help bridge the gap between dense city hubs and peripheral areas, creating a more standardised experience, while the introduction of South Africa’s first sky circle will bring further long-term benefits.
Alternatively, as a coastal city with an extensive waterfront, Cape Town could additionally benefit from expanded water taxi and ferry services. Cities like Bangkok, Sydney, and Venice have already successfully integrated water transport into their urban mobility networks. A well-designed ferry system connecting key points along the coast – from Hout Bay to the V&A Waterfront, and potentially to locations like Somerset West – could provide a viable route that bypasses road congestion entirely.
Finally, expanding dedicated infrastructure for e-bikes, scooters, and other micro-mobility options could help solve the "last mile" challenge while reducing short-trip vehicle usage. These solutions are particularly effective when integrated with existing public transport hubs.
The role of public-private partnerships (PPPs)
Sustainable development rarely happens in isolation. Large-scale projects – especially those that transform daily life – benefit immensely when the public and private sectors pool their resources and expertise. When executed responsibly, PPPs hold the potential to address urgent infrastructure needs both rapidly and effectively. For instance, drawing from GIC's experience in delivering major infrastructure projects across Africa, we've seen firsthand how successful PPPs can accelerate development timelines while ensuring public benefit.
For Cape Town, this issue requires administrative oversight and funding from government, coordination among multiple government agencies and their private sector partners, mass private investment, and technical and operational expertise from leading developers.
Partnerships can also accelerate project timelines by minimising red tape and unlocking economies of scale. That said, these alliances must be approached with care and transparency, ensuring that the public interest remains at the forefront and that any revenue models are equitable.
So, as Cape Town grapples with congestion challenges, the road ahead requires a delicate balance of public oversight, private sector innovation, and community engagement. Through strategic partnerships and careful planning, we can create a more mobile, accessible, and sustainable city for all residents.