Delivering urban transport by improving decision making : lessons from a city, lessons for a city

This thesis starts from the position that the enterprise of transport planning is failing to deliver a transport system which fully meets the needs of urban dwellers. Criticisms of the process are presented and it is argued that one reason for the lack of delivery is the insufficient attention paid by transport planning professionals, and researchers, to the decision-making process. The nature of decision-making is explored by reference to various theoretical models of decision-making, and it is concluded that decision-making in an existing situation must be comprehensively described, before recommendations for its improvement can be made. Cape Town is chosen as the city for investigation. Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology is used for describing urban transport decision-making in Cape Town, and the approach is informed by seventeen in-depth interviews and forty-five questionnaires with decision-makers. The analysis yields insights which are categorised into four areas: issues of institutional re-organisation and funding; issues of politician involvement; issues of change in officials; issues of public involvement. An action plan is developed from the insights.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Civil Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• Kane, Lisa Adele

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• De Kock, Mike

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21686

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21686