Reflecting on Progress with Cape Town’s MyCITI Bus System

This article reports on the starter phase of the MyCITI system, launched in Cape Town, South Africa in May 2011: a basic bus-rapid transit (BRT) service. The author notes that the public presence of the new service, including buses, stations, red-paved lanes, and signage, is only one part of the complex process needed to reform public transportation in Cape Town. Significant efforts have also gone into resolving the challenges of constructing new dedicated lanes and designing intersections that can effectively accommodate not only the buses but also existing general traffic, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The author also comments on some of the problems that have arisen with the process of incorporating existing bus and minibus-taxi operators into the new MyCITI infrastructure. The article briefly reviews the next phase, in which the MyCITI project hopes to focus on areas where public transport ridership levels are high, in order to increase income from fares and decrease the need for operational subsidies. The author concludes that operator buy-in is crucial to the success of reforming public transportation in Cape Town.