She undertakes this journey every day on the Moloto road, which the Minister has already alluded to, because it is cheaper than living in Pretoria.
The situation is the same for many South Africans, as well as for the people living in the Western Cape who are in the labour market, education, etc, and whose existence and living standards depend on accessible, effective and safe transportation. The National Household Travel Survey, NHTS, which is conducted every 10 years by Statistics SA, indicates that taxis are the main means of transport for most households, at 41,6%, as compared to private cars at 13,7%, buses at 10,2%, car passengers at 13,7% and trains at 4,4%. One reason why commuters used taxis as opposed to other forms of transport such as buses and trains was that those other kinds of transport were unavailable close to their homes or workplaces.
There can be no doubt that those who predominantly use taxis are the poorest of the poor. Although taxis are the main source of transport for most people, they are not happy with these services. At least 54% of all taxi commuters are unhappy with the state of taxi rank facilities and 51% are unhappy with taxi fares.
Most commuters are schoolchildren. About 60,9% of the schoolchildren travel between 07:00 and 09:00. Of those who use public transport, about 70% use taxis, 25% use buses and 6% use trains.
There is a challenge with regard to the safety of our children and adults on our taxis. Crime, murder and attempted murder remain a challenge. Between July 2012 and March 2014, we experienced 26 murders, 13 attempted murders and 15 arrests, but the challenge is that these were no convictions. The SA Police Service claims that intimidation and reprisals are the causes of these unsolved crimes.
According to the City of Cape Town's Integrated Transport Plan approximately 622 000 passenger trips are made on the Metrorail network on an average weekday. As many as 216 568, or 34,8%, of these trips occur during the morning peak period. Approximately 680 train trips are made daily and approximately 750 000 commuters use trains daily.
Now, the Golden Arrow bus service uses 1 046 buses per day, with plus-minus 200 000 passengers per weekday, with fewer over weekends. For the month of June 2014, 4,6 million passengers were transported.
The bus rapid transit, BRT, system in Cape Town operates at 52 000 passenger journeys daily, which equates to around 1,15 million passenger journeys per month.
We know that in the Western Cape there are some dangerous roads, part of the dangerous roads in this country, and we are doing our best to reduce road fatalities. Between the financial years 2008-09 and 2013-14, we succeeded in reducing the number of road deaths by 464. Although it is not what we anticipated, there is a reduction and we are moving forward.
To ensure that these roads are safe, the Chief Directorate: Traffic Management has various road safety initiatives as part of its functional mandate. It includes traffic law enforcement on a 24-hour basis, fatigue management, overload control, weekly alcohol blitzes through roadblocks around this province, checkpoints, road safety education initiatives, focus on pedestrian safety, child awareness, etc.
In addition, the first in the Western Cape is the Safely Home programme, which includes the following two road safety initiatives: firstly, enforcement focus on drunk driving; and secondly, the average speed over distance technology, which has been introduced with great success on key routes, which include the R61 from Beaufort West towards Aberdeen; the N1 between Three Sisters and Beaufort West; the N1 Beaufort West - Laingsburg; the R27 sections between Atlantis and Saldanha; the N2 sections, currently in design phase with plan completion having taken place in December last year; seatbelt awareness; pedestrian hazards; road safety education; road safety partnership; and driver fatigue.
During the past few months, we negotiated an agreement between the Congress of Democratic Taxi Association, Codeta, in Khayelitsha, Route Six Taxi Association in Mitchells Plain and Golden Arrow bus services to form a joint venture vehicle-operating company and sign a three-year operating contract for the N2 Express Service. The first phase of the N2 Express Service, which is the top-up service serving the Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain areas, commenced on 5 July this year. The service commenced with 14 12-metre low-floor buses to accommodate 34 seated passengers, 34 standing passengers and 1 passenger in a wheelchair per trip and 10 9-metre, low- floor buses to accommodate 25 seated passengers, 25 standing passengers and 1 passenger in a wheelchair.
The objective of this top-up service is to provide residents with a safe and convenient alternative to travelling to Cape Town, the central business district, CBD, and beyond. This broadens residents' choice, as it starts a process of bringing quality transport to residents living on the periphery of the city. Between 21 June 2014 and 14 July 2014, 1 673 free MyConnect cards were issued.
Forty-one taxi drivers from Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha are currently undergoing a 10-week-long training programme at Golden Arrow Bus Services' Learning and Assessment Centre in Montana to become MyCiTi bus drivers. The Western Cape is moving forward. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
In George, we have the Integrated Public Transport System Network, a project which is a first for South Africa. I want to remind MEC Mazibuko that everything starts in the Western Cape. [Interjections.] This project is aimed at launching a new improved public system for George and surrounding areas. With routes throughout the George Local Municipal area, the aim is to provide reliable scheduled services that operate 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, hon Minister. This service will be run by the operators of existing services in the George area.
The first phase started this year. At the heart of this project is a plan whereby current transport operators of minibus taxis and buses form a company to deliver a new, scheduled bus service on routes in and around George. The municipality, with the support of the province, negotiated ... [Interjections.]