Establishment of the Transport Planning and Vehicle Emissions Working Group

The Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) for the City of Cape Town was finalised in August 2005.  The overall purpose of this plan is to ensure that clean air is achieved and maintained in the City of Cape Town over the next 10 - 20 years.  The main aims of the AQMP are to reduce incidences of brown haze over the City of Cape Town and to minimise air pollution in order to protect health.  

An internal Air Quality Management (AQM) Coordinating Group was established to drive the implementation of the AQMP.  The Committee is headed by City Health and comprises of members from Environmental Management; Service and Infrastructure; Scientific Services; Transport Planning; Human Settlements and Spatial Development.

In addition, the AQMP requires the establishment of various working groups.  A Transport Planning and Vehicle Emissions Working Group was established in May 2007 to focus on plans to facilitate the implementation of the following objectives of the AQMP:

• To control vehicle emissions in the City (Objective 7);
• To consider air quality in land use and transport planning (Objective 8).

The Working Group meets on a monthly basis and comprises of officials from local government and provincial government as well as representatives from academic institutions, NGOs and industry to unpack the various strategies listed in the AQMP.  Progress made by the Working Group is reported on to the Steering Committee by the Sustainable Transport Professional on a monthly basis.

Below is a brief summary of the background and key strategies for each of the objectives mentioned above.  

Objective 7 : To control vehicle emissions in the City

The Cape Town Brown Haze Study in 1997 attributed 65% of the visible degradation to vehicle emissions, of which 49% is caused by diesel-driven vehicles and 16% by petrol-driven vehicles.  To date legislation controlling the emissions of vehicles is limited to the smoke density testing of diesel-driven vehicles.  The City of Cape Town is proactively implementing roadside testing of diesel-driven vehicles in terms of the Air Pollution Control By-Law.  Should a vehicle fail a test the driver is issued with a summons and the owner of the vehicle is served with a repair notice.  Failure to comply with the notive will result in loegal proceedings being instituted.   

Key Strategies

Objective 8 : To consider air quality in land use and transport planning

Over the past 10 - 15 years rapid change in urban growth has occurred in the City of Cape Town and the expansion is expected to continue in the future.  Urban planning influences where people live, work and recreate as well as the mobility options between these activities.  

Within the Council and at Provincial and National level, land use and transport planning is being done.  The principal aim of the Air Quality Management Plan will be to ensure that the relevant authorities, politices, strategies and plans take into account the potential influence of land use and transport planning on air quality.

This will include working with other relevant sectors, such as the City's Energy and Climate Change Strategy, to ensure that all global and local priority pollutants are addressed.  

Key Strategies

Click here to view the City of Cape Town's Air Quality Management Plan  

Click here for more information on the City of Cape Town's Diesel Vehicle Emission Testing Process