Dial-a-Ride’ success on Disability Day

By Mandisi Tyulu
02 December


The world celebrated International Disability Day while the City of Cape Town also celebrates the success of its door-to-door public transport service for special needs passengers.

The Dial-a-Ride public transport service, which is subsidized by the City, the Provincial and National Governments, was introduced in 2002 to accommodate public transport mobility needs for people with disabilities.

Since then this service has been upgraded. It now consists of nine sedan vehicles, four panel vans and 13 Quantum taxis which operate seven days a week, between 06:00 to 19:00. Fares range from R4 to R5, 50 per trip, depending on the distances travelled.

The service currently accommodates an average of 400 return bookings per day throughout the municipal area. This includes regular trips from home to office and ad-hoc trips from home to hospitals and other activities.

"Meeting the mobility and access needs are of great importance for people with special needs. The Dial-a-Ride service forms part of the City’s commitment to provide efficient, safe and reliable transport to residents unable to make use of other forms of public transport," says Maddie Mazaza, the City’s Director of Transport.


“Applications to use the service are assessed according to whether the individual is able to make use of other forms of public transport as a result of his or her physical disability and sight impairment. Each applicant is assessed by a City appointed, registered occupational therapist. The City already has a data base of over 5 000 registered users - and continues to be inundated with new applications.”


"A major challenge is to collect and drop off passengers on time. Delays are inevitable, as most users require special assistance whilst boarding or alighting from the vehicles," says Mazaza.
Mazaza says, due to the limited fleet and funding constraints, the City can only accommodate about 4% of the requests. For this reason a moratorium has been placed on the registration of new users.

"At the same time, the City is actively exploring additional funding options to expand this extremely popular service," says Mazaza