Towards reliable public bus services in Greater Cairo

The complicated transport and traffic problems in Greater Cairo have negative influence s onboth people life and health; moreover, these problems lead to significant waste in working hoursand increase air pollution levels. Private-car-ownership in Greater Cairo shows that only about20% of the total populations are private-car-owners, while the majority have no private cars andare forced to use all available different modes of public transport , which are deteriorated andunreliable in most cases, in their daily trips. Classified tra ffic counts on Greater Cairo roads,streets and junctions showed that private cars represent over 80% of traffic composition withaverage occupancy of about 1.3. The combined effect of the higher traffic of private cars, theirillegal on-street parking and the insufficient road and intersection capacities, are the mainreasons of road traffic congestions. The evolution of the transport in Greater Cairo over the pastthree decades shows an increase in the use of passenger cars (including taxis), which is cur rentlyabsorbing over one fourth (25%) of the motorized trip market . Some forms of public transport , inparticular public bus services and light rail, have suffered a corresponding decline in patronage.Shared taxis, on the other hand, have aggressively in creased their market share1. Moreover, thecurrently applied fare policies of the individual public transport modes do not facilitatecooperation among the various operators 2. This research aims to study the provision ofdistinctive, reliable and comforta ble public transport, with unsubsidized and trip dependable fare,to encourage and attract private car owners, thereby reducing traffic congestions. In the sametime no changes will be introduced to regular public services fare, as their users are low-incomeand non-motorists. To achieve research objectives , E-mail questionnaire using a well -designedquestionnaire form are performed on a randomly selected sample of about 460 private car ownersfrom different places, ages, genders, education levels, and life styles. The purpose wasto poll their opinion about key points such as; using the proposed distinctive bus services, thesuitable travel fare per kilometer and if they have other suggestions. The analysis showed thatprivate car owners strongly encour aged the idea, and they see that 0.5 LE/km is a fair fare for itsuse.