It would appear that South Africans are quite happy to wear out their shoe leather by walking to nearby destinations. Across all provinces, the majority of respondents indicated that they used their own energy to get to where they were going if their destination was nearby. Northern Cape had the lowest percentage of travellers who walked to a nearby destination at 68,8%. Limpopo had the highest percentage at 83,3%, closely followed by Gauteng at 82,2%. The remaining provinces all have percentages ranging between 70 and 80%.

This is just one of the findings from the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) which Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) conducted on behalf of the National Department of Transport (NDoT) in February and March 2013. It was the second national travel survey to be conducted since democracy, with the first having been conducted in 2003.

The study also indicated that two out of every three school-going children walk all the way to school, as do 1 in 5 FET and training college students. As the transition is made into post-school education, taxis become the main mode of transport, with 31% of those attending higher education institutions and 45% of those attending FET colleges using this mode of transport. Amongst those attending higher education institutions, driving a vehicle comes a close second at almost 25%.

The picture is very different for those who work. Nationally, only 1 in 5 workers walk all the way to work. Most workers drive to work (30,7%), with taxi being the next most popular mode of transport (26,2%). Western Cape has the highest proportion of workers using trains (13,3%); Mpumalanga has the highest proportion of workers using busses (20,9%) and KwaZulu Natal has the highest proportion of workers using taxis (35,6%).

These are only a few of the findings from the 2013 NHTS. For more information and to access the full report, please click here.