Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality's Bus Rapid Transit System: Case Study

摘要

Hosting a mega-event such as the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games is a potentially expensive matter. This paper presents the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality's (NMBMM) bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, as one of the key infrastructure projects for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The BRT system was intended to perform as a two-phase project following a design-bid-build approach with the aim of providing additional public transportation to tourists visiting Port Elizabeth for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, this project has still yet to be completed due to a series of challenges compounded by poor planning and lack of oversight. This paper discusses the issues that have plagued the project's success, compares it with Germany's successful transportation improvements during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and offers recommendations towards how the NMBMM could have prevented Port Elizabeth's BRT system issues from occurring. The results of our comparison suggest that while there can be considerable potential benefits for the host of a mega-event, many of them would not be realized or maximized due to organizational inadequacies and lack of proper management and long-term planning.