Assessing Spatial Planning Readiness to Accommodate Innovative Transport Systems and Technologies.

Abstract

Contemporary cities have taken up efforts to decarbonize urban mobility which has led to a growth in electric vehicles and investment in new renewable energy opportunities. The current transport sector contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and traffic congestion. This has led to a growth in studies to develop a reservoir of knowledge on sustainable mobility to address this challenge. The global shift towards electric vehicles has provided greater energy efficiency as part of the global climate change mitigation strategies, however, electric vehicles are not widely adopted in developing countries due to factors such as insufficient charging stations. Globally this shift to electric vehicles and the spatial distribution of charging stations has been informed by the private sector. This has led to city authorities to be reactive to the implementation of electric vehicle and its charging infrastructure. There is hence a need to assess the readiness of spatial planning to facilitate the transition towards electric vehicles and its infrastructure. Given this emerging trend in urban mobility transition, there have been lack of proactive policy initiatives to inform the adoption of electric vehicles. Using a qualitative research approach this study unpacks the adoption of electric vehicles from urban spatial planning perspective. Fifteen participants from the city of Tshwane were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. The participants were selected using snowball sampling and purposive sampling. Content analysis was used to develop themes. Findings of the study reveal areas where the charging infrastructure is placed, as these can be found in public spaces such as shopping malls and office parks in the city of Tshwane. The implications of the study are creation of a reservoir on knowledge to inform plans for developing countries such as South Africa to integrate spatial distribution of charging stations with sustainable mobility initiatives. Future studies should develop a framework to inform the broader aspects of spatial planning in relation to innovative sustainable transport systems.