Gauteng must reduce traffic congestion on its roads urgently if it wants to maintain its competitive edge as the economic powerhouse of Africa, transport MEC Khabisi Mosunkutu warned yesterday.

While many people still relied on the public transport system, there was concern that this would change as soon as most of them could afford private cars thus putting more vehicles on the road.

Traffic congestion is said to cost SA about R1bn annually.

Mosunkutu told the SA Transport Conference in Pretoria that Gauteng was fortunate that many commuters used public transport. In the Johannesburg metropolitan area about 63% of households did not have private cars, he said.

However, most public transport users would prefer to use safer, faster, more reliable and more economical transport, Mosunkutu said.

"This puts even greater pressure on existing road capacity and contributes to road congestion. Besides, more than two-thirds of public transport trips are road-based, and so these modes suffer equally from congestion delays," he said.

The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link would have an advantage of being operated on a rail line, with none of the delays suffered by motorists, Mosunkutu said.

The province has adopted a congestion management strategy, which gave rise to several projects aimed at reducing the levels of congestion on Gauteng's roads. Many of the projects were aimed at changing attitudes towards travel patterns and their perception of public transport, he said.

"My department proposes a multidisciplinary solution. We are investigating various incentives for using public transport, as well as various disincentives against using private transport."

Mosunkutu said an important objective was to improv e the quality and image of the public transport system to reduce the demand for road travel.

"If we are serious about persuading motorists about changing to public transport, we will have to deal with the key issues of reducing travel time and enhancing reliability, safety and security."