Traveling Around Cape Town

One of my biggest worries before coming to Cape Town was, “How am I going to get around the city?” Prior to leaving for South Africa, so many people had warned me about the dangers in using public transportation and the fact that I would most definitely need a car. I am happy to report though that this has not been the case thus far. The cab drivers I’ve used (with one exception) have all been very nice and reasonable. I do find it a bit odd at times that they don’t know the city well, so it’s always best to know exactly where you are going. For example, last night my roommate and I went to an informational meeting about our upcoming trip to Mozambique in September. The meeting was literally 7 minutes walking distance from our house, but because it was after dark we had to take a cab. Before getting in the cab I looked up the address and location of the meeting and had a general sense of where we were going. Of course, the taxi cab driver got lost and I had to tell him that the building was most definitely on a different road than where he was taking us. Most of the time the taxi drivers in Cape Town are foreign, so they don’t know the area very well, but then of course you have others who know you are foreign and probably don’t know your way, so they’ll take you the “long way” to raise the price.

My one exception for taxis happened this past Saturday. My roommates and I were downtown for dinner at an African restaurant. As we were leaving downtown my roommate negotiated a price for a cab to take us back to our house in the suburbs (a little over $10). We all got in and were on our way and then suddenly the cab driver took a different route; one that none of us recognized. I told him that we needed to get back on Main Road, but for some reason he tried to convince us that there are two Main Roads—not true. We would tell him to turn right and he would turn left. I’m not sure if this cab driver was trying to raise the price or if he really just did not know what he was doing. In any case I learned a good lesson: before you get in a cab, tell the driver where you are going and ask if he/she knows where the place is; have them describe to you where the place is; and ask how they’re getting there.

The other popular mode of city transportation is the mini bus, or black taxi. The mini buses are actually really old 14 passenger vans that are literally falling apart. They run the main streets from Wynberg to downtown Cape Town. If you’re walking along Main Road you will most definitely hear them coming— the person driving the mini bus is always honking the horn and the other person is hanging out the window whistling and shouting for passengers. It’s not uncommon for one of these vans to squeeze 20 people in at a time. My roommate and I took one of these from the Main Road outside of our house to downtown Cape Town this past Sunday. It cost us 7 Rand each (a little less than $1) on a trip that would normally cost 100 Rand in a taxicab. Things to look for when riding a mini bus: 1. Make sure there are people in it 2. Make sure there are women and/or children in it 3. Trust your instincts to let you know if something is sketchy. Our experience was great, but it’s definitely only something I would do during the day time.

Lastly, the other mode of transportation I use is the Jammie shuttle (see picture). These are the University buses that have several stops throughout the city that take people to UCT campus. They are bright blue and are fairly similar to ones you would find in America. Every morning I wait for the shuttle at a stop that’s about a 4-5 minute walk from my house. It takes me about 5 minutes from there to get to campus. This is such a big difference from commuting in Charleston where it would take me 25-30 minutes to drive downtown to school, at least 10 minutes to find a parking space, and 10 minutes to walk to class. The Jammie shuttle is definitely my friend :).