Africa’s rapidly growing cities groan under the mobility problems caused by too few paved roads and inadequate public transportation systems

Overlapping national, metropolitan, and municipal jurisdictions threaten the development of urban transport systems and leave unexploited the cross-sectoral links between urban transport and land-use planning.

Africa’s urban road density is low by developing-country standards, limiting the areas that are readily accessible to urban transport services and thereby restricting the mobility of inhabitants.

Few countries capture adequate financial resources to develop and maintain their urban road network. Urban transport services are dominated largely by informal minibus operators, following the demise of large-bus services in many cities. Services are costly, and availability inadequate. In most African cities, the number of available vehicle seats per 1,000 residents is far below the average in other parts of the world.

Low fleet capacity is exacerbated by poor use of the available vehicles, which cover less than 200 kilometers a day. The quality of public transport is consequently poor, with long walk and wait times typically doubling the in-vehicle time. Extreme overcrowding is also common, particularly on large buses. The average cost of a trip, at around $0.30, is high in relation to household budgets.

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Africa’s rapidly growing cities groan under the mobility problems caused by too few paved roads and inadequate public transportation systems