In contemporary African cities, private car ownership and private vehicle traffic are increasing rapidly, albeit in many instances from a low base. Scheduled or formal public transport systems are in decline, or have disappeared altogether, and the unscheduled or informal paratransit systems that have replaced them are unsafe and offer a low quality service. Public transport in African cities is furthermore either poorly planned or not planned at all.
There is also lack of adequate information and planning frameworks to guide in the selection of relevant transport systems, resulting in many cities either selecting inappropriate systems based on developed countries models or letting private operators decide. In addition, there are problems with transferring ideas and concepts across countries. There is therefore a need to provide guidance on the assessment of public transport systems in Africa. Current knowledge is limited to the assessment of such systems based on models meant for developed countries whose economic and social environments widely differ from those in Africa. There is also lack of information and guidance on emerging technologies, such as BRT, which are proving popular in developed and developing countries.
This project will investigate the conditions under which investments into particular public transport modes and systems are appropriate. It will also develop a decision-making tool for selecting appropriate public transport systems in African cities. This tool will be applied in Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi to analyse which public transport systems have the greatest potential for improvement in different African city contexts.
Project leader: Dr David Mfinanga
Department of Transportation and Geotechnical Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam
