April 24, 2023

Cycling towards safe, healthy and inclusive cities in Africa

topic:	Sustainable Development
located:	Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Zambia, Nigeria
editor:	Bob Koigi

The need to promote road safety while taming air pollution has caused many cities in the developed world to embrace sustainable and green means of transportation, chief among them cycling. Bike sharing schemes that are active in thousands of cities around the world have been pivotal to the success of this mode of transport, facilitating its mass adoption and the integration of non-motorized transport in urban planning. The result is safer and more inclusive cities.

However, in the Global South, cities continue to choke under air pollution; vehicular traffic and fatalities on the roads are still high while the adoption of cycling moves slowly. Urban planning has, to a large extent, been focused on making more space for cars, not people.

Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is the region with the largest population of people whose main mode of transportation is walking: up to 60 percent of people move from one point to another by foot. As a result, the region has one of the highest rates of deaths on the road, with 44 percent of the casualties being pedestrians and cyclists. A sizable number of them are children, according to the World Bank. 

Motorised transport equally has devastating impacts on human health. One study covering East Africa showed unhealthy levels of urban air quality occasioned by car emissions, covering cities like Nairobi covered in a smog.  

African cities are poised to gain more than 900 million new residents by 2050, making the continent the most rapidly-urbanised region globally. Yet the requisite infrastructure to promote active mobility is either in poor condition or inexistent, which will have far-reaching health and safety implications for the urban population. 

The solution lies in the creation or reorganisation of urban designs to support the transition to low-carbon mobility while also empowering those who are vulnerable in the roads. This, coupled with new urban transport policies with clear implementation guidelines, has the potential to spark a cycling revolution in the continent. 

There are initiatives that have already proven that non-motorised and cleaner urban mobility is the panacea for Africa’s transport problems.

The Reclaiming the Streets for Pedestrians and Cyclists in Africa project being implemented by the UN Habitat in five African countries has been pivotal in cultivating a cycling culture while promoting clean cities in these countries.

Startups and private companies have also stepped up to promote micro-mobility solutions in the continent, like ridesharing bikes and scooters, among them Baddel in Egypt, Smoove in Morocco, Asambe in Zambia and Awa Bike in Nigeria.

In order to have streets that grant clean air, safety and mobility for all, everyone must take the necessary action to be part of the solution.

Image by Random Institute

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