- Harmonizing Rapid Urbanization and Local Transit for Contemporary Cities in West Africa- The case of Accra City   click here to open paper content493 kb
by    Tettey, Cephas | ceptey@yahoo.com   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
This is an academic research paper for the University of Stuttgart with Accra (The capital of Ghana) as the case study. It investigates the current transport planning practices undertaken in rapidly growing cities.
Abstract
The rampant influx of people into the city capital in demand for comfortable living has brought about more than proportionate rapid growth in the population of Accra. The Greater Accra Region has the least land size (1.4 percent) among the ten administrative regions in Ghana but nonetheless the second largest populated region (16.1 percent) (2010 Population and Housing Census). This rapid change has brought about a breakdown in the heritage of the city. One heritage which distinguished Accra from the rest of the world was its identity which supported the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the fit and the disable to carry out their activities freely either by walking or cycling around. As roads were been built to respond to the rapid urbanization process, one feature neglected was the walkways and cycle lanes for pedestrians, school children, among others who use Non-Motorized Transport infrastructure for local purposes. The result has been the cumbersome lethal fatalities between the Motorized and Non-motorized users on the streets. The vulnerable has always been the pedestrians and of course the cyclists. Pedestrians according to the BRRI 2009 recorded the highest road user fatality (42.1 percent) in the Accra Region as well as the entire country. What would one expect when planning fails to harmonize local transit with rapid urbanization? This paper identifies strategies for local transit planning within a broader framework of development planning process of unstructured emerging cities under growth pressure. It fosters sustainable non-motorized transport planning approach into urban infrastructure designs which has failed to holistically demonstrate landscape developments that address the needs of the different classes of people in society. Finally, it specifies how transport planners could harmonize local transportation to be consistent with the socio-economic atmosphere of a rapidly growing city without compromising on its environmental or cultural heritage.
Keywords
Accra, Pedestrians, cyclists, Transport
Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2012: Fast Forward: Planning in a (hyper) dynamic urban context
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