STATE OF THE WORLD'S CITIES 2012/2013 Prosperity

oad infrastructure in Africa poses a major challenge to
mobility and prosperity and is an important source of
congestion. In addition to this, poor maintenance is a major
problem: only 18.5 per cent of experts across African cities
believe that infrastructure is systematically maintained.
Some African cities have taken innovative steps to
enhance mobility and tackle traffic congestion. Lagos
introduced Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in 2008. South Africa’s
Gauteng Province launched in 2010 the ‘Gautrain’, a stateof-the-art
80-km mass rapid transit railway system. Cities
like Nairobi and Dakar have achieved significant progress
in the development of road infrastructure increasing
prosperity prospects.
Significant improvements in road infrastructure in
Asian cities: In recent years, various Asian countries have
embarked on ambitious programmes of road development
and expansion. In 1997, India started the Golden
Quadrilateral motorway to connect the country’s largest
cities – Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. An East-
West corridor has also been recently completed, not just
improving connections between cities but also opening up
the hinterlands. In China, cities have been at the forefront
of massive infrastructure development with emphasis on
new roads and subway systems. The urban road network
more than doubled between 1990 and 2003, 19 largely
contributing to urbanization and economic growth. Cities
like Beijing and Shanghai have extended infrastructure to
suburban areas in a bid to match spatial expansion. Beijing
currently allocates 30 per cent of its construction budget to
mass transit20 and Shanghai spends 10 per cent of its GDP
on infrastructure, of which 40 per cent is for transportation.
Singapore’s public transportation system is considered to be
one of the most integrated and well-planned in the world.
In addition, adequate facilities are provided for pedestrians
with a safe and comfortable
walking environment that
enhances quality of life.
In major Asian
Massive economic
FACT cities, some
growth in Asia, particularly
11 per cent of land
space is devoted to
China and India, has
roads, well below the spurred spectacular
20–30 per cent rate increases in the numbers
common in US cities. of motor vehicles. This
has contributed to traffic
congestion, air and
noise pollution, road
accidents and energy use
in the region. In India,
21
In Indian cities, the
proportion varies from
21 per cent in Delhi to
11 per cent in Mumbai
to five per cent in
Kolkata. 22
53
FACT
Urban Infrastructure: Bedrock of Prosperity
A notable feature of the transport system in African cities
is the virtual absence of State-operated public transport.
The private sector is the major provider of transport services,
often in the form of secondhand mini- and microbuses, shared
taxis, and more recently commercial motorcycles. 17 The needs of
pedestrians are hardly taken into consideration despite the fact
that walking accounts for over 60–70 per cent of trips in cities
such as Conakry, Douala or Kinshasa. 18
the number of passenger
vehicles increased by nine
million, or 12.9 per cent,
between 2007 and 2008. 23
In China, the number of
vehicles increased 10-fold
between 1990 and 2002; of
particular significance is the
increase in motorcycles and
scooters, which increased
from just 200,000 in 1981
to 50 million in 2002.
Latin America and
the Caribbean region
features the highest level
of motorization in the
developing world: the
region has five times more
cars than sub-Saharan
Africa and Asia, and
about twice as many as the
Middle East and North
Africa. 26 Motorization
in the region increased from 100 vehicles per 1,000 in
1990 to 155 in 2005, before reaching 169:1,000 in 2008.
Rising incomes, expanding middle classes, high levels of
urbanization, an expanding local automobile industry, and
availability of low-cost vehicles are the major forces driving
motorization in the region. As a result, cities in the region
experience severe traffic congestion. A great majority
of experts in the UN-Habitat survey (over 80 per cent)
indicate that the roads in their respective cities are
congested, costing the region USD2.2 billion a year in lost
productivity. 27 In India, public
FACT transport accounts
for only 22 per cent
of urban trips among
ever-increasing numbers
of private vehicles.
Time spent in traffic deteriorates quality
of life, causing pollution, traffic accidents, increased fuel
consumption and emission of greenhouse gases.
In São Paulo, public transport as a share of all trips
declined from 46 per cent in 1977 to 33 per cent in 1997 and
24 A
greater proportion of these
vehicles are concentrated
in only a few cities: New
Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata
and Bangalore, which host
five per cent of India’s
population but 14 per cent
of registered vehicles. 25
Cities must
POLICy address the
road congestion problems
that adversely affect their
prosperity