[sustran] Africa/pavements for non-motorised transport tracks

[jan herman koster]

One of the things that I have missed so far from the numerous messages is
discussion/information exchange on some real, both feet on the ground
action. Also, not a word on Africa yet, large parts of which are
characterised by low car ownership and use and sometimes extreme poverty.
Cities like Nairobi house masses of urban poor, not able to afford even
the cheapest forms of public transport and facing long and dangerous
journeys on foot each day (they used to cycle, but not anymore; the car
has taken over the road space, making cycling an extremely dangerous
affair). Apart from the human misery factor, the economic aspect should
certainly not be overlooked: the transport systems of Nairobi and other
African cities are highly inefficient.
Still, all is not lost: one of the good things is that these cities still
have a chance to develop less car dominated systems.
I am presently working on a NMT pilot project in Kenya which is part of
the Worldbank coordinated Sub-Sahara Africa Transport Programme (SSATP)
We are soon to make a pavement choice for a dedicated footpath/cycle track
network to be constructed in Eastern Nairobi as part of this project. I am
interested in hearing about experiences in similar areas with pavements
made of concrete slabs (say 30x30x5 cm) laid on a sand bed. Although we
have plenty of them in The Netherlands we are concerned that in extremely
poor areas theft of these slabs may be a problem.

jan herman koster E-mail: jhk at ihe.nl  
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