Income Levels and
Transportation Urban Transport
Infrastructure Africa’s Most Populous
City - Lagos, Nigeria
Public transportation in urban areas is
often limited, inefficient, uncomfortable,
non-compliant with safety standards and
expensive. Commuting from the home to
places of work, school or business, as the
case may be, is no easy feat for an average
individual. The structure of transportation systems
across the African continent is quite
similar; informal transporters provide
motorized transportation in most of their
major cities like Lagos, Dakar and Dar
es Salaam, via shared-taxis, minibuses,
motorbikes and tricycles. However, due to
financial constraints, almost half of daily
commutes in the cities are made via non-
motorized means such as walking and
bicycle rides. With an estimated population of about
23 million inhabitants in its metropolitan
area, Lagos is Nigeria’s economic hub
and one of the largest cities in Africa.
50% of commutes across the city are via
its popular yellow minibuses (danfos),
tricycles (keke napep), shared-taxis, bikes
and boat rides, while 40% of commutes
are via non-motorized means. Commutes
via old rail lines and privately-owned
vehicles are on the rise, however minibus
services are still the most common mode
of transportation within the city.
Income levels often determine the mode
of transportation for urban dwellers.
In South Africa, workers in the lowest
income range rely mostly on walking,
shared-taxis and buses, to get around.
The lowest-income households in South
Africa spend a minimum of about 20%
of their monthly income on transportation
alone. In cities such as Bamako, Accra and
Nairobi, minibuses are more frequently
used than larger public buses because of
cheaper fares.
Although more expensive to purchase
and maintain, private motorized means of
transportation make up about 45% of total
transportation in cities like Ouagadougou.
As at 2015, Libya, Seychelles, Mauritius,
Botswana and South Africa had the
highest number of car owners per 1000
people in Africa, while Ethiopia, Togo, and
Central African Republic had the least.
7
In trying to improve urbanization, the
focus for many African cities has been
on expanding road networks and
deploying more convenient means of
road commute for the populace like Bus
Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. Ironically,
these “rapid” bus systems are still limited
by traffic congestion owing to poor road
networks and the deficiency of dedicated
lanes for them. The future of mobility in
Africa is in looking past road network
development and embracing other modes
of transportation like seaports, inland-
waterways and railway systems.
The Lagos Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
system, launched in 2008, was the
first BRT system in Sub-Saharan Africa
and currently transports an average of
150,000 passengers daily. Although the
BRT implementation brought about the
rehabilitation of major roads, construction
of additional bus terminals and pedestrian
bridges, it is yet to ease mobility
constraints in all parts of the Lagos
Metropolis. These buses alone - even with
the commissioning of a new bus terminal
at Ikeja in 2018, and the promise of 5,000
additional buses over the next three years
- cannot adequately serve Lagos’ teeming
population.
The Corvus | September 2019