The role of infrastructure and route type choices for walking and cycling in some cities in Ghana

ABSTRACT

Infrastructure has contributed to eradicating poverty and improving the livelihood of people. In Sub-Saharan Africa, active transport infrastructure is less, poor, or lacking, which has become one source of the decline in cycling and efficiency in walking. This study sought to investigate the types of infrastructure or routes that active transport users are exposed to, determine their usage magnitude and solicit views regarding them through questionnaire surveys and screen-line counts in two major cities in Ghana. Active transport respondents who comprised of pedestrians and a few cyclists identified themselves with these infrastructures and route use frequently: streets, sidewalks, cycle lanes, unpaved footpaths, and ‘lungulungus’. Street and ‘lungulungus’ were the most used infrastructure or route choices by all age, gender, and occupation groups in both study locations at Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly and Tamale Metropolitan Assembly. The respondents chose to use these two mainly because they were direct, cohesive and safe. The fact that people used ‘lungulungus’ more than the provided infrastructures suggests poor planning of the built environment and inadequate dedicated infrastructure. This calls for a review of existing dedicated infrastructure and the provision of infrastructure that addresses the needs of pedestrians and cyclists.

KEYWORDS:

• cycling
• walking
• infrastructure
• streets
• motivation

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Samuel Kweku Agbonoshie and Richard Kweku Dzagblabi for their support during the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Regional Transport Research and Education Centre Kumasi (TRECK) – Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology