For better mobility in cities

 Worldwide, most developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanisation due to among others, rural-urban migration and natural increase.

Usually, urbanisation demands an efficient, robust, integrated and sustainable transport system that is vital to facilitate easy flow of goods, services and movement of people to various sectors of the economy.

An efficient, robust, integrated and sustainable transport system is one that is safe, secure, reliable, dependable, affordable and accessible. In short, it must be user-friendly, economically -iable, environmental-friendly and inclusive.

In most developing countries, the flow of goods and movement of people is largely dependent on road transport.

Even though this is the case, most of the urban roads in developing countries are in poor shape due to several factors, including poor design and implementation.

In addition, the rapid and unplanned growth in urban centres, the growing private vehicle fleet and the lack of proper planning of transportation systems have led to increasing deterioration of mobility.

Malawi has a limited transport system. As a result, the country faces high transport costs rendering economic and social development difficult.

There have been previous attempts to improve urban mobility with its attendant problems. Before 1990s, Malawi Government introduced State-controlled public transport through provision of United Transport of Malawi buses in the cities to make transport affordable and reliable.

Later, the sector was liberalised and more players started coming in with minibuses. Since then, transport policies have shifted to permit market-determined decisions, enterprise autonomy and private participation in the ownership and management of transport businesses.

As a result, the number of private operators has increased exponentially with the influx of many minibuses from mid-1990s and private motorised vehicles in the 21st century, consequently providing relief access to mobility.

However, this has had its own share of problems, including unreliable and unaffordable transport due to lack of enforcement and regulation.

In recent years, the Government of Malawi has been implementing the Malawi City Roads Infrastructure Project in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba.

The project seeks to upgrade and rehabilitate the city roads to reduce cost of travel and facilitate speedy movement.

Under the project, about USD 15.5 million has been allocated towards the upgrading of city roads in the 2022/23 Government fiscal year. Since its inception, the project has upgraded and rehabilitated a number of roads to bitumen standards with improved traffic capacity, better drainage system, bridges and walkways.

Globally, several policies have been developed and recommended to improve mobility. However, the policies have to be tailor-made to make meaningful impact, specifically in developing countries.

Firstly, there is a call for public transport oriented urban planning that is in line with zoning.

Secondly, there need for huge investment in a more accommodating road infrastructure, especially in major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba with grade separations for private motorised vehicles; public transport, bicycle lanes and pedestrian lanes. This Investment should be beyond the traditional road engineering.

However, in so doing, we must not be blind on the fact that policies for more and more road construction, upgrading, and rehabilitation (road diet) have clearly failed to cope with ever increasing demand, from rapid motorisation, resulting in a vicious cycle of car-oriented transport.

Apparently, the increase of roads or upgrading of existing roads to alleviate travel demand normally has positive consequences in the short-term while in medium-to-long-term, leads to a much greater congestion, thus increasing the problem rather than solving it.

As the saying goes,, “adding highway lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity”.

Thirdly, there is need to consider investing in mass transit transportation such as railways

Finally, there is need to consider other more complex problems of travel demand management and overall liveability in an urban setting