AFRICA’S COMING TRANSIT RENAISSANCE

Posted: 01 Jun 2002

Related to: Dakar BRT, Developing High-Quality, Low-Cost Mass Transit,
Contributed by: Paul White, ITDP

The recent success of Bus Rapid Transit in many Latin American and some Asian and U.S. cities is encouraging, as they provide a blueprint of how to improve transit. Will Africa be able to adapt this blueprint, or will Africa miss the BRT transit revolution? Accra, Ghana is already making big investments in higher-capacity buses. More importantly, however, the city has started a planning process to determine the applicability of exclusive busways and related measures that have proven more vital to success than bus technology.

Photo: Secondhand British double-decker buses have recently appeared on Accra’s streets.

Current African transit is characterized by chaotic and dangerous transit systems dominated by small, weakly regulated paratransit vehicles. While these systems are affordable, they are alienating more and more public transit riders. What’s more, increasing motor vehicle traffic (partly due to defecting transit riders) is decreasing the efficiency of paratransit, leading to declines in profits and service.

This, coupled with high levels of crime, lack of roadworthiness testing, and intense competition for passengers have all contributed to the crisis. Everyone agrees that something must be done soon to fix these broken systems before they cripple Africa’s cities, which are experiencing the highest rates of urbanization in the world.

The haste for change may also limit the extent a true BRT system can be implemented. Ideally the choice of bus technology is an outgrowth of a planning process that includes a complete understanding of capacity needs, customer flows, modal integration options, and fare collection preferences. BRT has become a term symbolic of a package of bus quality improvements that lead to a true surface metro.

These characteristics can include:

  • Segregated busways
  • Rapid boarding and alighting
  • Clean, secure and comfortable stations and terminals
  • Efficient pre-board fare collection
  • Clear and prominent signage and real-time information displays
  • Transit prioritisation at intersections
  • Modal integration at stations and terminals
  • Clean bus technologies
  • Sophisticated marketing identity
  • Efficient pre-board fare collection


The lure of arbitrarily choosing a bus technology at the outset may negate later options in terms of rapid boarding and pre-board fare collection.

In the coming months, ITDP will be working with African decision-makers to speed the replication of BRT in at least two leading African cities. ITDP’s team, which includes leading BRT and urban development professionals, has already started working with local planners in Accra and Dakar to build political support for Africa’s first bus prioritization measures.