Transit-Oriented Development and Urban Health and Liveability in African Cities

Globally, transportation infrastructure experienced transformation between the 1760s and 1900s. This period marked the ending and beginning of two important transport eras: motorised and non-motorised eras. In Africa, the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and colonial invasion of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought major changes in transportation infrastructure. Prior to these two events, pre-colonial Africa largely depended on non-motorised modes of transportation to move people, goods and services from one place to another. During this era, transportation networks were limited, and few available ones were dominated by road and water networks that are mostly limited to local travels involving intercity and intracity movements for agricultural activities. In this era, track roads, shallow inland waterways and other inefficient trip attributes and network conditions limited the impact and influence of transportation. However, with the advent of Industrial Revolution and colonialism, Africa embraced motorised transportation, and the impact of transport increased as the need for transportation services expanded transportation modes and advanced fuel type.