Pedestrian Infrastructure, Mobility and Safety in Urban Ghana—Qualitative Reflections from Kumasi

While pedestrian walking forms over 60% of daily mobility in African cities, the needed infrastructural facilities are hardly provided; and when provided, they are rarely used or in bad state. This paper raises and answers two key questions; (i) are pedestrian infrastructures providing the needed safety in urban Ghana? And (ii) to what extent are pedestrian safety infrastructure been used? Adopting the case of two footbridges in Kumasi—Ghana, this study explores the attitude of pedestrians to the use of footbridge and the safety concerns associated. The study adopted the Right to the City theoretical lens and deployed multiple qualitative data collection methods, including pedestrian counts and interviews, institutional consultations, interview of traders around the footbridges and focus group discussions of local stakeholders. The challenges of introducing footbridges as safety infrastructure and myriad of user perceptions are revealed. These include pedestrians’ exhibition of their rights to mobility and use of public spaces, in ways that have not been considered in the design of the pedestrian footbridges. The study concludes with a re-examination of pedestrian infrastructure provision in urban Africa.