A High volume transport, applied research session in partnership with ITDP
Nov 9:17:30–18:30 UTC+2
In-person/Online session
African cities are the most rapidly growing cities in the world, and they’re changing fast. This offers immense opportunities as well as challenges for urban planning to meet the needs of the people, and economic growth, alongside meeting the urgent progress needed to address climate change. This session looks at the opportunities in urban planning and transport planning for African cities – considering trends such as transit-oriented development (TOD), where people live closer to jobs and services reducing time and the environmental burden on transport and boosting economic growth.
Moderator: Heather Thompson, ITDP
Speaker: Chris Kost, ITDP
Chris Kost is the Africa Program Director at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and has worked on on the HVT project City Retrofit, which seeks to understand how transit-oriented development has been pursued in LMICs and what can be learned from those efforts. How can informal settlements be retrofitted in LICs? What are the most effective strategies to integrate transport and land-use planning that lead to better, more affordable mobility?
Speaker: Paul Curtis, Vectos
Paul Curtis manages the portfolio of international sustainable mobility projects in which Vectos takes a leading role. He is currently working on an HVT project to proactively collaborate with the informal public transport sector which provides over 70% of the transport needs for cities in Africa, to create more efficient, low-carbon, affordable and safe transport networks. Despite informal transport’s positive contribution to growing cities, there are important negative aspects that need to be addressed, including congestion, severe air pollution, poor safety records and precarious employment.
Speaker: Gail Jennings, research consultant specializing in the intersections between transport, access, gender, and socio-economic inclusion
Worked with HVT on many projects and there are numerous angles we’re considering for this session including walking and cycling, urban planning in African cities, gender equity, inclusion, and the impact of COVID-19.