Application of spatial planning strategies to achieve sustainable transport systems in rapidly urbanizing cities : a study of Abuja, Nigeria

• Main Author: Razak, Sherif Yinka
• Published: University of Salford 2016
• Subjects: 388.4
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.698176

It has become increasingly clear that the level of road traffic in cities has created high levels of congestion with implications on man-hour, fuel loss and growing transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier studies have attributed these impacts to the legacy of the Modernist Planning/Master Planning paradigm which prevails in rapidly urbanizing cities in the global south region. While this strategic instrument is considered relevant and dominate the centre-stage of physical planning in most global south cities, earlier studies argue that it may have created the extensive spatial pattern which continues to produce unsustainable transport-related problems such as increases in commuter trips and greater distances between core-city employment areas and suburban residential areas. Implicit in the Modernist Planning approach is “predict and provide” engineering solutions which skew investments in transportation towards the building and expansion of roads for addressing traffic congestion challenges. It is widely argued that this situation create incentives that permit the ownership and use of private automobile vehicles at the expense of public transportation. This research investigates the contention that the prevailing Master Planning system in expanding cities of the global south region has fueled the growth of suburbia and car-dependent mobility patterns resulting in inefficiencies such as traffic congestion, the waste of human time and fuel, and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). The study offers an alternative model that provides solutions to traffic-related and suburban sprawl impacts in expanding cities of the global south region. This alternative is based on a framework for the combination of spatial planning strategies of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Transit Oriented Development (TOD), and congestion pricing to overcome the shortcomings of inefficient strategic planning tools and improve sustainable outcomes for global south cities.