African cities don't need to catch up with car-dependent cities. They need to stay ahead of them – and push sustainable mobility.
Active mobility, particularly walking, serves as the primary means of daily travel in numerous African cities. Unlike in much of the Global North, where debates on decarbonisation focus on the transition from fuel-powered cars to electric vehicles (EVs), Africa’s mobility is shaped by different realities. With the continent accounting for just 3% of the global registered motor vehicles, the widespread adoption of EVs is constrained by affordability, the unreliability of electricity supply, and the dominance of second-hand car imports. These contextual challenges demand that Africa’s mobility future not be viewed through a narrow lens of motorisation and electrification but through the question: How can African cities build upon what already exists to advance sustainable and just mobility?
A crucial starting point is Africa’s demographic profile. Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the world’s youngest populations. Given high unemployment rates, private car ownership is largely unattainable due to the high costs of acquisition, fuel, and maintenance. The majority depend on walking, public or paratransit and cycling – modes which are inherently low-carbon. This represents not only a climate advantage but also a missed opportunity if policymakers fail to recognise, strengthen, and dignify these mobility patterns. As incomes rise, young people will increasingly aspire to private car ownership unless public transport and active mobility become reliable, efficient, and aspirational alternatives.
To avoid locking cities into car dependency, African countries must act now to reinforce sustainable mobility choices. This requires a multidimensional strategy that recognises both the socio-cultural and institutional barriers that shape mobility. Using a 3T framework: Traction, Transfer, and Training, African cities can begin to leverage what they already have, to chart pathways toward equitable mobility futures.
Using New Technologies to Promote Sustainable Mobility
Africa’s youth are deeply connected to technology and social media, which influence not only their identities but also their lifestyle choices. Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube provide fertile ground for reframing walking and cycling as modern, aspirational, and empowering. Partnering with social media influencers and content creators can generate cultural traction for sustainable mobility. In addition to digital persuasion, artificial intelligence (AI) opens new possibilities for traction. AI-powered tools can analyse mobility data from smartphone apps, GPS traces, or even social media posts to reveal pedestrian and cycling patterns that are often invisible to planners.
This can inform the design of infrastructure that responds to actual behaviour and support real-time traffic management systems that prioritise pedestrians and cyclists, or enhance safety through predictive analytics that identify high-risk zones before crashes occur. When paired with youth digital engagement, these technological advances can transform how cities understand and promote sustainable mobility. In this sense, traction comes not only from reshaping perceptions but also from making walking and cycling visible in through data to prioritise planning and policy.
Africa’s youth are deeply connected to technology and social media, which influence not only their identities but also their lifestyle choices.
In many African cities, paratransit systems dominate daily travel but operate at times in tension with the state. Strikes, fluctuating fares, and safety concerns often persist and go unreported, leaving the users/commuters vulnerable and stranded in the absence of channels to voice their concerns and have them addressed. Establishing advocacy platforms or unions for users can help shift power dynamics, giving commuters a collective voice in shaping urban mobility policies through their lived experiences. This can be achieved through partnerships with neighbourhood associations, civil society organisations, and transport authorities to institutionalise participatory decision-making.
Transfering Ressources
Current investment patterns overwhelmingly favour motorised infrastructure, while non-motorised users are left with marginal and often token provisions such as adding a narrow sidewalk along an expanded highway. A deliberate reallocation of financial and technical resources is needed to deliver infrastructure that needs to be well studied and planned so that it responds to the actual travel behaviour of pedestrians and cyclists. For instance, mapping desire paths and direct pedestrian routes can guide the design of networks that prioritise safety, connectivity, and low exposure to vehicle emissions. Beyond funding, institutional reforms are necessary: transport agencies must integrate engineers, urban planners, social scientists, and environmental experts to co-produce inclusive mobility solutions.
A deliberate reallocation of financial and technical resources is needed to deliver infrastructure that responds to the actual travel behaviour of pedestrians and cyclists.
Planning and engineering education continues to privilege motorised transport. Civil engineers, who are central to designing and building roads are mostly trained to think about cars first. They are taught to follow technical rules and codes, but often without much attention to the everyday realities of people walking, cycling, or using public transport. This means that many streets are designed in unsafe and inconvenient ways for the non-motorized majority. To change this, a new kind of training is necessary. One that blends technical know-how with social awareness. Road designers, planners, and decision-makers should learn to see the city from the perspective of all its users, not just motorists. This means rewriting road design standards so that they prioritise safe sidewalks, protected cycle lanes, and easy connections to public transport.
Training the Needed Skills
Beyond changes in engineering designs, public awareness and skills also matter. Drivers need training. Driving schools need to go beyond teaching people how to control a car. They need to integrate lessons on sharing the road safely with pedestrians and cyclists, giving equal attention to the rights and safety of non-motorised users. This includes practical guidance on how to overtake cyclists, how to slow down near pedestrian crossings, and how to be alert in busy neighbourhoods where children or elderly people are walking. Campaigns on road sharing should make the drivers experience the road as pedestrians and as cyclists in order to reduce the hostility and risks that pedestrians and cyclists face from motorists.
At the same time, investing in cycling education can help more people, especially women and young people, to gain the confidence and skills to ride safely along the streets. These actions would build a stronger culture of respect and responsibility on the road to make streets safer and more inclusive for everyone.
Changing Mindsets and City Layouts
How people think about walking and cycling also matters. In many African cities, these modes are still seen as signs of poverty, while owning a car is seen as success and a social status. This mindset makes it harder to encourage people to keep walking or cycling as their incomes rise. We need to flip that story. Walking and cycling can be presented as smart, healthy, and forward-looking choices as ways to take care of the environment and save money. At the same time, it’s important to make sure these options are open to everyone. Incentives for cycling are one practical way forward. Building safe, connected cycling networks would make everyday trips easier and safer. Tax reliefs on imported bicycles, including electric ones, could make them more affordable, while employer-supported financing schemes could help young people and workers access e-bicycles through flexible payment plans.
In many African cities, walking and cycling are still seen as signs of poverty, while owning a car is seen as success and a social status.
These steps, combined with broader investments in walking and public transport, can shift mobility choices in favour of modes that are healthier, more affordable, and climate-friendly. In the end, sustainable mobility will only become the better alternative if it is also the more attractive one. To achieve this, we must transform the design of our cities, our streets and the stories we tell about them, redefining walking, cycling, and public transport as progressive modes.
Conclusion: Applying the Principles of Traction, Transfer, and Training
Africa’s mobility future is not predetermined by the car. The continent’s youthful population, current low-carbon mobility patterns, and ongoing urban transitions create a rare window of opportunity to embed sustainable and just mobility at the core of development. By leveraging the dominant modes of mobility, i.e walking, paratransit and increasingly cycling, and by applying the principles of Traction, Transfer, and Training, African cities can avoid replicating car-dependent models and instead adopt just, inclusive, and climate-resilient modes of mobility.