The need to reform urban mobility in African cities has never been so obvious than now when different challenges confronting our cities are being further complicated by non-sustainable systems. This is why inclusive planning of of urban mobility systems and creation of sustainable platform for implementation of best practices has become a critical need in order to mitigate its impact on resident's quality of life, and indeed, everyday functioning of our cities. Whereas, a greater majority of countries in the developed world have since realized the concern with current mobility practices and are re-engineering systems, changing mind-set and developing new culture in sustainable mobility.
Africa and the rest of the developing world lag behind. It was in this regard that the Africa Sustainable Urban Mobility Course was conceived and developed as an annual human capacity development programme, which is one of the sustainable urban mobility initiatives of Ochenuel Mobility.
African cities are confronted with sutained motorization with consequences in form of traffic congestions that waste man hours traffic, road crashes, air and noise pollution, urban space that has been largerly taken over by cars and traffic indiscipline.
The overall implication is the general deterioration of the quality of life, increase in poverty, and shortened life expectancy of citizens.
Different development partners such as UN Habitat Mobility Division, UN Environment Share the Road, the World Bank Africa Sustainable Transport Program, amongst others are trying their best in knowledge sharing through conferences and workshops, but are largely concentrated on federal authorities which have no prerogative for urban mobility development, or are concentrated in one or two large citeis in a country; like Nigeria, its all about Abuja and Lagos.
COURSE CONTENT AND DELIVERY
The course content is drawn from a wide range of global indicators, local challenges and experiences of actors in the industry, and the need to align with the best practices that meet local needs. This is broken down into 14 modules that are intended to be updated each year:
Module 1: Introduction to Sustainable Urban Mobility
Module 2: Problems of Urban Mobility
Module 3: Transport & Climate Change: Best Practices
Module 4: Urban Public Transport System
Module 5: Non-Motorized Transportation
Module 6: ITS, SUM Infrastructure and other Systems
Module 7: Transport Electrification and Technolgy Enhancements
Module 8: SUM Financing, Business Opportunities & Investment Models
Module 9: Transport/Traffic Safety and Security
Module 10: SUM Policies, Regulations & Enforcement
Module 11: SUM Research, Data Management
Module 12: Advocacy and Public Engagements
Module 13: Parking and Parking Reforms
Module 14: Transport Digitization and Smart Cities