A large majority of African cities allocate a very small proportion of land to streets: out of the 18 African cities included in this study, 13 allocated less than 15 per cent of land to streets, with the lowest level (6 per cent) observed in Bangui in the Central African Republic. The level of land allocated to streets observed in the city of Bangui is similar to the level in the Armenian city of Yerevan (6.1 per cent), which
is amongst 3 out of 13 Asian cities that allocated low levels of land to streets; the others are Dhaka in Bangladesh (8 per cent) and Jakarta in Indonesia (9.5 per cent). Two out of ten Latin American and Caribbean cities, namely Georgetown in Guyana (12.6 per cent) and Guatemala City (13.1 per cent) in Guatemala belong to this group.
The city planning of Bangui was influenced by the street planning and design of Paris, with wide boulevards oriented towards places of political and economic interest.1 However, this influence is limited to a small proportion of the city core of Bangui, leaving the rest of the city poorly served with streets. Indeed, except for its large boulevards, Bangui is poorly served by local and connector streets. The streets are narrow and short (4.7 km per square km) and the street network is disconnected (15 intersections per square km).
The street components in the city core of Bangui reflect the urban form of many suburban areas of cities of the developing world.
Yerevan’s city core is similar to that of Bangui, but for different reasons. The low level of land allocated to streets in Yerevan is the result of a historical choice that favoured narrow streets.2The streets of Yerevan are not only narrow but they are also very short and disconnected (6.1km per square km with an intersection density of 18.0). A similar situation is also observed in Dhaka and Jakarta where land allocated to streets is less than 10 per cent in a disconnected street network with an intersection density of 10 and 28, respectively.
Other cities in this group have more land allocated to streets, but the levels are still very low, varying from 10 per cent in Tanzania’s major city Dar es Salaam to 14.3 per cent in Senegal’s capital Dakar. Three cities in this group, namely, Alexandria, Guatemala and Dakar, offer better connectivity in the city core with an intersection density greater than 100 per cent (194 per cent, 174 per cent and 159 per cent, respectively). Kenya’s capital Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Ghana’s capital Accra have only 11.5 per cent, 10 per cent and 11.1 per cent land allocated to streets, respectively. Intersection density is also relatively low in these cities, at 36 per cent, 34 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively. Dodoma (Tanzania), Lagos (Nigeria), Georgetown (Guyana) and Addis Abba (Ethiopia)3 have slightly more land allocated to streets, varying from between 13 per cent to 14 per cent and an intersection density varying from between 65 per cent and 85 per cent.
However, regardless of the level of connectivity in the city core, in the suburban areas of cities in this group, not only are there few streets built (with less than 5 per cent of land allocated to streets), but those that exist are narrow and disconnected, except for one or two arterial streets passing through neighbourhoods. The city of Dakar offers a typical example: the proportion of land allocated to streets in the suburbs is more than three times lower than its level in the city core (3 per cent versus 14 per cent).
STREETS AS PUBLIC SPACES AND DRIVERS OF URBAN PROSPERITY 72
FIGURE 4.1 LAND ALLOCATED TO STREET (LAS) IN CITIES AFRICA, ASIA AND LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Sub-urban areas City core Hong Kong Tokyo Cape Town Medellin Bogota Mexico City Guadalajara Singapore Sao Paulo Beijing Brasilia Casablanca Bangkok Chandigarh Cairo Johannesburg La Paz Manila Mumbai Kolkota Abuja Dakar Lagos Addis Ababa Dodoma Guatemala City Alexandria Georgetown Ouagadougou Nairobi Accra Kigali Dar es Salaam Dhaka Yerevan Bangui
73 CHAPTER 4: THE STATE OF STREETS IN AFRICA, ASIA
AND LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
In this group, suburbanization is mostly synonymous with slum expansion, except for some pockets of gated suburbs occupied by wealthy families. (Urban growth and slum growth often occur simultaneously in cities of the developing world, as described in the State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7.) Urban expansion is often the result of poor households moving to the outskirts because they cannot afford to live in the city centre. The suburban areas have street connectivity levels similar to those of slum areas, with irregular street patterns with multiple unplanned dead-end roads. These dead-ends are not the result of city planning but the result of the addition of plots by land owners who subdivide land in search of profits. In this situation, it is common to find a street ending where a subdivision starts. The result is a high frequency of dead-ends with few interections that do not promote connectivity.
Suburban areas comprise both high-income neighbourhoods and low-income ones. Both types of neighbourhoods are poorly connected, but due to different
levels of population density, the per capita land allocated to streets is quite different, with high-income neighbourhoods having higher levels than poorer ones.