Abstract:
The lack of high-quality transport data in Africa affects the ability to effectively respond to
global externalities and therefore undermines the ability to create sustainable, just, and
equitable transportation systems. The data gaps observed are characterised into gaps in
the geographical or spatial coverage, gaps in the methodological design of data collection,
and gender data gaps. It was found that although some data gaps are a result of lack of
financial capacity to set up world-class data collection and monitoring systems, some gaps
are a result of poor or inadequate research design, and lack of data sharing among
stakeholders which may lead to wastage of resources in undertaking duplicate studies by
different stakeholders. The study recommends institutional coordination amongst data
owners to enable optimum utilisation of the financial resources available for data collection
and intentionality in inclusive data collection to support the development transport systems
for all. The study also recommends that transport planning adopts a multidisciplinary
approach towards research and survey design including the fields of psychology, data
science, and human geography to develop holistic data collection and analysis systems.
