Economic justification of non-motorized transport (nmt) in cities of developing countries: case study non-motorized transport scheme for kampala central business district

Abstract

African cities have waited too long to deal with the existential threat of Climate change and thus have begun to suffer its effects. In most African cities, populations are increasing rapidly and the reliance on Non-motorized transport (NMT) is high, but dedicated NMT infrastructure remains limited. In all cities and towns across Uganda, the use of private vehicles has risen steadily over the years and has congested these cities, poisoned the air and killed NMT users at exceptionally high rates. In view of the above, The Ministry of Works and Transport developed and passed the Non-Motorized transport policy in 2012 and currently this policy is at implementation stage. Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in the bid to implement this policy has undertaken a pilot project to establish Non-Motorized Transit corridors along Namirembe Road and Luwum Street which are be accessible to only pedestrians and cyclists. Further to this KCCA has undertaken designs for an extension of this pilot to cover 4.25 km of CBD streets and 15km along the existing medium gauge railway to from the CBD to Namanve. This paper presents an economic justification of the aforementioned NMT projects using the Non-Motorized Transport Project Assessment Tool (NMT PAT) to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse the expected impacts (benefits and costs). The impacts have been analysed in four categories i.e Social impacts, Economic impacts, Health impacts and Environment impacts. The results of the analysis indicate that considering a design life of 15 years Kampala city will experience reductions in emissions to the tune of 675,000 tons for Carbon dioxide, 13.81 tons of Particulate matter and 2536 tons of Nitrogen dioxide. The health benefits in terms of reduction in accidents valued at Uganda shillings 4,163,611,405,517.35 (USD 1,134,499,020) will also be realized. A general improvement in journey quality, security and liveability will also be achieved as well as a reduction in the noise levels by about 3.75 decibels. To encapsulate by implementing the proposed NMT infrastructure, a Net present Value of 14 trillion shillings (USD 3 Billion) shall be realised thus demonstrating that NMT investment is an attractive venture for developing cities.