| dc.description.abstract | Cycling remains poorly integrated into urban transport in many sub-Saharan African cities despite its potential
to contribute positively to inclusive transport. Its active use in many medium-sized cities of the region has not
elicited much support in terms of conducive street spaces and traffic conditions either. This dissertation reasons
that this inattention to cycling is perpetuated by neoliberal transport planning, which ignores the needs of the
poor majority who are the dominant users of the mode in the region. Specifically, the tools that support this
neoliberal transport planning are thought to be incapable of identifying the relevance of creating street spaces
that enable cycling. Consequently, transport planning aggravates the social disadvantage that cyclists face. This
dissertation therefore questions whether social exclusion can form a basis for revealing the need for street
spaces and traffic conditions that support cycling.
The main objective of the study is to find out whether, and the extent to which, the concept of social exclusion
can offer a complementary framework for identifying the need to support cycling. The study searches for
empirical evidence of this exclusion from three main sources, namely i) the conditions of street spaces and traffic
thereupon; ii) the objectives of policies that relate to the changing transport conditions; and iii) the ongoing
transport policy reforms and infrastructure development. This empirical evidence is collected from Kisumu, a
medium-sized city in western Kenya. The mixed methods approach is employed to investigate these dimensions
of social exclusion. This method enables the study to draw on the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative
approaches. Accordingly, the study sets off by qualitatively identifying the dimensions of exclusion from expert
interviews, interviews with users of different modes, and field observations. Quantitative data on these
dimensions is then collected through household surveys, expert interviews, and reference to secondary sources.
Resulting data is analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Data on the conditions of streets and traffic
behaviour is analysed through a log-linear analysis to find its association with exclusion. Multinomial logistic
regression analysis is conducted to understand the influence of the changing transport conditions on mode
choices and by extension the restriction of cycling. The study also conducts a content analysis of economic and
transport policies to find out how they accommodate cycling. The results of these analyses are interpreted
quantitatively from the statistical coefficients while their qualitative meaning for exclusion is sought from
qualitative sources.
The key findings of the study are that cycling is excluded by the conditions of the streets and traffic, changes in
transport conditions and the pursuit of policies that emphasise capital transport infrastructure projects but fail to
consider the implications of these projects for the transport of the poor. These results are interpreted within the
framework of the critical urban theory to find out if social exclusion can be a basis for negotiating street spaces
and traffic that address the needs of cycling. The critical urban theory argues against the modes of thought and
behaviour that supress aspirations, values, and ideas which do not conform to the rationality of the dominant
thought. In this regard, the prevailing neoliberal orientation to transport planning in Kisumu is critiqued for
creating development priorities, policies, and conditions of infrastructure and traffic that suppress modes that do
not conform to motorisation that this orientation holds to signify modernity. The study thus presents social
exclusion as the frame through which the shortcomings of the prevailing orientation to transport planning can be
examined and be tackled.
The original contribution of this dissertation is its conception of transport-related social exclusion through the
active exclusion of cyclists from street spaces and its demonstration of how this exclusion is reinforced by
development priorities, policies, and conditions of streets spaces that result from neoliberal transport planning.
The study argues that inclusive transport planning in medium-sized sub-Saharan African cities should facilitate
cyclists and users of other excluded travel modes by eliminating these conditions of street spaces that hinder
them from participating in mobility to access destinations. These conditions are presented by the study as the
new dimensions of impedance to accessibility. Accordingly, they should be incorporated in accessibility
evaluation to ensure that transport decisions are sensitive to the needs of cyclists and other excluded modes. | en_US |
