Walking by Default, Not by Design: Evaluating Non-Motorised Transport Infrastructure Deficits and Transit-Oriented Development Potential along Kitwe’s Emerging Dual Carriageway Corridors

Introduction: In Zambian cities, over 70% of daily trips are on foot or in informal minibuses, yet pedestrians and cyclists account for over 60% of road fatalities, rooted in infrastructure designed for motorised vehicles. Kitwe exemplifies this: residents walk and cycle out of necessity while the built environment provides no dedicated non-motorised transport infrastructure. Meanwhile, corridor investments in Ndola–Kitwe and Kitwe–Chingola dual carriageways reshape connectivity without transit-oriented development, potentially entrenching car-centric spatial configurations in a city where fewer than 10% of households own private vehicles.
Methods: A two-stage methodology is applied. First, a GIS-based walkability and cyclability audit maps existing NMT infrastructure, including footpaths, pedestrian crossings, cycle lanes, and street lighting within two-kilometre catchments of Kitwe’s primary arterials and dual carriageway interchanges, scored against the ITDP Pedestrians First framework. Second, a transit-oriented development readiness assessment evaluates land use density, diversity, and design parameters at six interchange nodes using the TOD Standard, benchmarked against modal split data from household travel surveys.
Results: Fewer than 5% of arterial road segments incorporate dedicated pedestrian facilities meeting ITDP minimum standards, and purpose-built cycle infrastructure is absent across the entire surveyed network. Interchange grade separations extend pedestrian crossing distances by 300–800 metres, creating significant severance barriers for non-motorised users. TOD readiness scores remain uniformly low, constrained by single-use zoning, the absence of mixed-income housing near transit nodes, and the lack of scheduled public transport services to anchor development. Copperbelt Province accounts for 15% of national traffic crashes, and total annual economic losses from road injuries reach 4.7% of GDP nationwide.
Conclusions: Kitwe’s dual carriageway investments represent a rapidly closing window for NMT and TOD integration. Retroactive pedestrian infrastructure, mixed-use zoning overlays at interchanges, and formalised feeder transit services are essential to prevent reproduction of auto-dependent patterns that undermine mobility equity in resource-constrained cities.