Pedestrian travel behaviour and urban form: Comparing two small Mozambican cities

Two main urban forms dominate the profile of Mozambican cities. Those built along national roads and those built inland. These urban forms have different impacts on travel behaviour, in particular walking, which is the main travel mode in many Sub-Sahara African cities. Taking a case study of Alto-molocue, a linear structured city built along the main national road and Milange, a relatively compact inland city, both being small cities with distinct urban forms, this paper aims to determine the influence of urban form on walking behaviour in the two cities. The empirical data used was collected among 130 pedestrian commuters in each city. GIS spatial analysis is used to explore and compare the relation of trip origin and destination on walking behaviour between the two cities. Then, Mann-Whitney non-parametric test is employed to examine the influence of socio-economic, travel behaviour and urban form factors on walking to different travel purposes. Generally, the study findings show that inland cities like Milange, present a better walking environment than linear structured cities built along road corridors like Alto-molocue. For both formal and informal jobs, urban form factors such as activity location and household residence have shown a more important influence on walking in Milange than in Alto-molocue. For other travel purposes (shopping and recreation), the study reveals that socio-economic factors such as income present a strong influence on walking in the city of Milange. The study also shows that inland cities like Milange exhibit shorter walking distances to shopping and recreation activities and people walk more frequently than in cities built along heavy traffic national roads like Alto-molocue. The study findings would be helpful to city planners and decision makers when designing strategies and promotional initiatives for more pedestrian-friendly cities.