Equitable Mobility for City Health and Wellbeing

The overall aim of Equitable Mobility for City Health and Wellbeing (EMCHEW) is to develop stakeholder-led solutions to achieve sustainable and equitable mobility, grounded in a better understanding of the issue and the health impacts it causes.

For many East African residents, travel around cities is problematic due to poor walking and cycling infrastructure, traffic congestion leading to long travel times, and exposure to pollution and road safety hazards, all of which impact on people’s health and wellbeing.

The transport sector in urban Africa vividly demonstrates how structural and wealth inequalities play out, where those living and working in the informal sector suffer disproportionate negative impacts on their health, livelihoods and quality of life. The predominance of private cars, mainly used by the middle and upper classes in cities of low- and middle-income countries, creates congestion and dominate road infrastructure investments, for which the urban poor bear the burden, in terms of health impacts from exposure to traffic pollution, noise, inadequate active travel infrastructure and long hours trapped in traffic when they are not earning an income.

The project is working with vulnerable urban residents (including the poor, disabled and children) in two cities in Kenya (Nairobi and Mombasa) to understand how their journeys, and the daily challenges and risks they confront, affect health and wellbeing, both psychologically and physically. It has three specific objectives:

- understanding infrastructure and mobility interactions;
- understanding the dimensions of health and wellbeing impacts of mobility; and
- co-designing mobility infrastructure improvements to deliver health and wellbeing benefits.