As Kenya marked the World Cities Forum 2025 last month, with the theme “Smart Cities for a Sustainable Urban Future”, a key question arose: how might engineers and planners be empathetic in designing roads for smart mobility and healthy cities?
Mobility is the backbone of urban economies. The efficiency, inclusiveness, and safety of a city’s transport system determine the quality of life and productivity of its citizens.
Traffic congestion imposes a substantial cost on African cities, reflected in lost time, wasted fuel, and reduced productivity. For instance, in Nairobi, traffic jams are estimated to cost the economy about Sh120 billion each year, according to the Ministry of Roads and Transport (2024).
Notably, mobility is not just an economic issue but also a public health and sustainability concern. UN Habitat’s New Urban Agenda, Sustainable Development Goals, and regional and national development plans emphasise inclusive, safe, and accessible transport systems as a foundation for sustainable development.
Kenya’s road design manual specifies geometric and safety provisions for non‑motorised transport facilities such as sidewalks, cycle tracks and safe crossing points. However, the challenge is in the implementation of smart mobility principles, especially in urban areas where the roads do not align with the needs of all road users.
Smart mobility integrates various transport modes, street design, data, technology, and day-to-day operations to efficiently move people and goods.
Sustainable mobility takes this further by making that movement low‑carbon, safe, inclusive and good for public health. The two ideas are intertwined: mobility is only “smart” when it is delivered sustainably, and it is only sustainable when cities are designed around people rather than vehicles.
Research suggests that urban design has a direct impact on population health. For instance, a 2015 study using the UK Biobank Urban Morphometric Platform found that the built environment, including road network design, was one of the “first causes” of chronic disease, affecting lifestyle patterns and physical activity.
Thus, cities that integrate active mobility including walking and cycling tend to report lower rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
In cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure form an integral part of urban mobility. In Copenhagen for example, around 60 percent of journeys to work or school are by bike, while Amsterdam boasts one of the highest cycling rates in Europe.
In East Africa, Kigali and Addis Ababa are reconfiguring streets to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists, supported by strict enforcement and public education.
Retrofitting of streets to focus on non‑motorised transport gained momentum across many cities during and after the global Covid-19 pandemic. This included accessibility strategies, such as the "15-minute city" concept, promoting mixed-use neighbourhoods where residents can reach essential services within a 15-minute walk.
However, in Kenya, the cities recorded an average score 0.37 out of 1 (one) in the smart mobility pillar as revealed in KIPPRA's Smart and Sustainable Cities in Kenya: A Path to Progress report. The study measures progress toward smart mobility using indicators such as kilometres of dedicated bike lanes, car ownership per capita, and other non‑motorised transport metrics.
Further, network analysis of non‑motorised transport indicators reveals considerable variation in the extent to which the cities have developed walkable and bike-friendly networks.
From the KIPPRA study, Nakuru recorded the highest overall non‑motorised transport score (0.64), followed by Nairobi (0.41), Kisumu (0.40), and Mombasa (0.23). Nakuru also achieved the best results in intersection connectivity, suggesting a well-connected, grid-like layout that facilitates direct movement for pedestrians and cyclists.
To achieve smart mobility, engineers and planners need to look beyond conventional engineering and embrace empathetic design, an approach that begins with how people experience the street.
Achieving smart mobility requires coordinated planning among agencies, adequate funding, community engagement, and technology-enabled monitoring.
Cities could also invest in “smart civic education” embedding empathy and mindfulness into public behaviour. Traders could be provided with dignified vending spaces; motorists could be sensitised to respect walking paths and cycling lanes; and engineers and planners could design with people in mind.
This will ensure that smart mobility is people‑centred mobility, and we can achieve this if we design with empathy, implement Kenya’s road design manual, and enforce with fairness.
