Public transport access

We support research, design guidance and pilots that make the walk to and from the bus, train or ferry safe and direct.

About this area

Access to public transport depends on the walk to and from the stop as much as on the service itself. The Lagos minibus network operates over 2,500 routes, mapped in 2022, with stops that shift over time. Lagos is also building bus rapid transit corridors, rail lines and ferry routes, and the approaches to their stations are not consistently designed as part of the route.

Where the walk to a station is long, unlit or crosses a busy road without a crossing, fewer people use the service and those who do take more risk. Getting the last few hundred metres right is cheap compared with the stations themselves.

Our grants in this area address that gap in four strands:

• The walk to the stop, measuring how far passengers walk to stations and what obstacles they meet.
• Stop standards, setting out what a standard bus stop should provide, from shelter and lighting to a safe crossing.
• Station access, working with transport agencies to plan footpaths, crossings and cycle parking around new stations.
• Informal transport, understanding where minibus and tricycle passengers board and how those places could be made safer.

Interested in supporting this area? Contact us.

Research agenda

Open questions in this area. Students, researchers and entrepreneurs may take up a question or propose their own within it.