Quote:
Originally Posted by chiatldal
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The latest actual data in this chart is from 1975. All the rest is "projections".
Meanwhile, I was in Adds Ababa a couple years ago, and it has no "urban feel" to it whatsoever. I drove around the city all day, and never encountered anything I would call heavy traffic. There are almost no streets that can accommodate automobile traffic, and people who own cars have to park for the night alongside the major arterial roads, and walk cobbled paths to their homes. Being in the city center feels like being in a suburb of a city like Colombo or Cebu, or a central city like, say, Paramaribo.
If "urbanized Africa" can be illustrated by Addis Ababa, it is really a trend toward villages being satellites of a modest center. Or Hargeisa, a city of over a million, that one can easily walk anywhere in the city center in a few minutes, not even needing to pay attention to traffic. Or a half hour walk along unbusy streets to the suburbs.
If what I saw in Africa is indicative of a future urban model, I like it a lot better than the prospects for what lies beneath the skylines of modern cities on other contiments.