Barbara Gruehl Kipke

Bicycle Usage in Two Cities of Africa

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INTRODUCTION - Description of Cities Chosen for Research

An overview of the most important comparative information for Ouagadougou the capital of Burkina Fato and Tamale the largest city in northern Ghana it provided in the following chart (Table 1). It can be seen that both cities are experiencing rapid growth as is usual in Africa. In both cases spontaneous settlements have formed (29, p.12, 36, p.55).

The cities are similar in several respects:

• they are both supraregional centers
• both cities are very oriented toward the city center
• both have low population densities and are therefore spread out
• their importance increased substantially during the colonial period
• they are "rurally-oriented" cities with little industry
• they lie within the game vegetational zone

Table 1: Comparison of Cities Chosen