Financed by the European Union, the development of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) of Nouakchott is a process aimed at mobilizing all the institutional actors and private partners who make up the urban mobility landscape of the Mauritanian capital, in order to define a common prospective vision for the year 2030 (or even 2040). It is in line with the Urban Development Master Plan adopted in 2018 and focuses on all modes of transport, both for passenger and freight transport.
A city in full organic growth
Nouakchott is a new city, created in 1960 to become the capital of Mauritania. With an annual growth rate of about 3%, it now has more than 1.1 million inhabitants. With a relatively low level of density, Nouakchott's urban structure generates increasing commuter flows between the centre and the suburbs, which currently results in growing congestion during rush hour.
A capital threatened by traffic jams
Despite the obsolescence of vehicles, the majority of motorised trips are made by taxi (25.6% of the modal share). This mode remains the most practical for the inhabitants of Nouakchott who do not own a car. The private car accounts for 14% of daily trips and meets the needs of a wealthy social category (only 23% of households own a car). With a motorisation rate of about 158 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, the city of Nouakchott has a high level of congestion due to the rather limited organisation of traffic and parking. A recent phenomenon, the Tuk-tuk is rapidly imposing itself on the landscape and taking an increasingly important place.
A need to develop a public transport proposal for the accessibility of the peripheral districts
One of the main current challenges identified in the diagnosis of the SUMP is therefore to capitalise on the Public Transport Company (PTC), which has seen an increase in the number of bus passengers in recent years, to develop a high-capacity, high-performance public transport network in order to capture a large part of the growth in daily travel expected in the coming years. The implementation of a hierarchical bus network favouring intermodality with informal transport and a reorganisation of traffic in the centre of the conurbation would make it possible to considerably improve accessibility for low-income households living on the periphery of the conurbation.
An operational diagnosis in the framework of the ARENDDRE project