The Annual General Meeting of the Africa Transport Policy Programme (SSATP) was held from 24 to 27 March in Cotonou (Benin). The event brought together African ministers, decision-makers and experts to discuss the themes of road safety, regional integration and urban mobility, which form the basis of the SSATP's fourth development plan (DP4, 2022-2026).
During the technical sessions that preceded the official opening by José Tonato (Benin's Minister for the Living Environment and Transport), Julien Allaire (Transitec) and François Boulanger (Nodalis) presented a study carried out jointly on behalf of the SSATP on the management of urban bus terminals in African cities.
What are the key findings of this study? Based on eight case studies selected from four African cities (Dakar, Abidjan, Dar es Salaam, Maputo) in partnership with the Association of African Urban Mobility Authorities (AUMA), the Transitec-Nodalis consortium has analysed the current way in which different types of station operate, and put forward proposals to enable public authorities to rethink the role of these stations in modernising urban transport.
With the exception of a few rare initiatives, public investment in bus terminals is relatively limited. Generally speaking, transport operators are self-organised, and competition for space is emerging with traders seeking to capture the public transport clientele. In the end, users are the main losers in this management model, which is primarily due to a lack of coordination between the players and a lack of investment by the public authorities. Improving the management of urban bus stations therefore appears to be a real vector for developing strategies to improve small-scale transport.
This contribution to the debate fed into the discussions that followed as part of the round table entitled "Professionalisation and improvement of paratransit: what have we learned in 20 years of practice?"