Urban mobility in Tunisia: how to make walking safer?

The Tunisian Roads Association (TRA), in coordination with PIARC (World Road Association) Technical Committee organised an international seminar in Tunis from 23 to 25 November 2022 on "Sustainable Mobility for Resilient Cities and Peri-urban Areas". Transitec led a session to present the "Greater Sousse 2030: Towards a Metropolis of Proximities" SUMP. A strategy that aims to put the pedestrian, the main victim of road insecurity, at the heart of the mobility policy of the agglomeration.

From 23-25 November 2022, Tunisian and international experts exchanged views on "Sustainable Mobility for Resilient Cities and Peri-urban Areas" [in French] within the framework of a seminar organised by the Tunisian Roads Association (TRA), in collaboration with the PIARC Technical Committee (World Road Association). Transitec led a session on the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) "Grand Sousse 2030: towards a Metropolis of Proximities". In Sousse, the majority of trips are made by walking (54% in 2020). The objective of the SUMP is to maintain this modal share by making pedestrian routes more comfortable and safer.

Road safety: a particular challenge in Tunisia

The increase in automobile traffic is accompanied by growing road insecurity, making Tunisia the country with the deadliest roads in the Maghreb after Libya, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). This insecurity has multiple causes: motorists' behaviour, problems of road design and traffic management, insufficient control of traffic violations, etc.

In 2018, the number of accidents was 535 per 100 000 inhabitants while the number of deaths in the country was 110 per 100 000 inhabitants. Accidents in urban areas accounted for 74% of accidents. Moreover, data published by the National Observatory of Road Safety (NORS) for 2018 shows that pedestrians are involved in about 34% of accidents, with Greater Tunis being the most problematic agglomeration in terms of road safety, followed by Nabeul, Sfax and Sousse.

Solutions to be developed through mobility planning and traffic management

Due to the strong growth of motorisation in cities, road safety can only worsen if an ambitious and coherent policies are not implemented. During the discussions, Transitec emphasised the importance of preparing Urban Mobility Plans on the scale of conurbations and traffic and parking plans on a local/municipal scale in order to understand the complexity of the challenges of urban mobility.

This type of document must be drawn up not only to ease car traffic, but to encourage active modes (walking) and public transport. This reversal of priorities is one of the aims of the Sousse agglomeration. Better promotion of walking and its advantages requires coherent action in terms of promotion, network planning and infrastructure optimisation.

The present approach is part of the Integrated Urban Development Programme of the city of Sousse, which aims to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants in Sousse. It is characterised by the simultaneous launch of strategic studies and concrete actions with rapid impacts. It covers four themes approached in an articulated and integrated manner: "urban planning", "urban mobility", "sustainable energy management" and "GIS". The municipality of Sousse also led a session to present this programme, phase 2 of which was launched in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in September 2022, and for which the Urbaplan-Transitec consortium has been retained in order to continue the collaborative approach started in 2018.

Country
Tunisie
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