Q&A: Understanding the hottest mobility trends in Africa

1- Please tell us a bit about yourself, and your role at your organisation.

 I’m a Doctor in Transport Economics and have over 20 years of experience in the field of mobility for urban and regional environments.

 In 2016, I became the Director General of the Executive Council for Sustainable Urban Transport (CETUD), the authority for mobility in two of the largest cities in Senegal (Dakar and Thiès).

 As part of my role, I manage several transport projects and programs across the region. This includes the establishment of the first 100% electric bus rapid transit (BRT) in Africa, the Dakar Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, and the fleet renewal program of independent and decentralised artisanal transport solutions.

 I also currently serve as the president of the African Association of Urban Mobility Organising Authorities (AUMA).

2- What are the biggest trends you are seeing with public transport use in your region?

 The Dakar megalopolis is developing rapidly. This area is home to nearly a quarter of the national population, half of the urban population, and yet it is all happening on a small proportion of the national territory (0.3%). It is estimated to grow further: from 4 million people today to 7 million by 2040.

Therefore, the transport system needs to keep pace with population growth, to ensure everyone has access to public transport.

Yet, the peninsular shape of the region and uncontrolled urbanisation places a lot of pressure on the mobility systems. It has been established that the Senegalese economy loses 6% of the national GDP annually (900 billion CFA francs) due to issues attributed to automobile pollution, congestion, road insecurity and noise. To combat this, the State has made significant changes including:

• The introduction of a mass transport infrastructure more suited to a busy and dynamic capital region, such as the Regional Express Train and the BRT.
• A shift towards more sustainable methods of transport, as outlined by the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (PMUD) of Dakar. This Plan puts efficient, high-capacity and low-carbon methods of transport at the forefront.  
• A restructuring and digital transformation of Dakar’s public transport network, to offer better management of intramodality, supported by integrated pricing and interoperable ticketing.

3- What different modes of public transport do you oversee?

 There are several transport networks in Dakar, including:

• A bus network
• A network of minibuses, including artisanal minibuses made up of “Cars Rapides” and “Ndiaga Ndiaye”
• Urban and suburban taxis
• The Regional Express Train (TER)
• The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

 To complete and enrich the overall transport offer, particularly in areas where the formal public transport offer is poorly developed, CETUD intends to regulate transport on demand. However, this must be rethought, restructured and regulated to avoid the emergence of a several competitive and inefficient services.

4- What challenges have previously faced the transport networks in your region and how have these been overcome?

 The introduction of mass transport across the region was a monumental challenge due to the professionalisation of artisanal transport. Artisanal transport consists of decentralised initiatives that don’t belong to, but coexist alongside, traditional public transport authorities. To implement mass transport, the State of Senegal modernised the public transport on offer and professionalised those delivering artisanal transport options. As a result, the safety, comfort, efficiency, accessibility and environmental quality of the urban mobility system has greatly improved.

5- What challenges still face the transport networks in your region?

In Dakar, the transport network faces several challenges. This includes an uncontrollable growth of demand, due to rapid urbanisation which is creating significant pressure on the urban mobility system and would likely produce an increase in the number of personal vehicles and a decline in the share of collective modes.

To combat this, CETUD is aiming to increase the transport offering and open several additional public transport lines by 2035.

Additionally, a paradigm shift has taken place in recent years, with a prioritisation of investments in mass transport. To support this development and modernisation, there is a need to rethink the financing model of the public transport system as well as the pricing policy for urban transport.

Senegal’s public transport network also has insufficient coverage due to a lack of road infrastructure or a viable economic model in sparsely populated neighbourhoods, which means that public transport is still not accessible for all.

6- Which Calypso tools are you using or planning to use?

We decided to implement Calypso as it is based on open standards. This allows us to fully meet user needs and guarantee the interoperability of our systems. We use the Calypso standards for cards, terminals and mobile to continue our digital transformation and plan to deploy the Calypso tools across the entire public transport network.

7- What is your vision for the future of mobility in your region? What is needed to get there?

We intend to continue our digital transformation and achieve fare integration across all transport networks. The consolidation and strengthening of public transport services across the region, coupled with a new supply of modernised taxis and improved organisation of on-demand transport services, should allow us to implement a MaaS solution, enabled through Calypso.

This vision is based on the development of an efficient transport offer from a digital and ecological perspective. We believe that Calypso standards and tools provide us with the technical mastery to allow us to integrate multiple operators and platforms in a transparent and open manner, for the benefit of users.