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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2019

From chaotic to digital - Past, present and future trends in paratransit in Sub-Saharan African cities

Résumé

Over recent decades, intermediate modes of transport (also known as paratransit, which includes taxis, moto-taxis, collective taxis, ride-hailing services, etc.) have gained momentum in the fast-expanding cities of the developing world. They now commonly are a significant, though often informal, component of mobility systems in these cities. On top of rapid demographic growth, numerous cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are enjoying high levels of economic growth and political stability. Such trends translate into a dynamic development of heavy infrastructures, private motor vehicle ownership as well as mobility innovations of various sorts. Paratransit services –with their intrinsic qualities of innovation-readiness (besides flexibility and labour-intensiveness)– have been historically charged with causing road congestion and insecurity, and have been sometimes considered as a default option for transportation. Yet, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are reshaping paratransit services all around the world. The main assumption underlying this research is that ICT-based mobility innovations could play a significant role in the consolidation process of paratransit services, making them a key element of future, more sustainable urban mobility systems. The paper first traces the history of mobility systems and paratransit services of seven cities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Abidjan, Ivory Coast (4.7m.); Accra, Ghana (4.8m.); Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (3.3m.), Cape Town, South Africa (3.7m.); Dakar, Senegal (3.6m.); Kigali, Rwanda (1.1m.); and Nairobi, Kenya (3.1m.). It then analyses the place of intermediate transport modes in each of the seven cities, illustrating their intrinsic quality of flexibility. Finally, it presents a set of ICT-based innovations developing in these cities and discusses the role of such innovations in the formalization, modernization, upgrade and expansion of paratransit services. This study combines an extensive review of academic and grey literature with the insights gained from close to 100 in-depth stakeholder interviews carried out by the authors during field trips from 2017 to 2019.
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Dates et versions

hal-04495251 , version 1 (08-03-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04495251 , version 1

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Gaele Lesteven, Virginie Boutueil. From chaotic to digital - Past, present and future trends in paratransit in Sub-Saharan African cities. 17th conference of International Association for the history of Transport Traffic & Mobility (T²M), Oct 2019, Paris, France. ⟨hal-04495251⟩
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