Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
122
the 1980s, part of the employment positions have been moved or created in the Pikine department,
providing a better spatial distribution.
Mode availability and shares
Private motorized transport
The condition and availability of infrastructure also affects the traffic conditions. In terms of the road
network, although the Plateau area and the Dakar department have a well-developed street network,
this is not the case in the other departments where major residential areas are located. In many parts
of the suburbs onlymain roads are paved which reduces overall accessibility levels for both motorized
and non-motorized transport. Similarly, big highways are focused on the Department of Dakar,
providing quick links to the suburbs. In terms of non-motorized transport, there are no dedicated cycle
lanes in the citywhile footways are very often elevated and badlymaintainedwhich forces pedestrians
and particularly disabled people to use the road space. It is noted that highway projects going through
residential developments in the suburbs are significantly reducing accessibility for pedestrians and
non-motorized modes. A limited number of footbridges is provided, which is mostly accessible by
steps.
Public transport
Public transport in Dakar is dominated by minibuses and buses. There is an existing train line, the
Petit Train de Banlieue (PTB), which is old and has limited capacity and frequency. Buses and
minibuses operate on fixed routes, and have different levels of formality. The blue, new buses Dakar
Dem Dikk (DDD) are operated by the DDD company and are the official public transport for Dakar.
The distinction between minibuses can be easily made from their colour. The white minibuses are
operated by private operators who sign concessionary agreements with AFTU while the colourful
minibuses are the old, privately operated, largely unregulated, and in the process of being replaced.
The latter type of minibuses is the one that offers the best network coverage and the lowest quality of
passenger experience.
Non-motorized transport/Social exclusion
Given that the majority of trips in the Dakar region are carried out using non-motorized modes
(81.4%) and that 65.7% of motorized transport is trips are made by public transport (compared to
17.5% by taxi and 10.2% by private cars) it is easy to understand that the impacts of private cars on
the society are highly inequitable. This modal split, along with the land use allocation in the city, is
major obstacles to both the mobility and the accessibility of a large portion of the population in Dakar.
The lack of proximity to basic services means that people need to take more and longer trips. Indeed,
as the analysis of the family spending of the families in Dakar shows, an average of 8.3% of their
budgets is spent on transport, which comes second after food.
Freight and servicing
Regarding the urban freight activity in the city, no specific loading and unloading areas were observed.
The multiple small retail units in the city require multiple deliveries which means that more delivery
vehicles are going around the city. However, the size of the retail units, especially in street markets,
implies that a big part of the merchandise can be carried by private vans which enter and leave the
city every day. This does not allow a great degree of consolidation of activity and poses significant
congestion problems. Except for the small retail freight activity, the port is also generating a big
amount of heavy freight traffic. It is estimated that around 200 trucks leave the port every day to go
to other areas in Senegal or other countries. There is also a freight train line linking the port to Bamako,
Mali, which is the only landlocked country directly dependent on the port of Dakar. The trucks are
posing significant congestion problems to the area around the port as they are leaving via highway
link passing through the edge of the city centre. This is the reason why the Autonomous Port of Dakar
(PAD) has introduced traffic restrictions, not allowing the trucks to leave before 16:30 every day.