A clando taxi stand in downtown Rufisque, Dakar metropolitan space. G. Lesteven, 2021, CC BY-NC-ND
Africa’s main cities are rising at a speedy tempo. In Dakar, Senegal’s capital, as an example, the inhabitants has virtually doubled in 20 years, reaching 4 million inhabitants at the moment.
But in most metropolises, like Dakar, planning isn’t maintaining with the growth. One instance of that is the town’s transport system. Public transport performs a elementary position in offering entry to any metropolis. However, in lots of cities, it’s missing, significantly in areas of city sprawl. This worsens the standard of life for folks dwelling in these areas, the place there’s a scarcity of jobs and facilities.
Meeting important wants – resembling employment, social interplay, healthcare, training and meals – will depend on mobility. In a context the place incomes are low and public companies and services are scarce, every day journey is important however tough.
Dakar is trying to higher organise its transport system to satisfy rising journey demand. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and suburban railway traces are constructed or below method. But public transport stays inadequate. Various types of casual transport fill this hole and account for a big proportion of motorised journeys. Among them are taxis which individuals share, generally known as “clandestine taxis” or “clandos.” But they’re unlawful as a result of they function with out a licence.
Clandos are usually previous, unmarked sedan automobiles which carry 4 to 6 passengers. Many clandos function within the Dakar area. There isn’t any official determine, as a result of clandos aren’t registered. However, in keeping with our estimates, there are properly over 5,000 working frequently. People know them as they run alongside mounted routes, leaving the taxi stand when they’re full. Most of the time, the stands are properly situated, near essential roads or essential buildings. They additionally serve distant areas. They are dearer than buses however present a greater high quality of service.
We carried out analysis on how folks transfer round Dakar and located that clandos play a significant position, significantly within the metropolis’s outskirts. Even if bus operators take into account them as opponents, in most conditions clandos are complementary to them and needs to be higher built-in into transport and planning methods for the peripheral areas.
How to maneuver round within the peripheries
Our analysis – primarily based on the 2015 Dakar family journey survey and a survey we carried out in 2021 and 2022 – discovered that residents in Dakar’s peripheral areas are on common poorer than the town’s different residents. Because of this, they primarily journey on foot and their entry to public transport is restricted. When they use motorised transport, a big proportion of their journeys are made by clandos.
People usually use clandos for 2 kinds of journey:
lengthy commutes from the peripheries to the centre. They usually use the clando for part of the journey, to get to or from bus stops. Clandos assist folks to keep away from lengthy journeys on foot and truly contribute to extend the variety of folks taking buses. Most of those commuters are males.
quick, native journeys throughout the outskirts. These journeys are shorter, and cheaper, than the lengthy commutes. They account for nearly two out of three journeys made by clandos. The customers are a reasonably various group: housewives, schoolchildren, casual employees.
Clandos are sought out for his or her velocity and luxury. Our surveys present that they’re comparatively costly for households. That explains why using clandos could also be irregular and restricted to sure kinds of journeys, like visiting kinfolk, going to the clinic or getting back from the market.
Urban planning and clandos
Currently, decision-makers are specializing in organising public transport round mass transit. This signifies that casual modes, like clandos, are doomed to fade on the grounds that they compete with high-capacity transport; or at greatest can be used solely as a feeder mode to buses and mass transit.
The position clandos play – as a complementary mode, for each feeder companies to public transport stops and, extra importantly but, for inside journeys in peripheries – offsets their contribution to pointless competitors and congestion.
Better recognition would make it doable to take higher benefit of their distinctive strengths and capabilities and allow them to play a full position in supporting mobility and every day life. In follow, this implies higher consolidation of the operation and of the distribution of stands within the public house, much less police harassment, entry to credit score for drivers who personal their automobile and for owner-investors to resume the autos.
These concerns should be included right into a extra complete evaluation of the urbanisation of peripheral areas and the necessity for public motion to handle transport and concrete planning in an built-in method. Considering clandos in planning may provoke a bottom-up growth of the transport system. It can also supply job alternatives within the context of a really tight labour market.
The area surveys are funded by ENTPE (Taxis-Clandos Grant)
The area surveys are funded by ENTPE (Taxis-Clandos Grant).
