Urban Mobility Plan of Lome (Togo): a delegation to visit Lyon

The city of Lome is currently developing an Urban Mobility Plan (PDU) in partnership with CODATU. As part of this technical cooperation, CODATU welcomed a delegation of Togo from 3 to 6 December for a 4-day study visit in Lyon.

The delegation included 4 members of the Technical Committee of the Urban Mobility Plan :

• Komlan TINDANO, Secretary General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport of Togo and CEO of the Transport Society of Lome (SOTRAL)
• Kokou Délato AGBOKPE, Chairman of the Technical Committee and Director of Road and Rail Transport
• Ayouba H. ABOU, Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee, Director of Studies and Monitoring/Evaluation Planification in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport
• Agbonka N’Sougan DAYO, PDU Project Coordinator

Meetings and visits for a better understanding of mobility issues in Lyon

The aim of the visit, as expressed by the Technical Committee, was to get a better idea of the PDU process through 4 specific expectations: (i) a better understanding of skateholders, (ii) a better understanding of financial issues (search for funding, mobilisation of economic parties…), (iii) an assessment of the PDU experience in France, reporting on an overview and trends, (iv) an on-site observation of the organization of motorcycle, vehicle and transport traffic as well as the management of parking and multimodality.

To meet these expectations, various skateholders of the Lyon mobility were met:

• Lyon Parc Auto, to discuss about parking policy and the on-street parking management
• Planning Agency of Lyon, to assess the project’s progress, the institutional, financial and technical difficulties and the continuation of the process
• CEREMA for a quick presentation of the structure and the results of 30 years of PDU in France and the prospects
• KEOLIS for a presentation of KEOLIS Lyon and SYTRAL (the Public Transport Authority of the Great Lyon), the operation of networks and the future strategies

The delegation met also CODATU staff to talk about:

• lthe project Bus4Africa, projet d’élaboration collective d’un guide du montage de projets d’acquisition de bus en Afrique, pour laquelle Michel Tindano a témoigné des expériences d’acquisition de bus à Lomé par la SOTRAL
• the Partnership MobiliseYourCity that could offer an assistance and a support to set up pilot projects
• political support and mobilisation of local economic foces with Bernard Rivalta (ex-Chair of SYTRAL and Vice-Chair of CODATU board)

The delegation also visited a basement park for motorcycles, bicycles and cars, the recent development of a bus line in own site, the exchange hub of Oullins (relay parking + subway + bus + bicycles …) , and the one of Carré de Soie (relay parking + metro + tram + bus + airport shuttle + bicycles …), with explanation of the urban project of the area by the House of the Project Carré de Soie.

The construction of a vision through reflection and exchanges

This week of work in a good mood has helped to better understand the issues of the development of a PDU, and with the help of different stakeholders, to define an action plan for the coming months. Some working areas were identified: (i) the strengthening of the technical team and a full-time commitment on the PDU, (ii) the mobilisation of economic actors to obtain funding, (iii) the improvement of the diagnosis established by carrying out additional studies, (iv) in order to get the opinion leaders involved.

Reflection and exchanges were often made in a perspective with the Togolese case and its specificities. They have helped to better define the vision that will defend the PDU, and begin to see appropriate experiments in the African capital.