Global Transport Atlas

GTA-111 Benin, Non-motorised transport NMT

Series 1 - Global Transport Notes

Benin, NMT, bicycles

Placide Badji writes: The use of animal-drawn transport is much more widespread in northern Benin. Generally NMT is largely used by poor people. Most people - especially in towns - consider using NMT as using an outdated technology. People forget that their using could help for keeping fit and reducing pollution. Cycles, carts, pousse-pousse are still widely used in Benin but not necessarily efficiently since there is no coherent scheme to ensure appropriate facilities are provided for them.

This is a re-issue of a 2006 document.

Sources: Placide Badji Robert Bartlett

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Introduction In European countries many social groups have no or low levels of car ownership. These groups include women, the young, the old, the sick, the poor. In countries such as Benin the proportion of persons living in rural areas and persons affected by poverty are higher than in Europe, and the provision of public transport services are worse. As a result people there are even lower levels of car ownership and use. If these countries want to reduce poverty and increase national wealth then it must be at least as important for them to provide appropriate, low-level transport routes (roads, tracks or trails) for their non-car-users as it is to develop regional and national network of permanently surfaced roads. The design of the low-level routes should then be based on the type of vehicle which people use: various forms of non-motorised transport (NMT) such as walking, cycling, human-drawn transport and animal-drawn transport. They rarely include the car. The geometric design of low-level routes must be based on the geometrics (dimensions, turning circle) of the NMT. As the photographs in these pages show, the dimensions of pedestrians and cyclists in Benin are different to those of pedestrians and cyclists in England. Frequently highway engineers and planners are not aware of what NMT is used locally and do not know what the geometrics of these vehicles are making it highly unlikely that they can design adequate roads for them. However highway engineers, planners and decisionmakers often seem to have a car-based view of road transport. The tools and processes used in decisionmaking can have a pro-car bias as a result. Andrew Curry talks of the 'social gradient' of traffic - that richer people drive and poorer people suffer the effects of traffic (in terms of noise, lower community cohesion, perceived risk, etc). The same social gradient can be seen for more vulnerable members of the community (young, old, etc) GTA-111 August 2012

Global Transport Atlas Series 1 - Global Transport Notes

and goes on to suggest that cost benefit analysis is a poor tool for dealing with social equity. David Jennings of the UKs ITT argues (in 2) that "The economic models used for planning of expenditure are biased towards the international trade economy and do not take sufficient account of the socioeconomic dimensions of rural roads and rural transport". He goes on to say that ITT together with teams from Birmingham university, TRL (UK) and a number of other consultants have been developing a model for including the social benefits of investments into the planning and evaluations process. Maybe there is a need - in Europe as well as in Africa - to take a new approach to many aspects of highway engineering and planning, from vehicle geometrics to social inclusion and the use of economic models which are less biased towards the car. Robert Bartlett, November 2006

1 new mobility cafe (yahoo group) 2 rural transport development archives

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BIKES Cycles used for passenger transport not unusually carry up to 2 persons. The photograph shows an unsurfaced, fineweather rural road.

Image 01

Cycles are also used for the transport of goods. The goods become in effect part of the vehicle and change its dimensions - it can become wider than a traditional imported bicycle, and often longer. This suggests that the dimensions of cycle lanes etc. should also be wider.

Image 02

Twenty years or so ago cycles were used in Benin to provide a type of taxi service ( taxis cannan). Such services may still exist in some villages in the country today, as they continue to exist in e.g. Kenya.

Image 03

Cycles are also used as temporary retail sales points. Sellers of fan milk such as the one shown are a familiar sight in Benin. They use an imported vehicle which is fitted with an ice box. Women can rarely be found operating such such retail cycles; instead they carry an ice box on their head, walking from place to place to sell refreshing drinks.

Image 04

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PEDESTRIANS In rural areas such as this only women and children carry loads. They do this to transport water, firewood etc. Women and children are also used to bring crops from the fields.

Image 05

In urban areas it is rare to find men carrying a load on their heads. Women and children can often be seen carrying goods on their heads which they sell as they walk along markets and along the edges of the roads.

Image 06

Hand-pushed (or -pulled) carts used for the short-distance movement of bulk goods - in other words a local form of commercial goods transport. People who use these poussepousse often make journeys with them of more than 7 km.

Image 07

Detail of the type of handcart shown in the above photograph.

Image 08

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PEDESTRIANS (continued) Hand-pushed (or -pulled) cart used for refuse collection.

Image 09

Hand-drawn refreshments / retail sales trolley.

Image 10

RIVER VESSELS River vessels for passenger transport on the Lake Nokou (photos left and below).Tourists often use this type of boat to travel from the town of dAbomey-Calavi to visit the lake village of Ganvi.

Image 11

The dugouts are wooden vessels made by local craftsmen and often are powered by an (imported) outboard motor. Some are well designed and are covered.

Image 12

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ANIMAL DRAWN TRANSPORT Cattle-drawn transport The person in the photograph has been hired to transport some merchandise from a village to the nearby town.

Image 13

Donkey cart, used to transport merchandise and occasionally also people.

Image 14

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ROAD SURFACE EXAMPLES City market road and footpath, both surfaced with paving stones

Image 15

Standard asphalt surfaced inter-city road

Image 16

Surfaced urban footpath

Image 17

Unsurfaced, fair-weather track used by pedestrians, cycles and motor vehicles.

Image 18

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Cover notes and Disclaimer

This is a research document. The best efforts have been made to make sure the figures are correct. However no liability can be taken for any of the details, information or analysis in this document. The layout, look and feel of this document is copyright. The photos are generally copyright of Placide Badji. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/

GTA documents series Global Transport Atlas is a project with two aims. One is
to encourage people around the world to share examples of how they actually use transport in their daily lives. The other is to compare and improve the design of transport infrastructure. There are the following GTA document series: Series 1 - global transport notes A collection of papers on transport infrastructure and vehicles from various countries, prepared by various authors and contributors. Typical size 2 to 3 pages. Series 3 - discussion papers

History and Change log

First version published December 2006. Version 111.02-b (August 2012) - this version and version number, with modified layout and minor modifications to the content.

Papers with arguments and ideas on different aspects of modern transport and transport infrastructure. Series 7 - Dimensions of vehicles Transport infrastructure has to be defined with an idea of the size and types of vehicle which will use it. This series looks into the dimensions of different types of vehicle at different periods of time. Papers include technical discussion notes and example dimensions. Typical size 20 pages and more.

About the contributors

Placide BADJI was born in Cotonou, Benin. After his school years he studied at Benins Ecole de Technologie Suprieure KARL VON TERZAGHI from where he obtained a higher degree in civil engineering. Following a period of practical experience as a highway surveyor and a design engineer on highway projects he became interested in transport studies and transport infastructure. He decided to continue his professional studies and in 2006 was awarded a Masters in Transport Economics from the University of Abomey-Calavi. Mr. Badjis languages include French and English.

badjiplacide@hotmail.com
Robert Bartlett is an experienced transportation and urban development studies engineer with over 25 years of professional experience. Current engineering work: includes technical research in highway design standards and applications in areas such as urban planning and highway engineering. Interests include applied GIS.

Contact
We welcome comments on this paper, and also on new developments in other countries in this field. Email: global.transport.atlas@gmail.com Web: http://globaltransportatlas.weebly.com/index.html

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