Transforming the City Through Mobility: The Decisive Role of Multimodal Transport Hubs in Abidjan
By Magali Kreitmann – Deputy Director, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Côte d’Ivoire
Abidjan is experiencing rapid demographic and urban growth, generating more than 17 million daily trips and placing increasing pressure on its infrastructure. Faced with congestion, inequalities in access and negative externalities, the city needs to significantly expand public transport capacity and develop a truly integrated multimodal system. Multimodal Transport Hubs (MTHs) are therefore becoming essential components: interfaces between networks, drivers of urban transformation and complex governance structures. Their design, management and coordination with transport stakeholders are crucial to the success of mobility in Abidjan.
Every day, more than seventeen million trips are made in Greater Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s main economic hub. Home to more than 20% of the national population, the Abidjan metropolitan area is experiencing sustained demographic and urban growth, which is expected to continue over the coming decades. This dynamic, combined with the gradual rise in living standards, suggests a significant increase in demand for travel, particularly individual motorised transport.
This demand is already placing intense pressure on metropolitan infrastructure: road congestion, particularly severe during peak hours; difficulties in accessing peripheral areas, where urban sprawl is not always accompanied by adequate transport services, thereby reinforcing inequalities in access to mobility; and an increase in all the negative externalities associated with transport (greenhouse gas emissions, deteriorating air quality, road accidents, noise pollution, etc.).
In response to these challenges, increasing the capacity of collective transport and developing efficient public transport systems are major priorities for improving residents’ quality of life, strengthening the territory’s economic competitiveness and thereby supporting the sustainable development of the metropolitan area. These objectives are among the strategic priorities pursued by the Greater Abidjan Urban Mobility Authority (AMUGA)¹, which the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has supported since its creation².
Daily mobility in Abidjan already relies on a relatively well-developed and diversified public transport system. The bus network operated by the Société des Transports Abidjanais (SOTRA)³ carries approximately 1.3 million passengers per day. It is complemented by an informal transport sector that plays a central role in serving the metropolitan area and its more isolated and peripheral neighbourhoods: shared taxis, commonly known as woro-woro, carry nearly twice as many passengers as the SOTRA network, while gbaka minibuses carry nearly three times as many.
Far from being competing systems, these different services form a composite mobility system in which public and private operators jointly contribute to meeting residents’ daily travel needs. Nevertheless, demand remains unmet, both in terms of service coverage and, above all, in terms of improving service quality and integrating the overall multimodal system.
The gradual introduction of Abidjan’s new metro along the North–South axis and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line along the East–West axis, which will together carry several hundred thousand passengers daily and eventually form the high-capacity backbone of Abidjan’s public transport network, is specifically intended to meet this demand.
However, their deployment should not be viewed as simply adding new lines to an existing network, but rather as the development of a genuine Integrated Multimodal Transport System (SMIT)⁴, based on the integration of conventional and informal transport networks.
Such a system must also aim to facilitate transfers, ensure smooth passenger journeys, reduce inequalities in access and promote inclusiveness. This ambition also requires considering the relationship between transport and urban planning, viewing interchange locations not merely as technical transfer facilities but as urban spaces in their own right, capable of structuring urban centres and supporting the transformation of surrounding areas.
It is from this perspective that Multimodal Transport Hubs (MTHs) are taking on particular importance in Abidjan’s development. These mobility hubs provide organised interfaces between several transport modes and networks, enabling passengers to transfer more easily.
But their role must extend beyond the transfer function alone: through their location, design and the activities they accommodate, MTHs can become genuine catalysts for economic attractiveness and urban cohesion in the neighbourhoods they serve. They create strategically located land opportunities, attract local services and provide residents with easier access to shops and employment, while reducing dependence on private cars⁵.
Drawing on the mobility programmes currently supported by AFD in Abidjan — foremost among them the Abidjan Urban Mobility Project (PMUA) and the Abidjan Intermodality Project (PAIM) — this article examines the role of MTHs at three levels: as the backbone of an integrated mobility system, as drivers of urban transformation, and as facilities requiring stronger governance arrangements.
Transport Hubs Supporting an Integrated Mobility System
The East–West BRT, a 20 km lineChaque jour, plus de dix-sept millions de déplacements sont réalisés dans le Grand Abidjan, principal pôle économique de Côte d’Ivoire. Concentrant à elle seule plus de 20 % de la population nationale, l’agglomération abidjanaise connaît une croissance démographique et urbaine soutenue qui devrait se poursuivre dans les prochaines décennies. Cette dynamique, conjuguée à l’élévation progressive du niveau de vie, laisse présager une augmentation significative de la demande de déplacements, en particulier motorisés et individuels. Cette demande exerce d’ores et déjà une pression intense sur les infrastructures métropolitaines : congestion du réseau routier, particulièrement marquée aux heures de pointe ; difficultés d’accès aux zones périphériques, où l’étalement urbain n’est pas toujours accompagné d’une offre de transport adaptée, renforçant les inégalités d’accès à la mobilité ; et augmentation de l’ensemble des externalités négatives liées aux déplacements (émissions de gaz à effet de serre, dégradation de la qualité de l’air, accidentologie, nuisances sonores, etc.). Face à ces défis, la massification des déplacements et le développement de systèmes de transport collectif performants constituent des enjeux majeurs pour améliorer la qualité de vie des habitants, renforcer la compétitivité économique du territoire, et ainsi accompagner un développement durable de la métropole. Ils figurent de fait parmi les orientations stratégiques portées par l’Autorité de la Mobilité Urbaine dans le Grand Abidjan (AMUGA)[1] que l’Agence française de développement (AFD) accompagne depuis sa création[2].
Transport Hubs Supporting an Integrated Mobility System
The East–West BRT, a 20 km line connecting Yopougon to Bingerville under the PMUA — co-financed by AFD and the World Bank — is one of the major infrastructure projects of the future high-capacity network. The challenge of such a project goes beyond simply constructing a high-quality, dedicated transport corridor⁶: its performance also depends on its ability to connect with existing networks and distribute passenger flows beyond its own route. The MTHs associated with the corridor are therefore intended to organise transfers with other modes and serve as feeder and passenger redistribution points throughout the neighbourhoods they serve.
This approach is being extended across the metropolitan area through the PAIM, financed by an AFD loan, which provides for the construction of thirty-two MTHs distributed throughout the municipalities of Greater Abidjan, in anticipation of the introduction of the metro, BRT lines and the strengthening of lagoon transport. The challenge is to create a sufficiently dense network to connect the main centres generating travel demand and ensure fine-grained coverage of the metropolitan area. The MTH thus becomes the connecting element between the different levels of the system: it enables passengers to move from a high-capacity mode to a local service and, more broadly, transforms a juxtaposition of lines into a genuine “metropolitan mobility architecture”.
In this respect, MTHs are not simply ancillary facilities attached to major infrastructure: they are at the heart of the mobility strategy currently being developed by AMUGA and are essential to its coherence and effectiveness. Such a network cannot be based on the deployment of a single standardised MTH model. The diversity of the areas served and mobility practices requires the design of differentiated MTHs, responding to specific needs and closely integrated with the urban structure (centres of attraction, the reach of transport networks, etc.). Some hubs may therefore incorporate park-and-ride facilities (P+R) to accommodate motorists arriving from peripheral areas, provide an interface with lagoon transport, or place particular emphasis on connections with active mobility modes.
This diversity requires a balance between coherence and adaptation: a shared identity and common design guidelines ensure that the network remains legible across Greater Abidjan, while architectural design, facilities and services can be developed in a locally appropriate manner, closely reflecting the context and actual patterns of use.
The size and capacity of facilities must be adjusted to expected passenger volumes and network restructuring objectives. Indeed, the effectiveness of an MTH system cannot be measured solely by the density of its network, but also by the quality of the journeys it enables.
Transfers are a particularly sensitive stage of a journey, often associated with lost time, discomfort or insecurity. Reducing these transfer difficulties requires addressing all aspects of the journey together: safe pedestrian crossings, accessible platforms, traffic management around the hub, and continuous and clearly marked pedestrian routes are just as important as street furniture, weather protection and passenger information systems.
The genuine smoothness of the passenger experience depends on the effective combination of all these elements. The management of MTHs and their coordination with the various operators are therefore central challenges. Formalising these interfaces must clarify responsibilities for operations, maintenance, security and passenger flow management, while promoting effective coordination between stakeholders. It must also support the integration of transport services, particularly fare integration, which is essential if passengers are to use several modes without facing multiple payment constraints.
This approach implies recognising informal transport as a fully fledged component of the system. Its gradual restructuring is essential to effectively organise feeder services towards MTHs. At present, gbaka routes are overwhelmingly concentrated along the busiest corridors, reflecting operators’ profitability considerations, to the detriment of neighbourhoods located farther away from these main routes. MTHs therefore provide particularly suitable points for reorganisation: they can help formalise interchange locations, improve operating conditions and facilitate complementarity between operators. This is notably the purpose of the informal transport roadmap for Abidjan developed by AMUGA, with the support of CODATU, a French association with an international mission, and AFD. This joint document aims to support the sector’s evolution, strengthen links between its stakeholders and initiate its professionalisation.
From Transport Hub to Urban Centre: A Driver of Urban Transformation
Major transport infrastructure projects often encourage the emergence of new urban centres and lead to increases in land values in the neighbourhoods they serve. These changes can become powerful drivers of urban development, provided they are anticipated in order to limit the risks of exclusion and encourage social diversity. MTHs occupy a particular position in this respect: by their very nature, they are located on strategically important land, in urban areas and in the immediate vicinity of major transport corridors and intersections. This location makes them particularly valuable anchors for organising urban development, but it also calls for rigorous management of land requirements and affected populations, governed by the environmental and social safeguard standards of funding institutions (resettlement action plans, grievance redress mechanisms, and compensation for Project-Affected Persons).
The approach developed in Abidjan is based on a vision of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), in which transport infrastructure becomes a foundation for urban transformation rather than merely a transport facility. Under this approach, the MTH becomes a place where three complementary functions intersect: a transport function, organising connections between modes; an urban function, anchoring the facility in its neighbourhood and limiting the barriers it may create; and a service function, making it a place of everyday life beyond transit alone. The ability of an MTH to transform its surroundings depends on achieving a balance between these three dimensions.
The service function also contributes to the economic model of the hubs.
Beyond the basic foundation of public funding, the rental of commercial spaces and the development of real estate opportunities in surrounding areas can strengthen the economic viability of MTHs by drawing on the dynamism of the private sector, while ensuring that the hubs retain their public-interest purpose. Making MTHs genuine places of everyday life also requires ensuring that they are inclusive and accessible to all users.
The safety and security of transport spaces, particularly for women and vulnerable people, is an integral dimension that must be considered from the design stage.
A safety audit of public spaces, conducted with women users themselves, can identify poorly lit areas and little-used pedestrian routes, and subsequently guide lighting, signage and the positioning of shops and access points to MTHs in order to improve visibility and activity in these spaces.
Simple reporting mechanisms also give women users a direct means of raising the alarm in risky situations, while awareness campaigns against harassment can help change behaviours.
Human resources and economic activity provide additional opportunities: recruiting female transport staff and drivers strengthens women passengers’ sense of security, while establishing businesses run by women entrepreneurs combines economic inclusion with a reassuring presence.
Tested in contexts as diverse as Kochi, Dhaka, Quito and Rio de Janeiro, and already incorporated into projects supported by AFD, these measures are intended to inform the specifications of future MTHs in Abidjan, while being adapted to the local context.
Transport Hubs Facing the Challenge of Governance
Such an integrated system, designed to increase the efficiency of transport and transform the city, requires governance capable of overcoming operational boundaries between stakeholder networks. MTHs crystallise precisely this difficulty, since they bring together infrastructure under different project owners and operators with heterogeneous statuses — public, private and informal — and varied economic models. Their management therefore requires lasting coordination mechanisms, which alone can ensure the quality of infrastructure and services over time.
In Abidjan, AMUGA serves as the mobility organising authority. Established in 2019 as an independent administrative authority, it will soon seek approval for an overall map of the urban public transport and informal transport network, as well as an interoperability charter for operators.
Supported by development partners, these advances lay concrete foundations for organising, within each MTH, the coordination of the different high-capacity transport services (BRT, metro and lagoon transport), the accommodation of woro-woro, gbaka and pinasse services⁷, as well as fare arrangements and interoperability.
Some of these decisions will be finalised with the future private BRT operator, whose recruitment process is expected to be completed shortly: involving this operator as early as possible in the final design of MTHs will help align physical planning with the operating model.
As illustrated by the Abidjan example, four stages are therefore fundamental to developing an MTH, even before construction begins: precisely identifying the institutions and stakeholders concerned; assessing available land, ownership constraints and future development projects in the area; establishing a “hub committee” bringing together project owners, the organising authority, funding institutions and transport operators; and formalising a governance protocol specifying operating arrangements, planning guidelines, schedules and the allocation of responsibilities.
AFD’s support enables Abidjan to pursue this co-design approach, drawing on international experiences tested elsewhere, adapting them to the local context and organising regular meetings with all stakeholders to facilitate decision-making and resolve obstacles.
Conversely, the Abidjan experience is already becoming a reference and inspiring other African metropolitan areas.
Conclusion
Much remains to be developed in Abidjan’s mobility infrastructure and services: completion of works along the major corridors, development and operating arrangements for each MTH, allocation of spaces between operators, and harmonisation of the fare structure.
But gradually, the network is being strengthened and, by connecting major high-capacity corridors with local networks, progressively integrating informal transport and improving transfer conditions, MTHs constitute an essential building block in the development of the SMIT and are crucial to the emergence of a more legible, accessible, inclusive and efficient transport system.
Furthermore, conceived simultaneously as infrastructure, service interfaces and components of an urban development project, and designed on the basis of both broad international principles and a close understanding of local practices and contexts, they can become drivers of transformation of the city itself.
It is in this threefold connection — network, services and territory — that Abidjan’s response to the question lies: new transport projects can radically transform African metropolitan areas, provided they are conceived as components of a coherent system rather than as a collection of separate, juxtaposed infrastructure projects.
Notes
1. Greater Abidjan Urban Mobility Authority (AMUGA): an independent administrative authority established in 2019, responsible for organising and coordinating mobility across the 19 municipalities of Greater Abidjan.
2. In the transition towards sustainable mobility systems, AFD Group promotes four main areas of action: (i) Providing access to transport for all, particularly women and the most vulnerable; (ii) Reducing the environmental and climate footprint of transport; (iii) Optimising transport systems by improving their predictability, reliability, sustainability and cost-effectiveness; and (iv) Reducing road deaths, injuries and accidents.
3. Société des Transports Abidjanais (SOTRA): Abidjan’s long-established public transport operator (buses and lagoon transport), founded in 1960 and majority-owned by the Ivorian State.
4. A public transport organisation framework led by AMUGA, aimed at physically integrating the infrastructure and services of different transport modes, as well as their systems (ticketing, passenger information and operational support).
5. For further details and examples of good practice, see the AFD publication Multimodal Transport Hubs: A Guide to Good Practices, July 2020: https://www.afd.fr/fr/ressources/poles-dechanges-multimodaux-guide-de-bonnes-pratiques.
6. A lane reserved exclusively for public transport vehicles, separated from general traffic, ensuring operating speed and service regularity.
7. Small motorised boats used to transport passengers on the Ébrié Lagoon, between Abidjan’s various neighbourhoods and shores (they form part of the informal transport sector).
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