ODA appointed to work with Transitec Consulting Engineers and GLI on the Ghana Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project
ODA was recently appointed to work with Swiss based transport and traffic engineers Transitec along with UK based Global Labour Institute (GLI) on the Ghana Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project (GUMAP).
The Government of the Republic of Ghana has decided to apply part of the grant it received from the Swiss Confederation to undertake a study into the enhancement of the performance of the ‘’trotro’’ paratransit system in Accra.
GUMAP is a project financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and is implemented by the Ghanaian Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). The project is expected to improve accessibility and mobility in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area.
One of the major urban mobility challenges in Accra is the performance of the de facto public transport system essentially provided by trostros and shared taxis under the auspices of an informal, yet well-established regulatory system. In recent years under the Ghana Urban Transport Project (GUTP) some progress has been made with the registration of public transport vehicles and the mapping of trotro routes.
According to ODA paratransit reform specialist Nico McLachlan, one of the objectives of the recent appointment is to assess the possibility of transitioning some trotro services from the typical ‘’fill and go’’ operating model to a planned and scheduled service model bringing greater predictability of service to the public transport user.
We will draw on ODA ‘s work in formalising and capacitating minibus taxi operators in Cape Town and Johannesburg at the time of the introduction of BRT systems in these cities and more specifically on the successes achieved with the recent piloting of the Taxi Operating Company (TOC) model in Cape Town.
We are thrilled to be working with Pablo Salazar Ferro of Transitec, a renowned expert on paratransit reform in Africa and Latin America, Dave Spooner of the GLI and local experts Dr Owusu Boampong of the School for Development Studies at the University Cape Coast in Accra and Ms Lydia Boateng-Pobee.
