Planning Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in an African City Facing Rapid and Informal Urban Growth: the Case of the Urban Mobility Plan of Conakry, Guinea

Originally planned at the extremity of a peninsula, the capital of Guinea has faced a continuous demographic and spatial growth during the last decades, marked by insufficient actions in terms of planning regulations. Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and vast areas of mangroves, Conakry forms a linear and narrow agglomeration of 40 km spreading on its peninsula. Its current population of 2.5 million inhabitants is projected to reach more than 5 million people by 2040, while its spatial growth has already reached its natural limits. Many of the informal settlements that characterize the urban structure of Conakry suffer from poor accessibility and from one of the lowest urban densities of street networks observed in Africa. Started in 2017, the Urban Mobility Plan of Conakry (EU support program to national transport sector), has targeted the strategic and operational planning of a multimodal public transport network combined with a healthier and decentralized urban development model. Marked by a constrained spatial growth and a unique but underused railway infrastructure originally built for mining transport, Conakry brings a rare opportunity of transit-oriented development application in a context of informal urbanization, associating BRT and railway, pedestrian accessibility and road safety with polycentric redevelopment. The lack of urban governance and planning culture in Conakry makes many synergies between transport and land use invisible to the eyes of local decision-makers. Responding to the lack of urban development strategy and land use control, the Urban Mobility Plan of the Guinean capital came along with multiple short-term actions and decision-making tools with the aim of implement a planning through smaller plans and initiatives integrated into larger strategies for the city. The article illustrates the methodology of the Urban Mobility Plan as an operational decision-making tool for Conakry and a strategic investment plan to build people-oriented urban infrastructure and healthy mobility.