MAURITIUS - WITNESSING ACCELERATING CONGESTION

Mauritius has undergone a social revolution during the last two decades, but its transport policy makers are already faced with many of the problems occurring in more developed countries. They have less time, experience, and resources to develop a solution. The island already has a population over 1.15M, and its demand for transport has escalated in recent years. Vehicle ownership rose from 39 per 1000 people in 1988 to 69 per 1000 in 1998, and motorcycle and moped growth has been even more. Vehicle density per km rose from 40 in 1981 to 101 in 1997, and is now by far the highest in Africa. Road congestion has become much worse. The number of road accidents has doubled in the last decade, though without a corresponding rise in fatalities and serious injuries. Transport in general and public transport are organised in institutionally complex ways. In an attempt to address the worsening situation, the National Transport Authority of Mauritius produced a National Road Transport Policy in March 1997, which outlined proposed transport policy for the next 15 years. Its policy objectives and solutions are similar to those of the UK Government, except for the island's ambitious plans to extend its road network. Unfortunately, there are problems with both approaches to tackling its transport crisis: providing more capacity to accommodate rising transport demand, or reducing transport demand.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00410683
• Corporate Authors:

  Hemming Group, Limited

  32 Vauxhall Bridge Road
  London,   United Kingdom  SW1V 2SS
• Authors:
  • Enoch, M
• Publication Date: 2000-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 46-7
• Serial:
  • Traffic Engineering & Control
  • Volume: 41
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0041-0683
  • Serial URL: http://www.tecmagazine.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crashes; Demand; Developing countries; Federal government; Motor vehicles; Motorcycles; Networks; Ownership; Policy; Population; Road construction; Roads; Statistics; Traffic congestion; Transportation
• Uncontrolled Terms: Growth rate; Increase; Road networks
• Geographic Terms: Mauritius; United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 1643: Accident; 632: Congestion (traffic); 285: Demand (econ); 150: Developing countries; 183: Government (national); 265: Growth rate; 9032: Increase; 8071: Mauritius; 1221: Motorcycle; 173: Policy; 335: Population; 3665: Road construction; 1053: Road network; 6555: Statistics; 1155: Transport; 8119: United Kingdom; 315: Vehicle ownership
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Policy; Safety and Human Factors; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00795050
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jul 7 2000 12:00AM