Youth urban mobility behaviours in Tunisian Sahel

Aymen Ghédira; Mehdi El Kébir

doi:10.6093/1970-9870/8472

Aymen Ghédira Higher Institute of Transport and Logistics University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia
Mehdi El Kébir Higher Institute of Transport and Logistics University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia; Higher School of Economic and Commercial Sciences, University of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/1970-9870/8472

Keywords: Mobility, Spatial variability, Distance, Time, Cost

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze a 2019 survey data in order to gain a better understanding of the urban mobility behaviours of Tunisian young people aged from 15 to 29 years old, in the Tunisian Sahel region. For this study, we selected 739 participants, scattered over 40 delegations each with a different structure. We distinguish two age groups: from 15 to 19 years old (31.8%) and 20 to 29 (68.2%). The descriptive analysis was conducted on two spatial scales: The region named also the great Tunisian Sahel (scale 1) formed by three costal governorates (scale 2): Sousse, Monastir, and Mahdia. The variables analysis falls into two main categories: "daily trips volume coupled to the modal choice”, and “the trip trinomial”: Distance, Time, and Costs. Significant differences have been found in mobility practices, not only between social and spatial levels, but also between the youngest of 15-19 years old and those of 20-29 years old, thus emphasizing trends in travel habits as a function of age.

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Author Biographies

Aymen Ghédira, Higher Institute of Transport and Logistics University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia

He is an urban transport modeler and planner who holds two PhDs from Grenoble Alps University (Territory Sciences) and University of Sousse (Public Management) and is an AssociateProfessor at the Higher Institute of Transport and Logistics. In addition to teaching urban and regional planning courses, he also teaches courses on sustainable mobility. Since 2010 he has been a visiting professor at the Polytechnic School of the ULB Brussels and gives seminars and training courses in transport management and logistics for international master's students. He is a member, co-founder and coordinator of many territorial development organizations. He is also spokesman for the Tunisian School of Politics (TSoP), the Decentralization Training and Support Center (CFAD) and the Baladyia Seminar of the Robert Bosch Foundation GIZ. As project manager, Ghédira was, between 2018 and 2021 responsible for the integrated urban development program of Sousse in Tunisia, funded by Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and covering urban planning (1), mobility and transport (2), energy efficiency (3) and GIS (4) areas. In his current position at IRIS Conseil Engineering, he leads urban transport modeling projects in the French context. A large number of his publications deal with public and political decision-making processes related to urban transport and local and regional development with an interdisciplinary and applied perspective.

Mehdi El Kébir, Higher Institute of Transport and Logistics University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia; Higher School of Economic and Commercial Sciences, University of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia

He holds two research masters degrees. The first degree was obtained from the Higher Institute of Transport and Logistics of the University of Sousse and the second degree from the Higher School of Economics and Commerce of the University of Tunis. El Kébir has a multidisciplinary profile and is currently pursuing a PhD in Transport Studies and Regional Economics. He is interested in the vulnerability issues of mobility behavior and territorial studies. In his role as a temporary university assistant, he teaches tutorials and courses for undergraduate students. During his research career, he published two first papers and participated in half a dozen international symposia and indexed scientific conferences.

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