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In Dakar, traffic jams offer a paradoxical spectacle: Rusty luxury SUVs are making strenuous progress in the middle of collective taxis, street vendors and street vendors. « fast buses ».
This urban scene reveals more than just a traffic problem. It highlights the central social role of the automobile in Senegal, which has become a marker of success, status and visibility in the public space.
Far from being limited to its utilitarian function, the car imposes itself as an instrument of social distinction, sometimes to the detriment of economic rationality. Debt, high maintenance costs, inadequate with urban infrastructure: car glamour weighs heavily on both households and the community.
This podcast questions the cultural, symbolic and economic springs of this car obsession, and questions possible alternatives in a saturated metropolis, where mobility has become a major social, environmental and political issue.
