Road safety issues and challenges in Tunisia[Enjeux et défis de la sécurité routière en Tunisie]

Understanding road safety issues is an essential step in proposing appropriate and relevant ways to improve road safety. In Tunisia, the balance sheet of road accidents shows a critical situation in terms of road safety when compared to other countries. The approach proposed in this article is to first describe the Tunisian context and highlight its geophysical, demographic, urban and socio-economic specificities. The contribution also proposes an inventory of mobility and road accidents and its characterization. The analysis of the situation provides a general perspective on the road safety system in Tunisia. Secondly, an empirical investigation among the institutional actors of road safety helps to put into perspective the results of the descriptive analysis and to establish an in-depth diagnosis of the dysfunctions of the public policy of road safety in Tunisia. This is a comprehensive qualitative approach. The analysis of the issues at stake, based on consensus and institutional divergences, leads to the establishment of possible courses of action to improve the situation. These concern both the field of structural, organisational and managerial reforms in favour of a better targeting of public road safety policies.