Understanding the value and vulnerability of informal infrastructures: Footpaths in Quito

Walking remains the primary means of travel in informal settlements of the Global South because of the limited ability of municipal governments to provide formal transport infrastructure. To cope, residents create footpaths through a bottom-up approach. Using a case study of informal settlements in Quito, this paper offers the first study of the process through which people settled in these spaces shape footpaths as informal walking infrastructures to enable everyday mobility. The paper draws on data collected over an eighteen-month period from archives, field notes from participatory observations, records of in-depth interviews, and interviews “on the go” with pedestrians to show how this infrastructure enables informal settlements' residents to access everyday destinations in shorter times, less expensively, and (often) more safely than alternatives. We show how these informal infrastructures build on centuries old practices of collective footpath building that form an essential part of local culture, and how urban processes and infrastructural development in the core city shape the production, transformation and disappearance of footpaths in informal settlements. Significantly, these findings contribute to a fuller understanding of the value and vulnerability of informal infrastructures that can inform wider studies of walking and informal infrastructure. The paper concludes by identifying the challenges and opportunities to promote informal infrastructures as a mainstream element of mobility in the city and support a more sustainable path to urban development.     

Policy,users and discourses: Examples from bikeshare programs in (Kolkata) India and (Manila) Philippines

This paper examines two bikeshare programs implemented in two Global South cities, examining the role of users in promoting sustainable transport. To explore the sustainability of smart cycling, we argue that it is important to understand the prevailing administrative and socio-institutional practices within a given context. For the effective stabilisation of smart regimes, harmony between the administrative and socio-institutional practices must be established. In this context, we introduce a complementary approach to understanding transitions. Maintenance of political commitments and institutional support are crucial for cycling success, not incidental footloose initiatives. We explore two case studies in the context of the Global South, in the first one top-down policies and planning initiatives dictate the directions of transitions by enabling or constraining user routines. In the second one, citizens take control to resolve a transport deficit by initiating and driving a very bottom-up user-led transition narrative. We propose a framework to cater to the unique political, cultural and smart discourses of the Global South and the role of users in conjunction with the administrative and socio-institutional practices around them. Investigating both the bikeshare cases through the lens of this framework provides unique insights extending our knowledge beyond the built environment features of sustainable planning initiatives. Our findings reveal the complex narratives that are in play in developing nations and conclude that understanding and realising cycling transitions in southern megacities require a different approach compared to the Global North.     

The economic impact of aviation: A review on the role of market access

In recent decades, advancements in telecommunications and (air) transportation have driven globalisation processes. Consequently, policymakers and scholars view access to transportation as an essential prerequisite for economic development. For aviation, existing empirical studies have attempted to estimate the wider economic impacts from regional, country-level and global perspectives. However, no theoretical framework has yet been presented that comprehensively captures the full set of mechanisms by which aviation can contribute to economic development. Such a framework would cover both positive and negative regional impacts, as well as the mechanisms and spatial distribution behind them. In this paper, we use a New Economic Geography approach to comprehensively describe the impact mechanisms. We then apply this theoretical framework to an empirical study of metrics of air transport supply, which policymakers and researchers can use to assess how well airports and their surrounding regions are connected by means of the air transport network. The results of our analysis can inform scholars and policymakers on how air transport can shape economic geography and the productivity of economic systems. The results might also provide guidance for future empirical work on the wider economic impacts of air transportation.     

Towards decolonial human subjects in research on transport

This article analyses how human subjects are imagined and conceived in research on transport in the analytical and quantitative traditions in geography and beyond, and outlines several alternative practices of subject formation. It draws on the writings of Sylvia Wynter to argue that, despite long-standing engagement with thinking from the behavioural sciences to diversify economics and engineering oriented understandings of the human subject, analytical/quantitative research on transport remains caught within western-liberal and ‘monohumanist’ conceptualisations of humanness. These understandings can be dislodged if research concentrates on the transport-related practices and experiences of people who are both inside and outside valorised subject categories and harnesses stories of how people constitute themselves, others and their worlds in and through daily movements. Existing mobilities scholarship, research on brain activity in human-environment interactions, geo-narrative methods, and avoiding binary oppositions such as formal/informal transport can all contribute to alternative practices of subject formation in analytical and quantitative transport geography research.     

The interplay of formal and informal institutions between local and regional authorities when creating well-functioning public transport systems

This paper analyzes how public transport planning is managed in institutional contexts where governance is spread across local and regional scales. The paper sheds light on two facets of the relationship between local and regional government: first, the decision-making process regarding where to provide public transport services and at what level, and second, integration of public transport with land use planning. An analytical matrix is used to cross-reference the roles of formal institutions (governance established in law) and informal institutions (governance not established in law) against local and regional responsibilities for public transport and land use. Analysis of the interplay between these three axes (formal/informal, local/regional, public transport/land use) reveals how informal institutions help regional and local authorities to negotiate the constraints of formal, statutory institutions and help to “oil the wheels” of delivering measures and policies that make public transport work as a well-functioning system. However, informal institutions clearly have their limits, in the paper exemplified by the remaining challenges to integrate regional public transport and local land use planning. An identified challenge is that, by their very nature, informal institutions are difficult to influence or modify, therefore relying on them to fill gaps in formal institutional responsibilities may be a risky strategy when unpopular decisions are made.     

Air transport demand and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: Direction of causality

Air transport may be a key tool to advance economic development. However, it is uncertain whether air transport boosts economic development, or vice versa. Both views have theoretical and empirical support. In some countries and regions, air transport is important for initiating development, for example by attracting foreign direct investment or granting access to lifelines. Elsewhere, economic development drives air transport demand. Establishing the direction of causality for regions/countries segmented by income level may inform pragmatic policy. This study analyzes the causal relationship between air transport demand and economic development for six sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1981–2018. Vector error correction and vector autoregression models are employed to identify long- and short-run causalities. The results reveal heterogeneous, context-specific causal relationships. In the long-run, for South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, the direction of causality runs from economic development to air transport demand; for Ethiopia, causality runs in the opposite direction, with increased demand for air transport promoting economic development; and for Senegal and Angola, the relationship is too weak to infer causal directions. Possible explanations for this heterogeneity include differences in per capita income, low-cost carriers' share of national aviation markets, the presence of large home-based airlines, and comparative geographical advantage as a natural hub.     

Introduction to the special issue: Air transport in the Global South

Research on the development and impacts of air transport has hitherto focused mainly on developed countries in the Global North, and relatively little on less developed countries in the Global South. The seven papers of this Special Issue of the Journal of Transport Geography aim to address this imbalance and encourage further research on air transport development in the Global South. In recent years, the Global South has witnessed significant changes in air transport networks and policies, with implications for economic growth, spatial development and airline business models. This Special Issue explores some challenges to air transport development in the Global South for countries in Africa, South America, the Middle East and Asia, including links between air transport and economic development, the evolution and key drivers of air transport growth and the spatial distribution of passenger airline networks, and the development and impact of low-cost carriers. It also identifies opportunities for future research in this growing area.     

Role of user's socio-economic and travel characteristics in mode choice between city bus and informal transit services: Lessons from household surveys in Visakhapatnam,India

Informally operated paratransit or Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) systems provide demand responsive transit in many developing countries, often competing with formal public transport systems. Literature on the relative user characteristics of the two modes and their choice behaviour between the systems is limited. This article addresses the gap by presenting a methodology to derive a comprehensive understanding of socio-economic and travel demand characteristics of all transit users in a city. The household survey based data collection and analysis framework is demonstrated for the case of Visakhapatnam, a medium sized Indian city. The variables impacting users' choice between the formal and informal modes were derived through binary logistic regression. It was observed that gender, income and travel time have a significant influence on users' choice between the modes, with waiting time having the maximum impact on mode choice. Therefore, the high frequency services offered by paratransit attract users making shorter trips.     

More than medical tourism: lessons from Indonesia and Malaysia on South–South intra-regional medical travel

While scholars increasingly acknowledge that most contemporary international medical travel comprises South–South flows, these have gone curiously unexamined. Rather, policy, scholarly and media attention focuses predominantly on North–South flows of ‘medical tourists’. However, this focus diverts attention from the actual and potential impacts of South–South intra-regional medical travel flows on both their source and receiving contexts. As such, we present findings from a study examining South–South intra-regional medical travellers' motivations, preparations and practices to better understand the social, economic and political situations that condition them and their effects on the destinations that receive them. Our study of Indonesian medical travellers pursuing health care in Malaysia draws on 35 semi-structured interviews with Indonesian patients, their companions, medical staff and agents in both countries. From this, we suggest that South–South medical travellers' diverse socio-economic conditions shape decision-making and spending behaviour relative to treatment, accommodation and transport choices as well as length of stay. We identify ways in which informal economies and social care networks sustain the formal medical travel industry. Finally, we observe how medical travel increasingly serves as a means through which chronic and everyday health needs are met through temporary, visa-free intra-regional movement.     

Competition in railway monopolies

The transformation of railways from monopolies to markets open for internal competition is described and explained in a theoretical framework, and a model for the evaluation of the transformation’s impact on efficiency is developed. Using the model in an empirical study of the Swedish railway sector, it is found that external competitive pressure is strong in most supply segments and, focusing on loss of scale advantages, that the transformation will result in significant costs. Comparing the potential for gains by competition against the costs, it is concluded that increased efficiency by internal competition only seems possible to achieve for two train products: domestic combined transport and dedicated trains (both freight services).     

Informality and accessibility to jobs by public transit: Evidence from the São Paulo Metropolitan Region

Access to opportunities through public transport can have different impacts on individual's life especially in developing countries where opportunities are limited, job informality rates are high, and socioeconomic characteristics gaps are big. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between job informality and accessibility to employment by public transport in São Paulo Metropolitan Region (SPMR), Brazil. To do so, we calculate a cumulative-opportunity measure of accessibility to jobs for 633 areas within the SPMR. We use a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression model to estimate the effect of job accessibility on the likelihood of being informally employed, controlling for individual and other area characteristics. To account for informal sector heterogeneity, two regression models are generated: one for the workers earning below minimum wage and one for the workers earning above minimum wage. The results show that accessibility to jobs is unevenly distributed across the region, largely concentrated in the core of the region, and especially in the high-income areas. The regression results show that for workers earning less than the minimum wage, a higher level of accessibility to jobs by public transport is associated with a lower likelihood of being a worker in the informal job sector. For informal workers earning more than the minimum wage, car ownership seem to be more relevant than transit accessibility in determining the likelihood of being part of the informal job sector. In light of these findings, increasing accessibility by public transport through either expanding transit services to areas with high informality rates to have a better access to formal jobs or supporting the decentralization of formal jobs may be a way to achieve reductions in informality rates, especially among those earning less than the minimum wage.     

Reducing the ecological footprint of urban cars

This study develops the policy-making capabilities of the Ecological Footprint. The new capabilities we introduce in our Ecological Footprint model allow us to clarify policy options in the face of the increasing management complexity due to a more interconnected and uncertain world. We investigate the effectiveness of three illustrative policy options for reducing the Ecological Footprint of urban car transport: (1) improvements in efficiency/technology, (2) substitution with alternate fuel mixes, and (3) the reduction in demand by altering urban form. We investigate the success of policy options for a subnational case study jurisdiction in Australia, but in the uncertain global context. We use a resilience framework that considers critical social, economic, and environmental variables, multiple scales, and multiple possible futures. We find that delaying policy options to mitigate CO₂ emissions from the transport sector will increase the risks borne by society as a result of future global uncertainty, the uncertain timing of globally coordinated action on climate change and the timing of peak oil. We also find that the success of local policy is affected by the global future which prevails. The use of the Ecological Footprint allows policy to be informed by the consequences of both CO₂ emissions and increasing demand for land. The study provides a decision-making framework that allows local decision makers to make robust policy despite global uncertainty. This framework has wider applicability to other nations and/or subnational jurisdictions worldwide.     

Anatomy of a new dollar van route: Informal transport and planning in New York City

Despite nearly eight million rides per day on formally planned and legally sanctioned buses and subways, dollar vans provide service that shadow some of the busiest bus lines in Brooklyn and Queens. Dollar vans are an informal transport service that occupy an awkward liminal space between legal and illegal—some are licensed and some are not, but all dollar vans operate illegally. It is this legal confusion that renders them informal. It is because of this informality that dollar van operators and drivers can also adapt their routes and service as they deem necessary. This “generative” mode of planning introduces a second dimension of informality; however, I argue that dollar van operators follow a similar logic as formal transportation operators when planning service. I demonstrate this by examining the case of a dollar van operator in Brooklyn developing a new route. I juxtapose his method with that of bus planners from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to show how both groups of planners rely on prompts they encounter, be it anecdotal stories about West Indians in Flatbush moving away or an angry letter from a state legislator, rather than a systematic approach that is taught in classrooms. By examining the planning of a new dollar van route in Brooklyn, I trace the operator's planning process and compare his data against quantitative datasets to show that his generative planning process is supported by the quantitative data and deepens its meaning when combined with his local knowledge. Seen in this light, it is clear that the distance between informal and formal transit is artificial rather than inherent.     

Commuting patterns in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. What differences between formal and informal jobs?

Limiting commuting trips in major cities is important from the environmental, social and economic standpoints. In order to design policies that aim to change commuting practices it is, however, necessary to have acquired a good understanding of the trips in question and their determinants. However, these trips have been subjected to very little study in the cities of developing countries. This paper is concerned with the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Area (RJMA), and sets out to test the influence of “classical” socioeconomic and spatial variables on the distance and duration of the commuting trips of the region's inhabitants, especially those with the lowest incomes. The main original feature of this research is that it includes jobs in the informal sector. The results show that, all other things being equal, commuting distances and times are shorter for the informal sector, and people walk more from their homes to their place of work because jobs in the informal sector are more dispersed than jobs in the formal sectors. The notable exception is personal and household services for which employees (who are mainly women) live a long way from the city center where wealthy families (and their jobs) are concentrated.     

Mobilities of the periphery: Informality,access and social exclusion in the urban fringe in Colombia

The relationship between transport, poverty and social exclusion has increasingly held an important place in both research and policy agendas, particularly in industrialised countries. While this has helped consolidate an emerging body of theory concerned with the social consequences of mobility, our understanding of these dynamics in the context of high vulnerability and poverty in the Global South is still relatively undeveloped. Through the case of Soacha, a municipality adjacent to Colombia's capital, Bogotá, this paper explores travel strategies in a context of scarce provision of transport which, when combined with acute conditions of low-income and segregation, limit vulnerable populations' access to the city. The travel practices, perceptions and priorities of low-income populations in deprived areas of the Global South are analysed, using a framework of transport-related social exclusion, to critically examine the elements that play a role in gaining access to the city. The emergence of adaptable methods, relations and transactions between demand and supply that allows deprived populations to reduce their risk of becoming socially excluded show potential for conceptual and practical development in addressing and analysing transport-related social exclusion.     

Informal,essential and embedded: Transport strategies in remote Sarawak

Transport is a main concern for people living in rural and remote communities around the world, where the absence of affordable and reliable transport often prevents access to education, health services and employment opportunities. In Sarawak, a state of Malaysia on the island of Borneo, many rural villages experience acute transport poverty. For their basic transport needs, people here rely on informal transport systems based on local social and cultural networks, which provide essential mobility.We apply Polanyi's concept of social embeddedness to explore mobility in this region, people's efforts to develop regional models of entrepreneurship but also the relative marginalisation of remote communities in terms of development and infrastructure provision and the resulting friction between local people, the companies involved in regional resource extraction activities and local government. Based on data collected between 2015 and 2017, we frame informal transport in this region as a form of Indigenous entrepreneurship that can help local communities achieve wider social and economic inclusion. Our research points to a more social type of entrepreneurship and economic practice, in which social relationships and community responsibilities play an important role. Our qualitative approach, including ethnographic methods such as semi-structured interviews and participant observation, underpins the groundedness of our data in the every-day experiences of the people who took part in the research.     

Towards a theory of decoupling: degrees of decoupling in the EU and the case of road traffic in Finland between 1970 and 2001

Traditionally, the transport literature reflects the view that traffic volumes, road traffic volumes in particular, are coupled with Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Recently published literature also argues that the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from transport, passenger cars in particular, have not shown any decoupling from transport volumes for some years. This article presents a theoretical framework for decoupling, defining the difference between decoupling, coupling and negative decoupling. These are further broken down to weak, strong and expansive/recessive degrees of decoupling, laying emphasis on the absolute increase or decrease of the variables. The result section presents data of the development of the relationships between GDP, traffic volumes and CO₂ emissions from transport in the EU15 countries between 1970 and 2001, including the special case of Finnish road traffic. The aggregate EU15 data show a change from expansive negative decoupling to expansive coupling regarding passenger transport, and from weak decoupling to expansive negative decoupling regarding freight transport. Weak decoupling of transport CO₂ emissions from GDP could also be observed. Weak decoupling of all the three aspects (freight, passenger and CO₂) could be seen in the UK, Sweden and Finland in the 1990s. In Finland, the statistics show weak decoupling of GDP from road traffic volume and strong decoupling of road traffic volume and CO₂ emissions from road traffic between 1990 and 2001. Four hypothetical explanations of the Finnish phenomenon are put forward in this article: policy towards sustainable mobility, green urban lifestyle, increasing income differences, and statistical misinterpretation. Each explanation is backed up with some quantitative evidence in observable trends in Finland during the 1990s.     

Informal transport: A global perspective

Informal transport services—paratransit-type services provided without official sanction—can often be difficult to rationalize from a public policy perspective. While these systems provide benefits including on-demand mobility for the transit-dependent, jobs for low-skilled workers, and service coverage in areas devoid of formal transit supply, they also have costs, such as increased traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, and traffic accidents. This article reviews the range of informal sector experiences worldwide, discusses the costs and benefits of the sector in general and uses several case studies to illustrate different policy approaches to regulating them.     

Market opportunity analysis and evaluation of the expansion of air transport services across the Taiwan Strait

Air transport services across the Taiwan Strait are rapidly developing. Taiwanese airlines are therefore facing a critical decision as to whether to expand their scheduled services beyond saturated markets. The Taiwanese government is also concerned regarding airline operators' willingness to enter new markets for next-round negotiations concerning traffic rights. This study proposes an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework for Taiwanese airlines based on a market opportunity analysis (MOA) to evaluate the determinants of potential service expansion. A novel rank pair-wise comparison (RPC) is used to measure the relative weights among determinants. It is found that service provision for Taiwanese merchants is the most vital factor. Flight quotas and allowed time slots also affect airlines' willingness to expand operations. Other determinants depend on the individual airlines' development background and operating size. This study also evaluates twelve airports in mainland China using grey relational analysis (GRA) to rank the entrant priorities for additional scheduled services.     

Decoding an urban myth: An inquiry into the Van line 4 system in Beirut,Lebanon

In Beirut, Lebanon, the failure of state-led transport strategies enabled the rise of private initiatives that appear to be monopolies organized through overlapping political, geographic, and sectarian power structures. Underneath this seemingly haphazard informality, lies a system that presents itself as a viable model for urban mobility. This paper discusses the case of Van Line 4 (56,250 daily users) in Beirut. A multidimensional assessment of the empirical findings enables an evaluation of the efficiency, arguably success, and vital socio-economic role of the Van Line 4 across sharp boundaries of the capital's diverse and segregated districts. It also suggests alternative lessons in informal urban mobility. The foundations of this form of public transport diverge from the dominant Western trend of thinking about technology and planning in the discipline. Rather, what is notable is the construction of a cost effective and reliable service balanced on coercion, sectarianism, and agility. Through decoding the process of service provision to a diverse satisfied customer base, we aim to contest the stigma of inefficiency tied to informal transport systems, while putting forth other “success” factors and indicators to be considered. We uncover how Van Line 4 is an efficient, economically profitable, and well-organized system that challenges urban inequality and geographic divides. Finally, we highlight the necessity to consider power structures and politics with the inequalities they recreate in the discussion of informal systems especially when their continuation is directly related to, and lives on the fragmentation of the state.