Informal transport: A global perspective

Sustainable Urban Transport in the Developing World: Beyond Megacities

“…Formal bus services are often unreliable, inconvenient, uncomfortable, or even dangerous. Informal paratransit services, while providing benefits including on-demand mobility for the transit-dependent, jobs for low-skilled workers, and service coverage in areas devoid of formal transit supply, carry major costs, such as increased traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, traffic accidents, and even violence among route cartels [32]. In addition to regulating paratransit systems through measures in between the extremes of acceptance and outright prohibition, several options are available to medium-size developing cities that wish to improve the quality of formal bus services.…”

“…This type of business plan is generally desirable for public transport in developing cities, even those without BRT systems, because in these contexts both fully regulated sectors and completely deregulated sectors have failed [34]. Mainline services can be complemented by existing conventional bus and paratransit systems, which can provide feeder connections and serve remote areas [32]. To avoid overreliance on fossil fuels, BRT vehicles can run on natural gas, electricity, or biofuels (see below).…”

Taming the “Rogue” Sector: Studying State Effectiveness in Africa through Informal Transport Politics

“…In this context, "paratransit" services in the form of minibuses, microbuses, and motorcycles provided "consummate gap-fillers." 32 However, the effective absence of regulation, including both quality and quantity controls, engendered a host of new problems such as extreme competition resulting in overloading, congestion, soaring traffic fatalities, and severe labour abuses. 33 Increasing evidence of negative externalities from under-regulation eventually led many governments to attempt to bring in new regulations and taxes to stem the sector's growth and establish order.…”

Paratransit Business Strategies: A Bird’s-Eye View of Matatus in Nairobi

“…Many observers attribute the shift to private-sector transport to inefficiencies in the major public transport companies (Khayesi 2002;Cervero and Golub 2007;Sclar et al 2007;Schalekamp et al, 2008). Some point out that in much of Africa and in smaller Asian cities where municipal budgets are stretched thin and technical capacities for planning, admin istration, and regulation are insufficient, almost by default, informal transport offers the only dependable services available (Cervero and Golub 2007). An earlier study by Golub (2005) also confirmed that, in many cities, regular public transpor tation systems do not meet all of the demands of the marketplace, and small-scale operators, legally or illegally, enter the market to fill these gaps.…”