Toward the Integration of Paratransit in Transportation Planning in African Cities

Abstract

<jats:p> This research examines the history of transportation planning in African cities and how paratransit has been taken into account in the production of planning documents. On the rise since the 1980s, paratransit today is the most common motorized transportation mode in many African cities. The dominant approach among policymakers has been to limit paratransit, in some cases even to ban it. The question this research explores is how distrust of paratransit, and underappreciation of its intrinsic qualities, have been reflected in urban transportation plans. Having selected two cities—Cape Town, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya—we conducted an in-depth analysis of planning documents at national and local levels. South Africa has a long tradition of transportation planning, with documentation available at the national, provincial, and municipal levels. In the 1990s, paratransit was a national-level concern. It gradually became a municipal issue with the implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). In Kenya, planning has a shorter history. Development agencies (e.g., Japanese International Cooperation Agency [JICA]) have played a key role in recent planning processes and encourage the formalization of paratransit. However, planning documents contain no explicit references to “matatus.” In both cities, the focus in the documents is still mainly on developing infrastructure rather than improving mobility. While the role of paratransit is increasingly recognized, this trend is still more apparent in regulation than in planning. </jats:p>

Climate change and strategic low-carbon planning in African cities after COVID-19: inclusiveness or chaos?

“…As transport infrastructure cannot keep up with the territorial expansion of African cities, urban mobility is becoming a critical challenge in most cities; the transport system in Africa is quite different from that in the Global North with a prevalence of informal/paratransit modes of transport (for example, collective taxis or minibuses). But these paratransit systems are seldom taken into consideration by policymakers who focus on large infrastructure projects more than on mobility itself (Klopp & Cavoli 2019, Boutueil et al 2020, Falchetta et al 2021.…”

Impacts and Challenges for Developing Countries

“…In particular, they are a key asset in providing access to demand segments that are not otherwise served, especially in a context of rapid demand growth (Cervero and Golub, 2011;Lesteven and Boutueil, 2018). ICT has brought many changes to the paratransit industry in Africa, one of which has been the rapid development of ride-hailing services (including ride-sourcing using for-hire vehicles and taxi e-hailing) (Boutueil and Lesteven, 2018). As of March 2018, Uber had operations in 15 African cities, Careem in 17, Taxify in 11, Easy Taxi in 5, Heetch in 1.…”

“…While developed countries are faced with the challenge of leveraging the digital transformation and integration of transport services to make the transition to a conception of mobility as a service, developing countries are faced more with the challenge of enabling, or even facilitating, the digital transformation of already significant mobility services -including transit and paratransit, formal and informal services, etc. -on the grounds that this may open up alternative mobility pathways for developing world cities and in particular help resist the rapid rise in private car ownership and use (Boutueil and Lesteven, 2018;Sengers and Raven, 2014).…”

“…Paratransit users therefore have to rely on their own expertise or on the expertise of relatives to plan their journeys, which can be especially difficult in the case of one-off, multi-leg journeys (Zegras et al, 2015). Under these circumstances, it is probable that even public authorities would base their regulations on partial data complemented by experience and hearsay (Boutueil and Lesteven, 2018).…”

A snapshot of the informal organization of public transport operators in the Caribbean: Tap-Tap services in Port-Au-Prince

“…When comparing the research landscape across other developing regions, the Caribbean remains the least studied context concerning informal public transport (Boutueil et al, 2020;PHUN et al, 2016). Such a gap has consequences for policy and practice in a region challenged by social tensions and slower development trends than other countries in the Americas.…”