Managing public transport in developing countries: Stakeholder perspectives in Dar es Salaam and Faisalabad

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sohail ◽  
D.A.C. Maunder ◽  
D.W.J. Miles
Author(s):  
Matteo Rizzo

The chapter starts by describing public transport in Dar es Salaam as ‘functional chaos’. It then critically reviews two thematic literatures, on African cities and on their informal economies, to reveal that references to chaos, dystopia, and their opposites, order and functionalism, are common. The key argument is that a highly contextual understanding of urban informality and of how African cities work is required to avoid overly deterministic structural accounts and romantic celebration of African agency without due attention to structural constraints. The chapter presents the book’s approach: namely a political-economy analysis, centred on class analysis and wary of automatically reading off the political interests of actors from their class position. It argues that neoliberalism and post-socialism are key to understanding Tanzania and public transport in Dar es Salaam, and calls for grounding ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ in a particular context while retaining the analytical power of the concept of neoliberalism.


Author(s):  
Matteo Rizzo

The growth of cities and informal economies are two central manifestations of globalization in the developing world. Taken for a Ride addresses both, drawing on long-term fieldwork in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and charting its public transport system’s journey from public to private provision. The book investigates this shift alongside the increasing deregulation of the sector and the resulting chaotic modality of public transport. It reviews state attempts to regain control over public transport, the political motivations behind these, and their inability to address its problems. The analysis documents how informal wage relations prevailed in the sector, and how their salience explains many of the inefficiencies of public transport. The changing political attitude of workers towards employers and the state is investigated: from an initial incapacity to respond to exploitation, to political organization and unionization, which won workers concessions on labour rights. A longitudinal study of workers throws light on patterns of occupational mobility in the sector. The book ends with an analysis of the political and economic interests that shaped the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit in Dar es Salaam and local resistance to it. Taken for a Ride is an interdisciplinary political economy of public transport, exposing the limitations of market fundamentalist and postcolonial scholarship on economic informality and the urban experience in developing countries, and its failure to locate the agency of the urban poor within their economic and political structures. It is both a contribution to and a call for the contextualized study of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’.


2012 ◽  
Vol 178-181 ◽  
pp. 1806-1814
Author(s):  
Philemon Kazimil Mzee ◽  
Yan Chen

Countries of the developing world are characterized by rapid urbanization, high growth rates in traffic and congestion and decreasing regulation of public transport. Because the majority of the developing world's inhabitants are dependent on public transport services for their mobility needs, the need for safe, effective and efficient public transport is essential to ensure adequate, affordable, accessibility and the continuing sustainable development of livelihoods in the rural and urban. Finally, recommendations are made to reduce both the severity and number of public transport accidents in the future. This paper highlights the historical road safety and the transportation management in Dar es Salaam. In the field of road traffic control and management, the primary policy objective is to develop appropriate institutional and organizational arrangement towards further efficient road use.


Author(s):  
Lucy Joseph ◽  
An Neven ◽  
Karel Martens ◽  
Opportuna Kweka ◽  
Geert Wets ◽  
...  

This paper seeks to understand participation in out-of-home activities by inhabitants in Dar es Salaam, and their perceptions toward informal public transport (IPT) and bus rapid transit (BRT) in supporting these activities. Without fixed schedules, IPT (e.g., minibuses, motorcycles, and tricycles) is used as a means of transport for different trips. However, IPT is burdened by poor roads, traffic congestion, and high transport demand. Many developing cities are seeking to replace IPT with formal BRT lines. However, little is known in relation to the ability of IPT and BRT to support out-of-home activity participation of the inhabitants. This paper reports on a study in Dar es Salaam exploring the relative contribution of each type of service. The study took place before the opening of BRT, and encompasses focus group discussions, participatory geographical information systems, and questionnaires carried out in two study zones: one close to a BRT corridor and the other in a peri-urban location. The findings show that IPT was used to support participation in daily activities like work, education, shopping, and social matters; and was perceived to be flexible in providing access to both high and low density unplanned settlements. The BRT was viewed to benefit specific groups of people, especially individuals working in permanent offices in and around the city center, particularly professional workers. This paper sheds light on how the two systems were perceived by the local people and can inform policy makers about possible improvements in public transport systems to support activity participation of their inhabitants.


1976 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-377
Author(s):  
Ashok Parthasarathi

In September 1973, the Pugwash Movement realigned its sights on international collaboration in scientific and technological research as the surest means of promoting development in the Third World, when at its Twenty-third General Conference at Aulanko, Finland, it came to the conclusion that experience having proved its earlier premises to be false, explorations needed to be made in self-reliance as an alternative strategy. Accordingly, it held a Symposium in June 1975 at Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, which was attended by 20 participants from the three developing continents and from North America and Europe. There were also some observers from UN agencies. At its conclusion, the Symposium directed the author, who had acted as the rapporteur of the Symposium, to prepare a report along the ‘outlines’ unanimously approved by the participants. The following essay is the result of his labours. It examines the genesis of the concept of self-reliance, explains the concept itself, outlines the transitional steps, spells out the implications for international organizations as well as developing countries, and gives the guidelines of action by the Pugwash Movement itself.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nicola Ryan

<p>In response to the environmental, economic and social costs associated with over-reliance on the private car, planners and policy-makers are promoting Park-and-Ride, or the combined use of car and public transport. Despite Park-and-Ride’s growing popularity, little has been written on the subject in the New Zealand context. This thesis addresses this gap. Its objective is to understand the behaviour of commuters in order to inform the development of policies to increase walking and cycling to and from the station. It uses a mixed methods approach, based on stakeholder interviews and an online survey conducted in Greater Wellington.  Interviews with eight stakeholders involved in public transport planning and policy sought to provide insight into the challenges of implementing Park-and-Ride and how the concept can be developed in the future. More effective management of parking was seen as a key challenge for those tasked with making policy decisions. Stakeholders also discussed the potential for developing the concept, particularly by transitioning Park-and-Ride into interchanges for motorised and non-motorised transport modes, with priority given to walking and cycling access.  A survey conducted among 295 respondents who commuted to Wellington City sought to explore the psychological and contextual factors in predicting the intention to walk and cycle to the train station. The usefulness of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), with the addition of personal norm, environmental concern, and problem awareness, in predicting intention was tested. All TPB constructs were significant predictors and explained 54% and 36% of the variance in intention to walk and cycle respectively. The additional constructs made a small but significant contribution in explaining variance in intention (together, an additional 6% and 4% respectively). Based on the between-subjects design, the acceptability levels of proposed Park-and-Ride policies was low. Perceived effectiveness and fairness significantly influenced the acceptability of policies. Policy-makers may find these results useful in considering how to increase the acceptability of Park-and-Ride policies in future.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azin Bahreini ◽  
Hamed Mirzaei ◽  
Mehdi Moeinaddini ◽  
Zohreh Asadi-Shekari ◽  
Muhammad Zaly Shah ◽  
...  

Although public transport is recommended to develop a sustainable transport system, the percentage of daily trips by public transport in Iran specifically in medium sized cities such as Kerman is very low. Currently, efforts are being made to indicate significant factors that prevent public transport usage in developed countries but few studies have been conducted in developing countries. Only a few studies have considered public transport usage in Iranian megacities and medium sized cities such as Kerman require more attention. Therefore, this study tries to identify effective factors that influence public transport usage in urban areas in developing countries like Iran and in medium sized cities like Kerman. In addition, this study tries to investigate various ways to increase public transport ridership. The people awareness regarding benefits of public transport usage is also tested in this study. This study uses questionnaire and observation to collect data. The descriptive analysis based on the collected data shows that most of the people are aware of public transport benefits. These benefits include environment protection, reduction in parking demand and traffic congestion, lower travel cost (compare with private vehicle), fewer mental stresses, more safety, and being more convenient. Although people are aware of public transport benefits, there are some issues that prevent them to use public transport properly. Insufficient information about public transport schedules, lack of attractive facilities and suitable waiting stations and inadequate reliability are examples of issues that discourage people to use public transport. The results show that some improvements such as providing suitable information about public transport schedules, considering comfortable facilities to increase attractiveness, improving waiting facilities and reliability can encourage people to use public transport.


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