Informal Public Transport

Dave Ashmore, Crystal Legacy, Derlie Mateo-Babiano, John Stone, Reden Recio

Transport is often understood as a formal system of networks, timetables, and formal infrastructure planning. But this is only part of the picture. Cities in the Global South are oftentimes shaped by transport networks that are self-organised and informal, meeting the needs of the people they serve. As high rates of urbanisation place considerable demands on existing transport systems, it is also necessary to understand how the informal transport ‘system’ responds to the creation of new formal pieces of transport infrastructure as these systems expand. To understand these intersections renders visible questions about the interaction between the formal and informal, and public and private transport in cities.