Welcome to your second issue of Pop Transport, the fortnightly newsletter of the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation.
Informal transportation is very, very popular (widespread, and for the people).
It overwhelmingly dominates the rapidly growing towns and cities of the Global South. It moves billions and employ millions of people around the world.
That’s why we call this newsletter “Pop Transport.”
We’re really excited to present to you some of the projects we’re working on and what we’re seeing in the wild.
This week, we’ll:
Tell you more about the Central American Datathon and how you can join
Introduce you to the newest member of our Board of Advisors
Tell you about our newest Strategic Partner
Share the takeaways from a report from our friends at UITP
Share good news about one of our own
Share a link to a podcast you may have missed.
The Central American Datathon
You can sign up to participate in the Central American Datathon!
This is our joint project with Centro Para La Sostenibilidad Urbana (CPSU), and the first step to developing the Global Encyclopedia for Informal Transportation Vehicles.
The Datathon runs next month, from the 6th to the 13th of March 2021. You’ll be joining other volunteers from the region (and from around the world) to gather information, photographs, and knowledge about the vehicles and informal transport systems that operate across the Central Americas
You’ll also be joined by researchers from the Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) at the University College London (UCL), the Datathon’s academic partner.
We’re also expecting volunteers from the research and practitioner networks of DATUM—a knowledge network on politics, data and mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean—and from the networks of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
If you think anyone in your network might be interested in participating, you can send them this link or just forward or share this newsletter.
Roger Behrens joins our Board of Advisors
We’re very pleased to announce another stellar addition to our Board of Advisors: Roger Behrens is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, and Director of the Centre for Transport Studies (CfTS), at the University of Cape Town.
Prof. Behrens served as Director of the African Centre of Excellence for Studies in Public and Non-motorised Transport, funded by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations.
We dare say that Prof. Behrens inherited Robert Cervero’s mantle. He and his center have been leading the research into informal transportation (they call it paratransit) in Africa.
WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities joins the Global Partnership
WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities is the World Resources Institute’s program dedicated to shaping a future where cities work better for everyone. The Center’s global research and on-the-ground experience in Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Turkey and the United States combine to spur action that improves life for millions of people.
WRI Ross Center recently released a landmark report, Informal and Semiformal Services in Latin America: An Overview of Public Transportation Reforms. The report, funded by the IADB, found that investing in and integrating informal transport services will improve access to opportunity for millions of people.
We’re happy to have them on board as our newest Strategic Partner!1
UITP releases Knowledge Brief on Informal Transportation
Last week, the International Association of Public Transport (UITP)2 published a new report: Key Insights Into Transforming the Informal Transport Sector.
The Knowledge Brief consolidates the output of a series of UITP webinars (in 2020) that were focused on the informal transport industry. The report “highlights some of the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, and reinforces the case for transforming informal transport.”
We were particularly excited by the 10 key questions that UITP says will frame how to advance transformation:
1. How is the informal sector currently and locally organised and how is it working?
2. What should be the overarching mobility and transport policy objectives?
3. What should the transport sector look like in the future?
4. How could a cooperation and discussion platform with all relevant transport stakeholders be envisioned? What ‘language’ should be used?
5. What is the transformation path? How to build human capacity of informal transport providers and authorities on topics such as change management, innovative transport solution and green vehicles?
6. What regulatory landscape and governance structure should be set up? How should roles be clarified between regulators and operators? What links or relationships between regulator and providers could be developed? How should the informal transport service suppliers be organised, structured, grouped? How do we enforce it?
7. How can innovation and technological tools be supported to better meet the needs of service providers, users and commuters? How should data be provided to authorities and regulators in order to better understand the system? How do we ensure that all stakeholders benefit from new technologies?
8. How can funding be secured to cover operational costs and provide revenues to informal transport service providers? How can funding and financing be mobilised for investment in infrastructures and environmentally friendly public transport vehicles?
9. How to consider the economic role, the job provider function of the sector and promoting employment?
10. How to engage urban dwellers with a new transport system that would be better integrated, cheap, reliable, and safe?
OK, that was more than ten questions, but we’re excited anyway that the UITP and other global bodies are taking informal transportation seriously.
You can download it here (pdf link).
Way to go!
We are so proud to share that IADB, in celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, named our very own Andrea San Gil Leòn one of Latin America's important female figures working in the transport sector today.
Andrea is one of the movers behind the Global Partnership, is co-founder of Agile City Partners, and she founded Centro Para La Sostenibilidad Urbana.
Help us to congratulate, Andrea! (You should follow her on twitter.)
In the rear view mirror
ICYMI: Listen to John Rossant, Founder and Chairman of NewCities, talk about the Global Partnership on the January 14 issue of The Urbanist, Monocle’s weekly podcast. John’s section comes on Chapter 5 of the episode.
Wrapping up
That’s it for our second issue. We’ll catch you again in two weeks with more news, links to relevant research, stories that highlight the organizations on the ground who are making a difference. We’ll also bring a feature or two on companies innovating in this space, and share more of our current thinking.
Leave us a comment if you have any leads or suggestions.
If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, they probably think you would enjoy getting it in your inbox, too. Signing up is easy.
Pop Transport is the fortnightly newsletter of the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation. The Partnership works hand-in-hand with informal urban transportation systems of the Global South to advance innovation, improve services, and change business models. By leveraging new technology and innovative policies, we believe these informal networks can confront climate change and make our cities work for everyone.
The Global Partnership is a project of NewCities, initiated by Agile City Partners, and, supported by CoMotion Inc.
Email us at contact@newcities.org if you are interested in becoming a partner. (Make sure to include “GPIT” in the subject line.)