Welcome to your third 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 employs millions of people around the world.
That’s why we call this newsletter “Pop Transport.”
If someone forwarded this to you, why not subscribe?
In this letter we invite you to our first Informal Transportation Virtual Meet & Greet; we introduce you to the newest member of our Board of Advisors; and, we tell you more about the Central American Datathon.
We also share important work from the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities (our Strategic Partner) and from the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
Join us for our first Informal Transportation Virtual Meet & Greet
We’re hosting a virtual Meet & Greet on Wednesday, March 17.
Like informal transportation, we’re keeping it casual and informal. :) Just a way to get to meet other people interested in advancing pop transport.
If you are a researcher, an urban designer, a technologist, a startup or a transport geek, and want to network with like minded peers, come join us. Maybe ten people will show up, maybe a hundred people will show up. We’ll see.
To avoid any zoom-bombing, we do need you to register.
We’ll send you the details back via email. Remember to tell us your time zone it’ll help us find a slot that works for the most attendees. We may also have to schedule more than one slot if the time differences are too big.
Monica Araya joins GPIT’s Board of Advisors
We are so proud to welcome Dr. Monica Araya to our Board of Advisors.
Monica is the Transport Lead at Climate Champions, the conveners of the Race To Zero Campaign, “a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.”
You can see why she’s absolutely an asset to our already stellar Board, and her spheres of expertise are critical to what we are trying to accomplish here at GPIT.
Here’s more from her bio:
Monica has lived and worked in Latin America, Europe and the US, engaging leaders in government, business, philanthropies to advocate and guide decarbonization strategies. This means creating and supporting coalitions of diverse stakeholders guided by a shared vision.
Monica’s experience includes working with early adopters of electric mobility as well as climate activists, utilities, car dealers, automakers, charging infrastructure providers, and lawmakers. She is a member of several steering committees, including the 2050 Pathways Platform. In 2019, she was named ‘Crusader of the Year’ for her role advancing electric mobility in Costa Rica. BMW and TED appointed her as mentor to “Next Visionaries,” an initiative exploring the future of mobility. She frequently gives talks on decarbonization leadership, such as her global TED talks from 2016 and 2020 (over 2 million views). Monica holds a Master's degree in Economics from Costa Rica’s National University and a Ph.D. in Environmental Management from Yale University. She was selected to the first all-female expedition to Antarctica, where she reaffirmed her commitment to advance climate solutions. She currently lives in Amsterdam.
The Central American Datathon on Informal Transportation launched today
The Central American Datathon on Informal Transportation kicked off today, Saturday, March 6 and closes next Saturday, March 13.
More than 85 people registered for this effort to collect photographs, information on regulation and policy regarding informal transportation—routes, user experience, operation details, and even art and culture—in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panamá.
We’re live streaming it via CPSU’s Facebook page, at 10am Costa Rica time. Daniel Oviedo from UCL provided participants with an outlook of the situation of informal transport in Latin America, and Andrea San Gil from Agile City Partners and CPSU provided details on how the Datathon will work. The workshop taught participants how to use Maptionnaire to collect information for the Datathon.
YOU MAY STILL BE ABLE TO CATCH THE LIVESTREAM.
You should follow CPSU’s social media closely this week. They will be posting updates on how the information collection is going. You’ll also have an opportunity to interact and collaborate with them.
The closing event for the Datathon will be on March 13th.
Open resource centers for mapping public transportation in Africa and Latin America
Informal transportation is truly complex and dynamic. We have a lot to learn if we are to transform or even manage these systems. Unfortunately, the information gap is huge - driven largely because we either problematize, ignore, wish away, or even actively try to eradicate informal transportation.
Here’s two initiatives that are generating data and much needed insight.
There’s:
DT4A or Digital Transport4Africa —an open data commons for public transport in African cities
DATUM or Datos Abiertos de Transporte Urbano y Movilidad —a similar effort in Latin America.
Our strategic partner, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, is an active participant and leader in DATUM and DT4A.
Both initiatives are part of “a collaborative digital commons and global community that scales up and supports urban mobility projects through open data and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.”
These efforts (like our Datathon) are not just technological geekery.
As DT4A puts it:
Making these transport systems safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable for all is fundamental to livable, productive, low carbon and healthy African cities.
DATUM says:
Esta falta de información con estándares de calidad afecta la capacidad de los ciudadanos para trasladarse en las ciudades y acceder a oportunidades de trabajo, especialmente las personas de bajos recursos.
(This lack of information with quality standards affects the ability of citizens to move in cities and access job opportunities, especially low-income people.)
You can access their open data repository for DT4A (Africa) and Datum.la (Latin America) where you’ll find GTFS and other transit data from 14 cities in Africa and 2 cities in Latin America.
In DT4A, you can “explore trainings, tools and knowledge papers from the global Digital Transport community that can help you start mapping your city's urban transport.” DATUM has resources on their methodology.
The power of informal transportation workers
Have you seen the work of the International Transport Workers’ Federation?
ITF wants better working conditions and protections for informal transportation workers. They published “Informal Passenger Transport Beyond COVID-19: A Trade Union Guide to Worker-Led Formalisation” a guide to help the recovery of the informal transportation sector from the pandemic.
IFT provides a strategy to mobilize workers’ associations and unions. The agenda focuses on developing quality public transport systems that provide affordable services for passengers AND decent work for transport workers.
They want to build a gender equal new normal where women transport workers’ rights are protected and gender equality achieved through worker-led formalisation.
Check out this documentary (10 minutes):
It comes with a booklet that “analyses the informal transport industry and examines the issues faced by informal workers, new models and methods in organising, and the implications for the trade union movement.”
It features:
successful case studies – including organizing e-rickshaw drivers in Nepal, airport taxi workers in Uganda and taxi workers in New York, USA;
a guide to developing an organizing strategy;
the ITF’s informal transport workers charter;
a summary of the key lessons learned; and
activities to stimulate discussion.
We’ll tell you more about their work next time but you should know that ITF has been working supporting unions and representing informal transport workers across the world since 2013.
Last word
We’ll leave you with this great piece from Cultural Custodian on the many ways that artists and entrepreneurs in Lagos have creatively turned the danfos’ unique color scheme into cultural expressions of the city’s identity.
Very subversive. Very pop transport.
Did you enjoy this letter? Or do you have any ideas or links to contribute?
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.)