Urban paratransit in the developing world: Fid-Bau Portal

Urban paratransit in the developing world

Silcock, David T.

In recent years, transport planners in western cities have shown increasing interest in the testing and application of ‘unconventional’ public transport, to explore means of providing public transport services in those situations where it is not considered to be practicable or economic to operate conventional rail or stage carriage bus services. Various experimental services have been introduced in both urban and rural areas, the U.K. perhaps emphasizing the latter, as exemplified by the RUTEX programme of unconventional, experimental services, introduced with Government support. Ridership on such systems is, however, very small, often measured only in hundreds per day in urban areas and in tens per day in rural areas.

Many western transport planners seem not to be aware, or choose to ignore, the fact that most developing countries have a variety of public transport systems, some carrying passengers numbered in millions per day. Generally these systems have ‘just grown’, rather than resulting from sophisticated transport plans. Whilst such evolution does not guarantee desirability in a social context, or ensure ‘adequate’ standards of safety, the transport systems which have evolved do seem to perform well with respect to local conditions and needs: it may well be that useful conclusions which will have implications for public transport in western cities can be drawn from examining the ‘unconventional’ operations of the Developing World. Many are privately owned and operated and almost all are commercially successful for their owners; the ‘Jeepney’ in the Philippines and the ‘Public Light Bus’ (PLB) in Hong Kong are well‐known examples. This paper discusses such systems, attempts to identify their characteristics and compares these with more ‘conventional’ passenger transport modes.