The Popular Transport Reader

We developed the Popular Transport Reader to help policymakers, public leaders, and transportation advocates better understand popular transport systems. We hope it enables local and national governments to work with the popular transport sector toward a Just Transition.

The Reader includes twenty articles that summarize current research, offer practical insights, and/or provide recommendations. They are meant to be read as separate pieces. We hope this anthology helps deepen your understanding and appreciation of popular transport systems as assets. As climate challenges rise alongside urban growth, we must recruit informal transport into climate action. There is no approach that leads to more sustainable cities without engaging popular transport.

We are releasing selected pieces from the Reader, one article per week, over the next few weeks. We will publish the full Reader at the end of October 2026, in time for the 1st Global Convening on Informal & Shared Mobility.

Rethinking Charging Infrastructure
for Popular Transportation
(A system-of-systems approach)

With Cape Town as their locus of study, M.J. Booysen, C.J. Abraham, and B.G. Pretorius suggest a "system-of-systems" framework—a tool to evaluate context and determine strategies for the electrification of paratransit in the Global South. Their research highlights a few key points: Plans need to consider fragile grid infrastructure, road conditions, geography, and driver behavior. Their framework customizes strategies to the local context.

You can download the article here.