WHY POPULAR TRANSPORT?
What carries a city isn’t always what’s planned. Sometimes, it’s what grows on its own.
The minibuses, shared vans, and three-wheelers of cities across the Global South — matatus, jeepneys, tuk-tuks, dala dalas — move millions every day. They emerge where formal transit falls short, building networks out of necessity, creativity, and community. Yet the terms often used to describe them in research and policy — “informal,” “paratransit,” “artisanal transit” — define them by what they are not, rather than recognizing what they are: homegrown, adaptive, and essential to urban life.
The term popular transport offers a different lens. Coined by the Global Network for Popular Transportation (GNPT) — a collaborative initiative of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community organizers working to better understand and support these systems — it reframes these modes not as problems to be solved, but as infrastructure shaped by the ingenuity of the people who rely on them.
Popular captures not only how widespread these modes are, but also who creates them, who runs them, and who depends on them. Popular transport is transportation by the people, for the people.
It is popular because it is everywhere — because it is shaped by demand, not decree.
Popular transport grows where formal systems cannot or will not go. It is often the first and only option for those excluded from public investment: women piecing together daily routes across caregiving, work, and markets; migrants navigating new neighborhoods; workers commuting across sprawling, underserved cities. Popular transport adapts faster than governments can plan, reaching places and people formal transit has long neglected.
It is popular because it sustains livelihoods.
These systems are powered by small entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and families. They operate without government subsidies, yet they generate millions of jobs — not just for drivers, but also for mechanics, fuel vendors, cleaners, and street hawkers. In cities where formal employment is scarce, popular transport is a powerful economic engine.
And it is popular because it is part of culture.
It is painted on the sides of buses, sung about in local anthems, celebrated in poetry and street art. From the handwritten slogans on tro-tros in Accra to the vibrant murals on Manila’s jeepneys, these vehicles carry not only passengers but also expressions of identity, pride, and resilience. In many cities, to ride popular transport is not only to get from one place to another, but to experience the city itself — its rhythms and flows.
The name popular transport is not a rejection of formalization or safety — but a recognition that these systems deserve to be understood, valued, and strengthened. We should not romanticize popular transportation. These systems face real problems — from unsafe conditions to unstable incomes.
But rather than trying to “solve” popular transportation itself, we must work to solve the many problems within it. Popular transport is not a temporary gap. It is essential urban infrastructure, a reminder that cities are not made only by planners and architects. They are made by people — by the routes they trace, the economies they sustain, and the ways they move through their streets. Popular transport is, and has always been, part of how cities live, breathe, and grow.
The Global Network for Popular Transportation (GNPT) was invited to share their thoughts on what defines popular transport, because their work has been central to reshaping how these systems are understood and valued. Through their leadership, more cities now recognize that mobility is built not only through formal projects, but through the everyday systems that people create for themselves. GNPT’s advocacy reminds us that popular transport networks deserve not only to be counted — but to be strengthened, supported, and celebrated.
The minibuses, shared vans, and three-wheelers of cities across the Global South — matatus, jeepneys, tuk-tuks, dala dalas — move millions every day. They emerge where formal transit falls short, building networks out of necessity, creativity, and community. Yet the terms often used to describe them in research and policy — “informal,” “paratransit,” “artisanal transit” — define them by what they are not, rather than recognizing what they are: homegrown, adaptive, and essential to urban life.
The term popular transport offers a different lens. Coined by the Global Network for Popular Transportation (GNPT) — a collaborative initiative of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community organizers working to better understand and support these systems — it reframes these modes not as problems to be solved, but as infrastructure shaped by the ingenuity of the people who rely on them.
Popular captures not only how widespread these modes are, but also who creates them, who runs them, and who depends on them. Popular transport is transportation by the people, for the people.
It is popular because it is everywhere — because it is shaped by demand, not decree.
Popular transport grows where formal systems cannot or will not go. It is often the first and only option for those excluded from public investment: women piecing together daily routes across caregiving, work, and markets; migrants navigating new neighborhoods; workers commuting across sprawling, underserved cities. Popular transport adapts faster than governments can plan, reaching places and people formal transit has long neglected.
It is popular because it sustains livelihoods.
These systems are powered by small entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and families. They operate without government subsidies, yet they generate millions of jobs — not just for drivers, but also for mechanics, fuel vendors, cleaners, and street hawkers. In cities where formal employment is scarce, popular transport is a powerful economic engine.
And it is popular because it is part of culture.
It is painted on the sides of buses, sung about in local anthems, celebrated in poetry and street art. From the handwritten slogans on tro-tros in Accra to the vibrant murals on Manila’s jeepneys, these vehicles carry not only passengers but also expressions of identity, pride, and resilience. In many cities, to ride popular transport is not only to get from one place to another, but to experience the city itself — its rhythms and flows.
The name popular transport is not a rejection of formalization or safety — but a recognition that these systems deserve to be understood, valued, and strengthened. We should not romanticize popular transportation. These systems face real problems — from unsafe conditions to unstable incomes.
But rather than trying to “solve” popular transportation itself, we must work to solve the many problems within it. Popular transport is not a temporary gap. It is essential urban infrastructure, a reminder that cities are not made only by planners and architects. They are made by people — by the routes they trace, the economies they sustain, and the ways they move through their streets. Popular transport is, and has always been, part of how cities live, breathe, and grow.
The Global Network for Popular Transportation (GNPT) was invited to share their thoughts on what defines popular transport, because their work has been central to reshaping how these systems are understood and valued. Through their leadership, more cities now recognize that mobility is built not only through formal projects, but through the everyday systems that people create for themselves. GNPT’s advocacy reminds us that popular transport networks deserve not only to be counted — but to be strengthened, supported, and celebrated.