A significant part of the provision, use and regulation of transport services in urban areas in Africa, Latin America and Asia is commonly referred to as ‘informal’. The informal transport sector’s growth is reflected by increased attention in research and a growing number of studies that investigate informality from various disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.
The newly founded "Informality in Urban Transport" network brings together scientists and professionals who actively study the subject. The objective of the network is to connect and spread knowledge for informal transport across disciplines and support a transdisciplinary dialogue on recent developments and policy implications.
In a recent workshop held in Berlin, the network members investigated the merits and limitations of methods encompassing quantitative and qualitative social science techniques, ethnographic inquiry or, more recently, mapping and tracking. The workshop took place at the DLR Institute of Transport Research. It is connected to the current research project Mototaxi supported by the German Research Foundation.
Contributing participants were: