Dignified transport: The case of paratransit

Abstract

• Dignity encounters in paratransit are part of a hrarchical and interconnected "dignity ecosystem" shaping behaviour and norms. • Positive experiences increase ridership and boost crew morale and behaviour towards passengers, creating a positive cycle of experiences. • Dignity violations result in decreased ridership. Those with access to financing buy cars, while those with lower incomes walk or endure humiliation. • Further research is needed to explore the cascading effects of dignity violations and to assess the long-term impact of interventions. Paratransit, often the sole public transport option in many cities in the Global South, typically suffers from low service levels, pollution, safety concerns, crashes, and a lack of respect for users. This study leverages the concept of dignity, which is not yet systematically explored in transport literature, to examine the experiences of paratransit actors. Dignity has been effective in other fields to expose unjust relationships and propose enhancements, which have inspired its exploration in transport research in this paper. Employing ethnographic methods like observation ride-alongs and post-ride interviews, the study captures detailed paratransit experiences of users, drivers, and conductors in Nairobi, Kenya. Thematic analysis identified experiences impacting dignity positively through acknowledgement, recognition, autonomy, and advocacy and negatively through diminishment, labelling, and minimising. Findings indicate that actor interactions can raise or lower dignity, with perceptions of dignity varying by actor demographic. Dignity violations experienced by crews affect how they treat users, suggesting the existence of an ‘ecosystem of dignity’, providing directions to positively affect dignity through policy interventions.

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