IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i3p1058-d483897.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Dar es Salaam: A Pilot Study on Critical Infrastructure, Sustainable Urban Development and Livelihoods

Author

Listed:
  • Fred Krüger

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Alexandra Titz

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Raphael Arndt

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Franziska Groß

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Franziska Mehrbach

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Vanessa Pajung

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Lorenz Suda

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Martina Wadenstorfer

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

  • Laura Wimmer

    (Institute of Geography, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany)

Abstract

Inner-city transportation looms large in big cities in the so-called Global South due to rapid population and urban growth. To tackle this challenge, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was implemented in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) in 2016. This paper reports on the results of a pilot study on the impacts of the BRT on city development and livelihoods in Dar. Our pilot study, which is part of the collaborative research project LIPSINDAR (Linking Partners for a Sustainable and Inclusive Dar es Salaam), was not designed to provide a comprehensive insight into the problems of urban planning, infrastructure modification and their impact on urban livelihoods. Rather, using the example of Dar es Salaam, the study served as an entry point to highlight challenges and future research demands in the context of urban insecurities and risks in large cities of the Global South. In particular, our study investigated the BRT as an element of critical infrastructure in Dar es Salaam and probed into its impact on residents’ livelihoods, focusing on the influence of service disruptions on everyday routines, and on different stakeholders’ views on the functionality of the BRT. Elaborating on this topic, interviews, street vendor surveys and mappings were used as methods to describe the processes. To examine the results more closely, the outcome was divided into groups of different fields of activity, namely Traffic Management, Local Residents, City Administration, Basic Provision Services and Street Vendors. In summary, the pilot study confirms that the implementation of the BRT system has, in general, served to improve urban livelihoods. Reducing commuting times and enhancing access to basic services found positive results. There is, however, still potential for improvement: the bus network, in particular, needs to be expanded and the vulnerability to natural extreme events, especially flooding, needs to be addressed.

Suggested Citation

  • Fred Krüger & Alexandra Titz & Raphael Arndt & Franziska Groß & Franziska Mehrbach & Vanessa Pajung & Lorenz Suda & Martina Wadenstorfer & Laura Wimmer, 2021. "The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Dar es Salaam: A Pilot Study on Critical Infrastructure, Sustainable Urban Development and Livelihoods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-29, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1058-:d:483897
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1058/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1058/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yongjun Shen & Qiong Bao & Elke Hermans, 2020. "Applying an Alternative Approach for Assessing Sustainable Road Transport: A Benchmarking Analysis on EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Mustafa Hamurcu & Tamer Eren, 2020. "Strategic Planning Based on Sustainability for Urban Transportation: An Application to Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-24, April.
    3. Glaeser, Edward & Henderson, J. Vernon, 2017. "Urban economics for the developing World: An introduction," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 1-5.
    4. Andreasen, Manja Hoppe & Møller-Jensen, Lasse, 2017. "Access to the city: Mobility patterns, transport and accessibility in peripheral settlements of Dar es Salaam," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 20-29.
    5. Daniel Oviedo & Lynn Scholl & Marco Innao & Lauramaria Pedraza, 2019. "Do Bus Rapid Transit Systems Improve Accessibility to Job Opportunities for the Poor? The Case of Lima, Peru," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-24, May.
    6. Scholl, Lynn & Oviedo, Daniel & Innao, Marco & Pedraza, Lauramaría, 2018. "Do Bus Rapid Transit Systems Improve Accessibility to Jobs?: The Case of Lima, Peru," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 9451, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Rizzo, Matteo, 2017. "Taken For A Ride: Grounding Neoliberalism, Precarious Labour, and Public Transport in an African Metropolis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198794240.
    8. Ka'bange, Abdi & Mfinanga, David & Hema, Edwin, 2014. "Paradoxes of establishing mass rapid transit systems in african cities – A case of Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (DART) system, Tanzania," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 176-183.
    9. Patricia Romero-Lankao & Harriet Bulkeley & Mark Pelling & Sarah Burch & David J. Gordon & Joyeeta Gupta & Craig Johnson & Priya Kurian & Emma Lecavalier & David Simon & Laura Tozer & Gina Ziervogel &, 2018. "Urban transformative potential in a changing climate," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(9), pages 754-756, September.
    10. Vermeiren, Karolien & Verachtert, Els & Kasaija, Peter & Loopmans, Maarten & Poesen, Jean & Van Rompaey, Anton, 2015. "Who could benefit from a bus rapid transit system in cities from developing countries? A case study from Kampala, Uganda," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 13-22.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sitti Asmah Hassan & Intan Nurfauzirah Shafiqah Hamzani & Abd. Ramzi Sabli & Nur Sabahiah Abdul Sukor, 2021. "Bus Rapid Transit System Introduction in Johor Bahru: A Simulation-Based Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-13, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muhammad Aamir Basheer & Luuk Boelens & Rob van der Bijl, 2020. "Bus Rapid Transit System: A Study of Sustainable Land-Use Transformation, Urban Density and Economic Impacts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Elzbieta Szymanska & Zofia Koloszko-Chomentowska, 2022. "Sustainable Innovative Mobility Solutions Preferred by Inhabitants of Rural Areas—The Case of Lithuania and Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Lourdes Diaz Olvera & Didier Plat & Pascal Pochet, 2020. "Looking for the obvious: motorcycle taxi services in Sub-Saharan African cities," Post-Print halshs-02182855, HAL.
    4. Diaz Olvera, Lourdes & Plat, Didier & Pochet, Pascal, 2020. "Looking for the obvious: Motorcycle taxi services in Sub-Saharan African cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Foley, Louise & Brugulat-Panés, Anna & Woodcock, James & Govia, Ishtar & Hambleton, Ian & Turner-Moss, Eleanor & Mogo, Ebele R.I. & Awinja, Alice Charity & Dambisya, Philip M. & Matina, Sostina Spiwe , 2022. "Socioeconomic and gendered inequities in travel behaviour in Africa: Mixed-method systematic review and meta-ethnography," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    6. Suchi Kapoor Malhotra & Howard White & Nina Ashley O. Dela Cruz & Ashrita Saran & John Eyers & Denny John & Ella Beveridge & Nina Blöndal, 2021. "Studies of the effectiveness of transport sector interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), December.
    7. Yan, Xiang & Bejleri, Ilir & Zhai, Liang, 2022. "A spatiotemporal analysis of transit accessibility to low-wage jobs in Miami-Dade County," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Posada, Héctor M. & García-Suaza, Andres, 2022. "Transit infrastructure and informal housing: Assessing an expansion of Medellín's Metrocable system," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 209-228.
    9. Fadyushin Alexey & Zakharov Dmitrii, 2020. "Influence of the Parameters of the Bus Lane and the Bus Stop on the Delays of Private and Public Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    10. Anna Brugulat-Panés & Lee Randall & Thiago Hérick de Sá & Megha Anil & Haowen Kwan & Lambed Tatah & James Woodcock & Ian R. Hambleton & Ebele R. I. Mogo & Lisa Micklesfield & Caitlin Pley & Ishtar Gov, 2023. "The Potential for Healthy, Sustainable, and Equitable Transport Systems in Africa and the Caribbean: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review and Meta-Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-27, March.
    11. Elzbieta Szymanska, 2022. "Problems of Tourist Mobility in Remote Areas of Natural Value—The Case of the Hajnowka Poviat in Poland and the Zaoneshye Region in Russia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, September.
    12. Eva-Luz Tejada-Gutiérrez & Zofia Koloszko-Chomentowska & Mariantonietta Fiore & Alessia Spada, 2023. "Sustainable Environmental Development from the Regional Perspective—The Interesting Case of Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-16, March.
    13. Priscila Santin & Fernanda R. Gubert & Mauro Fonseca & Anelise Munaretto & Thiago Henrique Silva, 2020. "Characterization of Public Transit Mobility Patterns of Different Economic Classes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-24, November.
    14. Herszenhut, Daniel & Pereira, Rafael H.M. & Portugal, Licinio da Silva & Oliveira, Matheus Henrique de Sousa, 2022. "The impact of transit monetary costs on transport inequality," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    15. Giovanni Vecchio & Riccardo Porreca & Daniela Jácome Rivera, 2020. "Socio-Spatial Concerns in Urban Mobility Planning: Insights from Competing Policies in Quito," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, April.
    16. Zuo, Yufan & Fu, Xiao & Liu, Zhiyuan & Huang, Di, 2021. "Short-term forecasts on individual accessibility in bus system based on neural network model," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    17. Moisés Obaco & Juan Pablo Díaz-Sánchez, 2018. "“Urbanization in Ecuador: An overview using the FUA definition”," IREA Working Papers 201814, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2018.
    18. Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Santos, Rafael J., 2018. "Unexpected guests: The impact of internal displacement inflows on rental prices in Colombian host cities," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 289-309.
    19. Gollin, Douglas & Lagakos, David & Kirchberger, Martina, 2017. "In Search of a Spatial Equilibrium in the Developing World," CEPR Discussion Papers 12114, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Xu-Hui Li & Lin Huang & Qiang Li & Hu-Chen Liu, 2020. "Passenger Satisfaction Evaluation of Public Transportation Using Pythagorean Fuzzy MULTIMOORA Method under Large Group Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1058-:d:483897. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.