The TRANSITIONS project aims to build a body of knowledge, strengthen capacities, and identify routes for improvement of informal public transport services in six sub-Saharan cities. Transitec coordinates the West African research cluster of the project with city researchers in Freetown, Accra, and Kumasi. Gaining an understanding of the categories of informal and semi-formal transport in a city, the approximate scale of their contribution and background trends to their usage, the scale of the problems to be tackled (e.g. air pollution, safety), and understanding of previous approaches to regulation, are expected to provide the basis for sound decision-making.
The project also includes a Southern African research cluster covering Cape Town, Maputo, and Harare. Beyond city-specific activities, TRANSITIONS will produce a state of knowledge on paratransit on the continent, focus on gender and inclusion in the transport sector, and include uptake and capacity building components. This expected outcome of this project is to foster a positive transition in the policy debate, stakeholder relations and informal transport services.