Affordable and Accessible Public Transportation

This proposal addresses transport poverty — a major, and under-recognised, driver of reduced economic and social participation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which most acutely affects people living on or below the poverty line, and disproportionately women, children, older people, persons with disabilities, and residents of informal settlements and peri-urban peripheries. Building on the four-dimensional characterisation of transport poverty — availability, affordability, connectivity and acceptability — it calls for the development of reliable, affordable, accessible and safe public transport systems in LMIC towns and cities, in line with SDG 11.2, complemented by planning measures to contain urban sprawl, slum-uplift programmes integrating transit access, vehicle-restraint measures on urban highways, and radically improved walking environments. The operational core is an five-step programme articulating the roles of international, national and local authorities: raising awareness of transport poverty and embedding a clear mandate and targets within SDG 11.2, drawing on emerging recognition at EU level and in development-bank guidance; developing standardised indicators and open-source accessibility tools to measure country-level progress; providing training and multi-modal planning frameworks for local planners and operators, institutionalising participatory transport planning with affected communities — including informal and slum settlements — and supporting community-based transport consumer associations and citizen audits to strengthen budget accountability. The proposal addresses the chronic shortfall of finance for operating costs and fare subsidies, taking into account that multilateral lending largely covers only capital costs and that concessionary fares, while the most targeted tool for transport-poor users, are expensive. It does so by recommending hypothecated complementary revenues (congestion charges, road-usage and parking fees, environmental taxes, land-value capture) and a reorientation of development banks to include operating-cost subsidies in their financing envelopes, while tackling gender-based violence and safety concerns that shape perceived accessibility, notably for low-income women workers. Anchored in participatory planning and governance approach deeply embedded within LMIC local contexts, the proposal repositions public transport as a rights-based public service central to eradicating poverty beyond growth.