ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to overcome binary descriptions of transport systems in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam by framing the relations of existing local transport provision as “heterarchies”. Drawing on the case of Jakarta, Doreen Lee describes how “traffic provides the temporal infrastructure that governs the flow of living and leisure, and the patterning of individual desires and struggles by creating a sensation of ‘being traffic’”. The diversity of actors and stakeholders in the transport provision of informal and decentral modes of transport in combination with the variety of formal regulatory institutions, leads to a variety of aims, business models, passenger bases, fare systems, employment, and standards in both locations. The aims regarding improving the reach, accessibility, and flexibility of the transport system in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam serve to justify a reorganization of the current heterarchic organization of the transport sector and to introduce mass rapid transit systems” systems.
