ABSTRACT
Unregulated motorcycle transport is vital to billions living with poor road access, yet it is increasingly marginalised in transport policies intended to modernise cities across the Global South. This chapter draws on experiences conducting a project that investigated how the estimated 145,000 boda boda motorcycle taxis in Kampala, the rapidly growing capital of Uganda, provide mobility and income for its poorest inhabitants. To capture these moving targets we designed a project using GPS and video technology to capture the movements and uses of boda bodas in more detailed ways than has previously been managed. The chapter focuses on how the research was shaped by the messiness of the field and the role that the boda boda drivers assumed as co-producers of both data and project goals. Adopting a more autobiographical voice, we show how the city shaped our research and draw tentative lessons for other researchers of mobilities in development contexts. In particular, we highlight the ways in which technology can enable co-production and suggest that new approaches to informal transport and mobility are urgently required in the face of rapid urban growth.
