Why Transportation Fails

Dr Astrid Wood is an Associate Professor in the School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Astrid is an urban geographer specializing in governance, infrastructure, and transportation. She is the author of How Cities Learn: Tracing Bus Rapid Transit in South Africa (2022) as well as over 40 peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles. She is an editor at Urban Studies and at the Journal of Transport Geography.

"Why Transportation Fails offers a much-needed and timely analysis of the multiple social and spatial injustices characterizing mobility systems and practices in South Africa’s cities. By synthesizing thinking across disciplinary and theoretical traditions, the book begins to open up new ways of imagining more inclusive and just mobility futures in Africa and beyond. An essential read for social scientists, engineers and planners looking for thinking on urban transport in and from the Majority World."Tim Schwanen, Professor of Transport Geography and Director of the Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford"A captivating and insightful book that looks beyond standard tropes about state failure in Africa and instead asks why and how transportation in South Africa (and elsewhere) could be effective and just. Essential reading for anyone interested not just in how to navigate cities, but how to re-frame urban ‘problems’ from new perspectives."Charlotte Lemanski, Professor of Urban Geography, University of Cambridge"Why Transportation Fails is a cutting-edge exploration of urban disappointment. Launched with optimism, many transportation initiatives in post-apartheid South Africa have been let-downs. However, this analysis moves beyond negativity to show how using new frames of analysis provide the resources for rethinking urban transformation."Philip Harrison, South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning, University of the Witwatersrand "Transport geography is always in need of texts that not only critique existing praxis but also offer fresh conceptual and practical insights. Why Transportation Fails seeks to reimagine what successful transport systems can be by blending bold intellectual ambition with radical approaches, including animal geographies, decoloniality, and art geographies. Building on these approaches, Astrid Wood offers an empirically rich exploration of South Africa’s transport system that critically addresses the entanglements of human-environment relations and urban mobilities. This enables Why Transportation Fails to challenge conventional narratives of failure while offering alternative approaches to transport and urban transformation, making it valuable reading for transport and urban planners, policymakers, and scholars across multiple disciplines."James Esson, Professor of Geography, Queen Mary University of London

• 1. Introduction i. Starting with Failure ii. Transportation in South Africa and Beyond iii. Conceptual Contributions iv. Methodologies of Failure v. Navigating This Book 2. Decolonizing Transportation i. Introduction ii. Decolonizing Geography iii. Decolonizing Geography in South Africa iv. Bringing Decolonizing Discourses into Transportation v. Decolonizing Transportation in South Africa vi. Conclusion 3. Black Transportation i. Introduction ii. The Whiteness of Geography iii. Defining Black Geographies iv. Bringing Black Geographies into Transportation v. Black Transportation in Johannesburg vi. Conclusion 4. People-Oriented Transportation i. Introduction ii. Problematizing Transit-Oriented Development iii. Bringing Policy Mobilities into Transportation iv. People-Oriented Transportation in Cape Town and Johannesburg v. A South African Approach to Transportation Planning vi. Conclusion 5. Walking-As-Transportation i. Introduction ii. Reconceptualizing Walkability iii. Walkability in African Cities iv. Walking-As-Transportation in Johannesburg v. The Failings of Walkability in Johannesburg vi. Conclusion 6. Trans-paw-tation i. Introduction ii. Finding the Animals in Human Geography iii. An Urban Paws iv. Bringing Animal Geographies into Transportation v. Trans-paw-tation in South African Cities vi. Conclusion 7. Transp-art-ation i. Introduction ii. Art in Postapartheid South Africa iii. Bringing Art into Transportation iv. Transp-art-ation in South Africa v. Conclusion 8. When Transportation Fails i. Introduction ii. Public Health, Epidemiology, and Urbanization iii. Disease and the South African City iv. Transportation and COVID‑19 v. Impact of COVID‑19 on Transportation in South Africa vi. Conclusion 9. Conclusion i. Introduction ii. Reflecting on Why Transportation Fails iii. Reflecting on Transportation in South Africa… iv. Reflecting on Transportation … Beyond