Striving for equitable transport in low-income countries: New episodes of Reimagining Motion tackle the challenges of improving infrastructure and transport policies to make urban travel accessible for everyone

HVT’s podcast, Reimagining Motion, released two new episodes this month, completing our series highlighting inequalities across the transport sector. The four-part series focuses on the barriers to mobility facing people with disabilities and women and girls in Africa and India, where male- dominated transport systems do not meet their needs, putting their safety at risk and limiting their access to jobs, education, community and healthcare.

The third episode of this series addresses the difficulties experienced by people with disabilities (PWDs) when using road transport and features Executive Director of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT-Kenya), Bright Oywaya. Bright is a wheelchair user herself and has been advising and advocating for issues related to road safety and disability since 1997.

From uneven road surfaces to a lack of signage and information, the episode explores the ways in which PWDs currently lack choices, and asks how we can effectively bridge the gap between policy and implementation whilst ensuring the involvement of persons with disabilities in the policy making process.

In the next episode Sonal Shah, expert on sustainable and gender equitable cities and founder of The Urban Catalysts speaks about reimagining cities and their transport systems through a gender lens.

Co-author of multiple HVT projects, Sonal, a ‘remarkable feminist voice in transport’ (TUMI, 2023), discusses ways in which the COVID 19 pandemic has impacted the movement of women, particularly informal workers, in India and South Asia. She also asks how we avoid a ‘gender digital gap’, as bus-based transport becomes increasingly digitalised while the poorest women have no access to smart phones.

To hear our guests discuss these and other issues around inclusive transport in LICs with host, Holger Dalkmann, download the podcast via your chosen platform (including Spotify, iTunes, and Google Podcasts). All four parts are available now.

Sonal Shah has authored or co-authored several reports for HVT.