Popular transportation
is transportation created by people to serve people.

Popular transportation is the privately provided, publicly serving local transportation services and systems that emerge in nearly every city in the Global South.

They go by many local names—ojeks, tuk-tuks, jeepneys, matatus, danfos, dala dalas, boda bodas, minibus taxis, microlets, angkots, marshrutkas, diablos rojos, bajajas, colectivos, boda bodas, dollar vans, etc. They run on two-wheels, three-wheels, or four-wheels. They are pedal or motor powered. They can even be electric.

It is sometimes referred to as “informal transportation,” “paratransit,” “intermediate public transit,” or “artisanal public transportation.” (We think those terms are inadequate. Learn why.)

These systems proliferate in almost every city, town, village, and rural area of low- and middle-income countries. They also operate in the underserved fringes of high-income countries. They are so common that these systems likely move more people worldwide than all other modes combined.