The Convergence of Transit Modes to Create Spatial Interfaces by Salma Nassar

Building and Urban Design in Development Development Planning Unit University College London 1st September 2017

The Convergence of Transit Modes to Create Spatial Interfaces Public Tranist in Cairo Salma Nassar MSc. Building and Urban Design in Development

A dissertation submitted in partial fullfilment of the requirements for the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development 10,977 words Supervisor: Julio D. Dรกvila

Dedicated to all the wandering souls that never cease to find their way back ...

Do not love half lovers Do not entertain half friends Do not indulge in works of the half talented Do not live half a life and do not die a half death If you choose silence, then be silent When you speak, do so until you are finished Do not silence yourself to say something And do not speak to be silent If you accept, then express it bluntly Do not mask it If you refuse then be clear about it for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance Do not accept half a solution Do not believe half truths Do not dream half a dream Do not fantasize about half hopes Half a drink will not quench your thirst Half a meal will not satiate your hunger Half the way will get you no where Half an idea will bear you no results Your other half is not the one you love It is you in another time yet in the same space It is you when you are not Half a life is a life you didnâ&#x20AC;şt live, A word you have not said A smile you postponed A love you have not had A friendship you did not know To reach and not arrive Work and not work Attend only to be absent What makes you a stranger to them closest to you and they strangers to you The half is a mere moment of inability but you are able for you are not half a being You are a whole that exists to live a life not half a life Gibran Khalil Gibran

Table of Contents Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Acronyms

iii

Introduction

Chapter 1 | The Decline of the Dichotomy

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

Introduction The Evolution of the Dichotomy Paratranist The Interaction: Transit and Paratransit

Chapter 2 | The Space 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7

Introduction The Urban Space How is Computer-User Interface Related to Urban Space? The Interaction: Transit and Paratransit The Juxtaposition of CUI and Spatial Interface The Reproduced Spatial Interface (RSI) The Combined Framework

12 14 16 18 18 18 18 20 20 21

Chapter 3 | Cairo - al-Qāhirah

3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4

22 23 23 27

Introduction The Capital The (in)formal - ‘ashwa’i The Rise of Paratransit

Chapter 4 | The Intersection

4.1 4.2 4.3

30 31 44

The Intersection Points The Criteria of Site Selection Analysis

Conclusion

References Appendix

46 48

i Acknowledgments I would like to thank Julio DĂĄvila for his support throughout my dissertation research. And for his encouragement to explore a path that I have no experience in just to follow my developing passion towards transport planning. This dissertation is dedicated to the person who made me who I am today and who broke every obstacle so I can be here in this institution to follow my aspiration, she is my mother. This dedication is not just ink on paper, she is woman who believes in the power of knowledge and practice. To her, I learned nothing if I do not teach it to someone else or simply share what I have learned, so this research is just one step closer to making her proud. I would like to thank my father, who teaches me how to be a compassionate human, and who induced my thrive to help others. My family were my only excuse not to give up when it got bumpy throughout this year and this includes a sister that I never had, my dear friend Malak. I would specifically like to mention her contributions towards bringing together this piece of work, and never hesitating to help whenever she could just to make it better. Even if it meant chasing crazy microbuses alone in Cairoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s burning weather while I was here in London. Family to me are the people who teach you a little something every day and believe in you even when you are doubting yourself. I luckily met three precious life companions whom I can safely call family, Juan, Nandita and Azul. They are a great reason behind my learning experience and strength. I would like to thank them for their unconditional support and love. Finally, all the gratitude goes to the people who did not directly impact this research but, helped in every other way on top of that list is my brother Ali and best friends. And of course my great teachers and my phenomenal BUDD class.

ii List of Acroyms AUC A.R.E CAPMAS CMO CTA FUE GCMA GDP GOPP GTZ ILO JICA NGO NUCA PCPF SDMP RSI TfC UN UN-Habitat UNDP

The American University in Cairo Arab Republic of Egypt Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics [al-Jihaz al-Markazi li-l-Ta’bi’a al-Amma wa-l-Ihsa’] (Arab Republic of Egypt) Cairo Metro Organization Cairo Transport Authority Future University in Egypt The Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area Gross Domestic Product General Organisation of Physical Planning of Egypt Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zuasmmenarbeit GmbH (a German federally owned sustainable development organisation) International Labor Organisation Japanese International Cooperation Agency Non-Governmental Organization New Urban Communities Authority of A.R.Egypt Petty Commodity Production Framework The Strategic Urban Development Master Plan Study for a sustainable Development of the GCMA in Egypt Reproduced Spatial Interface Transport for Cairo L.L.P: a private company that is working on mapping transit means in Cairo United Nations United Nations Programme for Human Settlements United Nations Development Programme

iii List of Figures Introduction Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Figure i

A view of Cairo. ©Photograph by Author. 2015

Figure 1.1

An illustration to explain the relationship of formal to informal

Figure 1.2

Road-based public transport modal splits (Ferro and Behrens, 2015)

Figure 1.3

A view of Cairo from Ibn Tulun Mosque. © Photograph by Author. 2015

Figure 2.1

Analogy of CUI and Space Diagram

Figure 2.2

The Process of bonding

Figure 2.3 Figure 3.1

Multiplying connections between interfaces

Figure 3.2

Population Distribution

Figure 3.3

Formal/Informal Urban Fabric

Figure 3.4

Informal Settlements in Cairo © Claudia Wiens

Figure 3.5

Formal-Informal Synergy

Figure 3.6

Informal Pockets in Mohandisin © GOOGLE

Figure 3.7

Typical Microbus station and CTA Bus © Egyptian Streets, 2015

Figure 3.8

Paratransit Actor Diagram

Figure 4.1

Study Locations in Cairo

Figure 4.2

Ramses Railway Station Context

Figure 4.3

Annotated Map of Ramses Station

Figure 4.4

Ramses Railway Station Entrance © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.5

Vendors’ Market © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.6

Ramses Station RSI Diagram

Figure 4.7

Microbus Station & Tutuk © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.8

Ma’adi Station Context © GOOGLE

Figure 4.9

Annotated Map of Ma’adi Station

Figure 4.10

Microbuses and Market © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.11

Metro Station © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.12

Street Vendors © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.13

Ma’adi Station RSI Diagram

Figure 4.14

Microbus Station © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.15

Vendors, Metro and Microbus Station © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.16

Sheikh Zayed and New Cairo Context © GOOGLE

Figure 4.17

Annotated Map of 90 Avenue and al-Mehwar Axis

Figure 4.18

Road 90 Vendors

Figure 4.19

CTA bus at Microbus Stop © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.20

Police interacting with Drivers © Photograph by Author

Figure 4.21

Sheikh Zayed Vendors

Figure 4.22

RSI Diagrams Sheikh Zayed and New Cairo

Figure 4.23

Comparative RSI Diagrams

Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area © GOOGLE

iii

Introduction “Mistress of broad provinces and the fruitful lands, boundless in profusion of buildings, peerless in beauty and splendor, she shelters all you will of the learned and the ignorant, the grave and the gay, the prudent and the foolish, the noble and the and the base… Like the waves of the sea she surges with her throngs of folk, yet for all the capacity of her station and her power to sustain can scarce hold their number. Her youth is ever new despite the length of the days. Her reigning star never shifts from mansion to fortune.” – Ibn Baṭūṭah1 , AD 1326 (Rodenbeck, 2000, p. 2) “A city bursts at the seams It spilled over onto its dead (…) How curious you are, O Cairo! With life and death bundled together, jumbled up/inside you.” – Bahaa Jahin2 , 1994 (Sims, 2009, p. 22)

(1) Abu Abdallah Ibn Battuta

is a Muslim medieval scholar and traveller who comes from the northwest of Morocco, from a city called Tangier by the straits of Gibraltar. He travelled a total of 75,000 miles throughout his lifetime mostly on foot

(2)

Bahaa Jahin is the son of the renowned Egyptian writer Salah Jahin, Jahin Jr is a journalist, poet, lyricist and a cartoonist. He is known for his vernacular writings and poetry.

The contradictory nature of Cairo is not a contemporary identity. Its conversing characteristics have been demonstrated by multiple scholars, poets, and writers, since it was established in the 10th century by the Fatimids. One of the most reliable descriptions was by the Moroccan scholar, Ibn Batuttah. He dictated the above encomium to his secretary Ibn Juzzay about the city’s ability to encompass differences (Rodenbeck, 2000). Contemporary Cairo is still prominent for its polarity; its juxtapositions are usually in dissonance, when chaos and irrationality delineate its order (Rodenbeck, 2000; Sims, 2010; AlSayyad & Ebrary, 2011). However, in other instances the intersection of contradicting bodies becomes synchronized in such a way that they act as a single integrated system once they interact or learn to interact. This is the referential starting point for this dissertation; how concurring systems of the city – Cairo – collaborate with one another to synthesize a holistic product: namely, space. Cairo and similar metropoles in the global South are governed by the collaborative incongruent systems of production (formal and informal), to serve the colossal system of the city – enabling access to opportunity (Harvey, 2003). Thus, they become essentially complementary. Caroline Moser introduced it in her “Petty Commodity Production” (PCP), highlighting that the prominent juxtaposition of the formal and the informal, interact together in a dependent way to produce a whole (Moser, 1978; Roy, 2015). This challenges the theory of urban dualism, which characterizes the divergent systems as separate modes of production that are not related (Hart, 1973; Moser, 1978). Treating production modes as separate entities, leaves out their complex linkages and dependent relationships; it also implies that the city is underpinned with naivety and segregation. Accordingly, they are better viewed as having dependent relationships that are spread over a continuum (Moser, 1978; Roy, 2012; Roy, 2015).

This dissertation will explore one of the intricate linkages between formal and informal structures through the perspective of transit in Cairo. Public transit in multiple cities across the global South is not exclusively operated and regulated by the government. ‘Public transit’ is a shared market between two sub-sectors: privately owned, unplanned systems (known as: “paratransit” or informal transit) and formal planned transit systems (Cervero, 2001; Ferro & Behrens, 2015). The sub-sectors interact in an iterative process resulting in the making and unmaking of their congregational space to accommodate the different produced trajectories. The fashion of reproduction of space is based on a lattice of dependent relationships, through trading essential elements from one another to create a collaborative functioning whole. (Moser,

, 1978; Roy, 2015). The reproduced space is significant as it acts as an activator then a mediator for new intricate linkages between contrasting elements. In other words, it acts as an interface. According to the computer scientist Dan Olsen, a computer-user interface fundamentally functions the same way; where humans and a data application system meet, and speak a common language through a common boundary (Olsen, 1998). The dissertation will utilize the theory of computer-user interface (CUI) to set the parameters analysis within Moser’s evocative theory of PCP and Olsen’s rationalist CUI theory to create a combined framework. It is an attempt to coordinate two extremes rationalities to make sense of the complex space. The dissertation will be divided into four chapters. The first chapter will discuss the theory of “Petty Commodity Production” that illustrates the formal and informal sector as non-binary and how their relationship is best distributed over a continuum. Through the mobility and transit sector perspective and why it is utilized to explain the phenomenon of the reproduced space. The second chapter will coordinate the CUI concept with the PCP to establish the defining elements of the space. The hypothesis of the combined framework will be essentially tested over multiple locations in Cairo, thus a concise context analysis of the city will be discussed in chapter 3. Chapter 4 will analyze the given sites through the combined framework. The relevance of a CUI to space becomes perceptible when thinking of space as a machine that is connected to to many simultaneous systems. By the end of chapter 2 the limitations of this framework will be presented. However, this framework is a contributory effort to analyse that moment of interaction and the products of its reaction.

Paratransit Transit Systems

Formal Transit Systems

Space (Interface)

fig. i a concept illustration

of the dissertation

Cairo Photography Series

fig. ii a view of Cairo from Cairo Citadel

Chapter 1 The Convergence of the Dichotomy 1.1 Introduction Prior to discussing the spatial reproduction because of the complex intersection of public paratransit and public transit, it is fundamental to discuss the origins of informality. Then analyse the nature of the interaction with its juxtaposed mode of production, the formal. Both production modes have strong agency in shaping urban space. Urban space embodies the intricate interactions, and simultaneously becomes the domain of the new reproduced element, which is also space (Von Schönfeld & Bertolini, 2017). Caroline Moser’s alternative interpretation to dualism: PCP framework, will be used to have a closer look on how Transport in Cairo is positioned within this theory (Moser, 1978; Roy, 2015).

1.2 The Development of the Dichotomy 1.2.1 The informal Sector The notion of informality is subject to various interpretations depending on its context, however, they are all derived from the original paradigm of the term. The informal is a term that could be attributed to Keith Hart’s work and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in the seventies (Hart, 1973; Moser, 1978; Roy, 2012; Roy, 2015). “Hart’s conceptualization of informality has been commonly interpreted as “the relationship of economic activity to intervention or regulation by state” (Roy, 2015, p. 818) The notion of informality is subject to various interpretations depending on its context, In other words, the informal is the “outlier”; that notion of the other constructed the dualistic dogma of “urban dualism”. (Moser, 1978; Roy, 2015). In the context of the global south, the informal sector was associated with the urban poor as they were the most apparent pioneers of the sector. Namely, the urban peasants who immigrated from the rural to the urban, predominantly settled in informal squatter settlements. The formal sector’s growth lagged in certain aspects due the accelerated growth of the informal sector. The growth gap lead to “dualistic imbalances within the political and economic system” (Moser, 1978, p. 1043). As the capitalist system of the city was unable generate enough job opportunities to cope with the increase of labor force. Unemployment became an inevitable threat, thus the informal sector engulfed the unemployed. The works of Moser and the ILO highlighted that countries which lack unemployment benefits or do not have an implementation plan to enforce pensions, are countries where adults are forced to seek alternative livelihood forms and benefit from the (un)employment “fringe” benefits (Moser, 1978). Keith Hart described the informal sector as the “easier accessed” sector because it is fairly undemanding and less selective, this accounts as the premium attraction of the informal sector amongst the labor force. He added that getting involved with informal activities is easily facilitated and requires skills outside the formal schooling system. The sector relies on the available primitive resources to establish small to medium businesses (thus easier to maintain), and it operates in unregulated markets (Hart, 1973; Moser, 1978). This establishes the informal as a strong agent of production.

1.2.2 Urban Dualism Hart’s dualist dichotomy assumed both sectors are two independent realms which originate from two production circuits, a “high profit/high wage international oligopolistic sector and a low profit/low wage competitive capitalistic sector” (Hart, 1973; Moser, 1978, p. 1051). He established that some operations of the informal are complementary to the formal system, which creates a paradox in the theory. This made the dual assumption less generic and more conditional. The theory of urban dualism was supported by more scholars: Dipak Mazumdar and J. Weeks. Mazumdar adopts the protected/unprotected sector dualism as means of differentiation (Mazumdar, 1976; Moser, 1978). Mazumdar’s basic distinction is that the formal sector’s provision of a job opportunity is protected from job seekers unless they manage to pass the selection barrier (Mazumdar, 1976). J. Weeks regards the relationship between the informal and the formal as benign, he even further recommended to increase the level of engagement between both sectors. Moser noticed the heavy concentration of scholars on differentiating between the two systems of production and neglecting the compound connections between the different systems that lay the foundation of the productive “ensemble” (Moser, 1978).

1.2.3 From Binary to a Continuum If the dualistic theory is practically applied, the informal sector’s growth will not be conditional or restricted by ‘structural’ factors (such as social and political norms), but the reality dictates a different scenario. The informal sector’s growth can neither be classified as having absolute external growth (extending towards the formal) nor an exclusive internal progression; in other words, evolutionary versus “involutionary”3 (Moser, 1978, p.1056). It has a simultaneous development nature of the sector, it forms intricate linkages in both directions to enhance its growth. The first is the internal enhancement/strengthening of social and economic linkages within the sector and the second is developing new external connections with the formal sector, to mature its structure and growth. Thus, the informal sector could be characterized by having permeable boundaries that allow for active and passive growths, internally and externally. As the connections strengthen the more dependent the systems become. informal

(3)

Involution per Meriam Webster Dictionary: “1. the act or an instance of enfolding or entangling 2. Complexity and Intricacy” (Involution, n.d.).

formal

fig.1.1 an illustration to explain the relationship of formal to informal

Moser’s “Petty Commodity Production” framework utilizes Marx’s theory of the straight forward interaction between two operating modes of production. Petty does not refer to the simplicity of the production process, but to the simple exchange of commodities/ services between both sectors. The complementary interactions between them co-produce a functioning whole (Moser, 1978). Which is “a ‘totality [that] is self-sufficient at both superstructural level and at the economic base’” (Moser, 1978, p. 1057). This is based on the recognition of the distribution of relationships along an urban continuum between the formal and informal and how they work together to “produce”.

This discards the theory of dualism, the continuum accounts for more variations of the same scenario along a spectrum. Thus, this liberates the boundaries of systems’ definitions to become more inclusive of production variations. The informal and formal realms co-exist and complement each other in a very interdependent manner, that they soon became two entities that can hardly be mutually exclusive (Moser, 1978; Recio, Edgarfo and Gomez, 2013; Roy, 2015). So, based on Moser’s PCP framework, it is therefore strongly debatable to say that the main producer and the dominant controller over trade is solely the capitalist mode, because the ‘petty commodity production’ occurs as an alternative mode of production when both sectors intersect. As a matter of fact, the informal sector is a necessity to the growth or collapse of the formal sector. Moser concludes by: “Petty production, is dependent on capitalism while at the same time the capitalist mode of production benefits from the existence and the relative viability of petty production for the maintenance of a low level of subsistence and a low cost of labour production.” (Moser, 1978, p. 1056) way through cities. But what occurred is that informality has been reinforced by the ‘silent’ governmental laws and clauses (Humphreys, 2006) (Refer to Annex 1).

1.3 Paratransit To a great degree, Moser’s framework – petty commodity production (of economies, services, space, commodities or even cities) – explains the dynamics of transit in many cities in the global south. However, the framework does not explicitly describe the complementary nature of formal and informal. It justifies the mutual interaction to respond to a market gap. The informal sector is a notably opportunistic sector and it is highly responsive to market changes (Roy, 2015; Barsoum, 2016). Its emergence partially relies on the failure of the “other” sector to provide a certain commodity (Moser, 1978). The following sections will introduce the main elements of the case study that shape the argument of intersecting production modes utilizing the transport sector as its lens.

1.3.1 Why Transport and Mobility? “Travel offers the means to reach essential opportunities such as jobs, education, shops and friends, which affect the quality of life. Lack of mobility is inextricably linked to social disadvantage.” ─ Helena Titheridge et al. (Titheridge et al, 2014, p. 1) “Mobility refers as much to the act of moving from one place to another using some mode or transport, as to the social and cultural meaning of this movement.” ─ Julio D. Dávila (Dávila, 2013, p. 9) “Incorporating a focus of daily mobility is one of the newest forms of approaching urban transport planning today. […] One aspect to which daily mobility specifically refers is the possibility of linking the daily experience of travel with new forms of improving transport and urban planning.” ─ Paola Jirón (Jirón, 2013, p. 30) The above testimonials are a small fraction of advocacies made to support mobility’s impact on everyday life. Mobility and transport have become a fundamental attribute in cities in

in general, regardless of its geographical location or GDP. Mobility refers to the act of movement or flow of people, money, commodities, and most importantly information that keep the city a functioning body. Therefore, mobility and transport should not be overlooked, or regarded as a secondary element to the city. They shape the city’s identity and quality of life, through interfering with the urban space’s morphology (Dávila, 2013; Von Schönfeld, & Bertolini, 2017). Mobility and transport systems are significantly embodied in urban space, thus it is strongly associated with other urban systems such as public space (Von Schönfeld, & Bertolini, 2017). Therefore, mobility becomes a social and economic facilitator that aids citizens to carry on their daily activities and access opportunities. To conclude, the transport and mobility sector has been chosen to represent the interactive nature of its subsectors (formal and informal) because how it is deeply rooted in urban operations, is the producer of unique urban forms.

1.3.2 What is Paratransit? In line with the rapid urbanization that is taking place in numerous cities in the global south, governments have failed to provide, operate and maintain public transit that keeps up with the rate of population growth (Recio, Edgarfo and Gomez, 2013). As a natural organic response, informal forms of public transit start to emerge to serve the missing void, which is referred to in multiple literatures as paratransit. Paratransit can be considered a form of production that interacts with the formal transit system under the framework of “petty commodity production” to make up the holistic transport sector in the global south (Moser, 1978; Ferro & Behrens, 2015).

Paratransit is an undivided portion of public transportation systems in many cities around the world and especially in the Global South, but still its definition varies significantly (Kassa, 2014). The term could vary depending on its context, in the United States for example, paratransit is a term that could be used to describe transit that is adapted to mobility impaired citizens (Nguyen-Hoang & Yeung, 2010). While in the context of the Global South, multiple literatures address paratransit differently, it is mainly a road-based transport means (motorized and non-motorized) that is privately owned and is open for the public. “The term “paratransit” conventionally describes a flexible mode of passenger public transportation that does not necessarily follow fixed routes or schedules, typically in the form of small- to medium-sized buses. In the Global South, paratransit services are usually provided for the general population, often by unregulated or illegal operators within the informal sector. For this reason, paratransit in the Global South is sometimes also referred to in the literature as “informal” transport.” (Ferro and Behrens, 2015, p.123). Paratransit became a standard facet to many cities of the global south. Like informality, it is directly associated with the urban poor as its users. It does in fact “refer to the means that serve the majority who are deprived from governmentally subsidised forms of transport due to lack of accessibility and affordability. (Cervero, 2001; Ferro and Behrens, 2015).” (Nassar, 2017). Yet, its users are not exclusively the urban poor, but the “transport-poor” citizens. Meaning, the citizens who have poor accessibility to any form of public transport provided by the government and that includes the urban poor (Roy, 2015). Paratransit started to attract more of the middle class, educated and working users, due to its on-demand mobility service, which offers high convenience to the user when it comes to choosing. For example: the user’s choice between taking the underground or hopping on a moving jeepney, the jeepney will usually be the primary choice as it is in many ways more “efficient”, in terms of distance, and modal transfer. Moreover, it offers a wider locus of area coverage than the formal transit’s provision (Cervero, & Golub, 2007).

1.4 The interaction: Transit and Paratransit The petty commodity production framework is ideal in explaining the undivided subelements of production and how they inevitably interact to produce a functioning transit system whole. The myth of marginality of the informal immediately diminishes with the acknowledgment of its role in maintaining the growth of the formal sector. Transport is no exception, it conforms to the dependency theory of the urban continuum. The road-based public transport modal split in many cities as seen in the fig. 1.2 is divided over paratransit and formal transit (Ferro and Behrens, 2015). The passenger dependency on paratransit in Latin America and North Africa is up to 90%. Since it has been established that the different production sectors do not work independently, the sectors inescapably work cooperatively. While researchers are intuitively focused on the defining characteristics and empirical data of paratransit, adopting Moserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ideology shifts the attention to the intricate relationships and points of intersection between formal-transit and paratransit, which will be discussed further in the case study (Moser, 1978; Roy, 2015). Modal Splits, selected motorized modes City, Country

Year

Private car

Public railbased modes

Public road-based modes

Public road-based modal splits Formal

Paratransit

Latin America Caracas, Venzuela

2007

27%

20%

53%

26%

74%

Mexico City, Mexico

2007

21%

14%

65%

11%

89%

Quito, Ecuador

2012

25%

75%

10%

90%

Abidjan, Ivory Coast

1998

no data

100%

37%

63%

Algiers, Algeria

2004

no data

97%

Cairo, Egypt

1998

no data

39%

61%

15%

85%

Cape Town, South Africa 2004

45%

30%

25%

28%

72%

Casablanca, Morocco

1998

no data

100%

72%

28%

Dakar, Senegal

2003

no data

98%

95%

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 2008

13%

87%

98%

Nairobi, Kenya

2008

33%

no data

67%

29%

71%

Tunis, Tunisia

2000

no data

28%

72%

100%

Jakarta, Indonesia

1998

no data

98%

66%

34%

Manila, Philippines

1998

no data

97%

22%

78%

Teheran, Iran

1998

no data

100%

44%

56%

Africa

fig 1.2 Road-based public transport modal splits Author: (Ferro and Behrens, 2015)

Asia

Cairo Photography Series

fig. 1.3 a view of Cairo from Ibn Tulun Mosque

Chapter 2 The Space 2.1 Introduction The interaction of formal-transit and paratransit manifests itself in urban space, and contributes in creating the functioning whole. The intricate interaction penetrates multiple layers of social, political, economic and urban structures which leads to reproducing an appropriated space that encompasses all the compound compositions. As per the petty commodity production theory, the new appropriated space is a by-product of formal public transit interacting with paratransit and the user, but the space is also a fundamental reason of why this interaction is happening in the first place. Therefore, space acts as both an initial activator and the interface where different boundaries meet and interact easily through a common boundary. The current chapter will build on the justified interactions with the technical concept of the “computer-user interface” (CUI) to explain how space is activated by the interaction of the actors; then, it acts as a moderator to the interaction process.

2.2 The Urban Space “The right to the city is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change it after our heart’s desire. We need to be sure we can live with our own creations (a problem for every planner, architect and utopian thinker). But the right to remake ourselves by creating a qualitatively different kind of urban sociality is one of the most precious of all human rights.”

─ David Harvey. (Harvey, 2003, p. 939)

As stated by Harvey, space in the city is available and every citizen should have the right to access it. However, the question of equality and the Marxist theory of accumulation of capital is not the centre of the argument, rather that space is bound to be changed, created, altered, integrated and then recreated. The cycle goes on infinitely. The core of this concept is derived from reflecting on the chaotic harmony of contemporary urbanization (Harvey, 2003). Generally, the right to appropriate space is being aggressively resisted and threatened, but in other cases, citizens of the space practice that right almost freely with much depressed levels of resistance and threats, because they learnt how to control it. This accurately describes many demonstrations of informality in general across cities. Citizens start to weave their own needs in dynamic, efficient and creative ways possible. The issue of the paratransit is that it is an entrepreneurial initiative and it operates in both the formal “planned” city and the informal “unplanned” city, so its operation requirements (such as stations) are not entirely pre-considered in the planned city. Therefore these required elements are woven into the city, either superimposed or self-integrated (Cervero, 2001; Cervero & Golub, 2007). One type of these spaces namely formal public transit stations. The encounter of the two transit structures, first, activates the production of the appropriated space. Second, that newly produced space facilitates the interaction between them and the user, thus act as an interface.

2.3 How is Computer-User Interface Related to Urban Space? The basic principles that the computer-user interface theory is built on is the idea of the interaction between two unrelated systems, that communicate using two very different languages through a simple interactive operation, that is facilitated by the interface (Olsen, 1998). An interface per the dictionary is:

“the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other” (Interface, 2017). Hence that “place” is the space and the simple interactions to carry out an operation resonates with the petty commodity production framework. The space, initially gathers both entities together and responds to all their simultaneous needs. Hence the computer-user interface (CUI) implements two consecutive and sometimes simultaneous tasks, one is to provide a simplified gateway to the user to interact with a very complex system, and the second is to execute or respond to the need of the user by updating the system with the response. “When an application appears on the screen, the user must understand what is displayed, evaluate what is presented, formulate some desired change to the model. […] The application software must then interpret those inputs and generate changes to the internal model that the program maintains. This internal model represents the current state of whatever the user is attempting to interact with.” (Olsen, 1998, p. 11). The computer-user interface does not solely carry out the facilitative operation between the user and the computer system, in fact it moderates every other interaction that occurs between the computer system and any other digital system (Olsen, 1998). Therefore, the CUI becomes the host of all languages of the different systems, mediates their interaction, and controls their reactions. Yet, no interaction will occur unless two or more of the participants interact. So, the computer-user interface system becomes activated (Olsen, 1998). Urban spaces function exactly the same, they are the main hosts of multiple running urban systems (Von Schönfeld, & Bertolini, 2017). They embody the relationships between them and within each system, and they manage the resulting tensions to reach temporal plateaus of consensus among most of the participants. Using the example of transit, user and the interface (reproduced urban space): “[U]rban Spaces epitomize the struggle to accommodate functions of ‘efficient’ and ‘fast’ but also ‘sustainable [interactions]” (Von Schönfeld, & Bertolini, 2017, p. 48). Urban space and CUI encompass contradictions and accommodate interactions. The analogy that CUI represents is so powerful, as it illustrates multiple levels of interactions and linkages to achieve a certain task or service. However, the interaction that has been explained in chapter one and introduced in chapter two is not exclusively between paratransit and formal public transit, but how both systems manage to reach an equilibrium in such a way that they interact with the most fundamental player, which is the user. Without the user, the entire argument becomes invalid similar to the CUI. User

User

CUI

(interface)

Data Model A

SPACE

Data Model C Data Model B

Urban System A

Urban System C Urban System B

fig. 2.1 Analogy of CUI and Space - representing an example of connected systems

2.4 Interactive Cycle Analogously, when the user encounters the application interface, it must display a set of options for the user to choose from. The user then makes the decision to demand a certain operation; the interface should now communicate with that data model to begin to respond to the user’s need by generating updates. Respectively, urban space that congregates different systems displays as set of choices of transit modes, and once the user selects the preferred mode the space will direct the user to respond to the demand. The interactive cycle is basically the iteration of the initial function of the CUI. Since the user’s demands fluctuate depending on personal preferences, the executed operations may vary. That is why the interface provides a certain number of choices for the user to explore, and to choose. Then the system updates itself to meet these demands in a way that is mutually efficient and convenient to both entities.

2.5 The Juxtaposition of CUI and Spatial Interface Computer scientists predict several scenarios where the CUI system fails; they call them the gulfs of the system. It is when there is a clear contradiction between what the user wants and what the system is offering (Olsen, 1998) (Refer to Annex 2). The gulfs of the computer user interface were identified by computer scientists to track any errors that may occur during the user’s encounter. But that framework would face limitations when directly applying it to urban space. The model poses a risk while accounting for a very rational understanding of interactions, whereas in reality they are more arbitrary (Von Schönfeld, & Bertolini, 2017). Technological analogies can suffer the risk of diminishing the nuance and unpredictability of human agencies, particularly when they are at odds with each other. They could operate outside of the “system” at times or permanently, by developing alternative mechanisms. In addition, there might be external patterns outside the perceived system (a regulatory change affects a trend, a political change, an infrastructure problem, conflict, etc.) that incapacitate the original system. The CUI model relies on a certain circuitry iterations that feed the machine’s learning. It depends on a nearly pre-designed logic to perform predictable presuppositions. (Olsen, 1998) What it leaves out are the contradictions and inaccuracies that are integral to urban space, especially when interacting with the informal.

2.6 The Reproduced Spatial Interface (RSI) When inserting space in Moser’s framework, which is heavily ethnographic and almost impressionistic, with Olsen’s extremely positivist and technical framework, the understanding of space becomes multidimensional. These very different epistemologies acknowledge the order in the chaos and the chaos in the order of the holistic producing system. The analogy of the CUI and space acknowledges a degree of order and hierarchy of interactions that are necessarily iterative, which allows for a very rational understanding of the intricate relations. What Moser’s framework does, is it positions the interactions within a more intricate web of manifold “straight forward” interactions. As illustrated in fig 2.2 all these interactions contribute in the continuous making and unmaking of spaces, which enable new interactions and linkages to occur. Hence reproduce new spatial interfaces that iterate the production processes exponentially (Moser, 1978; Olsen, 1998; Harvey, 2003).

User

SPACE

(interface)

New Linkage between systems Urban System A

Urban System C

RSI Reproduced Spatial Interface

fig. 2.2 The process of formation of new bonds to produce RSIs

Urban System B

2.7 The Juxtaposition of CUI and Spatial Interface As seen in fig 2.3, the combined framework is derived from creating a hypothetical web of relations between the elements that generate the â&#x20AC;&#x153;reproduced spatial interfaceâ&#x20AC;?. It is the space that acts as the temporal boundary that facilitates their interaction, growth and strengthening of their relationships. These elements are: Pre-existing Interfaces

The spaces that initially induced the interaction between different actors and production systems.

Space Actors

The contributing actors to the RSI, such as the user.

Systems

The operating systems that involve the space actors, such as transit and its sub-systems paratransit and formal transit. System

System

Space

Interface

Space

User

Interface System

System

System User

New Linkage between systems

fig. 2.3 The process of formation of new bonds to produce RSIs

RSI Reproduced Spatial Interface

(The represented diagram is an abstracted diagram implying multiplication)

Chapter 3 Cairo - al-QÄ hirah 3.1 Introduction This chapter of the dissertation builds up on both the theoretical and practical frameworks and to give a contextual framework on the case study: Cairo. Providing a concise background about its history and its development of the formal and informal continuum of relationships in the urban space. To pave the way for introducing the transport sector operating in the city to represent the relationship of paratransit and public transit and their interaction with space and the user.

GCMA Boundary fig. 3.1 Extents of the Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area (Image dated 2017, ďż˝2017 GOOGLE)

8 km

3.2 The Capital Cairo as described by foreign observers could portray itself as “chaotic, overcrowded, cacophonous, disorganized, confusing, polluted, dirty, teeming, [and] sprawling” (Sims, 2009, p. 3). However, al-Qāhirah4 (Cairo) does not fail to satisfy its literal definition in Arabic – ‘The Invincible’ or ‘The Victorious’– it has been a teacher of resilience ever since it was given its name by the Fatimids in the 10th century BCE (Sims, 2010). What its name suggests still remains to be true until today, as it is clearly manifested in its survival mechanisms despite its density and overcrowding, broken economy, and an unstable political status since 2011 (Sims, 2010; Abaza, 2014; Barsoum, 2016). The Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area (GCMA) is home to approximately half of the Egyptian urban population and it is claimed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) “the most densely inhabited metropolis on Earth, at 257 persons per built up hectare” (Sims, 2009, p. 228). The compactness of the city only makes the competition for its resources extremely vigorous, and to perform daily routines, citizens must go through a “survival of the fittest” battle. According to the Egyptian Government Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), in the 2006 census the megalopolis population was 17 million which is almost equivalent to a quarter of the entire Egyptian population (≈ 17-22 million people by day) and it is expected to grow to 24 million by the year 2027 (Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009; JICA, 2010; Sims, 2010; World Bank, 2013). The city now presents feasible facts to argue that it is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East larger than Lagos and Tehran (Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009). Per JICA’s city boundary definition, the population is distributed over three main urban typologies (Nippon Koei co., Ltd., & Katahira & Engineers International, 2009; JICA, 2010; Sims, 2010) as seen in the figure below.

(4 ) Arabic for Cairo: meaning The Invincible or The Victorious

Peri-Urban Greater Cairo

24%

Imbaba Uism Badrashyn al-Hawamidiya

Greater Cairo Proper

72%

Cairo Governorate Giza City (part of Giza Governorate) Shubra Al Khayma City (part of Qalyubia Governorate)

Land Typology urban rural desert

Greater Cairo Desert

New Cairo al-Shuruq al-Badr Tenth of Ramadan

fig. 3.2 Diagram illustrating population distribustion. (Nippon Koei co., Ltd., & Katahira & Engineers International, 2009;Sims, 2010; JICA, 2010)

3.3 The informal - Al-‘Ashwa’i 3.3.1 The Informal Settlements – Al ‘Ashwa’iyat How JICA classified Cairo’s cityscape, might be rather superficial, as these classifications draw a very clear line between what is urban, peri-urban and new satellite towns. However, the reality of the situation is more complex. The classification does not account for Cairo’s major urban typology which its integrated informality – referring to the definition given by Hart (refer to: sec. 1.2.1) – and how it altered the urban morphology of the city over time, and they are not only located at the fringes of the city (Bayat & Denis, 2000). The most popular form of informality in the city is al-ashwa’iyat5 (informal settlements), the term also accounts for various forms of informality but it is rooted in informal urbanization. One way to look at ashwa’iyat is according to an unpublished report6 by the Egyptian General Organization of Physical Planning (GOPP) Cairo Governorate’s ‘Ashwa’iyat Development/ Upgrade Unit (or defined as a social construct (Refer to Annex 3)): “The definition of ‘Ashwayiat: (a) Legal and political perspective: they are violations, in the sense that they do not have authorization to build on a specific piece of land and are unofficial. (b) Urban and social perspective: they are construction projects that occur outside the state and its institutions. In these cases, studies depend in their explanations on the idea that these areas are mainly composed of unlicensed housing that is deprived of basic services and utilities.” (‘Ashwa’iyat Development/Upgrade Unit, 2008)

(5) “‘Ashw’aiyyat, the plural

for ashwaiyya (literally meaning ‘half-hazard’), is the term used in public to refer to the informal communities in Egypt, some 111 of which exist in the greater Cairo area. Official estimates put the total number of these settlements at about 1,034, accounting for about 12 million, or 45 per cent, of Egypt’s urban population.” (Bayat & Denis, p.185, 2000)

fig. 3.3 Map showing the formal and informal settlements (Sims, 2009)

Map 3.3. G reater Cairo’s formal and informal cities, 2005.

Informal City 2005 Formal City 2005

The settlements’ metamorphosis created new intricate urban typologies and spatial patterns that are not only on the periphery, they are also well embedded in pockets of the city (Bayat & Denis, 2000). Thus, the city became an amalgamation of both urban realms, this confirms the idea of the formal and informal entanglement and the urban continuum (Moser, 1978; Roy, & AlSayyad, 2004; Kipper, Howeidy, & Wiens, 2009; Sims, 2010; Roy, 2015). The settlements started to emerge in Cairo after the Second World War housing crises in Upper Egypt and the Delta which was happening simultaneously with Egypt’s second president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s plan of industrialization. Thus, there was a huge influx of rural-urban migration to the capital. Thus, the informal settling of rural-urban migrants (mostly young men) began to inhabit mainly the historical and central districts of the city (Bayat & Denis, 2000; Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009; Sims, 2010). When the inner city started to saturate, squatting on agricultural lands that are situated at the fringes of the city started to occur. It did not take long for the state to issue a law (Law 59 - 1966) to forbid the construction on agricultural land (Sims, 2010). Nevertheless, these decrees were powerless. Informality and informal real-estate development was stimulated further during president al-Sadat economic liberalisation policy al-infitah during the 70’s with annual growth rate of 2.8% and due to the frozen investments in social housing that was caused by the 1967 and 1973 wars (Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009). Pragmatically, the entire country was in a state of war, which meant resources were forcibly depleted out of the country’s budgets, which was sufficient for the laws to become silent. Nonetheless, their ineffectiveness did not cease to pose a threat of eviction, but it was never a reason for informality to slow down (Sims, 2006; Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009; Osman, Divigalpitiya, & Arima, 2016). There were successful attempts to slow down the rate of growth to bring it close to zero during the early to mid-80’s by al-Sadat’s New Desert Town laws but between 1986 and the 90s the rate increased to 3.4%. The fact that informality continued to increment and develop by time, questions the seeming condemnation of authorities and the treatment of “informality” as an exception (Humphreys, 2006). Its persistence alludes an unbroken vicious cycle of dependency between the government and informality (Sims, 2010; Roy, 2015).

fig. 3.4 Informal Settlement by Claudia Wiens (Kipper, Howeidy & Wiens, 2009).

3.3.2 The Dependent City The informal realm in general – which is anything “paralegal” in relationship to the legal (Hart; 1973; Moser, 1978; Humphreys, 2006; Roy, 2015) – is an undivided constituent of the Cairene urban context. The phenomenon is present due to scarcity of resources, because of density and overpopulation, leading to the shortage in resource supply. But moreover, what keeps its momentum is that the country is governed under the supremacy of a bro

ken economy and a corrupt regime (Bayat, 2000; Kipper, Howeidy, & Wiens, 2009; Sims, 2010; Abaza, 2014). Which then leads to the eminent natural reaction of auto defence; the self-providing mechanism. Davis named that mechanism as “informal survivalism” (Davis, 2004, p. 24; Roy, 2015). The mechanism mobilizes people to access resources but simultaneously co-opts them into a political patronage system of the government. In a sense, informality no longer represents the periphery, “it is an integral part of the capitalist city” (Roy, 2015, p. 818).

3.3.3 The Synergy The dialogue between formal and informal systems can be simply manifested in a scene of a building in downtown Cairo. It is not uncommon to find a rooftop shack dweller family whose main source of income is off the business offices just a floor below, working as janitors, cooks, drivers or security guards (Sims, 2010). The dependency on one another is based on endless interactions between the different actors of the systems. Cairo’s deep dependency between the two systems blurred the lines and widened the grey area of transition, which contradicts the theory of dualism. The dependency model is a result of a steady process of supply and demand formation between the two and a constant direct trade between the systems. As the relationship strengthens it becomes harder to separate them or even draw a definite line between what is formal and what is informal so the two systems synergize to create a third production mode that encompasses them both.

informal

fig 3.5 Formal-Informal Synergy

fig 3.6 Informal pockets in Mohandisin (Image dated 2017, �2017 GOOGLE)

formal

3.4 The Rise of Paratransit 3.4.1 Transit in Cairo Since Cairo is a compact city, one could assume that most trips in the city are carried out walking, but it is a centralised city. Adding on to that, three quarters of the Cairene population live 15 kilometres away from the centre of the city (Ramsis Square) so it is crucial to commute to and from the centre almost daily. The governmentally run public transport systems are not committed to these trips. They do not provide full coverage over these neighbourhoods, especially the informal towns and the fringes (JICA, 2010; Sims, 2010). These conditions create an exceptionally fertile medium for ‘informal’ transit to emerge, and establish itself as a reliable mode of transit. In fact, as per a recent research; 85% of Cairo’s public transit is classified as informal. Cairo’s public (mass) transit system is split into the two generic groups:

• Formal transit systems are provided by the Cairo Transport Authority (CTA). The CTA provides busses and runs the Cairo Metro Organization (CMO) for heavy rail services throughout the GCMA region (Thompson & Nagayama, 2005; World Bank, 2013). The introduction of the Cairo metro system was in 1987 and currently has 3 operating lines (JICA, 2010; Sims, 2010). The CTA busses operate on fixed routes, but the service frequency is unreliable due to the high demand and overcrowding (Thompson & Nagayama, 2005; JICA, 2010). • Informal transit system (paratransit) consists of a wide spectrum of modal variations that are embodied in diverse systems to facilitate human displacement. Such as the tutuk (auto rickshaw), trucks, motorcycles, shared taxis and the established private 11-16 seater buses (mini/microbuses). Most of the modes above are illegal or strongly restricted to certain informal settlements. However, the microbus was legalized by 1977 allowing only a limited number of vehicles to operate on fixed routes, but that was drastically changed over the past four decades (Sims, 2010). Their operation is under minimal control by the governorate’s traffic department who theoretically sets by standard fares but since it is a privately-run business it leaves room for fare increase (Thompson & Nagayama, 2005; Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009; Sims, 2010; World Bank, 2013).

fig. 3.7 (a) Mircrobuses in Old Cairo (b) Downtwon Cairo (CTA busses) (Image dated 2015)

The informal transit system competes head-to-head with the formal mode for multiple characteristics. •

•

Reflexivity of the systems to a market in constant flux. It is due to their individualistic, market-oriented operation that require minimal mass management, it is easier to react to a market gap and become the primary provider to a certain area (Cervero, 2001; Cervero & Golub, 2007; Sims, 2010). Inclusivity is one of the major benefits of paratransit in Cairo. Egypt is infamous for its illiterate minority of adults. The paratransit system accounts for this communication gap by developing a unique binary system of sign-language and oral keywords. It involves a mixture of hand gestures and calling out names of final destinations so potential passengers identify the routes from a distance (Sims, 2010; Johnson, 2013) (Refer to Annex 4). Convenience might be the primary reason more passengers are pulled into the system. The flexibility of the point of entry and exit of the paratransit mode on the expense of time gives it an edge over trunk systems like the metro.

A study was carried out by the World Bank on the modal split of 6 major corridors in GCMA, the share of the private car was between (43.2-70)% the rest was shared by microbuses, taxis, small and heavy trucks and CTA buses. Microbuses shares were between (7-25) % and the CTA buses (0.6-3.3) % (World Bank, 2013; Sims, 2010). This has proved a change in the mobility patterns compared to the seventies, the CTA buses dominated vehicular trips which accounted for 62% and the tram 15% (Sims, 2010). The paratransit microbus made its first debut in the mid 1970’s with the rise of the informal settlements. Which confirms the correlation between the informal settlements and the initiation of informal transit and the lack of formal public transit covering these areas (Sims, 2010). Since the microbus is the most established system of all paratransit systems in the city, it will be the element of analysis when looking at the interaction between paratransit modes and public formal modes in Cairo (Sims, 2010).

3.4.2 Founders of the Microbus System One of the inevitable causations of unemployment was the predominant capitalistic economic conditions which lead to the rate of urbanization out growing the rate of industrialization (Moser, 1978; Barsoum, 2016). Egypt is infamous for its unemployed labour. The 2006 census revealed that the labour force for the entire country is 23.8 million workers and it increase by around a million workers per annum in which 8.9 percent of them are unemployed (Sims, 2010). The fact of having an impermeable formal system to absorb labour, inescapably created “urban sub-proletariat group”, who were ultimately absorbed by the informal sector (Moser, 1978; Roy, 2015). The sector became even more attractive to the educated youth, as per the most recent studies only 53.4% of educated working youth have access to social insurance. The number signifies that 46.6% are either working in the informal sector or unemployed. This easily confirms the vast shift in the trends, the informal sector and unemployment in Egypt are no longer exclusively associated with the urban poor and lower education or illiteracy (Moser, 1978; Barsoum, 2016). The informal transit and mobility sector absorbs a huge bulk of the youth. In 1998, there were 27,300 mini/microbuses that operate over 650 routes across the GCMA area as per the Cairo Traffic Administration (Sims, 2010). Thus providing at least 27,300 job opportunities if not more, assuming the ratio of microbus driver to vehicle is 1:1 and that was only in 1998. There has not been a clear study upon the gender and age group of mini/microbus drivers however, the sector is dominated by young males, who are not involved with any social insurance or pensions (Sims, 2010; Barsoum, 2016).

3.4.3 Microbus Actors Paratransit operates on different levels, it does not only embody itself in the form of roadbased vehicles. That type of operational system is beyond the service itself, the dynamics that got the system to be very successful – to the extent it is competing head-to-head with the formal public transit – are far more complex than they seem. The players involved contribute into generating the intricate nature of the holistic system and contribute to the generation of the reproduced spatial interface (RSI). They are divided into the visible and invisible actors of space. •

•

The visible actors are the vehicle owners and the drivers (and sometimes a driver’s assistant who helps calls for passengers and collects the fare (Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009)), in many cases they could be the same person who owns and operates the vehicle, in this situation all the revenue goes directly to the driver/owner. Other instances one owner (or controller) has several vehicles or mini-fleets (two to five vehicles) and leases them to a group of drivers, the drivers then pay the rent to the controller and keep the surplus of their revenue (Godard, 2013). The third apparent player is the user; the user diversity developed along the way, it went from serving the ‘poor’ to serving the entire population of the city and in some cases like Nairobi and Phnom Penh paratransit has absolved formal transit (Cervero, 2001; Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009). Street vendors who are licenced to vend could be a visible actor. The invisible actors are the more strategic actors. In the context of Cairo, one is the traffic police (amin al shorta), although most of the paratransit vehicles are licenced private vehicles, they do obstruct the traffic and create “stations” where it is illegal to occupy and claim public space for their own (Sims, 2010). Thus, traffic police usually take hefty daily or monthly payments on the expense of saving them from being fined or jailed. The police are greatly involved into managing the movement of the vehicle, “It is [even] said that many owners are police officers, which helps immeasurably to resolve the inevitable control hassles to which minibus operators are subject” (Sims, 2010, p. 231). The second invisible player is the street vendor; street vendors help in attracting more users to use paratransit (it will be more clearly elaborated in the case study) (Sims, 2010). The third stakeholder that has a vast impact in shaping the paratransit operation body is surely the formal transit locations, hubs, and drivers. As mentioned above, paratransit is an opportunistic sector, they are often driven by competition; where formal transport hubs are located, they act as a feeder to the trunk or in some cases as a substitute altogether (Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009)

Visible

Invisible

vehicle owner

police

driver assistant

user

street vendor

fig 3.8 Paratransit Actor Diagram

Chapter 4 The Intersection 4.1 Introduction Succeeding the brief introduction about the nature of Cairo’s transit, this chapter examines the “RSI” that resulted from the contestation of resources between two forms of transit; namely, the mircrobus system and the public formal transit. Through looking at multiple locations/stations and setting them within the “combined framework”. A field investigation has been conducted over four locations across the GCMA: 1. Ramses Railway Station 2. Al Ma’adi Metro Station 3. Microbus Station Al Mehwar Axis, Sheikh Zayed City 4. Microbus Station Road 90, New Cairo City.

1 4

Ramses Sta�on

3 Road 90

Mehwar Axis

2 Ma’adi Sta�on

Surveyed Study Loca�ons Built up Greater Cairo Boundary Main Highways Main Roads Canals

fig. 4.1 Study Locations on Cairo Map

Map 0. G reater Cairo Base Map, 2009.

4.2 Criteria of Site Selection The convergence of the informal and the formal is a very recurrent phenomenon across Cairo and in other cities. The research is not intended to cover the entire complexity of the phenomenon of the RSI, but rather select examples to illustrate the combined framework. The criteria of selection were based on various rudiments, primarily their geographic location corresponding to the urban typologies that were set by JICA for the sake of consistency (refer to sec. 3.3.1) (Nippon Koei co., Ltd., & Katahira & Engineers International, 2009; Sims, 2010; JICA, 2010). For example, the city centre versus the new urban communities that are located in the desert, and how that affects the configuration of the RSI and the relationship between its elements. The RSI prototypes represent a unique pattern within their own context to help in strengthening the argument. In the sense that each location portrays a different scenario of interaction with different control elements (time, location, modes of transit, etc.). The investigation was carried out by visiting the sites at multiple points throughout the day to conduct informal and unstructured conversations with various passengers and drivers, and also collect photographic data depending on the hostility of the environment. Most conclusions were derived through observations over a period of two days in each site. Each site will have the three sets of elements identified: the pre-existing spaces (the already existing urban space), the space actors and the operating systems.

4.2.1 Cairo Proper : Ramses Railway Station (i)

Pre-existing Space/Interface

Ramsis railway station or Maḥaṭṭat Miṣr (the station of Egypt), is located in the heart of Cairo, it represents the official centre of the city. It has long been a transport hub since it was built in the 19th century by Khedive Ismail, to connect Alexandria to Suez through Cairo (AlSayyad, & Ebrary, 2011). The station is also known as Bab al-Hadid (steel gateway), as it was one of the gateways of the Fatimid city (Rodenbeck, 2000). Its location has long been strategic. It connected the two largest cities in the country, becoming the primary entry point of Cairo after arriving by ship to the Alexandrian port. Its centrality makes it a hub for all trunk systems (railway and metro) and it is connected by the CTA bus. There is not an official bus, it has been diminished by the layers of re-planning of the area. Thus busses stop randomly depending on the passengers will to exit. There is a huge microbus station located 200 metres from the entrance of the main railway station, dissecting al-Sabtiah street vendor market, they offer internal city routes and external routes to other governorates (they reach the same destinations as the trains). Post the 2011 revolution, the market grew and became more consolidated till it was evicted in August 2014. However, street vendors reached an unofficial consensus with the present authorities to shift the market back so not to be visible from the main road and station entrance. They are located in the main artery al-Sabtiah St that leads to a large historic informal settlement Bulaq Abu Al ‘Ila.

fig 4.2 Ramses Railway Station Context

(ii)

Systems

Greater Cairo Proper

Loc

Station

Formal Transit

Paratransit

Ramses Railway Station (Ramses)

National Railway Hub • 16 destinations

Main Microbus Station: • Internal (GCMA): Serving ≈ 7 routes

Metro • Line 1 and 2 (Al Shohada’ External (Governorates/other Station) cities) CTA Bus

(iii)

Space Actors

- Visible Actors 1. Prospective user of both paratransit and formal transit systems 2. Microbus drivers 3. Street vendors (stationary vendors) - Invisible Players 1. 2. 3. 4.

Traffic police and municipality Street pedlars (roaming/mobile vendors) Railway station and metro station employees Tutuk drivers (restricted only in Bulaq Abu Al ‘Ila)

Metro Station M Train Station CTA Buses Microbus Station Street Vendor Area

fig. 4.3 Annotated Map of Ramses Station

fig 4.4 Ramses Railway Station Entrance fig. 4.5 Vendorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Market

(iv)

RSI Diagram User

Space Consolidating Agents Consolidator (anchor) Semi-Consolidator

Space

Market

RSI Reproduced Spatial Interface Invisible Actors

Interface Tuktuk

Visible Actors Peddlars Railway Station

fig. 4.6 Ramses Station RSI Diagram

fig. 4.7 Ramses Station Showing the Microbus Station (Right) The existence of tuktuk in the Market (Left)

Police Microbus Station

Metro Station Line 1+2

4.2.2 Cairo Proper: Ma’adi Station (i)

Pre-existing Space/Interface

Ma’adi station is in the southeast end of Cairo, on the east bank of the Nile river, in a district called Ma’adi. The district was planned in the early 20th century by colonial planners when there was railway to connect Ramsis station to Helwan railway station, located south of Cairo. It is a high-income neighbourhood; however, it has a number of “informal” urban pockets. One of them is located 150 metres north of the station. The metro tracks are not below the ground; thus, dissecting the area in to two. However, the station has entry points from both sides of the tracks. The tracks became an edge that separates east of the station and west of the station, where there are two different realities. East of the station is a gentrified area full of expats and street restaurants, and on the west side is a microbus station (that was assigned by the municipality) and a street vendor market. The microbus station offers 3-4 routes, some of which are already connected by the adjacent metro line. The outlet of the west side of the metro station is on a narrow street (9 metres wide) that is bordered by two margins on both sides of the street for parked vehicles or street vendors.

fig. 4.8 Ma’adi Station (Image dated 2017, �2017 GOOGLE)

(ii)

Systems

Greater Cairo Proper

Loc

(iii)

Station Al Ma’adi Station (Al Ma’adi)

Formal Transit

Paratransit

Metro Line 1

Main Microbus Station: • Serving ≈ 10 routes

Space Actors

- Visible Actors 1. Prospective user of both paratransit and formal transit systems 2. Microbus drivers 3. Street vendors (stationary vendors) - Invisible Players 1. 2. 3. 4.

Traffic police and municipality Metro station employees Tutuk drivers (restricted only in the informal pocket) Residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods and informal pocket

M Metro Station M Train Station CTA Buses Microbus Station Street Vendor Area fig. 4.9 Annotated Map of Ma’adi Station

fig. 4.10 Microbuses and Street Vendors opposite Metro Station

fig 4.11 Metro Station fig 4.12 Metro Station and Sprawling Street Vendors

(iv)

RSI Diagram

Space Consolidating Agents

User

Consolidator (anchor) Semi-Consolidator RSI Reproduced Spatial Interface

Space

Invisible Actors

Interface

Visible Actors Police

fig. 4.13 Maâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;adi Station RSI Diagram

Tuktuk Market

Metro Station Line 1+2 Microbus Station

fig. 4.14 Microbus Station Vendor, Metro Station and Microbus Station

Station

4.2.3 New Urban Communities: 90 Avenue and al-Mehwar Axis (i)

Pre-existing Space/Interface

Schemes to urbanise and develop the desert started emerging right after the 1952 revolution, and continued with heightened emphasis during the mid-1970’s up to the 1990’s. Since then, colonizing the desert is a major contributor to the Egyptian economy. However, the desert development projects are notorious for their failure to reach their estimated targets. The examined sites are in two of Cairo’s “new urban communities” that are situated in the desert: New Cairo City in the east and Sheikh Zayed City in the west. They were part of a scheme to relieve the overpopulation of Cairo and to provide an alternative to the rapidly sprawling informal settlements; thus, they were intended to have public housing units. Nonetheless, in the early 1990’s, neoliberal and capitalism were the main driving forces of the GOPP, which led to structural readjustments that sold land to private developers. This movement gave rise to more gated communities and residential compounds for the rich (Sims, 2010; Sims, 2014). The desert development projects do not show any signs of slowing down; thus, both new cities have numerous construction sites. That entails thousands of workers and builders to commute daily from the city centre or the fringes to the new cities (an average of 15 km) (Sims, 2010; Sims, 2014). Taking into consideration that the planning of the new cities was highly car-driven, so they are poorly connected with formal public transport (JICA, 2010; Sims, 2010; Sims, 2014). The New Cairo City site is on the main artery that feeds the city, 90 Avenue, the microbus station is at the far end of the axis, which is more deserted. The site is just across two large private universities, which offers private transportation (the American University in Cairo (AUC) and the Future University in Egypt (FUE)), three shopping malls, several gated communities, and finally numerous construction sites. The spot is very popular among microbus drivers due to its proximity to construction sites. It has been established as a temporal station (depending on construction sites). Street vendors, especially food carts, relocate wherever the agglomeration of passengers is and where microbus drivers prefer to wait. The CTA bus does not have a specific stop, but as seen in the photo below it is exploiting the flux of passengers in the area to drop-off and pick up passengers. The context of Sheikh Zayed site is not far from New Cairo’s, microbuses established a station across a hyper market and another across a high-income shopping mall, that are surrounded by gated communities and construction sites. The station also lies on the main artery that feeds the entire city of Sheikh Zayed, al-Mehwar axis. The difference here is that the municipality negotiated with the microbus drivers and assigned certain waiting areas in the service lane, thus making the station more consolidated. Therefore, attracting more food carts and street vendors.

fig 4.16 Right: Sheikh Zayed Context Left: New Cairo Context

(ii)

Systems

Greater Cairo Desert

Loc

(iii)

Station

Formal Transit

Paratransit

Al Mehwar Axis (6th of October City)

CTA Bus

Microbus Station

Road 90 (New Cairo)

CTA Bus

Microbus Station

Space Actors

A. 90 Avenue, New Cairo - Visible Actors 1. Prospective user of both paratransit and formal transit systems, including employees of the surrounding institutions, workers and builders. 2. Microbus drivers - Invisible Actors 1. Traffic police and municipality 2. Street Vendors (food carts) B. al-Mehwar Axis, Sheikh Zayed City - Visible Actors 1. User or the prospective passenger of both paratransit and formal transit systems 2. Microbus drivers 3. Employees surrounding institutions - Invisible Actors 1. Traffic police and municipality 2. Street Vendors (food carts)

Metro Station M Train Station CTA Buses Microbus Station Street Vendor Area

fig. 4.17 Annotated Map of 90 Avenue Annotated Map of al-Mehwar Axis

fig.4.18 Road 90 Street Vendors (food carts) and Microbus Station

fig. 4.19 Left: CTA Bus Stopping at Microbus Station (Image dated 2017, 4.20 Police Officer in the middle of the Microbus Station speaking with drivers (Image dated

fig 4.21 Right: Sheikh Zayed Vendors

(iv)

RSI Diagram

Space Consolidating Agents

User

Consolidator (anchor) Semi-Consolidator RSI Reproduced Spatial Interface Invisible Actors

Space Interface

Visible Actors Unstable Relationship

Market CTA Busses

Microbus Station

fig 4.22 RSI Diagram

4.3 Analysis It is fair to say that the summaries given for each site do not do justice to their much complex social, economic and political reality that was acquired over time. Each site is uniquely driven by different trajectories, yet they share the distinctive commonality of the reproduced spatial interface that was generated due to the interaction and coordination of concurrent systems. Through inserting the elements into the combined framework of Olsen and Moser, it will be possible to extract the interdependent linkages between the pre-existing spaces, actors, and systems, and use them to identify the nature of permanence of the reproduced space. Cairo Proper fig 4.23 RSI Diagrams

User

Space Consolidating Agents Consolidator (anchor) Semi-Consolidator RSI Reproduced Spatial Interface

Space Interface

Invisible Actors Visible Actors Police

Unstable Relationship

Tuktuk Market

Metro Station Line 1+2

User

Microbus Station

Cairo Proper

New Urban Communities User

Space

Market

Interface

Tuktuk

Peddlars Railway Station

Market

Police

CTA Busses

Microbus Station Metro Station Line 1+2

Space

Microbus Station

4.3.1 The Relationships Mapping the relationships between systems and actors proves Moser’s “petty commodity framework”, through acknowledging the simple trade-offs that occur between two distinct production modes within the urban economy (Moser, 1978; Roy, 2015). The problem with dealing with the informal in any given sector is the lack of precise evidence to back up an argument. “[I]t is apparent that given the present enormous limitations on empirical data in this area, it would be presumptuous to reach any definitive conclusions at this stage” (Moser, 1978, p.1061). Thus, most interpretations are derived off observational understandings of researchers. The relationships, as indicated in the three diagrams, imply the interconnectedness of all elements. The Ramses Station site presents the most mature set linkages and spatial interfaces. What is intended by maturity is the degree of establishment of actors and systems within the pre-existing space, and their agency in interaction to produce the reproduced spatial interface (RSI). In other words, in the case of Ramses, some actors or economic systems (like the street vendors) at some point were indivisible actors during the process of generation of the RSI. Just as the juvenile examples of the desert cities, they represent an earlier stage of how the space was formed. Street vendors are more mobile and ready for flight (as signified by their vending equipment), because their existence is threatened and their vending activity is almost illegal. However, the probable agreement between the traffic police and the street vendors allows them to practice more freely. The interaction between paratransit and formal transit portrays a great deal of variety along a continuum. It refutes the idea that informality is a marginal element to the economy and parasitic on the formal sector – although the interaction initially seems subtle (Refer to Annex 5). In the case of the Ma’adi and Ramses stations, microbuses act as the feeder system to the trunk systems; however, they still compete with the formal systems by offering the same routes. Yet, they allow citizens to access the formal system.

4.3.2 The Reproduced Spatial Interface The term RSI should be expanded by practically embodying its definition in the sites. The entire idea is based on space acting as an enabler, and mediator of relationships. The spatial structure becomes appropriated according to robustness of relationship. In Ramses, street vendors who now established a market were forced to shift their places and start vending where they are no longer visible from the main road, and that is because of its “apparent” negative relationship with the municipality. However, microbus drivers park their vehicles deep into the market where passengers at the entrance of Ramses could not possibly spot them. But, they gather and call out the names of the destinations to hunt passengers right from the entrance, and by this movement they are swallowed by the market by the time they get to their vehicles. That kind of coordination is not necessarily intentional, yet it is all built on the simple trade off of interests according to the PCF (Moser, 1978). Finally, the RSI vary in permanence, and it is seen across the four prototypes. Ramses holds the highest consolidation degree amongst them, and one of the reasons lies in the desert cities examples. Some systems act as anchors to the space, the ones that provide a sense of permanence, such as the train and metro stations. Without their existence, one of the borders of the RSI becomes loose. Thus, giving leeway for temporality, inconsistency and distortion. The desert cities are almost formal-transport deprived, which allows paratransit to monopolize the market, yet because they are not an element that is pre-considered in planning the RSI could be considered as itinerant. In that case, the elements skip the chance to strengthen their interconnectedness, hence their growth and development. Moreover, it risks reproducing such communal spaces that have been deeply embedded in the culture all the way back from medieval Cairo. The relationship of transport and commercial activities have been a fundamental urban element. Caravanserais were popular in Cairo (as the city was a commercial hub for travellers coming from Asia), their concept is hinged on the transport-commerce interaction (Madoeuf, & Snider, 2012). Therefore, such spaces are built on socio-economic relationships. 45

Conclusion The principal drive of the research (after the chaos of Cairo) was the question of transport integration. Since paratransit lacks confirmed empirical data it was difficult to explore this issue within this scope, instead the it was worth looking at the earliest points of intersection between the sectors in order to easily upscale it into complex planning. This dissertation attempted to provide an understanding a multifaceted urban phenomenon in Cairo which the interactions between the threshold of the formal and informal– specifically through the transit sector. The interaction manifest itself transversely through the diverse layers of the city which adds to the complexity of its comprehension. The epitome of the framework begins with an adaptation of Moser’s “Petty Commodity Production” framework: the relationship between the two production modes of the informal and formal systems, are best described as a ‘continuum of productive activities’ that consist of dependent relationships and complex linkages. Thus, challenging the theory of urban dualism that claims a sharp distinction between the two systems (Moser, 1978; Roy and AlSayyad, 2004; Roy, 2015). A disentanglement of the relationship reveals multiple meeting points where they both form a common boundary of communication leading to the idea of the interface. Utilizing the computer-user interface structure works to identify the role of various elements in the system of production, for an analytical reference whilst dissecting the case study of Cairo. The coordination of a highly impressionistic framework (PCP) with a vastly structured and rationalist framework (CUI) account for both the direct and intricate relationships within the urban context. Moser’s shift of focus from defining the production modes to emphasise the interconnections of the two sectors (formal transit and paratransit) has allowed for an examination of their interaction within the combined framework – the result of which is the reproduced spatial interface. The interface is a hidden potential in every existing urban space, if the right connections are linked, it stimulates a series of interactions that allows the birth of production modes that were not necessarily present or visible. The space then enhances the triggered connection through strengthening and developing them further with other systems depending on the degree of agency of the different actors. The idea of an interface is derived from a very technical field but when navigating this term to social sciences and planning, it gives another dimension of rationality in a seemingly disordered structure (the city). Rationality by no means can be the only moderator in the city, but sometimes it is overlooked in the simplest interactions. Hence, the combined framework utilized to analyze the RSIs opens the space for further inquiry. The framework provides a predefined set of linkages or very limited possibilities of linkages between systems and actors which is not the case when dealing with space. It poses a risk of over simplifying elements in space and reducing them to an abstract form. The most precarious presumption that the model implies is in overlooking the possibility of contradictions. The model was initially developed to examine how contradictions are resolved through the spatial interface. However, it lacks anticipation of arising contradictions from the relentless formation connections and bondage of systems. Moreover, it provides a small margin for negative relationships, this is why this model could be developed to encompass small amounts of controlled contradictions to test its viability. The combined framework’s idea could be stretched to its limits by testing a site or a “reproduced spatial interface” that could potentially not fit in the structure of the analysis. This could determine the degree of generality that the model represents and it will easily spot the further weak points to be developed. The CUI necessarily functions with a common language of interaction that is understandable amongst all connected entities. Issues that

could be addressed are: What is the common language between the systems and between the users? The model homogenized in abstraction while its reality is completely heterogenous. How are these different languages are being translated between them and into the urban space? Looking at language implies diving into another area of knowledge, that cultural studies, tcould further feed the understanding of space framed in this dissertation. Finally, looking ahead the challenges to rationalize urban space and make sense of its incomprehensible nature will still lie ahead, and probably by the time that a certain phenomenon is empirically confirmed, it will be already out of date. In a sense, predictability might seem a very naĂŻve way to approach urban space, however, when elements of urban space are simplified to their core, they would not be that different. These spaces ultimately provide opportunities that are constantly renegotiated by the actors, thus this could potentially be the ruling language of the interfaces.

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Appendix Annex 1 State of Exception The dissertation is not exploring Giorgio Agamben’s work yet his theory of the state of exception in relation to informality supports the idea that one sector (the informal) has been reinforced by the other (the formal). “Agamben finds […] the state of exception [related] to dictatorship: the dictator/sovereign unites the legal and the non-legal by means of an extralegal decision ‘having the force of law’. In this way, […] the juridical order is preserved even when the law itself is suspended. [...] In a second version, ‘sovereign dictatorship’, the state of exception signifies the exercise of ‘constituent power’: in effect, it is a moment where no constitution or law applies other than the sovereign decision itself.” (Humphreys, p.3, 2006)

Annex 2 The Gulf of the System There are two “gulfs” in this processes, one is the gulf of user evaluation and the second is the gulf of execution. Simply the CUI theory demonstrates the possibilities in which this system could fail or encounter a gap between the interacting systems. • The Gulf of Evaluation When any two interacting bodies encounter their first intersection point they must both find the common ground where they both speak the same language for them to base their interactions upon. • The Gulf of Execution Is when the user does not learn how to go through with achieving the demand or does not receive an effective system response. “The gulf of execution arises when a user does not know what sequence of input events will accomplish the desired goal” (Olsen, 1998, p.13). It is mainly caused by the lack of understanding between two entities, and the second is inadequate response from the mediator.

Annex 3 Informality as a Social Construct The al ‘ashwaiyya and informality can also be regarded as a social construct. The term started to prevail with the growing phenomenon of rural migration to the city, planting the seeds of a new social and economic class. ‘Ashawaiyyat deemed its inhabitants to be described as ‘peasants’ or ‘fallah’in’, and quickly associates them with poverty, unemployment and illiteracy (Bayat & Denis, 2000; Sims, 2009). That association might have been true in the middle of the 20th century, but currently more of the educated and middle class citizens are being faced with informality and the informal sector. Especially after the 2011 revolution; Egypt’s economic growth dropped from 4-7% to 1.9% in 2012, then back up to 4.3% in 2016. However, Egypt

has been hit by an economic crisis at the beginning of 2017 which caused its economic growth to drop back to 3.4% in the first half of 2017 (Barsoum, 2016; Abd El Hamid, 2013; “Egypt’s Economic Outlook”, 2017)

Annex 4 (Previous Essay) “Strengths and Opportunities of Paratransit “The developing world provides a window into the potential benefits [..] There one finds a kaleidoscope of transit services, marked by vehicles of different sizes, operating speeds, service coverage, seating capacities, and levels of comfort. Fares vary accordingly. Free-lancers own and operate most of the vehicles, serving populations that are largely poor—many of them very poor. And yet operators are able to earn enough to cover costs and make a living, while charging fares their customers can afford.” (Cervero, p. 16, 2001). Reflexivity When there is no formal system that can absorb the numbers of people that live at the outskirts, in case of Giza, Egypt, a new desert/satellite (6th of October City) town has been developed in the early nineties 30 km away from the city centre of greater Cairo. The master plan was divided amongst private developers for residential gated communities and the government for social housing. Not to mention that the master plan lacked transport infrastructure, it was yet again another car-driven development which can only be adopted by the rich (Sims, 2014). The presence of social housing and high-social class housing planted in the middle of nowhere without any proper public transit, created an opportunity to microbus drivers to widen their network of coverage to reach the dead areas. In Egypt there is a high illiteracy and unemployment rates this encourages the reflexivity of paratransit (“Statistics – Egypt”, 2013). It becomes very adaptive to market changes and to expansions, as there is always the workforce to back it up and the pooled capital to support the new running overheads. Inclusivity After conducting an interview with the CEO of Transport for Cairo (TfC) , Mr. Mohamed Hegazy in attempt to gather information about the informal transport sector in Cairo, he pointed out a notable number of advantages of Cairo’s paratransit systems when it comes to the wellbeing of its users. As mentioned numerous times throughout the essay, paratransit is a reflexive response to an unmet need of a certain group of people; to put it in other words, it is a reflex to exclusion. One excluded group that is not accounted for in countries like Egypt are the illiterate “minority”. As per UNICEF’s website there is a significant number of young adults (≈ 4 M citizens under 18 years old) do not know how to read and write (“Statistics – Egypt”, 2013). Thus, these people do not know how to read bus signs or numbers so they depend heavily on information that is transmitted through the word of mouth. Due to the haphazard nature of paratransit, there are usually no definitive stops nor timings for the vehicles arrival. Consequently, the invincible shared taxi or microbus system had a very innovative way to contain that user group within its loop of operation; which is the use of hand gestures (M. Hegazy, personal communication, March 30, 2017) (Johnson, 2013). For efficiency, if potential passengers are standing on the side of the road and want to wave for a

1Robert Johnson/Business Insider|the images above show the hand signals used to indicate certain destination around Cairo.

Convenience An observatory mission was conducted around one of the oldest metro stations in a dense neighbourhood in Cairo located along the stretch of the Nile corniche: El Maadi as shown in the map. A brief interview was conducted with two of the microbus drivers who congregate around the entrance of the station calling out loud the names of their destination. What is striking is that a couple of the destinations are the exact same destinations that the metro goes to from that specific station. One of the drivers acknowledged his flexibility and convenience of his service to the passenger as the microbus stops multiple times along the route as per the passengers’ request while the metro stops fewer times. This leads to longer minutes of walking in the heat and that is highly inconvenient in Cairo’s climate. Concluding Remarks and Lessons Learnt This essay is not attempting by anyway to romanticize illegality, nor deregulation nor to propound the emulation of these systems. As paratransit does have its firm and powerful draw backs. For instance, deregulation and unmonitored routes lead to an accelerated increase in road accidents due to the uncontrollable speeding habits. It can also drag many legal forms of transport in to illegality like using governmentally owned fleets for off the record trips just to gain more income and to keep up with the highly competitive market (Kassa, 2014).

specific microbus to stop, all they have got to do is to keep that arm stretched with the specific destination gesture. Community-led Transit (Entrepreneurial Transit (Cerevero, 2001)) Upon speaking of community led ‘anything’ the diversity of solutions that emerge just to meet a certain need is astonishing. As per Cerevero’s article, he gave the example of Manila, Philippines where the people reconditioned the US Army jeeps into jeepneys carrying almost 35 passengers competing in alignment with the city’s subsidized LRT (Light-rail Transit). Going deeper in the outskirts of the city, more indigenous forms of mobility start to appear in the poorest neighbourhoods. “… [You can spot] several hundred young men pushing bamboo trolleys fitted with roller skates that glide along the rails, providing lifts to school kids, matrons with groceries, and businessmen in suits and ties (who are known to exit taxis and board the “skates” to get around traffic tie-ups).” (Cerevero, 2001, p. 18). Convenience An observatory mission was conducted around one of the oldest metro stations in a dense neighbourhood in Cairo located along the stretch of the Nile corniche: El Maadi as shown in the map. A brief interview was conducted with two of the microbus drivers who congregate around the entrance of the station calling out loud the names of their destination. What is striking is that a couple of the destinations are the exact same destinations that the metro goes to from that specific station. One of the drivers acknowledged his flexibility and convenience of his service to the passenger as the microbus stops multiple times along the route as per the passengers’ request while the metro stops fewer times. This leads to longer minutes of walking in the heat and that is highly inconvenient in Cairo’s climate. Concluding Remarks and Lessons Learnt This essay is not attempting by anyway to romanticize illegality, nor deregulation nor to propound the emulation of these systems. As paratransit does have its firm and powerful draw backs. For instance, deregulation and unmonitored routes lead to an accelerated increase in road accidents due to the uncontrollable speeding habits. It can also drag many legal forms of transport in to illegality like using governmentally owned fleets for off the record trips just to gain more income and to keep up with the highly competitive market (Kassa, 2014). But it is the process of how those systems came to be, the organic behaviour of the people who in the end collaborate effectively A. to produce a very successful business model B. account for the convenience of the passenger C. create an inclusive transport system for most gentrified types of users D. respond efficiently to market changes. These strengths are not often anchored in a mega public system conducted by the government, because governmentally run transport models are at a tremendously different scale than paratransit. When paratransit networks are very dense and consolidated amongst its users. Governments find no choice but to confront the reality of the status quo by either upgrading the private system or legalize what is totally informal. However, it’s that transition that is most critical, as it can kill or sustain an investment by the government. One of the easiest methods is the bottom up decision making, inclusivity of passengers and operators (drivers or owners of fleet) could make the system more efficient and convenient for the general good. This requires more capital investments and most importantly time, since decision makers and planners would need to drop their high technology, capital dense solutions and listen to the more indigenous and primitive responses of knowledge the citizens possess. This essay does not hold the answer to how to efficiently incorporate paratransit into the bigger public transport

loop but it only attempts to trigger new ideas of cooperation instead of wiping off what already exists to what is none-existent and unexperimented.â&#x20AC;? (Nassar, 2017, p.4-6)

Annex 5 The Silent Interaction Due to the high demand on the microbus transit mode, the elements that are needed for the system to grow and to operate carve their way through the city. That is the initial drive Microbus drivers come to present themselves as innovative and creative in the way they maintain the transit system. Foremost microbus driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; need of passengers pushes them to subtly interact with the formal transit system at first to adopt its structure. One of the schemes they follow is they track public bus routes to establish bus stops as their own. They either pick up passengers where the bus or metro route ended or offer passengers an alternative ride to the same destinations as the alternative formal modes, because they might be too crowded, late or less frequent, and most of all more convenient as the passenger can exit the system at any point along the road (Kipper, Howeidy & Weins, 2009).