MSc plus MPhil/PHD: Questioning BRTs: A win-win solution to public transport problems in the cities of developing countries?

为了解决许多快速发展的城市所面临的公共交通危机，发展中国家正在以前所未有的速度建设快速公交系统。2007年，六大洲的40个城市拥有快速公交系统。到2016年1月，这一数字已经上升到207人。这一增长主要来自拉丁美洲、亚洲和非洲的新BRT，这些地区目前正在规划和谈判更多的BRT。一种共识是，BRT是一种“双赢”的干预措施，有利于交通系统、经济、环境和穷人。这一博士研究项目提出的问题是：BRT系统为谁工作，谁将从采用它们中获益和损失？从什么时候开始，他们以什么方式、从什么时候开始、为什么被如此积极地推广？这项博士生研究项目对公共交通及其工作人员有何影响？在广泛的田野调查的基础上，在SOAS的马泰奥·里佐博士和ITF的阿拉娜·戴夫的监督下，这个博士研究项目需要对一个发展中国家的一个城市的BRT进行跨学科和批判性的分析。博士生将在博士学位的第二年在选定的城市进行深入研究。这项研究将探索城市公共交通作为一种公共权利和作为一种商品化服务之间的紧张关系，以及它对BRT演变的影响。将仔细审查现有运输运营商(包括巴士车主和工人)成立公司和抵制BRT的政治行为。此外，该项目将绘制出经济利益和“知识生产”之间的联系，这是关于快速公交好处的大部分“共识”的基础。这位博士生将作为ITF及其附属机构在BRT上活动的一部分来传播其研究结果。通过询问BRT是否适合使用BRT，该项目有助于就发展中国家今天面临的一个紧迫挑战展开关键辩论：如何在其快速发展的城市为广大低收入居民提供环境友好型公共交通。

Bus Rapid Transit systems are being constructed at unprecedented rates in developing countries as the solution to the crisis of public transport faced by many of its rapidly growing cities. In 2007, forty cities across six continents had BRT systems. By January 2016, the figure had risen to 207. This increase mainly results from new BRTs in Latin America, Asia and Africa, where many more BRTs are currently being planned and negotiated. A consensus presents BRTs as a 'win-win' intervention that benefits the transport system, the economy, the environment and the poor. This doctoral research project asks: for whom do BRT systems work and who stands to gain and lose from their adoption? In what ways, since when and why have they been promoted so aggressively? With what consequences for public transport and its workers?Drawing on extensive fieldwork, and under the supervision of Dr Matteo Rizzo at SOAS and Alana Dave at ITF, the doctoral research project entails an interdisciplinary and critical analysis of BRT in one city in a developing country. The doctoral candidate will spend the second year of their PhD conducting in depth research in the chosen city. The research will explore the tension between urban mass transport as a public entitlement and as a commodified service, and its impact on the evolution of BRTs. The politics of incorporation and resistance to BRTs by pre-existing transport operators (including bus owners and workers) will be scrutinised. Furthermore, the project will map the nexus between economic interests and 'knowledge production' which underpins much of the 'consensus' about BRT benefits. The doctoral student will disseminate its findings as part of the activities of ITF and its affiliates on BRT.By asking whether BRTs are fit for purpose, the project contributes to critical debates on a pressing challenge faced by developing countries today: how to provide environmentally friendly public transport to the masses of low-income residents in their rapidly growing cities.