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COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective

This article assesses the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the urban motorcycle taxi (MCT) sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). MCT operators in SSA provide essential transport services and have shown ingenuity and an ability to adapt and innovate when responding to different challenges, including...

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Autores principales: Peters, Krijn, Jenkins, Jack, Ntramah, Simon, Vincent, James, Hayombe, Patrick, Owino, Fredrick, Opiyo, Paul, Johnson, Ted, Santos, Rosemarie, Mugisha, Marion, Chetto, Reginald
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9708525/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03611981221131538
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author Peters, Krijn
Jenkins, Jack
Ntramah, Simon
Vincent, James
Hayombe, Patrick
Owino, Fredrick
Opiyo, Paul
Johnson, Ted
Santos, Rosemarie
Mugisha, Marion
Chetto, Reginald
author_facet Peters, Krijn
Jenkins, Jack
Ntramah, Simon
Vincent, James
Hayombe, Patrick
Owino, Fredrick
Opiyo, Paul
Johnson, Ted
Santos, Rosemarie
Mugisha, Marion
Chetto, Reginald
author_sort Peters, Krijn
collection PubMed
description This article assesses the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the urban motorcycle taxi (MCT) sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). MCT operators in SSA provide essential transport services and have shown ingenuity and an ability to adapt and innovate when responding to different challenges, including health challenges. However, policymakers and regulators often remain somewhat hostile toward the sector. The article discusses the measures and restrictions put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and key stakeholders’ perspectives on these and on the sector’s level of compliance. Primary data were collected in six SSA countries during the last quarter of 2020. Between 10 and 15 qualitative interviews with key stakeholders relevant to the urban MCT sector were conducted in each country. These interviews were conducted with stakeholders based in the capital city and a secondary city, to ensure a geographically broader understanding of the measures, restrictions, and perspectives. The impact of COVID-19 measures on the MCT and motor-tricycle taxi sector was significant and overwhelmingly negative. Lockdowns, restrictions on the maximum number of passengers allowed to be carried at once, and more generally, a COVID-19-induced reduction in demand, resulted in a drop in income for operators, according to the key stakeholders. However, some key stakeholders indicated an increase in MCT activity and income because of the motorcycles’ ability to bypass police and army controls. In most study countries measures were formulated in a non-consultative manner. This, we argue, is symptomatic of governments’ unwillingness to seriously engage with the sector.
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spelling pubmed-97085252022-11-30 COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective Peters, Krijn Jenkins, Jack Ntramah, Simon Vincent, James Hayombe, Patrick Owino, Fredrick Opiyo, Paul Johnson, Ted Santos, Rosemarie Mugisha, Marion Chetto, Reginald Transp Res Rec COVID-19 and Transportation This article assesses the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the urban motorcycle taxi (MCT) sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). MCT operators in SSA provide essential transport services and have shown ingenuity and an ability to adapt and innovate when responding to different challenges, including health challenges. However, policymakers and regulators often remain somewhat hostile toward the sector. The article discusses the measures and restrictions put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and key stakeholders’ perspectives on these and on the sector’s level of compliance. Primary data were collected in six SSA countries during the last quarter of 2020. Between 10 and 15 qualitative interviews with key stakeholders relevant to the urban MCT sector were conducted in each country. These interviews were conducted with stakeholders based in the capital city and a secondary city, to ensure a geographically broader understanding of the measures, restrictions, and perspectives. The impact of COVID-19 measures on the MCT and motor-tricycle taxi sector was significant and overwhelmingly negative. Lockdowns, restrictions on the maximum number of passengers allowed to be carried at once, and more generally, a COVID-19-induced reduction in demand, resulted in a drop in income for operators, according to the key stakeholders. However, some key stakeholders indicated an increase in MCT activity and income because of the motorcycles’ ability to bypass police and army controls. In most study countries measures were formulated in a non-consultative manner. This, we argue, is symptomatic of governments’ unwillingness to seriously engage with the sector. SAGE Publications 2022-11-28 2023-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9708525/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03611981221131538 Text en © National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle COVID-19 and Transportation
Peters, Krijn
Jenkins, Jack
Ntramah, Simon
Vincent, James
Hayombe, Patrick
Owino, Fredrick
Opiyo, Paul
Johnson, Ted
Santos, Rosemarie
Mugisha, Marion
Chetto, Reginald
COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective
title COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective
title_full COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective
title_fullStr COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective
title_short COVID-19 and the Motorcycle Taxi Sector in Sub-Saharan African Cities: A Key Stakeholders’ Perspective
title_sort covid-19 and the motorcycle taxi sector in sub-saharan african cities: a key stakeholders’ perspective
topic COVID-19 and Transportation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9708525/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03611981221131538
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