Transport Poverty

My Contributions

My contributions were mainly in documenting our observations and interviews, since I had a professional camera and gimble, and also conducting a few of the interviews. In addition to that I also put together the entire video for our final presentation. See video below.

To immerse ourselves in the areas of transport poverty we did few observations, field visits and we tried to live by ourselves the commute experience.

First we started with observing one of the landmark and major traffic intersections of Bangkok. Victory Monument Station. To get there, we decided to simulate the commute experience traveling by public buses that cope with transport poverty. In addition to that,  we performed a group observation in one of the previously identified low-income communities Khlong Toey( Bangkok's Biggest Slum). This visit gave us the opportunity to explore different environments, people and behaviors.

Based on the observations and the interviews we understood that informal transport is a basic service indispensable to the  dynamic urban life in Bangkok. As the city continues to grow and modernize, informal transport in Bangkok not only survives but thrives. We also concluded that the urbanite who copes with transport poverty in Bangkok relies less on informal transport than normally perceived. They own and use private motorcycles whenever and wherever possible because the costs of owning and using motorcycles are actually low.

Sadly we also learned that it is indeed a fact that Bangkok people that cope with transport poverty are off of the government radar. To ensure that the disadvantages around transport poverty are evidence-based, we amassed two case studies that provide transport poverty-relevant insights and opportunities into the informal and public transport sector of Bangkok.