“I have no choice”: Agency, poverty and embodied experience in urban transport

Abstract

This mixed-methods study explores mobility – and the lack of it - in Lilongwe, Malawi, a mid-sized African capital city, based on a 600-person household travel survey, developed to capture nuances of gender and class, “mobilities of care”, and suppressed and unfulfilled travel needs, as well as over 100 semi-structured interview with city residents, transport operators, and policy makers. As well as the focus on missed travel and unreachable destinations, we integrate the physical, mental and emotional experiences of travel. The paper finds travel in the city to be dominated by sense of constraint and limited agency emerges for urban residents. Travel is expensive, difficult and ineffective. Half of respondents do not use any form of motorized transport regularly, and 60 % of residents report being unable to make trips for social purposes, and over 40 % for medical purposes. Most areas are perceived a unsafe for pedestrians, both from crime, and from poor traffic safety. 24 % of respondents report experiencing a traffic crash in the past six months. For residents, it means both curtailed physical movement, and a deprivation of agency, which saps choice, opportunity, and time. Even basic, daily, routing trips require constant tradeoffs, calculations and sacrifices to navigate the city. These drive a layered sense of exclusion, frustration, and disempowerment.