Saud Casanova, Veronica Luisa; (2021) Contested Niche Innovations in Transport: Experiences from the Inter-comunal Bicycle Sharing System in Santiago de Chile, 2011-2017. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Significant new technological developments in transport are already part of our urban landscape, helped by trends in the globalisation of economic activities. Acknowledging that technology is a facilitator of key changes in urban mobility, this thesis examines the institutional context in which a new transport technology is deployed, highlighting concerns not only about possible failures of an ‘enabling state’, but also about the ‘enabling environment’ as a central policy issue. This perspective provides a suitable space to further discuss the increasing governance hybridity in deploying new technologies in transport, acknowledging that the balance of power appears to be shifting. This research seeks to analyse the role of decision-making processes in triggering transformative adaptations that account for a mobility justice transition towards more equitable and inclusive mobility landscapes. Empirically, the thesis presents a case study promoting utility cycling via the deployment of an inter-comunal Bicycle Sharing Scheme, comprising 14 comunas in Santiago, Chile’s capital city, a fragmented metropolitan area with high socio-spatial inequalities. This research approach combines quantitative and qualitative methods of data gathering and analysis. A survey of 343 current bike-hire users at the busiest stations in order to gauge the perceived benefits of such deployment was complemented by interviews with key decision-makers and direct observations of operational logistics in the field. Business model innovation and public tendering processes provided valuable insights into the decision-making process as a subject of analysis. Findings suggest that a mobility justice transition is a relational matter. Indeed, inter-governmental agreements and collaborative actions were crucial in challenging patterns of socio-spatial inequality and proved to be a transformative strategy for change. However, prospects for a radical transition towards greater mobility justice are mixed. In conclusion, partnerships supporting niche-innovations operate within norms, values and practices, which are socially and culturally conditioned, and systematically shaped by the actions of society. Unfolding this rationale and ‘working through’ tensions and synergies towards the search for a common interest on the basis of transparency, collaboration, trust and deliberation, there is potential for setting out a mobility justice transition pathway.

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