abstract: Informal public transport is commonplace in the developing world, but the service exists in the United States as well, and is understudied. Often called "dollar vans", New York's commuter vans serve approximately 120,000 people every day (King and Goldwyn, 2014). While this is a tiny fraction of the New York transit rider population, it is comparable to the total number of commuters who ride transit in smaller cities such as Minneapolis/St Paul and Phoenix. The first part of this study reports on the use of commuter vans in Eastern Queens based on a combination of surveys and a ridership tally, all conducted in summer 2016. It answers four research questions: How many people ride the vans? Who rides the commuter vans? Why do they ride commuter vans? Do commuter vans complement or compete against formal transit? Commuter van ridership in Eastern Queens was approximately 55,000 with a high percentage of female ridership. Time and cost savings were the main factors influencing commuter van ridership. Possession of a MetroCard was shown to negatively affect the frequency of commuter van ridership. The results show evidence of commuter vans playing both a competing and complementary role to MTA bus and subway transit. The second part of this study presents a SWOT analysis results of commuter vans, and the policy implications. It answers 2 research questions: What are the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of commuter vans in Eastern Queens? and How do the current policies, rules and regulations affect commuter van operation? The SWOT analysis results show that the commuter van industry is resilient, performs a necessary service, and, with small adjustments that will help reduce operating costs and loss of profits have a chance of thriving in Eastern Queens and the rest of New York City. The study also discusses the mismatch between policy and practice offering recommendations for improvement to ensure that commuter vans continue to serve residents of New York City. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Urban and Environmental Planning 2017

Kisoro, a rural district in Uganda, is undergoing various transformations which could be summarized under the term neoliberal development. This qualitative study, which is based on six weeks of anthropological fieldwork, is focused on how a few individuals working as motorcycle-taxi drivers in the area experience these transformations, and how they deal with them. The results indicate that while they tend to describe them as “development”, they see them as constituting an uneven form of development - not beneficial to all, something which, in their view, makes this development less genuine. It is commonly associated with various “others”; carried out by and for others, while the informants have to live off the leftovers from it, were the motorcycle-taxi job is seen as such a leftover; neither enabling much upward - nor geographical - mobility. In some cases, they feel included in transformations which makes things worse, so it all constitutes not only a limited, but a somehow distorted development, and there is nostalgia around better pasts. But simultaneously, many also feel free, and as their hopes for inclusion in a genuine development erodes while they wait for it, inspiration from an external world makes them strive for a more individualized prosperity.