Public Transportation Governance Types
An Analytical Framework for Examining Bus Services in the Global South
Ivan Souza Viera (Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales - UNAM)
Public transportation plays a central role in contemporary urban life. Research indicates that well-designed and well-structured transit systems can expand opportunities for citizenship, stimulate economic growth, improve the well-being of vulnerable groups, and yield a range of benefits for cities. This is especially evident in the Global South, where millions of residents – particularly those with lower incomes – rely on buses, trains, and subways for their daily mobility.
However, the experience of public transportation users in the Global South varies widely from city to city. Even under similar economic and political conditions, users in some places benefit from affordable, efficient, and reliable services, while in others they face high fares, limited routes, and poor-quality systems. These stark differences highlight a crucial question: What accounts for the divergent experiences of public service users in the transport sector across cities in the Global South?
In this paper, I tackle this question by introducing a descriptive typology that connects the political, economic, and social dynamics shaping public transport systems. The analysis focuses on two core dimensions of service provision that matter to governments, operators, and users alike: affordability (the financial burden users face to access mobility) and quality (encompassing route design, frequency, travel time, reliability, safety, comfort, cleanliness, and accessibility). I focus particularly on bus systems, as they remain the backbone of daily mobility and the dominant mode of transport in many Global South cities.
Building on the premise that stakeholders’ agreements on regulation, subsidies, and state oversight are essential to shaping affordability and quality, I develop a typology that maps these two dimensions in a 2×2 framework. This approach generates four distinct “public transport governance types”: Prohibitive High-End, Inclusive Top-Notch, Expensive Mediocrity, and Cheap Service Trap. Each type captures a particular mix of regulation, financing, and service delivery, reflecting the broader politics of how urban public goods are provided. The framework is illustrated through an analysis of contrasting bus systems in Mexico City.
Figure 1. 2×2 Framework
The Prohibitive High-End type describes cities where buses are reliable and safe but priced out of reach for much of the population. Strong regulation ensures efficiency, decent labor conditions, and vehicle standards, but limited or absent subsidies mean operators recover costs through high fares. The result is a system that mainly serves middle- and upper-income groups, leaving lower-income riders with overcrowded, informal, or lower-quality alternatives. This model tends to emerge in technocratic, top-down contexts where redistribution is not a political priority.
At the opposite end lies the Inclusive Top-Notch model – an aspirational scenario where both quality and affordability are delivered. Here, governments actively regulate operators, enforce safety standards, and invest substantial subsidies to keep fares accessible. These subsidies may be universal or targeted but, in both cases, they expand access to high-quality services. Such systems typically arise either in competitive political environments, where governments are pressured to deliver for lower-income groups, or in contexts where the state has strong institutional capacity to implement and sustain reforms.
Other cities fall into less favorable categories. The Expensive Mediocrity type combines the worst of both worlds: high fares and poor service. Weak regulatory frameworks allow informal or loosely monitored operators to dominate, leading to old fleets, inefficient routes, and unreliable service. Without subsidies, users pay steep fares for inadequate mobility, deepening inequality and frustration. This model often reflects governments’ inability (or unwillingness) to impose effective oversight, instead relying on clientelist or informal ties with transport operators. Over time, these patterns undermine the credibility of reforms and lock cities into a costly, underperforming system.
Finally, there is the Cheap Service Trap. Here, governments prioritize low fares through strict price controls, but fail to provide the financial or regulatory support needed to sustain service quality. Operators respond by cutting costs: reducing maintenance, overloading buses, or neglecting labor protections. While cheap fares may appear to help low-income riders in the short term, chronic underfunding leads to worsening service, unreliable operations, and declining mobility overall. The result is a “low-level equilibrium trap”: the system becomes stuck in a cycle where users resist fare increases, governments avoid politically costly reforms, and service quality continues to erode.
Illustrating the public transport governance framework to Mexico City’s diverse bus system demonstrates how multiple governance types can coexist within a single metropolitan area. The city features a range of systems, from a highly regulated and affordable Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network to low-quality, informally operated microbuses, representing several governance types within one urban space. This coexistence highlights significant differences in state intervention, regulatory oversight, and subsidy allocation, reflecting how transport policy and politics have evolved over the past decades. These variations, in turn, shape the day-to-day experiences of transit users across the metropolitan area.
The research indicates that low-income commuters often start their trips on microbuses (labeled as Cheap Service Trap or Expensive Mediocrity) before transferring to higher-quality, state-subsidized routes. This fragmented system imposes significant economic and time costs. Residents in outlying areas, aside from having fewer financial resources, typically spend about twice as much on transportation as those in central districts, where affordable, subsidized services are more readily available. Travel times also vary greatly. Official data show that low-income residents in peripheral municipalities spend more than twice the commuting time of wealthier individuals in central areas.
In summary, the proposed framework provides a practical lens for understanding how governance shapes public transport outcomes in complex urban settings. The case of Mexico City illustrates that affordability and quality are shaped by the evolving agreements among stakeholders (including state actors, political parties, and private operators) on issues such as regulation, subsidies, and oversight. Applied to other cities in the Global South, this approach can illuminate the political dynamics that determine who benefits – and who is left behind – in urban mobility.
Ivan Souza Vieira holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE). He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Social Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIS-UNAM), supported by the UNAM Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.