Decoding an urban myth: An inquiry into the Van line 4 system in Beirut, Lebanon
Introduction
Beirut and its surroundings present a mesh of social, economic, political, and religious affiliations that reflect the devastating effects of post-war Lebanon. The socio-economic model that the postwar governments adopted strengthened the consociationalist system (Bogaards, 2019; Haddad, 2009; Lijphart, 1969), reinforced sectarian and geographic polarization, and eventually led to the fragmentation of public institutions (Salloukh et al., 2015). Adding insult to injury, austerity measures adopted by the government in 1996 contributed to the decay of most public services and infrastructure. Today, urban services provision is ruled by a mix of neoliberal and sectarian policies devised by the overlapping sectarian and economic elite of post-war Lebanon, making political reforms all the more difficult (Nucho, 2017; Salloukh et al., 2015; Verdeil, 2018). In this context, transportation services are no exception. Failure of state-led transport strategies enabled the rise of private initiatives monopolized across overlapping political, geographic, and sectarian power structures.
Taking the case of the informal Van Line 4 (56,250 daily users) in Beiruti1, this paper aims to decode such initiatives and place them within the broad discussions on mobility and informality in the Global South. The research question we aim to answer is threefold: How was this system organized and maintained, notwithstanding economic and political challenges? What role can power and politics play in that organization? Accordingly, what lessons can be drawn from its operation beyond Western technical performance standards in transportation?
While research is abundant on informality in Lebanon on sectors like housing and urban services (Fawaz, 2008, Fawaz, 2009a, Fawaz, 2009b; Fawaz et al., 2012; Verdeil, 2008, Verdeil, 2013, Verdeil, 2016), fewer researchers have looked at the informal initiatives related to transportation and mobility (Charara, 1999). In addition, the grey literature on urban mobility in Lebanon remains limited to its transport dimension with a technical approach and focus on traffic management. Understanding the case of Van Line 4 highlights the socio-economic role this system plays by connecting marginalized neighborhoods to the city. It also presents an interesting case of unorthodox urban mobility as its organization relies on a specific sectarian power structure that does not operate outside the state. Although the concept of power unfolds different layers and types of relationships among actors, we focus on the forms of power that are used by the ruling authorities in Lebanon and that are passed through to the lower end of their clientelistic channels. As we argue in this paper, this serves to blur further the formal-informal binary whereby the same actors operate on both sides creating instead a formal-informal continuum.
In this case, technical expertise, or lack thereof, becomes secondary relative to the role that power and politics play in the provision of transportation services in Beirut. As such, the mobility crisis in the Global South, and particularly in Lebanon, is not simply a result of the absence of “formal” public transport strategies, but rather is one of the symptoms of failed public institutions that materialize most in crumbling urban services and infrastructure provision. Therefore, this paper adds to the discussion of lessons offered by informality in the Global South by questioning dominant transport discourses and challenging technically oriented transport approaches and studies. But, most importantly, it highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of context-specific politics and power interests when decoding informal urban processes.
Section snippets
Methods
While informal transport initiatives are numerous (Beirut Bus Map, 2018) the relevance of the case study is justified by looking at the operation characteristics of the informal transport system in Greater Beirut (Abou Zeid, 2016)2. Among all informal lines in Greater Beirut, Van Line 4 has the shortest headway, highest
Theoretical framework
This paper relies on literature on informality and decolonization in transport research. We focus on the role of politics in informal transport, in an aim to contribute to the decolonization of expert knowledge about transport geography (Schwanen, 2018b) through “worlding” of the political processes and realities of informal urban systems (Schwanen, 2018a).
A note on post-war Beirut and state-led transport strategies
Post War Beirut reconstruction plans were of piecemeal nature (Mouawad and Bauman, 2017; Sawalha, 2011; Nasr and Verdeil, 2008; Rowe and Sarkis, 1998; Davie, 1994). They were characterized by a bias towards large scale development of specific areas, such as Beirut downtown, the reconstruction of which was accorded to the private company Solidere5
Van line 4 case study
In this section, we attempt to decipher the reasons behind Van Line 4's persistence and “efficiency” albeit strong stigmatization of the informal transportation sector in Lebanon. Our analysis covers social, economic and political factors.
Conclusion
In this research, we presented a transport system that was incrementally constructed, re-defining social and economic variables, while reinforcing socio-political hierarchies. Through establishing a successful operational and economic model, Van Line 4 responds to a crucial demand. In a highly unequal and segregated context, it plays an important role in social mobility by granting the most disadvantaged populations access to the city. The organization of such systems offers learning
Declaration of Competing Interests
None.
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Authors’ Contributions
Petra Samaha: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft - Review & Editing, Visualization, Project administration.
Amer Mohtar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - Original Draft - Review & Editing.
Acknowledgements
Preliminary results of this research were previously published in 2016 within a brief article on Jadaliyya website.
References (58)
- et al.
Informal transport: a global perspective
Transp. Policy
(2007) Perspectives on efficiency in transportation
Int. J. Transp. Manag.
(2003)Beirut mobility study: Data items report (Fourth Revision)
(2016)No condition is permanent: informal transport workers and labour precarity in Africa’s largest city
Int. J. Urban Reg. Res.
(2017)Africa's First Full Rapid Bus System: The Rea Vaya Bus System in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa
(2013)- et al.
Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia
(2004) Lebanese protests: the missing trade unions. Commerce du Levant, February 21
- et al.
The CEDRE Reform Program Needs a Credible Plan
(2019) - et al.
CEDRE reform program: learning from Paris III. Beirut, Lebanon: the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, policy brief, 1-12.
policy brief
(2018) An initiative for a strategic plan to manage public transportation in Lebanon: Tracs is launched from the train station [مبادرة لوضع خطة شاملة لإدارة النقل العام في لبنان: Tracs تنطلق من محطة القطار]
(2019)
Formal and informal consociational institutions: a comparison of the national pact and the Taif agreement in Lebanon
Nationalism and Ethnic Politics
Public sector mobilisation despite a dormant workers' movement
Confluences Méditerranée
The Track Record of Railways in Lebanon (1890–2014): When Profit Trumps Public Benefit
Lebanon’s traffic crisis: How did the public bus end? [ازمة السير في لبنان: كيف توقف “جحش الدولة” ؟]
Les euphémismes de la résistance sociale au Liban
Alternatives Sud
Urban Transport Development Project Brief, Beirut
Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System between Tabarja and Beirut and Feeders Buses Services
Migrants dans la « banlieue de la banlieue » : Cercles d'insertion et nœuds de conflits
On the efficiency of transportation systems in large cities
EPL (Europhysics Letters)
Demarcation lines in contemporary Beirut
An unusual clique of city-makers: social networks in the production of a neighborhood in Beirut (1950-75)
Int. J. Urban Reg. Res.
Contracts and retaliation: securing housing exchanges in the interstice of the formal/informal Beirut (Lebanon) housing market
J. Plan. Educ. Res.
Neoliberal urbanity and the right to the city: a view from Beirut's periphery
Dev. Chang.
Living Beirut's security zones: an investigation of the modalities and practice of urban security
City & Society
Urban slums reports: the case of Beirut, Lebanon
“Together we can”: redefining work in Nairobi's urban transportation sector
Anthropol. Work. Rev.
Development in market structure and regulation of urban bus services in developing countries and countries in transition
Beyond the ‘weak state’: hybrid sovereignties in Beirut
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Regulation of the informal transport sector in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: welfare impacts and policy analysis
Transportation
Cited by (4)
Informal, essential and embedded: Transport strategies in remote Sarawak
2021, Journal of Transport GeographyCitation Excerpt :Informal transport, also termed ‘paratransit,’ is generally defined as commercially available transport that is not endorsed, regulated or licensed by the state, or where regulation is not enforced (Ehebrecht et al., 2018; Rekhviashvili and Sgibnev, 2019). Informal transport systems tend to emerge in areas where more formalised public transport systems are unavailable or where service is insufficient (Samaha and Mohtar, 2020; Venter et al., 2014). In emerging economies, informal transport in one form or another provides mobility to a majority of the population (Cervero and Golub, 2007; Venter et al., 2014).
Decolonial approaches to urban transport geographies: Introduction to the special issue
2020, Journal of Transport GeographyCitation Excerpt :Hence the contributions to this special issue are not only geographically located in Beirut, Johannesburg, and Moscow, helping to expand further the geographical scope of the transport debate, but they are also intellectually ensconced within decolonial thinking. They are unremittingly critical of discourses of efficiency and sustainability arriving from the north and west (Samaha and Mohtar, 2020; Trubina, 2020), and they rely on theories and ontologies that originate from outside the established centres of transport expertise, and outside the global north (Verlinghieri and Middleton, 2020; Schwanen, 2020). The editors and authors, even if some are speaking from the global north, not only conduct empirical work in the global south, but also attempt to reshape those landscapes by re-positioning the subaltern.
Unpacking Service Management Issues in Intermediate Public Transportation Toward Sustainable Mobility
2023, Transportation Research RecordThe rules of the road: spectacle, performance and power in Lebanese car culture
2022, Contemporary Levant