Multiple Temporalities of Policy Circulation: Gradual, Repetitive and Delayed Processes of BRT Adoption in South African Cities

Astrid Wood

doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12216

Abstract

AbstractIn 2006, bus rapid transit (BRT) swept across South African cities. Within three years of learning of the Bogotá model of BRT, Johannesburg's Rea Vaya opened, followed shortly by Cape Town's MyCiTi, while several other cities are at various stages of planning and implementation. This article traces the circulation of BRT across the South African urban context to expose the multiple and varied temporalities through which BRT came to appear as the only available solution. These earlier encounters, which include the first published discussion of BRT in South Africa in a 1973 conference report, study visits to Curitiba in the 1990s and a failed attempt to implement a Bogotá‐style BRT system in Cape Town in 2003, were instrumental in creating a fertile ground for later adoption practices. While it may appear as if circulated policies shorten the gestation time from policy introduction to policy adoption, these repeated attempts to implement circulated innovations ensure that the turnover only seems accelerated. This article unravels the story of BRT adoption, departing from the theoretical discussions of the policy circulation process as a rapid phenomenon, instead demonstrating that it is gradual, repetitive and at times delayed.

Highlights

In 2006, bus rapid transit (BRT) swept across South African cities
The example of BRT adoption across South Africa supports my claim that policy changes take far longer than usually assumed and that exchanges from bygone years can be fundamental in shaping ongoing mobilities
The introduction and removal of each of these services reflects the socio-spatial context in which transport is provided and used, and speaks to the wider scope of this article: how does South African experimentation with transport innovation inform ongoing BRT adoption? And, more theoretically, how does previous experience with a similar innovation inform local adoption practices? These considerations will be used to analyse the multiple temporalities through which BRT circulated

Summary

Theorizing practices of learning across cities

The widespread adoption of BRT in South Africa denotes a process of policy circulation in which localities adopt successful global innovations under the assump tion that it will be effective locally. In more recent discussions of fast policy, Peck substantiates his claims to rapid circulation, explaining that poli cies spread ‘not by succeeding but by failure, as the underperformance of first-round reform efforts became the rationale for more stringent measures’ (2011a: 10) This article substantiates these arguments within circulations of transport solutions into South African cities, demonstrating that policy adopters might have several encounters with circulated notions prior to their adoption. Governance drove technological transformation, while in other instances, profit facilitated the localization of best practice It is within this context of mobility that we can demonstrate how new and recycled ideas relating to transport were introduced, circulated, replicated and replaced across South African cities. The introduction and removal of each of these services reflects the socio-spatial context in which transport is provided and used, and speaks to the wider scope of this article: how does South African experimentation with transport innovation inform ongoing BRT adoption? And, more theoretically, how does previous experience with a similar innovation inform local adoption practices? These considerations will be used to analyse the multiple temporalities through which BRT circulated

BRT adoption in South African cities

Planting the seeds of BRT in South Africa

Gradual processes of learning

Repetitive processes of circulation

Delayed processes of adoption

Rea Vaya opens

Findings

Processes of slow policy circulation