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The impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the transport sector and the corresponding mitigation policies have been widely investigated across the world. There were uncertainties regarding the virus and its role in the context of transport. This paper examined the resilience of transport services in three cities of the Global South during the pandemic while focusing on three main areas: (1) the impacts of COVID-19 on transport services; (2) COVID-19 related challenges of the transport services; and (3) the necessary corrective actions undertaken by transport services to manage the spread of COVID-19 and future pandemics in cities. A series of expert stakeholder workshops were conducted in the cities of Owerri (Nigeria), Kampala (Uganda) and Dhaka (Bangladesh) between December 2020 and January 2021. The aim was to seek input from city planning officials, transport policy experts, transport operator associations, civil society and the academia, among others on how the pandemic affected mobility in these cities and to identify the areas of consensus and conflict. The findings revealed that captive users, who relied heavily on these transport services were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 mitigation measures, consequently resorting to alternative modes of mobility including walking. When the lockdown measures were gradually eased, the pandemic exposed the severe inadequacies in the operation of transport services, particularly related to adherence to health and safety guidelines, carrying capacity, fare structure and organizational/administrative limitations. The need to ensure that transport systems are prepared for future pandemics is urgent, but also is the management of transport systems in cities of the developing world.

Public and paratransit services in low- and middle-income countries were severely hit by COVID-19 and related mitigation measures. This has affected both passengers and service providers. While there is now an abundance of studies investigating the effects on passengers, the literature on the impacts of the pandemic on drivers or service providers is scarce. As such, this study investigates the implications of the pandemic for commercial passenger vehicle drivers in the global south taking one South Asian country (Bangladesh) and one African country (Nigeria) as case study countries.

Although road users are aware of the possible risks of engaging in unsafe behaviours while driving, they continue to do so. These behaviours often contribute to traffic incidents and crashes involving them and other road users. This study set out to analyse the effect of road user type, location and time of day on unsafe driving behaviours observed in traffic conflict situations. Data were collected by road side observation at three different locations in the eastern part of Nigeria using the traffic conflict technique (TCT). This approach was adopted to overcome the inherent problems associated with reliable, inadequate and accessible crash data in Nigeria. In total 946 traffic conflicts were observed and statistical testing showed that drivers were involved in one or more unsafe behaviours prior to these conflicts. Of all unsafe behaviours observed, the incorrect use of indicators (13.3%) and tailgating (11.3%) were found to be the most prevalent, while road user type, location and time of day were found to be statistically associated with passenger scouting and other unsafe behaviours. Tricycle drivers were significantly more likely to engage in unsafe behaviours than vehicle drivers. Drivers are also more likely to engage in unsafe behaviours on straight roads. Additionally, a greater number of these unsafe behaviours were observed during the peak periods. It is recommended that better road infrastructure, more effective regulations and enforcement, and proper road safety education could help improve traffic safety in Nigeria.