Transport provision and the practice of mobilities production

Abstract

This paper propounds a practised understanding of transport provision. While transport geography tends to focus on the effects of planning, mobilities studies view transport provision as framing backdrops of mobile lives. Neither has fully addressed how transport provision is a derivative of mundane practices that contingently lay transport’s structural foundations. This paper argues that delineating these practices imputes a much-needed ‘livingness’ to transport’s formal production and allows for more congruous conversations between transport provision and use. Through a three-part examination, I foreground what potentially goes on during transport’s planning and operations, and highlight the contingencies of these less-than-unitary processes.