Assessing just mobility transitions in the global south: The case of bicycle-sharing in Iran

Globally, bicycle-sharing is one of the fast-growing solutions to climate change in the transport sector. However, what inequities may be reflected, exacerbated, or raised as a result of its adoption and use? To find the answer to this question in the Global South context, we take Bdood, a smart dockless bicycle-sharing system in Iran, and study the distributive (fair distribution of costs and benefits), procedural (impartiality and representativeness in decision-making and free access to data), and recognition (recognition of vulnerable groups and deprived minorities, as well as their needs and values) injustices associated with this system. In doing so, we rely on a qualitative research design involving interviews with users, non-adopters, and daily observers of the Bdood stations and cycling infrastructure (N = 36), site visits, and a literature review. To categorize our findings, we develop and utilize a comprehensive transport/mobility justice framework drawn from the fields of transport equity, transport justice, and mobility justice. This framework enables the identification of numerous distinct injustices in transport and mobility systems and is thus suitable for studying an underexplored context. Our findings show, in contrast to most Global North studies that highlight distributive injustices in bicycle-sharing systems, procedural and recognition injustices are the major concerns of a Global South community. At the end, based on our interviews and literature review, we provide the Iranian community, the Bdood bicyclesharing company, and municipal and governmental authorities with recommendations to make bicyclesharing deployment more sustainable and just.