2025 Reports

The Role of Popular Transportation in Costa Rica: LL 500 to Lomas

Quesada Alluin, Carla; Campos Matarrita, Elena; Steinvorth Álvarez, Arturo; Salas Castillo, Ariana

In territories characterized by socioeconomic and spatial disparities, such as cities in the Global South, popular transportation, also known as informal and semiformal transportation, established itself as the essential means of connecting people, goods, and services. Although research on the subject has increased over time, this mode of transportation and its dynamics remain understudied, even more so in Costa Rica. This paper seeks to fill that gap by investigating how popular transportation operates and how its users perceive it in Pavas, an urban district in Costa Rica’s capital city, San José. Relying on participant observation, surveys, and interviews with its users, we find that popular transportation provides inter- (to the city center) and intra-district (within Pavas) mobility to its users. Even though inter-district connectivity is also provided by public buses and trains, popular transportation, collecting passengers while someone shouts ‘500 to Lomas’ from within the minivan to make citizens aware of the cost of the service and the route, Concerns related to driving practices and the regularization of the service come to light as elements to consider in the improvement and dignification of popular transportation. As the first systematic study of popular transportation in San José and the second in Costa Rica, it points to the need for further research on the opportunities enabled by and challenges of popular transportation, as well as the need for data collection and engagement with the sector by planners in the city.