Looking Beyond the Plan and Understanding the Process : Lessons from Rea Vaya

African cities have to manage rapid urbanization and mobilization to decrease road congestion and air pollution that hinder economic development and social cohesion. This paper presents public policy research that applied the concepts and language of Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis Development (IAD) framework to systematically describe the implementation of sustainable public transport policies in the Greater Johannesburg Area/South Africa. This mixed-method study focuses, in particular, on the process of developing a single trunk route of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system (Phase 1A).