Perception to climate change and indigenous transport in developing Asia: a transport users' perspectives

This paper contends that indigenous transport, defined as those modes, which evolved in response to local demand, well-contextualized to local conditions and well-adapted to local culture, helps decrease the vulnerability of individuals as well as communities to better adapt to climate change impacts. First, this paper examines the concept of indigenous transport based on its defined attributes. Second, through a face-to-face survey of transport passengers in three developing cities in Southeast Asia, namely: Baguio (Philippines), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), and Bandung (Indonesia), this paper investigates the indigenous attributes of three types of indigenous transport and elicits transport passengers’ thoughts on climate change, their perception towards indigenous transport service attributes, and the contribution of indigenous transport to climate change adaptation. This exercise, however, does not compare indigenous transport across diverse urban scales, instead it attempts to gain a better understanding of the indigenous qualities of public transport modes, generally considered informal, and attain enhanced insights to strengthen the evidence base that can inform a context-based climate adaptation policy aimed at the local community level in developing Southeast Asian cities.