Rebuilding Trust on the Move: How Blockchain Can Help Transform Public Transport
From half-finished flyovers and hours of standstill to “limited public funding,” public transport across the Global South is chronically underfunded. The consequence? Eroded public trust. Tuhu Nugraha shows how blockchain technology could turn promises into verifiable progress on sustainable infrastructure – enabling shared responsibility, fairness, and renewed trust.
In early September, during a visit to Mumbai for an AI research workshop, I took a short city tour that revealed a sobering truth: half-finished flyovers, gridlocked roads, and commuters trapped in hours of standstill. When I asked Google Gemini what was causing this, the reply was blunt: limited public funding. That phrase stayed with me – because it could equally have been true of Dhaka, Jakarta, Manila, Cairo, or Mexico City. Across the Global South, cities are trying to move forward while the systems meant to support them do not keep up.
Public transport is the lifeblood of an inclusive city: it connects people to opportunity. When it flows, cities thrive; when it breaks down, everything slows with it. Yet in much of the Global South, public transport remains chronically underfunded. Governments are stretched thin, private investors see little return, and public trust erodes as projects stall halfway.
Blockchain: Turning Promises into Verifiable Progress
The result is a silent tax paid daily by millions in wasted time, polluted air, and lost opportunities. Breaking this pattern requires not only new sources of capital but also clear mechanisms for accountability, where governance innovation matters as much as financial innovation. Traditional funding models, dependent on state budgets and slow-moving loans, often lag behind the pace of urban life – leaving citizens stuck between rising expectations and bureaucratic inertia.
This is where blockchain comes in: not as hype, but as a practical tool. It can make every rupiah, peso, or shilling traceable and accountable. As the Brookings Institution notes, sustainable infrastructure depends as much on institutional innovation as it does on money. Blockchain offers precisely that: a digital system with built-in verification that turns promises into verifiable progress.
New Tools to Support Fairness and Transparency
Through smart contracts, payments are triggered automatically when verified milestones are met, reducing corruption and administrative delays. Meanwhile, tokenisation allows citizens, businesses, and communities to co-fund transport projects transparently – through micro-investments, crowdfunding, or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions. In societies where trust in government is fragile, such systems can encourage participation and a sense of ownership over public infrastructure.
Beyond financing, blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) data can make cross-subsidy systems visible and fair. Imagine a city where higher road pricing or vehicle taxes for private cars are transparently redirected to support public transport. Commuters from satellite towns around cities such as Dhaka, Jakarta, or Mexico City – and the local governments of those areas – could also share in funding, since daily travel patterns and urban development across the wider metropolitan area contribute to carbon emissions concentrated in city centres. Decarbonisation, therefore, must become a shared responsibility across regions. This aligns with Chatham House’s framework on inclusive urban finance, promoting fairness and distributed accountability.
It’s about Connection
Examples are emerging. The World Bank’s FundsChain initiative tracks every pound or dollar spent on infrastructure, while regulatory sandboxes in Latin America are experimenting with tokenised financing for public works. These pilots reflect the OECD’s view that blockchain is not merely a digital tool but a risk-reduction mechanism, making investments more transparent and trustworthy.
As I already stated, public transport is about more than movement; it provides access to opportunity and supports social cohesion. How? In the Global South, it helps reduce economic inequality by linking lower-income communities to jobs, education, and markets, while supporting social stability by bringing people from different backgrounds into shared spaces of empathy. As UN-Habitat’s People-Centred Smart Cities framework reminds us, mobility should not only move people – but also connect them meaningfully.
Enabling Public Participation
A crowded train or bus is one of the last public spaces where citizens meet as equals. When that system falters, segregation deepens, and cities become more divided. Blockchain may not fix poverty, but it could restore fairness and trust by making financial flows transparent and enabling public participation.
By aligning these innovations with SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), blockchain can help ensure that every kilometre of road or rail delivers economic benefits and reflects public values. It is not only about technology; it is about inclusion, integrity, and dignity.
Building Something Enduring
Across the Global South, from Jakarta to Manila, Cairo, Dhaka, and Mexico City, the cost of congestion and inefficiency is measured not just in lost productivity, but in lost trust. As the OECD’s framework on ‘Blockchain for Sustainable Infrastructure’ suggests, transparency is not a luxury – it is the basis of credibility. Cities need not only better infrastructure; they also need better ways to prove they can deliver it. Blockchain cannot pour concrete or drive trains, but it could potentially build something far more enduring: trust. And in the Global South, trust is an essential condition that can finally make our cities move again.
