How Cities Learn traces the circulation of bus rapid transit (BRT) to understand how and why it was widely adopted in South Africa. • Investigates the global proliferation and localization of BRT • Examines the production and distribution of transportation knowledge in the global south • Addresses the spatial and social legacy of apartheid in South African cities • Reveals a new way of understanding the intersections between policy, people and place • Essential reading for scholars of geography, politics, sociology and transportation, as well as urban planners and practitioners