Analyzing transport politics through “critical moments”: Conflict and power in the paradigmatic case of Seventh Avenue in Bogotá, Colombia

This article proposes the methodology of Critical Moments (CMs) to study transport decision-making politics, contributing to debates on transport as a social construct. Critical Moments are defined as moments when change occurs in contentious processes through relational interactions, causing uncertainty, disrupting power relations, and shaping action repertoires. The methodology enables analysis of how formal and informal political actions by citizens and administrations shape transport outcomes, revealing how projects are developed both within and outside conventional planning processes. An ethnographic study of Seventh Avenue in Bogotá, Colombia, illustrates how the interplay between case actors during CMs led to a progressive agenda and participatory process but ultimately excluded citizens’ political action, jeopardizing transport justice. The analysis provides three key insights into transport politics and justice. First, it reveals the unintended consequences of excluding citizens’ political actions, suggesting that excluding “some” to improve transport justice for “others” may have the opposite effect, jeopardizing transport justice for all. Second, it demonstrates that in contested planning processes, both critical and non-critical moments are equally important for addressing conflict adequately. Third, it provides insights into procedural justice and participation, indicating that it involves managing both relational and substantive conflicts throughout the decision-making process and includes “contestation” in the understanding of participation. Critical Moment analysis enables a better understanding of the relational complexity and shifting power dynamics in transport planning by comparing contested meanings in stakeholder perspectives. It provides an empirical analysis of the temporality of conflict and power mismatches in urban transformation.