Public Transportation and Politics of Times of the Day: On the Disappearing Evening in a Big City

Abstract

Although economic and social effects of the night are increasingly present in research on cities, the topic has been analyzed only from the Western European perspective. There is a gap in the analysis of regionally specific meanings that urban actors invest into the morning and evening operation of infrastructures. The article examines the specifics of the post-Soviet city via the history of public transportation operation in early morning and late evening hours in Rostov-on-Don. The focus is on the impact of cutbacks in evening public transit service hours on time planning practices, folk ideas about the causes of the current situation, as well as growth of inequality in access to leisure and mobility. I propose that evening hours between work and sleep should be approached as public time by analogy with the way in which social sciences understand public space.