Meeting the Challenges of Megacities in the Developing World A Collection of Working Papers (1996) / Chapter Skim
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Transportation Options for Megacities in the Developing World
Transportation Options for Megacities in the Developing World
Pages 65-111
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From page 65... ...
REE ERENCES Aulia, H., S.C. Surapaty, E
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1995. Private Sector Participation in Water Supply and Sanitation irz Latin America.
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1995. Mexico City's Water Supply: Improving the Outlook for Sustainability.
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Roth, G
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World Bank.
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Transportation Options for Megacities in the Developing World A Working Paper Transportation Research Board
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From page 73... ...
Setty Pendakur, University of British Columbia Daniel SperI~ng, University of California, Davis Michael Walsh, Consultant, Washington, D.C. Consultant Amrita Daniere, University of Toronto National Research Council Stab Stephen Godwin, Transportation Research Board Valerie Gibson, (summer intern)
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From page 75... ...
Relatively simple measures, such as the introduction of one-way systems and reversible-flow traffic lanes, improvements In street conditions, and improved Pairing of engineers and traffic police, can do much to improve traffic flows quickly and inexpensively. Additionally, financial measures for demand 7r assuagement, which include increased fees for parking in congested areas, congestion pacing, and higher taxes on fuels, can greatly influence demand for private motorized transportation.
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From page 76... ...
Private financing and management can better ensure that services are priced at weir full cost, thereby miriTnizing capital and operating costs and giving proper market signals for capacity expansion. International experience is quite well documented In the areas of private bus services, private toll roads, and development charges.
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From page 77... ...
The pattern followed In the ~ndustnal~zed cities has had environmental costs that can be avoided while the city still enjoys the substantial economic and mobility benefits provided by motorized transportation. Effective traffic management, full-cost pnc~ng, environmental controls on fuels and vehicles, alternative technologies and fuels, privatization, land-use planning, and improved integration of multimodal transportation are all capable of ameliorating the grave mobility problems of megacities.
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From page 79... ...
~ _^ ~ ~ ~ _~_—_ SOFA—} ~ ~~ Developing countnes look to the ~ndustnal~zed nations to provide them with models, technologies, and strategies for dealing with growth in both urbanization and motorization. Certainly Me experience of cities of the developed world with motorized transportation infrastructure planning and investment exhibits much that is attractive.
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From page 80... ...
In Bangkok, for example, motor vehicle registrations have increased at the rate of 12 percent a year for the past 10 years, while even in China, one of the world's least motorized nations, the growth rate of motor vehicles has exceeded 18 percent per year since 1985. Moreover, many large cities ~ the developing world have followed a dense pattern of development that complicates the process of providing roads and public transport services to urban residents.
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From page 81... ...
In some cases, megacities In developing countries have important transportation advantages relative to cities of the developed world. Compared with their counterparts In industrialized nations, for example, develop~ng-country urban residents are much less reliant on forms of transportation that pollute the environment and/or are heavily subsidized, and are more open to using different transportation modes.
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From page 82... ...
Inevitably, as demand for urban transport and mcomes have risen In megacities, the dependence of urban residents on motorized modes of transport has increased as well. The growth In demand for motorized transportation is not limited to those able to purchase private automobiles (although these awe certainly a main source of increased congestion)
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From page 83... ...
occupies road space and causes drivers to obstruct traffic flow while searching for parldng. At the same time, large supplies of low-cost center city parking can encourage private vehicle travel and contribute to increases in traffic voluble.
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Separation not only improves safety for all modes, but also smoothes traffic flow, raises awareness of the rights of different vehicles, and may even encourage travelers to switch to public or nonmotonzed tran.cport modes. What is heartening about the traffic management measures discussed here is that Hey represent relatively simple improvements and/or modifications to existing transport systems that can improve traffic flows relatively quickly and inexpensively.
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From page 85... ...
Financial Restrmnt Measures Road pricing, a financial method for traffic management, employs a market mechanism to encourage the use of higher-occupancy vehicles and more efficient use of road space. The basic idea of pricing the use of roads for revemle purposes is an old one.
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From page 86... ...
Nonetheless, congestion pricing is being unplemented even in countries where political resistance to charging for roads has always been high. Another market mechanism, off-street paid-parking facilities In city centers, can complement congestion pacing schemes, provide an incentive to drivers to use their cars more wisely, and make public transport more competitive.
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From page 87... ...
These zoning systems are designed to limit through-traff~c on dense center city streets, increase city street safety, and reduce transport-related air and noise pollution in Me center city. Public transport, pedestrian, and nonmotonzed transport facilities can be developed to allow for travel between zones.
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From page 88... ...
Most countries underprice the use of roads In highly congested urban areas, giving individuals an incentive to rely on motorized transport, particularly private motorized transport, for getting to and from high-density central business districts. These subsidies have contributed to sprawling urban form, increased congestion, and environment degradation.
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From page 89... ...
ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES One of the primary motivations for all of the transportation options discussed in this chapter is the contribution of motorized transport to environmental degradation, particularly with respect to air quality. Transport vehicles buying fossil fuels emit pollutants such as hydrocarbons (HC)
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From page 90... ...
The actions Mat should receive Me highest priority involve improved fuel quality, particularly the removal of leaded gasoline from urban roads, but Me best and most successful strategies rely on a comprehensive approach, such as Mat adopted In Mexico City in 1990 (Walsh, 19961. Integrated Program Against Air Pollution in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area This program comprises 42 specific measures that include changes in file!
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From page 91... ...
The county's government introduced gasolines with reduced lead content in 1989 and unleaded gasoline in 1994. A recent study in Indonesia indicates that unleaded fuel and the substitution of natural gas for gasoline are economical for that nation because of their effects on health-related costs (WorId Bank, 1993~.
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From page 92... ...
The promotion of unleaded gasoline, for example, is relatively straightforward, and a number of countries have devised ways of encoding excising refineries to modify their systems sufficiently to produce unleaded fuel. Thus, passing laws that require all new motor vehicles to use undeaded Mel while at Me same time increasing the price of leaded has relative to unleaded am O ~ —— O~ ~ ~~_~ ~~—w ., .
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From page 93... ...
In the long run, we can look forward to technologies, such as electric and fuel cell vehicles, that create no emissions on city streets. In some regions, particularly in countries with substantial supplies of hydra or nuclear power, We use of batter~r-powered electric vehicles may be highly attractive since electric vehicles will generally be recharged In the evening, when electric power plants are otherwise underused and the cost of supplying electricity is lower.
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From page 94... ...
Fuel cell vehicles would consume about half the energy of conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, emit no pollution or greenhouse gases, and run more quietly. Early models may mn on petroleum fuels, methanol, or hydrogen made from natural gas, but scientists hope that eventually, these fuel cell vehicles will run on hydrogen made from water using solar energy.
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From page 95... ...
In many other developing countries, as noted earlier, enforcement of legal requirements is much more problematic than is the case In industrialized countries. While vehicle technology advances hold great promise for improving vehicle emissions and efficiency, urban areas In developing countries usually have little control over the average vehicle technologies Mat actually operate on their streets.
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From page 96... ...
Funds for the construction and maintenance of urban and rural roads are not available, and the resources devoted to public transportation rarely keep pace win inflation. To help address these financial problems, many countries have recently turned to private suppliers to provide services formerly offered by public agencies.
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From page 97... ...
In addition, there is room In most developing countries for levying charges on developers for the provision of urban infrastructure, ~nclud~g a much-expanded application of beneficiary principles.7 Opportunities Within BUS Transport Buses are Me primary for of motorized public transportation in most cities of the world; frequently, buses have higher readership than all other public modes combined. ~ Urban bus services are particularly important In cities of developing countries, where buses typically represent 50 to 80 percent of all motorized trips.
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From page 98... ...
Often goverrunents are aware of the deficit problems facing Weir public transport companies and attempt to privatize transportation services or, more commonly, allow other, less-regulated and privately operated modes, such as minibuses, fill the gaps not provided for by the public companies. Privatization frequently permits cities in developing countries to eliminate or check growth In transport subsidies while maintaining or expanding service, largely because of the cost differences between private and public providers.
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From page 99... ...
In Santiago, the reforms brought about a dramatic expansion in public transport capacity, which was initially accompanied by large fare increases for some forms of transport, particularly buses, microbuses, and taxicabs. This occurred because these transport modes were subjected to a series of anticompetitive controls enforced by their very strong route associations.
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From page 100... ...
On the one hand, the argument that pnvat~tion might increase overall investment in He economy by providing access to new capital is more credible In developing countries because their capital markets are typically less sophisticated and integrated win world capital markets than is Be case In industrialized nations. On He other hand, the regulatory environment is often uncertain and more risky In developing countries, making it difficult to attract new outside investors.
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From page 101... ...
Within industrialized nations many of He newest urban areas, particularly in Hong Kong and the United States, rely on private developers to supply a substantial portion of urban infrastructure as part of private development projects. The developer is often required to pay not only for the cost of installing roads, sidewalks, water and sewage connections, and the like In a new development, but also for the additional marginal costs the development will impose on the current systems of transportation and over basic public infrastructure.
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From page 102... ...
Land-use planning to reduce trip lengths can help min1Tnize increases in vehicle miles traveled, thus improving productivity, decreasing Be costs of commuting and fuel consumption, arid ~mprov~g the health of urban residents.
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From page 103... ...
The new trip pattems evolving from these decentralized urban areas have often overwhelmed existing transport networks designed for traditional central business district commutes. Although dispersed urban forms can result in new and complex traffic congestion problems, Hey offer the opporalrlity to create higl~ly transport-eff~cient communities.
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From page 104... ...
There is no doubt that He use of motorized vehicles in megacities of the developing world will continue to grow rapidly. Evidence suggests that even if megacities are able to provide efficient and convenient public transportation service, private automobiles will eventually prove to be the least costly alternative for many individual households.l° Simply relying on technological improvements to solve the problem of air pollution in urban areas is probably naive, and thus there is all the more reason to rely on good prevention rancher than a good cure O ~ The mdustr~al~zed nations have generally chosen to address the problem of ~ansportrelated air pollution very late In the process, when pollutant concentrations have reached 10 Baurnol (1986)
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From page 105... ...
Nonetheless, many large cities In me mdustnal~zed world are seeking ways to encourage commuters and others to walk and bicycle more frequently. Ironically, many developing countries have implemented policies Mat encourage motorized transport, or even prohibit certain nonmotorized modes.
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TABLE 1 Vehicles ~n Selected Cities and Cour~ties (Replogle 1992)
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TABLE 2 Percentage of Person Tnps by Various Travel Modes (Replogle 1992) City Yew Walk Bicycle Bus & Motor- Auto- Other Total & NMV Rail cycle mobile .
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From page 108... ...
Indeed, despite the critical role played by nonmotorized transport modes in many cities, some governments have imposed constraints on nonmotorized vehicles, particularly cycle-rickshaws, claiming that they cause congestion, unfairly exploit human labor, or represent backwardness. In Jakarta, for example, authorities have seized some 100,000 cycle-rickshaws in the past 5 years, dumping at least 35,000 into Jakarta Bay as they seek to eliminate these vehicles from the city.
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From page 109... ...
While there is relatively little knowledge or expertise among transportation experts Norm America about how to plan for the traffic problems posed by multimodal transport, a number of mdustnal~zed countries have had a great deal of success in combining motorized and nonmotonzed transportation modes. Cities In Japan, The Ne~erIands, and Germany demonstrate that modern urban transportation does not necessarily require total motorization, but rather the appropriate integration of Wang, nonmotonzed transport, and motorized transport.
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From page 110... ...
Bicycle access to public transit expands the cachement area of high-speed public transportation at a very tow cost and represents the most valuable potential function of nonmoto~ed vehicles In megacities where average trip lengths are long. Integration of bicycles with public transportation is also an important strategy for sustaining nonmoto~ed and Dublic transport mode shares In ranidIv motorizing cities with m~xed-traff~c systems.
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From page 111... ...
These programs represent a way to increase Me mobility of the poor quickly and effectively as long as they are accompanied by transportation designs that accommodate multiple transportation modes. Credit arrangements based on such successful models could be designed and promoted by researchers In the industrialized nations.
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