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Division 44

Environment and Infrastructure

Sector project "Transport Policy Advice"

Sustainable Transport:

A Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities

Module 1a

The Role of Transport

in Urban Development Policy revised July 2005


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What is the Sourcebook?

is Sourcebookon Sustainable Urban Transportaddresses the key areas of a sustainable transportpolicy framework for a developing city. eSourcebookconsists of more than 20 modules.

Who is it for?e Sourcebook is intended for policy-makers indeveloping cities, and their advisors. is targetaudience is reflected in the content, whichprovides policy tools appropriate for applicationin a range of developing cities.

How is it supposed to be used?

e Sourcebook can be used in a number ofways. It should be kept in one location, and thedifferent modules provided to officials involvedin urban transport. e Sourcebook can be easilyadapted to fit a formal short course training

event, or can serve as a guide for developing acurriculum or other training program in thearea of urban transport. GTZ is elaboratingtraining packages for selected modules, beingavailable since October 2004.

What are some of the key features?

e key features of the Sourcebook include:

A practical orientation, focusing on bestpractices in planning and regulation and,where possible, successful experience indeveloping cities.

Contributors are leading experts in their fields.

An attractive and easy-to-read, color layout.

Non-technical language (to the extentpossible), with technical terms explained.

Updates via the Internet.

How do I get a copy?

Please visit http://www.sutp.orgor http://www.gtz.de/transportfor details on how to order acopy. e Sourcebookis not sold for profit. Anycharges imposed are only to cover the cost ofprinting and distribution. You may also ordervia [email protected].

Comments or feedback?We would welcome any of your comments orsuggestions, on any aspect of the Sourcebook, bye-mail [email protected], or by surface mail to:

Manfred BreithauptGTZ, Division 44P. O. Box 5180D - 65726 Eschborn / Germany

Further modules and resources

Further modules are anticipated in the areas ofFinancing Urban Transport; Benchmarking; andCar Free Development. Additional resources are

being developed, and an Urban Transport PhotoCD-ROM is available.

Modules and contributors

Sourcebook Overview and Cross-cutting Issues ofUrban Transport (GTZ)

Institutional and policy orientation

1a. e Role of Transport in Urban DevelopmentPolicy(Enrique Pealosa)

1b. Urban Transport Institutions (Richard Meakin)1c. Private Sector Participation in Transport Infra-

structure Provision (Christopher Zegras, MIT)

1d. Economic Instruments(Manfred Breithaupt, GTZ)

1e. Raising Public Awareness about SustainableUrban Transport(Karl Fjellstrom, GTZ)

Land use planning and demand management

2a. Land Use Planning and Urban Transport

(Rudolf Petersen, Wuppertal Institute)2b.Mobility Management(Todd Litman, VTPI)

Transit, walking and cycling

3a.Mass Transit Options(Lloyd Wright, University College London;Karl Fjellstrom, GTZ)

3b.Bus Rapid Transit(Lloyd Wright, University College London)

3c. Bus Regulation & Planning(Richard Meakin)

3d.Preserving and Expanding the Role of Non-motorised Transport (Walter Hook, ITDP)

3e. Car-Free Development(Lloyd Wright, University College London)

Vehicles and fuels

4a. Cleaner Fuels and Vehicle Technologies(Michael Walsh; Reinhard Kolke,Umweltbundesamt UBA)

4b. Inspection & Maintenance and Roadworthiness(Reinhard Kolke, UBA)

4c. Two- and ree-Wheelers (Jitendra Shah,World Bank; N.V. Iyer, Bajaj Auto)

4d.Natural Gas Vehicles(MVV InnoTec)

4e. Intelligent Transport Systems(Phil Sayeg, TRA;Phil Charles, University of Queensland)

4f. EcoDriving(VTL; Manfred Breithaupt,Oliver Eberz, GTZ)

Environmental and health impacts

5a.Air Quality Management(Dietrich Schwela,World Health Organisation)

5b.Urban Road Safety (Jacqueline Lacroix, DVR;David Silcock, GRSP)

5c. Noise and its Abatement(Civic Exchange Hong Kong; GTZ; UBA)

Resources6. Resources for Policy-makers (GTZ)

OVERVIEWOFTHESOURCEBOOK

Sustainable Transport: A Sourcebook for Policy-Makers in Developing Cities
http://www.sutp.org/http://www.gtz.de/transporthttp://www.gtz.de/transportmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.gtz.de/transporthttp://www.gtz.de/transporthttp://www.sutp.org/


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Module 1a

The Role of

Transport in Urban

Development Policy

Findings, interpretations, and conclusionsexpressed in this document are based on infor-mation gathered by GTZ and its consultants,partners, and contributors from reliable sources.GTZ does not, however, guarantee the accuracyor completeness of information in this document,

and cannot be held responsible for any errors,omissions, or losses which emerge from its use.

About the author

Enrique Pealosais an accomplished publicofficial, who has demonstrated the success ofhis innovative ideas and management abilities;he completed his term as Mayor of Bogot,

Colombia on January 1, 2001. Soon after Mr.Penalosa ended his term as Mayor, he becamea visiting scholar at New York University,where for three and a half years he was doingresearch and writing a book on a new urban-development model for Developing CountryCities. During the same period he served asa consultant on urban development issues inAsia, Africa, Australia, Latin America, Europeand the USA. Mr. Pealosa is currently thePresident of the Por el Pais que Queremos(PPQ) foundation in Bogot and a candidate

for the Presidency of Colombia. Mr. Pealosaholds a BA in Economics and History fromDuke University, masters in Management atthe Institut International DAdministrationPublique and a DESS in Public Administrationat the University of Paris II in Paris.

As Mayor of the capital of Colombia, EnriquePealosa was the political and administrativehead of a city of 6.5 million inhabitants. Duringhis tenure (1998-2001) Mr. Pealosa was respon-

sible for many accomplishments related to thepromotion of a more sustainable development.

Author:

Enrique PealosaBased on a speech made by Mr. Pealosa atUniversity of California, Berkeley, in April 2002

Editor:Deutsche Gesellschaft frTechnische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbHP. O. Box 5180D - 65726 Eschborn, Germanyhttp://www.gtz.de

Division 44, Environment and InfrastructureSector Project "Transport Policy Advice"

Commissioned by

Bundesministerium fr wirtschaftliche

Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 40D - 53113 Bonn, Germanyhttp://www.bmz.de

Manager:Manfred Breithaupt

Editing:Manfred Breithaupt, Carlos F. Pardo

Cover photo:

Karl FjellstromA street scene in Shanghai, China, January 2002

Layout:Klaus Neumann, SDS, G.C.

Eschborn 2002 (revised July 2005)
http://www.gtz.de/http://www.bmz.de/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.bmz.de/http://www.gtz.de/


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Module 1a: The Role of Transport in Urban Development Policy

1. Urban transport and urban

development: a different model

Most public policy discussions and decisions

such as those having to do with macroeconom-ics are quite removed from peoples daily lives indeveloping cities. Even if it sounds a bit sacri-legious, it is irrelevant to the way people livetoday that most countries revolutions or wars ofindependence would have occurred a hundredyears before or after they actually occurred, orin many cases that they would have occurred atall. Rather, the way cities are built affects to alarge degree how people will live for hundredsof years to come.

Te way cities are built affects to

a large degree how people will live

for hundreds of years to come.

e task for everyone involved in creating en-vironments where many generations will live isnot simply to create a city that functions effi-ciently. It is to create an environment where themajority of people will be as happy as possible.

Happiness is difficult to define and impossibleto measure; but it should not be forgotten that itis what our efforts, collective or individual, areabout. Over the last 40 years the environmentbecame an issue of deep concern to all societies.So much that today any 8 year old is worriedabout tropical forests and the survival of moun-tain gorillas. Curiously, a similar interest in thehuman environment has not yet arisen. ereis much more clarity in our time as to what theideal environment is for a happy gorilla or a

happy whale, than what the ideal environmentis for a happy child. We are far from having ashared vision of an ideal human environment;much less of the transportation system for it.

Transport differs from other problems develop-ing societies face, because it gets worse ratherthan better with economic development. Whilesanitation, education, and other challengesimprove with economic growth, transport gets

worse. Transport is also at the core of a different,more appropriate model that could and should

be implemented by ird World, developing cit-ies. More than a socio-political model, the model

which will be described is a model for a differentway of living in cities; but it has profound socialand economic implications. A true commitmentto social justice, environmental sustainability

and economic growth needs to espouse a citymodel different from the one the world haspursued over the last century and up to now.

At the core of the new model is a severe restric-tion of automobile use, with total restrictionof cars and commercial vehicles during 5 or 6peak hours every day. During those 2.5 or 3hours every morning and afternoon, all citizens

will move exclusively using public transport,bicycles, or walking. It sounds simplistic, butthe environmental implications in terms of

noise, air pollution, energy consumption, andland use are significant. Socially, it would freeimmense resources currently devoted to carefor roads mainly for the upper income citizensthat could be used to invest in the needs of thepoor; it would get all citizens together as equalsregardless of income or social standing in publicspaces, public transport or bicycles. And mostimportantly, it would allow cities to become aplace primarily for people, a change from thelast 80 years a time during which cities werebuilt much more for motor vehicles mobilitythan for childrens happiness.

Fig. 1

A congested road in Cairo, and the terminusof Cairos last remaining tram line. Transport

problems in developing cities tend to get worse

rather than better with economic development.Karl Fjellstrom, Mar. 2002


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Sustainable Transport: A Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities

were demolished in a severely degraded area thathad become perhaps the worlds largest crimecentre and a 20 hectare park is being built there.It should become a magnet for residential devel-

opment. One of downtowns main streets wasconverted into a pedestrian street. A 17 km longpedestrian street lined with trees, lamps, andbenches was built, through some of the poorestneighbourhoods in Latin America, where mostmotor vehicle streets are not yet paved. epolitical battles were not easy. I was almostimpeached for getting cars off the sidewalks(Figure 3).

In the end Bogot changed from being a cityintensely resented and rejected by its inhabit-

ants, to one loved by its now proud citizens.

3. Consequences of unrestrained

car use

We cannot talk about urban transport until we

know what type of a city we want. And to talkabout the city we want is to talk about the waywe want to live. Do we want to create a cityfor the poor, the children, and the elderly, andtherefore for every other human being, or a cityfor automobiles? e important questions arenot about engineering, but about ways to live.

A premise of the new city is that we want societyto be as egalitarian as possible. For this purpose,quality of life distribution is more importantthan income distribution. e equality that re-ally matters is that relevant to a child: Access toadequate nutrition, recreation, education, sportsfacilities, green spaces, and a living environmentas free from motor vehicles as possible. e cityshould have abundant cultural offerings; publicspaces with people; low levels of noise and airpollution; and short travel times.

Urban transport is a political rather than a tech-nical issue. e technical aspects are relativelysimple. e difficult decisions relate to who isgoing to benefit from the models adopted. Do

we dare to create a transport model different

from that in the so-called advanced world cities?Do we dare create a transport system givingpriority to the needs of the poor majority ratherthan the automobile owning minority? Are wetrying to find the most efficient, economical

way to move a citys population, as cleanly andas comfortably as possible? Or are we just tryingto minimise the upper classs traffic jams?

e new city should have a high populationdensity, in any case more than 120 inhabitantsper hectare (12,000 per square kilometre). High

population density is desirable for several reasons: low cost, high-frequency transit systems will

be viable;

shorter travel times are achieved;

mobility for non-driversthe vast majorityin developing citiesis enhanced, includingmobility of the poor, children, and the elderly;

an abundance of people will fill public pedes-trian spaces;

rich cultural offerings are provided (Figure 4);

more efficient land use and infrastructureprovision is achieved;

ig. 3

Before and after:arking and publicpace improvements in

Bogot.rique Penalosa 2001, presentation

the Surabaya City Council


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lower expenditures on road constructionand maintenance will result. (If Bogot had

Atlantas density, it would occupy an areaalmost 20 times as large as it occupies today,

with a road network that much longer).

For these reasons and more, urban expertsaround the world concur on the desirability ofdensity. However, unrestricted car use inevitablybreeds suburban development and lower densi-ties. First it brings about traffic jams. Trafficjams in turn create enormous pressure to investin more and bigger road infrastructure, whichin turn stimulates suburban development.

Unrestricted car use inevitably

breeds suburban development.

is process will occur regardless of availabilityof mass transit. Paris is the best example ofgrowing car use and suburbanisation despitea beautiful central city and top quality publictransport. It is important to understand whatfeatures draw people to suburbs, so that thesefeatures can be provided in central areas.

Ironically, it seems that one of the main at-tractions of suburbia is a relatively car-free

environment, for children to play and ridebicycles safely. Greenery and green spaces alsopull people to the suburbs. e new city modeloutlined in this module can provide ampleexclusive pedestrian streets and green spaces

which cater to these forces driving suburbanisa-tion. And contrary to what is often supposed,a high density city needs not have very highbuildings: Five-story buildings can easily yieldhigh population densities.

e unsustainable nature of car-based transportis illustrated by the fact that the problem gets

worse as societies grow richer. Unless car use isseverely restricted, as in Singapore, or in citiessuch as Tokyo and Hong Kong which provide avery low level of Central Business District park-ing spaces, society will be worse instead of betteroff with economic progress due to the following:

more traffic jams;

more noise;

more air pollution;

more health problems;

more low density city expansion andsuburban development;

Fig. 4

emes of culturalemptiness in a car-oriented US-style city(above) contrast with

the cultural richness ofa pedestrian and cyclist-

oriented setting (leftand below).

Los Angeles, Jan. 2002 (above);

Suzhou, China, Jan. 2002 (below)

(Karl Fjellstrom); Bogot, Colombia

(left) (Enrique Penalosa)


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Fig. 5

As well as a causing visual blight and pollu-tion, this elevated road in Shanghai results inpoor conditions for the more sustainable modes:

buses, walking, and cycling. Buses can be seencaught in congestion below the elevated road;also an unpleasant area for pedestrians.Karl Fjellstrom, Jan. 2002

more regressive public expenditure on roadbuilding and maintenance that benefits pri-marily car-owning upper middle classes.

In a city where the poor do not use cars, roadbuilding, and road improvement in order torelieve congestion is very regressive. It takes upvery scarce government resources leaving the

needs of the poor unattended.

Car use in developing cities is very regressive:It absorbs massive public investments for roadinfrastructure building and maintenance, tak-ing resources away from the more urgent andimportant needs of the poor; creates trafficjams that hinder the mobility of the bus-ridingmajorities; pollutes the air; makes noise; leadsto accidents; creates obstacles to lower incomepedestrians; and leads to a progressive invasion

of scarce pedestrian spaces by parked vehicles.ere clearly are contradictory interests betweenmotor vehicles and human beings: e morea city is made to accommodate motor vehicles,the less respectful of human dignity it becomes,and the more acute the differences in quality oflife between upper income and lower incomegroups. e poor and vulnerableagain, alarge majority of the population in developingcitiesare particularly alienated by increasingmotorisation and the processes that come with

it. Women are often particularly disadvantaged,as their trip-making pattern in developing cities

nduced travel

any transport models

sed to evaluate and justify

ansport infrastructure

ro-jects mistakenly assume

o elasticity of road capacity

upply) with road traffic (de-

and). Studies have shown,

owever, that increasing

ansport supplye.g., by

oad wideningitself gener-

es increased vehicle travel,

r induces traffic.

uch inducement effects are

lt in theshort term such

s through longer and more

ps, mode switching to

ars, or different trip routes.

erhaps more insidious areelong term impacts, such

s higher car ownership and

wer densities, as activities

ecome more spread out.

or more information see

ttp://www.vtpi.org.

Shanghais elevated roadprogram

Since 1994 Shanghai has constructed 63km of

elevated highways. While often lauded as sym-

bols of progress (see Figure 2), more commonly

these roads simply blight the landscape, channel

more traffic into the city centre, and generate

more noise and air pollution (Figure 5).

Citing concerns over air and noise pollution and

their impact on quality of life and hence ability

to attract investment to the city, officials in April

2002 announced that the elevated road program

had been suspended (http://www.smartur-

bantransport.com; May 2002), although there

are a large number of elevated road projects in

the city which are currently under construction,

and presumably these will continue through to

completion.

is often characterised by shorter, more frequenttrips that rely on non-motorised modes.

International experience has made it clear thattrying to solve traffic problems by buildingmore, bigger roads is like trying to put out a fire

with gasoline. In the United States time lost intraffic increases every year, despite enormoushighways. A new highway stimulates newdevelopment around it and particularly at itsextremes and thus generates its own traffic (seemargin note Induced travel).

Consider the case of a new 10-lane highwayfrom the centre of a city to any location in itsoutskirts. Immediately after it is completed, oreven before, new housing projects, shoppingmalls, and factories are built around the newroad and in the countryside near its extreme.e new road stimulates urban expansion, lowerdensities and longer trips. In addition, new

roads have been shown to generate new traffic.Ten years after the road is built, traffic jamsare worse then ever. But now average trips arelonger. For traffic considerations, doublingthe number of vehicles is the same as havingthe same amount of vehicles travel twice thedistance. For all these reasons, building newroad infrastructure in order to solve trafficproblems ist not only regressive and dehuman-izes a city, but it is also useless. Los Angeles,perhaps the archetypal experiment in building a

car-oriented city and seemingly the role-modelfor some developing cities such as Bangkok, has
http://www.vtpi.org/http://www.smarturbantransport.com/http://www.smarturbantransport.com/http://www.smarturbantransport.com/http://www.smarturbantransport.com/http://www.vtpi.org/


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Fig. 6

e Los Angeles county of Santa Monica isimplementing pedestrian, cycling, and bus

improvements, including replacing car with bi-cycle parking (above).Karl Fjellstrom, Feb. 2002

found that road-building cannot solve conges-tion problems. e city now focuses on tran-sit-oriented investments including Bus RapidTransit, light and heavy rail, and car-sharing(Figure 6).

Yet despite overwhelming evidence that the road-building approach is regressive, inappropriate,and unsustainable for dense developing cities, it

is an approach which continues to be followedthroughout the world (see, for example, the textbox on Shanghais elevated road program).

4. Restricting automobile use

e only sustainable solution is to have peoplemove by public transport rather than by in-

dividual automobile. Some propose high usercharges in order to restrict automobile use: Tolls,vehicle registration fees, gasoline taxes, or vary-ing road charges according to type of road andhour of the day. Such schemes however havedeficiencies: Charges never adequately coverthe immense costs society pays in terms of roadspace real estate value; noise and air pollution;road accidents; road construction and mainte-nance; policing; roads as obstacles to pedestrianlife and sources of danger for children. Road

user charges may create a situation where a fewupper income drivers have the street network allto themselves.

While industrialised cities have higher levelsof motor vehicle ownership, developing citieshave much lower levels of car ownership. Figure7 illustrates a general differentiation betweenNorth American & Australian cities, with thehighest rates of motor vehicle ownership (oftenmore than 650 per 1000 people), followed byEuropean cities (generally less than 550 motor

vehicles per 1000 people), and Asian cities withthe lowest levels of motor vehicle ownership.Yet motor vehicle ownership and use in densedeveloping cities is growing rapidlysometimesmore than 10% per year.

Unchecked, the combined effects of popula-tion growth and motorisation will create evermore severe problems of quality of life andequity in developing cities. If we believe indemocracy and participation, people shouldhave a clear understanding of the consequences

of unchecked motorisation. And they shouldbe able to vote on it, for example mandating aban on car use during rush hours. Is there anydoubt that the majority of the population thatdoes not drive a car would only gain from sucha restriction? It would result in shorter traveltimes as traffic from cars does not slow busesdown; cleaner air; less noise; a more egalitar-ian relationship with car-owners; more publicresources available for priority investments; amore humane, less dangerous environment

for children to grow in; and less high velocityarteries destroying neighbourhoods. e fact


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ig. 10

More than 300 km ofrotected bicycle paths

were built in Bogot,t an average cost ofround US$500 per

metre. See furtherModule 1d: Preservingnd Expanding the

Role of NMT.

scar Diaz & Enrique Penalosa (above:an Amarillo Greenway; left: Parque

rce Milenio )

and getting together. More than 1.5 millionpeople come out there every week end in amarvelous community building celebration. Anew tradition was initiated, closing the same

120 kilometres each night close to Christmas,for citizens to come out and see the Christmaslights. Almost half the citys population, nearly3 million people of all ages and social standings,come out. e exercise builds a sense of belong-ing and of community.

Bicycle paths are a symbol of

respect for human dignity and

of a more egalitarian city, as are

high quality walkways. Both showthat a city is for its people, and not

for the motor vehicles of its upper

classes as is so often the case.

Another collective adventure launched in Bo-got was a car-free day. On a ursday in Feb-ruary 2000, the citys nearly 7 million inhabit-ants went to work leaving all cars at home. It

worked well. 98% of people went to school and

work as usual, by bus, bicycle or taxi. Peopleenjoyed the adventure. Afterwards in the refer-endum of October 2000, nearly 64% of votersapproved establishing a car free day on the firstursday of February every year. Polls takenthe day after the 2002 Car Free Day found that83% of the population supported it. e impor-tance of the exercise, going beyond transport orenvironment, has to do with social integration.People of all socio-economic conditions meet asequals on their bicycles or in public transport.

More than 200 km of protected bicycle pathswere built (Figure 10). ere has been aremarkable increase in cycling in the city ina short period. Cyclists have gone from 0.5%of all trips in 1998, to 5% a few years later.Moreover, bicycle paths are a symbol of respectfor human dignity and of a more egalitariancity, as are high quality walkways. Both showthat a city is for its people, and not for themotor vehicles of its upper classes as is so often

the case. Bicycles can also be very efficientfeeder systems to mass transit.


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5. TransMilenio

e single project implemented in Bogotthat most contributed to improving quality of

life and giving citizens confidence in a betterfuture was a bus-based transit system calledTransMilenio (Figures 11 and 12; Module 3b:Bus Rapid Transit). Starting from zero, inspiredby the Curitiba system, the city was able todesign and build the infrastructure, create theprivate partners that would operate it, removethe thousands of buses that previously operatedthere, and put the system into operation in justthree years.

Today the incipient system accounts for more

than 630,000 daily trips [Ed: by July. 2005900,000] and the main line is carrying morethan 40,000 passengers per hour [Ed: Mondaypeak hour ridership on the system in Sept. 2002

was 71,851]; more than many rail systems.TransMilenio users are saving on average 223hours annually. 9% of them used to go to workby car. TransMilenio should be moving morethan 80% of the citys population by 2015.

Although the system is bus-based, its operationis similar to a rail-based system. Articulated

buses operate on exclusive busways, using oneor two lanes in each direction. Passengersboard and alight only at stations. ey buy aticket when they enter the station, or in storesoutside. In this way, when the bus arrives andopens its three doors simultaneously with thestation doors, dozens of passengers can boardand alight in seconds. e bus floor is at thesame level as the station, making entering andexiting the bus a rapid and safe operation, as

well as making the buses fully accessible to the

handicapped. e drivers, devoid of any incen-tive to pick up passengers outside the stations,do not do so. But it would be difficult to do iteven if they tried, with doors around one metreoff the ground.

TransMilenio uses articulated, 165-passengerbuses with clean diesel engines that comply

with Euro II emission standards. Contractualarrangements guarantee that buses are ex-tremely clean, well-lighted, and are changedbefore they are in less than perfect shape. Driv-

ers wear uniforms and are required to attendapproved training programs. While some

buses stop at all stations, others operate expressroutes stopping at only a few. Passengers canchange from a local to an express bus with thesame ticket; as they can also change from a buson one route to another on a different routeat no extra cost. Feeder buses sharing streets

with the rest of traffic give people in marginalneighbourhoods access to the system. Trans-Milenio buses run in the middle of avenues andnot on the sides, so that vehicles entering andexiting driveways, or delivery vehicles, do not

become obstacles. Also, in this way one stationis required in each place, instead of one in eachdirection. Although TransMilenio is the fastestmeans today to move about Bogot, it could bemade even faster by building underpasses forthe buses at busy intersections. is can easilybe done at any time in the future. ere is noth-ing technically complex about TransMilenio.e issue is whether a city is ready to get carsoff several lanes in its main arteries, in order toassign them exclusively to articulated buses. If

Fig. 12

TransMilenio has thelook and feel of a railsystem, but with theoperational costs andother advantages ofbuses. Bus stations andbus doors are elevated,allowing quick boarding

and alighting.Karl Fjellstrom, Feb. 2002

Fig. 11

TransMilenios busfleet is operated by

10 profitable privateoperators under

contract to the state-owned but autonomous

and professionalregulator, TransMilenio

S.A.Karl Fjellstrom, Feb. 2002


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the common good is to prevail over the privateinterest, it is very clear that it must be done.

e main advantage of TransMilenio over railsystems is its low cost. Public investments in

Bogot were US$5 million per kilometre. Eventhis cost is high, because it was chosen not onlyto build a transit artery, but to improve dramati-cally the public pedestrian space around it, withsidewalks, plazas, trees, and the like, in orderto improve the city quality of life and to attractmore users to the system. Operating costs arelow. While almost all rail systems in the worldrequire ongoing operational subsidies, at a fareof US$0.40 per passenger, TransMilenio privateoperators do not only cover costs but also makea profit. With problems of malnutrition andlack of clean water, sewerage, schools, parks,and paved roads, developing country citiescannot afford costly rail transit systems. eyshould not in any case, because too many criti-cal investments required by the poor necessarilyare left unattended if rail solutions are chosen.Often the political shine of rail projects, orthe financial facilities offered by the vendorcountries lead local or national governments toacquire sophisticated subway systems. But at$80 million or more per kilometre, and usually

unable to generate revenues to cover even theiroperating costs, such systems are an enormousfinancial drain for developing cities. Withresources of that magnitude, basic water andsewage infrastructure, schools, housing projects,or ample parks to improve the quality of life ofmany generations could be created.

Often the upper classes in developing citiesinsist on rail systems, because they oppose bus-systems use of space they rather have for theirprivate cars. Generally they prefer subways not,

because they would like to use themwhichmostly they do not where they existbutsimply, because they imagine that, by puttingthe poor underground, traffic problems will goaway. Whether rail or bus based, surface trans-port systems are more humane. It is much nicerto travel looking at buildings, people, trees, andstores, than to travel underground like a rodent.

When rail systems are chosen in developingcities, limited funds often only permit buildinga couple of lines that rarely serve more than a

few percent of daily trips (see Module 3a:MassTransit Options).

6. From vision to implementation*

* This section is based on material from Axel Friedrich, Head of D ivision,

Transport and the Env ironment, Federal Envi ronment Agency (UBA) ,

Germany

6.1 A policy vision: how should a city

look in 5/10/20 years?

A vision for the transport system of a city has tobe developed. is vision has to include goals.e vision and goals must be derived fromintensive discussions with all stakeholders.

It is important to clearly separate the visionfrom the goals. Policy measures must always bechecked against the goals, and their cost-effec-tiveness in meeting the goals must be evaluated.e fact that the transport and environment

related database is not very broad in manydeveloping cities makes it more difficultbutnot impossibleto define these goals. It may be,however, that after more data becomes availablethe goals will need to be revised.

It is important to clearly separate the

vision from the goals. Policy measures

must always be checked against the

goals, and their cost-effectiveness in

meeting the goals must be evaluated.

a.e ambient air standards of the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) should not beexceeded.

b.Access to essential goods, services, and loca-tions should be available for everyone, regard-less of income level or abilities.

c. e poor pay more of their income and moreof their time for basic mobility than the rich;this gap has to be reduced.

d.Social activities have to have the same claimto the allocation of space as motorised trans-port. e city should be designed for people,not for cars.

e. Transport systems should be designed andoperated in a way that would protect thehealth and safety of all people and enhancethe quality of life of people in communities.

f. People need to be fully engaged in the deci-sion-making process about sustainable trans-port and empowered to participate.

g.Transportation systems must make efficientuse of land and other natural resources.


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h.Taxation and economic policies should workfor, and not against, sustainable transport.

Goals toward a sustainable transport visionmight consist of something similar to compo-

nents outlined in the adjacent text box.

6.2 Quantitative economic,

environmental, and social targets

Quantitative targets should be set. For publictransport, for example, such targets might in-clude achieving a specified modal split betweenuse of private vs. public transport, by a specifieddate. Specific goals are possible in most areas:for example for reduced road fatalities, conver-sion of fleet vehicles to cleaner fuels, cleaner

fuel specifications, use of bicycles for short trips,reductions in air pollution, motorised tripsthrough the city centre, and so on. All suchgoals can be set for various time periods.

e potential of the various measures andactivities which are developed by the WorkingGroups (see 6.3 below) for achieving the short,medium, and long term goals should then

where possible be measured.

Methods of measuring and quantifying the

impacts of policy measures are discussed forexample in Module 3d: Preserving and Expand-ing the Role of Non-motorised Transport. Suchquantification should be stated in simple andclear terms, such as reduction in pollutionemissions, reductions in accidents and facilities,increase in road capacity, and anticipated modalshifts to walking, cycling, and transit.

6.3 Developing policy measures and

actions

Organisation and institutional basisA range of organisational forms have beensuccessfullyand sometimes less soappliedin developing cities. Of these, the formation ofsome form of Working Groups is the most basicorganisational step required. e operation ofthese various groups should be considered cycli-cal, with continuous and ongoing interactionbetween them.

Working Groups

Creation of some form of Working Groups(however named) in the key policy areas is

The OECDs

Environmentally

Sustainable Transport

approach

A quantitative, target-based

approach is one of the hall-

marks of the Environmentally

Sustainable Transport(OECD

2002, see http://www.olis.

oecd.org/olis/2001doc.

nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wp-

nep-t(2001)8-final) approach

developed by the OECD.

The EST approach stresses

developing a vision of a

desired future, stating clear

goals and milestones re-

quired, and working towards

this vision. This standsin contrast to the current

prevalent approach in most

cities, where rather than

working toward specified

transport goals, policy-mak-

ers are fully occupied only

with attemtping to mitigate

the adverse symptoms of

current developments.

Goals toward a vision:

an example

Short term goals

In a short term (within the next 3 years) it is

proposed to achieve remarkable improvements

in the ambient air quality of the whole city. The

number of road accidents with injuries and fa-

talities should fall by 30%. A public awareness

campaign should be started, and the public

supplied with information about transport and

environmental concerns. First steps to improving

public transport should be taken, by improving

the quality of bus services, and establishment

of bus lanes and Bus Rapid Transit routes after

tendering. In-street measurement of air pollu-

tion should be performed. The first bicycle and

pedicab lanes are installed, and cleaner fuels

promoted.

Mid term goals

In the mid term (within the next 8 years) WHO

standards are, apart from a limited number of

days and areas, met. A starting point for tack-

ling the problem of greenhouse gases could be

to limit expected growth in emissions to half of

what could be expected without a new strat-

egy. The public transport system is renewed,

attractive, reliable, affordable and competes

with private car use. Successful efforts have

been carried out promoting a wider use ofcycling and making the city centre area more

attractive to pedestrians. Public awareness and

participation is aiming at further improving the

transport system. Freight transport is managed

in a way that no longer hurts the citizens and the

livability of the city. The city is demonstrating

the use of natural gas being a clean alternative

fuel for transportation.

Long term goals

Long term goals should be developed in order to

assure a sustainable transport system: concrete

values are recommended to be developed aftera more in-depth assessment of the problem.

Ambient air quality and noise levels do not ex-

ceed guideline values, which are set to avoid

any harm to human health, greenhouse gas

emissions are reduced to the extent necessary

to serve the global policy on that problem, and

livability of urban areas is improved in order to

assure social and economic well-being. The

precautionary principle should be the guiding

consideration for setting clear principles. The

number of road accidents with injuries and

fatalities per number of citizens is not higher

than in European countries or the USA.
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-finalhttp://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-finalhttp://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-finalhttp://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-finalhttp://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-finalhttp://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-finalhttp://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-finalhttp://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/LinkTo/env-epoc-wpnep-t(2001)8-final


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an essential early step. Working Groups, forexample, might be formed for public transport,non-motorised transport, cleaner fuels, airquality management, economic instruments,

transport demand management, and raisingpublic awareness.

e core membership of the Working Groupsshould be drawn from related government agen-cies. For non-motorised transport, for example,agencies such as Traffic & Transport, Public

Works, the Press Office, City Planning, Parks &Gardens, Health, Police (esp. Traffic), and oth-ers, possibly at both City as well as Provinciallevels, will be involved.

As well as the main related agencies, member-

ship should be open to civil society stakeholders.For non-motorised transport, for example, thismight include the rickshaw drivers associa-tion and vendors association; Cleaner Fuelsmight include large taxi fleet owners, operatorsassociations, and financing organisations (forretrofits). All the Working Groups should try toinclude interested members of the City Council.

Simply forming the Working Groups, however,will not ensure that the groups make progress.Working Groups will not be successful unless

their objectives are understood and are achiev-able. Meetings should be held regularly (pleasesee Module 1e: Raising Public Awareness aboutSustainable Urban Transportfor advice onformation and operation of Working Groups),

with membership based not so much on rankand agency, but on interest and motivation ofthe individuals concerned. A reporting mecha-nism should be in place so that individualmembers report their progress (and obstaclesencountered) back to the main group, and the

main group in turn reports to the Mayor and tothe general public.

Once policies have been developed and agree-ment reached with the main local stakeholders,the Working Group will continue to play a roleduring implementation, and subsequently inmonitoring the results and making the requiredmodifications.

Steering Committee, Roundtable, andScientific Board

In addition to the Working Groups, accordingto the subject area a range of other organisations

will be necessary. Development of an inspection& maintenance and roadworthiness system(see Module 4b: Inspection & Maintenance andRoadworthiness), for example, will require botha wider Roundtable forum consisting perhapsof 20 to 30 leading stakeholders, as well as asmaller Core Group of 4 to 5 officials who will

work more intensively on preparing the requireddocumentation and regulations.

In general terms, however, some form of Steer-ing Committee to coordinate the activities ofthe various Working Groups will be useful,along with a Scientific Board to whom particu-lar technical questions can be submitted. Someform of wider Roundtable group of all leadinglocal stakeholderspossibly with 30 to 60members and meeting only irregularlyis alsorequired in each main policy area.


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7. Conclusions

We have been building cities more for the mo-bility of automobiles than the happiness of its

inhabitants. It is time to give more importanceto public pedestrian space than to roads formotor vehicles. e advanced cities car-basedsuburbanised model is not working well. It is

wasteful in physical and human resources, isnot environmentally sound and leaves muchto be desired in terms of human interaction.Depressionalong with obesity associatedwith sedentary lifestylesis one of the fastestgrowing illnesses in the advanced world. On theother hand, developing countries will not likely

overtake the advanced countries level of GDPper capita. If they measure success in terms ofGDP per capita they will have to define them-selves as losers probably for hundreds of yearsto come. eir frustrated youth will be afraidto dream, to conceive of things as different, andmany of those most capable will migrate abroad.

A different, more appropriate model is necessary,as much for equality and environment as forcultural identity and self esteem.

It is still possible to think andact differently.

Developing cities can still avoid the failingsof advanced cities and create a different citymodel. It is still possible to think and act dif-ferently. e most important difference is thatautomobile use can be restricted and a muchmore pedestrian and transit oriented society canbe organised, since motorisation is still only afraction of that in advanced cities and much ofthe 2050 cities is yet un-built.

A developing city will never have a NotreDame Cathedral, or other architectural jewelsof European cities. Yet precisely, because of itslack of many architectural treasures, it could forexample have a 20 kilometre long pedestrian av-enue lined with giant tropical trees, somethingbeyond Paris possibilities. Disadvantage canbe turned into advantage, as in Bogot, wherelow incomes and its resulting low motorisation

and unavailability of highways as well as crimehave kept much of the land surrounding Bogot

free of suburban development. Land valuesare therefore relatively low. US$500 millioncould buy 10,000 hectares of land surroundingBogot, an area roughly equivalent to one thirdof the urbanised area. Can anyone conceive ofa better use for $500 million for the Bogotof the future than to reserve a 10,000 hectaregreen park, 34 times the area of New YorksCentral Park?

A 10,000 hectare park surrounding Bogotwould generate quality of life for the next 100

years; but it would also construct equality,because it would give the 10 million inhabitants

Fig. 13Bogots improvements

mean its citizens arenow proud of their city.

TransMilenio, Carolina He rrera


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Resource materials

http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2002/04-08-Penalosa , University of

California, Berkeley, Center for Latin Ameri-can Studies. e presentation upon whichthis module is based.

http://www.civitas-initiative.org, Civitas Ini-tiative, Co-financed by the EU, promotingsustainable transport pilot projects in 19 Eu-ropean cities.

http://www.itdp.org, Institute for Transporta-tion and Development Policy. An interna-tional NGO, based in New York and activein Latin America, Asia and Africa.

http://www.oecd.org/env, Organisation forEconomic Cooperation and Development.e Environment Directorate provides arange of resources, including the Environ-mentally Sustainable Transport (EST) pro-gram.

http://www.pps.org, Project for PublicSpaces: Place marking for communities. Awebsite documenting and encouraging peo-ple places.

http://www.sustainable.doe.gov, Smart Com-

munities Network A US Department ofEnergy program.

http://www.sustainablemobility.org, WorldBusiness Council for Sustainable Develop-ment. WBCSD Sustainable Mobility pro-gram includes e-bulletins, workshops andconsultations, with presentations and reportsavailable for download.

of the 250 city access to a natural green envi-ronment, sports facilities, and bicycle pathsregardless of income. Usually the quality of liferesource most difficult to provide the poor is

green space. Upper classes in most developingcities have access to golf clubs and countryvillas, but the poor truly live in concrete jungles.Such a park would also favour competitivenessand economic growth, by making the city moreattractive to highly qualified individual andcorporate investors in the region.

We must keep ever present that our goal isnot to generate as much income as possible,but to generate as much happiness as possible.However, to seek quality of life and happiness

may turn out to be the best investment in com-petitiveness and economic growth. A countryscompetitiveness in the information age willdepend largely of the quality of life in its cities.

We acknowledge today that as land was thesource of wealth and power in agricultural so-cieties, and capital filled the role of land in theindustrial stage, today that source of wealth isknowledge, be it that of a movie director or anengineer. e knowledge that creates wealth to-day is attached to individuals, and it is necessary

to create environments to which wealth-creatingpeople are attracted. In other words, city lifequality can be the most important competitivefactor in the new economy.

It is essential to construct a shared vision of acity. How would that ideal city be? How wouldits blocks be, its sidewalks, the height of itsbuildings, its pedestrian spaces, its transportsystems? is vision is particularly necessaryfor developing countries, where cities are indynamic creation processes. Developing cities

cannot continue being second rate imitationsof advanced cities, because their reality is dif-ferent and advanced cities do not provide verysuccessful models anyway. Developing citieshave the opportunity of learning from successesand failures of advanced cities in order to createa new, more appropriate and better city model.It does not matter if the shared vision can onlybe reached in 100 years or more. Middle Agecathedrals took more than 200 years to build,not out of any crisis in the process, but because

building was designed to take that long. It istime for us to dream up our cathedrals.
http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2002/04-08-Penalosahttp://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2002/04-08-Penalosahttp://www.civitas-initiative.org/http://www.itdp.org/http://www.oecd.org/envhttp://www.pps.org/http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/http://www.sustainablemobility.org/http://www.sustainablemobility.org/http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/http://www.pps.org/http://www.oecd.org/envhttp://www.itdp.org/http://www.civitas-initiative.org/http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2002/04-08-Penalosahttp://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Events/spring2002/04-08-Penalosa


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