Strategic Framework Sustainable Urban Transport in Asia

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Strategic Framework Sustainable Urban Transport
in Asia
Charles MelhuishCornie HuizengaLee
SchipperPartnership for Sustainable Urban
Transport in Asia (PSUTA)
Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2004 workshop 6-9,
December 2004 Agra, India
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Background

• PSUTA is the Partnership for Sustainable Urban
  Transport in Asia
• Partners Asian Development Bank, EMBARQ, Hanoi
  city, Pune City and Xian city
• PSUTA is financed by Sida through ADB and EMBARQ,
  Shell Foundation through EMBARQ and contributions
  by Hanoi, Pune and Xian City
• The Strategic Framework for Sustainable Urban
  Transport is a high-level conceptual framework
  which aims to guide city authorities and other
  decision makers in policy and investment
  decisions related to urban transport systems in
  Asia

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Strategic Framework Process

• Strategic Framework brainstorming workshop in
  Hanoi, Vietnam in September 2004 with 30 experts
  from government, private sector, academe, civil
  society and development agencies
• Presentation and Discussion draft SF at BAQ 2004
  (Powerpoint version -December 2004)
• Drafting Text Version January March 2005
• Discussion draft SF at national and city level
  (Text version March June 2005)
• Presentation of draft final SF at EST conference,
  Nagoya, Japan (August 2005)

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Strategic Framework Stakeholders

• Land-use planners deciding on the shape and
  structures of cities
• Land developers implementing land-use plans
• Policy makers and transport planners deciding on
  structure and shape of urban transport systems
• Regulators responsible for environmental quality,
  transport prices, competition issues
• Financing groups local and international
• Technology providers vehicles, fuels,
  Intelligent Transport Systems, etc.
• Commercial providers goods and passenger
  transport
• Users of good transport systems
• Users of passenger transport systems

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Key Challenges

• Population growth, increased urbanization and
  associated growth in demand for mobility
• Poor air quality resulting from transport and
  other sources
• Growth in the use of motorized transport, at the
  expense of NMT, which frequently has resulted in
  reduced access to transport for (absolute) urban
  poor and other vulnerable groups
• Land-use planning paradigms and flawed land
  pricing mechanisms, which have favored the
  development of motorized hungry transport
  systems
• Governance of the transport system limited
  coordination among, and lack of organizational
  capacity in regulatory and planning agencies.
  Fragmented structure of the public transport
  sector in many Asian cities has seriously
  hampered the introduction of proven non-technical
  and technological solutions towards improving the
  environmental, economic and social sustainability
  of urban (public) transport systems in Asia.
• Policy makers do often not prioritize sustainable
  urban transport

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What is Sustainable Urban Transport

• SUT focuses on access and mobility rather than
  the movement of vehicles
• SUT provides access for and to all groups in
  society in a manner which is within the
  environmental carrying capacity of a city or
  region in a manner which is affordable to both
  providers and users of transport systems
• SUT allows for generating economic growth without
  compromising economic and social dimensions to a
  point beyond repair
• SUT is a pre-condition for improved quality of
  life in Asian cities
• SUT systems combine technological and
  non-technological measures to enhance the
  sustainability of transport systems

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Environmental Dimension of Sustainable Urban
Transport

• Pollution from transport should not exceed
  assimilative carrying capacity of the (local)
  environment (air, water and soil)
• Rate of use of non-renewable resources should not
  exceed the rate at which renewable substitutes
  are developed
• Air both local urban pollution to be considered
  as well as greenhouse gasses.

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Social Dimension of Sustainable Urban Transport

• Vision for road safety no deaths and no
  injuries.
• Provide access to all sections of society
  including those below the poverty line
• There are high class transport options available
  at an affordable end-price for all groups in
  society
• People do not feel threatened and their personal
  security is assured

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The Economic and Financial Dimension of
Sustainable Urban Transport

• Transport policies to focus on goals and
  objectives market mechanism to determine how to
  get there
• Policy making on transport systems to incorporate
  full cost allocation of all external costs
  life-cycle, social and environmental
  externalities
• Application of full cost allocation system will
  guide changes in land-use planning and enhance
  changes in transport planning in Asia
• Subsidies or incentives can be considered, they
  need to take into account equity considerations
  and environmental impacts, be backed by stable
  financial mechanisms
• Transport systems require the resources to
  sustain themselves and to allow for continual
  improvements.

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Governance of Sustainable Urban Transport

• Improved data collection
• Genuine efforts to strengthen sustainability of
  transport systems require involvement of all
  stakeholders and full access to information on
  all topics by all groups
• Sustainable transport requires consistent
  political support and well coordinated
  transparent administrative structures and
  processes
• Sustainable urban transport can require proactive
  government involvement
• Sustainable urban transport requires a well
  organized public transport sector with a limited
  number of providers which operate in the formal
  economy

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Sustainable Urban Transport and Technology

• Technology has an important role to play in
  strengthening of sustainability of urban
  transport systems both in terms of hard ware
  cleaner fuels, vehicles and ITS, as well as in
  terms of software modeling, intelligent
  transport systems
• Technology does not always mean expensive
  technology. Also Technology should be improved on
  continuous basis
• The use of technology can be enhanced through the
  creation of a conducive governance environment
  and by combining technology with non
  technological policy measures, e.g. clean busses
  with BRT and promotion of NMT to feed public
  transport
• Technology assessment to be based on
  environmental, social and economic criteria
  trade off process. Certain technologies are more
  suitable for certain cities and purposes in Asia.
  
• Public transport versus private transport
• Bus versus rail
• Motorized versus non-motorized

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Use of Strategic Framework

• Sustainable Urban Transport is a vision that
  cities should work towards
• The SF helps decision makers in taking policy and
  investment decisions to bring cities closer to
  the vision, rather than to take them further away
• The SF allows for a trade-off process between the
  environmental, social and economic dimension. The
  outcome of the trade-off process will be
  different from location to location
• SF can help policy and decision makers to step
  outside the box and challenge the status quo on
  transport policy

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Implementation of the Sustainable Urban Transport
at city level

• Teamwork within government, national local as
  well as between departments is required to
  achieve common goal of SUT. Reorganization of
  institutional mandates can be required to achieve
  this or the creation of dedicated administrative
  structures
• Visionaries or champions are needed to move the
  process forward
• Effective communication strategies are required
  to win hearts and minds
• The use of indicators can greatly help in
  analyzing current sustainability levels and to
  support implementation processes of SUT policies
  and investments
• Independent or third party monitoring and
  evaluation
• Substantive capacity building required among
  stakeholders (government, private sector and
  civil society) to enable the formulation and
  implementation of SUT policies in Asia

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Financing of Sustainable Urban Transport

• Polluter pays principle should apply
• Infrastructure use to generate revenue
• Cities and states to broaden revenue generation
  to enhance the sustainability and self-reliance
• Public private partnerships within a strong
  regulatory framework
• Policies and measures to ensure that free-riders
  do not gain from value capture on land and
  decreased congestion
• Cross subsidization based on polluter pays
  principle
• Strong public transport sector backed by strong
  governance
• Development agencies to increase funding for
  sustainable urban transport systems