[sustran] paratransit

[Craig Townsend]

Ria,

I'm quite interested in your research, and if you have a chance could you
please tell me more. I'm a PhD student looking at transportation
infrastructure development in Southeast Asia's large metropolitan areas,
and I plan to research some case studies in Bangkok and Manila. 

I've spent some time working in Bangkok, and I have never come across
surveys on paratransit services there. (Actually, I have a bit of concern
about using the label "paratransit" in Bangkok - see my comments below.) If
you mean the modes of transport not regulated by the Bangkok Mass Transit
Authority (BMTA), it could include motorcycle taxis (usually short
distance), minibuses (usually longer distances running between central city
and outer suburban/exurban areas), tuk-tuks (motorized 3 wheelers) in the
city proper, river and canal boats (I'm not sure who regulates them),
pedicabs in the outer suburban centers of the metro region, and song taews
(converted pick up trucks acting as taxis in outer suburban areas). There
is spatial differentiation between the types of modes and the level of
regulation varies. The tuk-tuks are registered, the motorcycle taxis are
informally regulated by local police, mafias, and district officials, the
minibuses are largely unregulated although the Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration (BMA) has in recent years been pushing to bring them under
government control. In Bangkok it would be hard to call some modes strictly
"paratransit" or "unlicensed" - they are all under some kind of formal or
informal control that varies spatially and between jurisdictions. The modes
fall along a continuum of formal and informal, and I'm not sure of the
American category of "paratransit" (which implies that there is a "formal"
sector of public transport which is entirely under government authority and
this just isn't the case in Bangkok) can be clearly applied in this
context. You may want to be more specific and look at modes of transport
not regulated by the BMA or the BMTA. However, even that may cause you
problems in the case of Bangkok, where most transport is run by private
sector companies anyway. In a couple of weeks Bangkok's first mass transit
system (the "skytrain) will open and it is virtually an entirely private
sector initiative - unique in the world I believe! 

I would suggest that your best chance at finding info on Bangkok would be
from student theses and dissertations. Although he didn't look that much at
the modes you might call "paratransit", a Thai PhD student graduated from
ISTP here with an excellent thesis, "Anatomy of a Traffic Disaster: Towards
a Sustainable Solution to Bangkok's Transport Problems" (Chamlong Poboon,
1997). Most of the transport policies and plans, usually prepared by
foreign consultants, only focus on large motorized vehicles and trains/mass
transit. 

If you don't have it already I would obtain a copy of "Nonmotorized
Vehicles in Ten Asian Cities" (World Bank, 1995).

Best of luck,

Craig Townsend
________________________________________________
Craig Townsend
Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy
Murdoch University
South Street, Murdoch
Perth, Western Australia 6150

tel: (61 8) 9360 6293
fax: (61 8) 9360 6421
email: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au