[sustran] Re: nmt stats for asia

SUSTRAN Network Secretariat sustran at po.jaring.my
Thu Jan 27 12:05:56 JST 2000


At 17:32 25/01/00 -0500, Walter Hook wrote:
>Does anyone have bike mode share statistics for Singapore and Hong Kong
>and maybe Taipei, either journey to work or as a feeder trip to commuter
>trains or rails.  John Kaehney of Transportation Alternatives was just
>attacked in a transport journal by someone who said bikes didnt make any
>sense in New York because of its high density, and they sited Hong Kong
>as a similar place with no bike trips.  I know its ridiculous, but it
>would be good to quote him chapter and verse in a rebuttal.

An interesting argument that cycling is not suited to high-density cities!!
<raised eyebrows>.   <sarcasm on> Someone should tell all those Chinese
cities (with densities universally higher than New York City <sarcasm off>. 

It is true that cycling in Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore is not very
popular (although increasing quickly in Singapore as more people now cycle
to MRT stations). But it is difficult to argue that high density is the
reason - in fact both Singapore and Taipei had high bicycle use in the
past. Taipei has around 200 people per hectare and in the 1950s and 1960s
bicycles were the main mode of transport - now replaced largely by motor
scooters (and cars). 


Perhaps a more useful comparison is to compare Tokyo with New York.  Most
of this data is from Kenworthy and Laube et al. (1999)  An International
Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities, 1960-1990. University Press
of Colorado, Boulder.

Tokyo is denser than New York (except in the central business district). It
is also larger in population (people sometimes say big cities are not
compatible with bicycle use). But Tokyo has very high use of bicycles.

1990 use of walking + cycling to get to work:
Tokyo metro area (Tokyo-to + 3 other "to"):	21.7%			
New York metro area (tri-state RPA): 		6.7%			
Tokyo INNER area (23 wards):		    ? (probably >22%)
New York INNER area (= New York City): 		11.3%

Over the last 3 decades, bicycle use has risen dramatically in Tokyo and
other Japanese cities even as car ownership has risen (Yamakawa, 1994). In
1968, bicycles accounted for almost 8.1 percent of all Tokyo Metropolitan
Area trips, in 1978 it was 15.1 and by 1988 it had risen to 17.6 percent
(City Bureau and Building Research Institute, 1990: 17).  

Tokyo is a very rich city that is both larger in population and higher in
density than New York (with the exception ONLY of the central business
districts - where NY has higher population density than Tokyo). 

1990 POPULATIONS: 
Tokyo Metro area:					31.7 million			
New York Metro area: 				18.4 million			
Tokyo inner area: 					8.1 million
New York inner area:			 		7.3 million		

1990 URBAN DENSITIES (persons per hectare):
Tokyo Metro area:					71.0			
New York Metro area: 				19.2			
Tokyo inner area: 					132.1
New York inner area:			 		91.5		

I hope this helps.

Paul.
A. Rahman Paul BARTER
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia 
and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network)
P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia.
TEL/FAX: +(60 3) 2274 2590
E-mail: sustran at po.jaring.my
URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran (under construction)

The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises 
people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport 
with a focus on Asia and the Pacific.



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