[sustran] SUSTRAN News Flash #38: Transport in the 'South'

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

SUSTRAN NEWS FLASH #38                    14 June 2000
News update on people-centred, equitable and sustainable 
transport with a focus on countries in the global 'South'.  

Produced for the Sustainable Transport Action Network for 
Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) 

by the SUSTRAN Resource Centre, P.O. Box 11501,  
50748 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. E-mail: sustran at po.jaring.my,  
URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran/

CONTENTS
1.	Transport at CSD
2.	ANNOUNCEMENT: New SUSTRAN Network Secretariat from October
3.	Car Free Asian Cities on Earth Day
4.	Hanoi Public Transport Plan Stalls
5.	Fuel Price Woes in Nigeria and Indonesia
6.	More Worry over "Ho Chi Minh Highway"
7.	Japanese Victory for Accessible Transport
8.	Bogotá and Ecoplan Win Stockholm Environment Prize
9.	Delhi CHAOS over Ban of Old Buses
10.	Australian "Safety" Plan to Discourage Cycling and Walking
11.	Cycling Promotion Fund from Bicycle Industry
12.	USEFUL RESOURCES AND LINKS
13.	EVENTS, MEETINGS, CONFERENCES
14.	Quick Quote


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Do you have your copy of  "TAKING STEPS: A COMMUNITY ACTION GUIDE 
TO PEOPLE-CENTRED, EQUITABLE AND SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT"?  See our 
web site (http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran) for information on 
how to order or to download sample pages.  The book is free for 
relevant non-profit organisations in the South. But numbers are 
limited. 


1. TRANSPORT AT CSD
Transport is to be a key focus of the 9th Session of the UN 
Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in April 2001. 
Transport is considered in Agenda 21 in the context of several 
chapters, including, among others, Chapter 9 on Atmosphere and 
Chapter 7 on Human Settlements. Over the next twenty years, 
transportation is expected to be the major driving force behind 
growing world demand for energy. It is the largest end-user of 
energy in developed countries and the fastest growing one in most
developing countries. (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/transp.htm 
and http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd9/csd9_2001.htm).


2. ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW SUSTRAN NETWORK SECRETARIAT FROM OCTOBER 
Starting on 1 October 2000 the Sustainable Transport Action 
Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) will have 
a new host for its Secretariat. This decision was one of the 
highlights of the successful SUSTRAN Network Assembly meeting in 
Jakarta on 1 June. Pelangi Indonesia will be taking over from the 
SUSTRAN Resource Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Bambang Susantono, 
Pelangi's chief transport person, will be coordinating the new 
secretariat on behalf of the new Indonesian Forum on 
Transportation (Infortrans), a coalition of Indonesian NGOs and 
CBOs. 

Congratulations to Pelangi, to Infortrans and to Bambang.  The 
SUSTRAN Resource Centre will continue to contribute to the 
network by focusing on research and information services (such 
as these News Flashes). (Contact:  Dr Bambang Susantono, Pelangi 
Indonesia, Jl. Danau Tondano no. A-4, Jakarta 10210, Indonesia. 
Fax: +62 21 573-2503, Email: bsantono at pelangi.or.id , Web: 
http://www.pelangi.or.id)

MANY THANKS to all who made the effort to help organise and to 
attend the SUSTRAN Network Assembly meeting, to Pelangi 
Indonesia  for hosting the meeting, to the Institute for 
Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) (http://www.itdp.org) 
for sponsoring several participants. Thanks also to the 
organising committee of the excellent and inspiring International 
Conference on Sustainable Transport and Clean Air for sponsoring 
several SUSTRAN Network members to attend the conference, which 
then also allowed them to be able to attend the SUSTRAN meeting. 


3. CAR FREE ASIAN CITIES ON EARTH DAY
Sixteen cities in South Korea went "car-free" on April 23rd to 
celebrate Earth Day. In Seoul a major thoroughfare, Sejong Street, 
and the surrounding area was filled with an environmental fair, 
including a bicycle parade and environmental art exhibit, to draw 
attention to air pollution problems. Japan, Indonesia and Nepal 
also participated in car-free days as part of an Asian focus on 
air pollution. 
See http://www.gnet.org/Coldfusion/News_Page2.cfm?NewsID=10000


4. HANOI PUBLIC TRANSPORT PLAN STALLS
An ambitious plan for buses to meet one-third of Hanoi's public 
transport needs by the end of this year has stalled due to lack 
of funds. Currently only 300 buses run in Hanoi and (partly due 
to fare leakage) all three-bus companies rely on sideline 
businesses such as children's toys, garaging cars and operating 
maintenance workshops to help run their services. (see April 19 
message on the sustran-discuss list at 
http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran/discussion.htm). 


5. FUEL PRICE WOES IN NIGERIA AND INDONESIA
A 50% rise in fuel prices in NIGERIA in early June sparked riots 
and a general strike across the south-western part of Nigeria. 
Today the Government has relented and will now impose a much 
smaller price rise. Indonesia is also struggling again with the 
thorny issue of its huge subsidy on fuels. It is an enormous 
drain on Government resources at a time of continuing economic 
crisis. And most of the benefits of the subsidy seem to go to 
the wealthier parts of the population. Yet no-one seems to have 
an answer on how to phase out the subsidy without hurting the poor 
and without endangering the fragile political stability. (See 
messages on 3 and 14 April, 6 and 9 June 2000 on sustran-discuss 
at http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran/discussion.htm).


6. MORE WORRY OVER "HO CHI MINH HIGHWAY"
Fears over this road project and its potential impacts on Cuc 
Phuong National Park (NP) were the focus of a dialogue on 17 May 
at the National Environment Agency organised by the Vietnam Forum 
of Environmental Journalists (VFEJ). Local environmentalists and 
international organisations expressed concern over the planned 
project. (Source: Nguyen Diep Hoa, Forum of Environmental 
Journalists (VFEJ) and distributed by the Asia Pacific Forum of 
Environmental Journalists (AFEJ) HQ. Fax:(+94-1) 826607, Email: 
sobacine at sri.lanka.net,  http://www.oneworld.org/slejf  also see 
message on May 19, 2000 on sustran-discuss at 
http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran/discussion.htm)


7. JAPANESE VICTORY FOR ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORT 
The campaign to win accessible transport for people with 
disabilities scored a success in JAPAN this year. After a 12-year 
struggle a "Barrier-free Transportation Act" (albeit still with 
defects) will be passed in this Diet session in Japan. More 
information is at http://member.nifty.ne.jp/shojin/  (this was 
passed on by Topong Kulkhanchit, Access Officer, DPI-Thailand. 
Email: handipro at loxinfo.co.th)


8. BOGOTÁ AND ECOPLAN WIN STOCKHOLM ENVIRONMENT PRIZE
The Commons (an initiative of Ecoplan) and the City of Bogotá 
were awarded the Stockholm Challenge Award in Environment for 
their collaboration on the successful Bogotá Car Free Day which 
took place on Thursday, 24 February 2000 see News Flash #37
(http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran/newsflash/2000.htm). 
They were competing with 94 finalists chosen from 612 nominated 
projects.  Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of Bogotá, and Eric Britton 
of Ecoplan were in Stockholm to receive the award. For more 
information go to "@World Car Free Day" at 
http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/.


9. DELHI CHAOS OVER BAN OF OLD BUSES
New Delhi public transport was severely disrupted in early April 
when a Supreme Court Order forced the withdrawal of 1,750 Delhi 
Transport Corporation (DTC) buses (the State-owned operator) and 
2,100 contract buses (mostly school buses).  The court order 
banned all buses over 8 years old from operating in the city 
unless they were converted to compressed natural gas (CNG). DTC 
pressed its entire fleet of 750 inter-state buses onto city routes 
but this was still grossly inadequate. Many people were stranded 
during the first few days. 

Environmentalists and others criticised the Delhi State Government 
for not taking action in the 22 months between the court order and 
its enforcement. Public transport operators and unions faulted the 
government for not arguing its case for an alternative plan or 
postponement well enough in court. DCT had opposed the blanket 
ruling, proposing instead that Euro II emissions standards be 
adopted - allowing older diesel engines to remain on the road if 
they could meet the standards. It failed in a last minute attempt 
to have the court postpone the order. In fact, the court has also 
ordered that ALL buses in Delhi must run on CNG by April 1, 2001. 
The Delhi Government in turn blamed the Central government for 
failing to provide enough infrastructure for CNG refuelling in the 
city. 

The influential environment group, Centre for Science and 
Environment (CSE) supports the Court's CNG ruling, saying that 
DCT was simply stalling,. CSE says the Euro II standards are too 
lax and points to the extreme particulate pollution problem with 
winter PM10 levels reaching as incredibly high as 800 
microgrammes per cubic meter (µg/cum).  

However, most economists would point out in this situation that 
it is not efficient to require specific technologies. They would 
argue that policy-makers should set emissions standards and allow 
manufacturers and operators to find ways to meet the target with 
whatever technology can do the job. But the court has already 
spoken.

(For more on this see messages in early April on sustran-discuss 
at http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran/discussion.htm).


10. AUSTRALIAN "SAFETY" PLAN TO DISCOURAGE CYCLING AND WALKING
In February 1999 the Australian Minister for Transport and 
Regional Development launched a national cycling strategy which 
promised to promote cycling in all spheres of government and 
improve cyclist safety. A year later the same minister's 
department prepared a national road safety strategy that 
identifies cycling as less safe than motorised transport AND 
that transport and land use planning should discourage less-safe 
transport modes.  Submissions from cyclists all over Australia 
were ignored by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). 

Around the world a new approach to road safety is gaining 
ground.  This "Road Danger Reduction" approach urges that 
vulnerable road users be both protected AND encouraged. Instead 
this new draft road safety strategy puts most priority on car 
occupants and explicitly aims to discourage vulnerable road 
users, such as cyclists. A senior member of the ATSB even said 
that promoting cycling and walking might be "health" and 
"environment" policy but it is not transport policy. 
Fortunately, State transport ministers in Australia declined to 
endorse the strategy at the last minute (although for other 
reasons). So a high level task force has been established to 
review the NRSS. Australian cycling and pedestrian advocates are 
pushing for the environment and health effects of transport to 
be given appropriate weight in the revised document. (Source: 
based on information from Dr Harry Owen, Bicycle Federation of 
Australia, Email: Harry.Owen at flinders.edu.au, Web: 
http://www.bfa.asn.au/). 


11. CYCLING PROMOTION FUND FROM BICYCLE INDUSTRY
A Cycling Promotion Fund has been set up by the Australian 
bicycle industry to assist Australian voluntary organisations 
and individuals with projects aimed at increasing bicycle use. 
Such initiatives seem to be a growing (and welcome) trend, even 
if it has often taken a very long time for cycling advocates to 
persuade their business friends. Similar things have begun to 
happen in Taiwan and the United States. (Contact:  Michael Oxer, 
Cycling Promotion Fund  Secretariat, c/-  PO Box 5085 Alphington, 
Vic  3078, Australia. Fax   +60 3  9499 2552, Email: 
oxerm at bikeoz.com, http://www.cycling-australia.com). 


12. USEFUL RESOURCES AND LINKS

The JOURNAL OF WORLD TRANSPORT POLICY & PRACTICE is now 
available free of charge under The Commons web site. World 
Transport Policy and Practice provides a high-quality medium 
for original and creative ideas in world transport. Volume 6, 
Number 1 is now available at http://ecoplan.org/wtpp/
 
"ONLINE TDM ENCYCLOPEDIA" (draft version) by the Victoria 
Transport Policy Institute is now posted at 
http://www.vtpi.org/tdm.   This is a unique and comprehensive 
resource for Transportation Demand Management planning and
analysis.

Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) in Surabaya 
(being conducted by GTZ) http://www.sutp.org/

NEW BOOK: "Carfree Cities"  by J.H. Crawford  (2000) - a 
"groundbreaking new book" 324 pages, 60 drawings, 170 photos. 
(for more information see http://www.carfree.com).

"RURAL ACCESSIBILITY PLANNING TOOL" - an 8-step tool to help 
communities and local organisations identify their access 
problems and propose solutions (Contact: Dr Fatemeh Ali-Nejadfard, 
Senior Technical Advisor, Access and Rural Employment, ILO/ASIST, 
PO Box 210, Harare, Zimbabwe. Fax: +263 4 759427, email: 
asist at ilo.org).  

The Animal Traction Network for Eastern and  Southern Africa 
(ATNESA) is developing a website at URL  http://www.atnesa.org

Article on gender and urban transport issues with a focus on 
Bangkok, "Faring Badly: The Gender Aspects of Travelling", by 
Teena Gill of PANOS news service is at: 
http://www.oneworld.org/panos/news/35nov99.htm

TOUR OF THE FIREFLIES (Metro Manila's annual mass bike ride 
against pollution) http://www.fireflybrigade.org/

"Forum News" from the International Forum for Rural Transport 
and Development (IFRTD). A must read newsletter for anyone with 
an interest in addressing rural poverty and rural transport. 
(PLEASE TAKE NOTE:  IFRTD has moved premises!!   Their new 
contact details are: Priyanthi Fernando and Mike Noyes, IFRTD 
Secretariat, 2 Spitfire Studios, 63-71 Collier Street, London 
N1 9BE, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 20 7713 6699, Fax: +44 20 
7713 8290, Email: ifrtd at gn.apc.org, Web: 
http://www.gn.apc.org/ifrtd)

"Urban Transport in the Asian and Pacific Region" theme of 
Transport and Communications Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific 
No. 68 and "Participatory Approach to Transport Infrastructure 
Development" theme of Transport and Communications Bulletin for 
Asia and the Pacific No. 69 - both now available from the United 
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific 
(UN-ESCAP). UN publicaton sales numbers E.00.II.F.22, E.00.II.F.23. 

**CALL FOR PAPERS: The Transport and Communications Bulletin for 
Asia and the Pacific is now calling for papers for the next two 
Issues: No. 70 on "Logistics for the improvement of transport 
efficiency of domestic goods traffic" and No. 71 on "Governance 
for sustainable development in the transport sector" (Contact: 
Director, TCTIDD, UN ESCAP, Fax: +662-280 6042, E-mail: 
moon.unescap at un.org,  http://www.unescap.org/tctd/index.htm).

"Public Transport International" is the official publication of 
UITP (International Union of Public Transport). Bimonthly, 48 
pages published in English, French, German and Russian and with 
a shortened version in Japanese and Chinese. (Contact: Doriano 
ANGOTZI, Sales, International Association of Public Transport - 
UITP, avenue Herrmann-Debroux 17, B-1160 Bruxelles Belgium. Fax:
+32 2 660 1072, E-mail: publications at uitp.com, 
doriano.angotzi at uitp.com, Web: http://www.uitp.com/).

 

13. COMING EVENTS, MEETINGS, CONFERENCES

"VELO MONDIALE 2000 World Bicycle Conference", June 18-22, 2000, 
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (Contact: Congress Organisation 
Services, PO Box 1558, 6501 BN Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Fax: 
+31 24 360 1159, http://www.velomondial2000.nl/).

"Reinventing Mobility - Challenge of the 21st Century", June 
24 - 27, 2000, Bremen, Germany. Organised by Bremen initiative, 
the global campaign for business-municipality partnership towards 
a sustainable future for cities. (For further information: 
Ecolo-Ecology and Communication, Leher Heerstr. 102, D-28359 
Bremen - Germany. Tel: +49-421-2300110; Fax:+49-421-23001118; 
E-mail: conference2000 at bremen-initiative.de, Visit 
http://www.bremen-initiative.de)

American Urban Mass Transportation Trade Mission to Thailand, 
Singapore, Malaysia. July 19-28, 2000 jointly developed by the 
Federal Transit Administration, The American Public Transportation 
Association and the US Department of Commerce. [Contact: Mark C. 
O'Grady, USDOC Liaison Officer, International Mass Transportation 
Partnership, Federal Transit Administration, USDOT, Office of 
Research, Demonstration & Innovation, 400 Seventh St., SW; Room 
9401, Washington, DC 20590. Fax: +1 202.366.3765, Email: 
mark.ogrady at fta.dot.gov, Web: http://www.usatrade.gov/imtp)

"6th International Conference on Urban Transport and the 
Environment for the 21st Century", July 26-28, 2000, Cambridge, 
UK. (Contact: Sally Walsh, Conference Secretariat, UT 2000, 
Wessex Institute of Technology, Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst, 
Southampton, SO40 7AA, United Kingdom. Fax: +44 238 029 2853, 
Email: slwalsh at wessex.ac.uk)

"Traffic Safety on Three Continents", September 20-22, 2000, 
CSIR Conference Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. (Contact: Dr 
Richard Pain, Transportation Research Board, 2101 Constitution 
Ave. NW, Washington DC, 204 18 USA. Fax: +1 202 334 2003, 
Email: rpain at nas.edu).

"UITP Melbourne 2000 Public Transport Conference Event", 8 - 13 
October 2000, includes the UITP Light Rail Conference and the 
Asia/Pacific  Congress and City Transport Exhibition. (See 
http://www.lightrail2000.vic.gov.au or http://www.uitp.com).

"Smart Urban Transport - Using Transitways and Busways" 
conference, 17-20 October 2000, Brisbane, Australia (Contact: 
Ozaccom Conference Services, PO Box 164, Fortitude Valley QLD, 
Australia 4006. Tel: +617-38541611 Fax: +617-38541507, Email: 
ozaccom at ozaccom.com.au).

"XI Panamerican Conference in Traffic and Transportation 
Engineering" , 19-23 November, 2000, Gramado, state of Rio 
Grande do Sul, Brazil. [Contact: Dr. Luis Antonio Lindau, 
President of the Organising Committee, Escola de Engenharia/UFRGS, 
Praça Argentina n.9 Sala 408, 90040-020 Porto Alegre, Brasil. 
Tel: +55 51 316 3596, Fax : +55 51 316 4007, email: 
panam at orion.ufrgs.br, http://www.ufrgs.br/panam/eng/index.htm).

"4th International Workshop on Transportation Planning & 
Implementation Methodologies for Developing Countries: Transport 
Infrastructure (Contact: Prof. S. L. Dhingra / Dr  K. V. Krishna 
Rao, Co-ordinators, TPMDC-2000, Transportation Systems Engineering 
Group, Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of 
Technology  Bombay, Powai, Mumbai - 400 076, India. Fax: 
+91 22 5767302/5783480,  Email: tpmdc2k at civil.iitb.ernet.in).

"Australia: Walking the 21st Century - An International Walking
Conference", 20-22 February 2001. Perth, Western Australia. 
(Contact: John Seaton - Manager, Pedestrian Strategy, 
Metropolitan  Division, Department of Transport, PO Box 7272 
Cloisters Square,  Perth  6850, Western Australia, Australia. Tel: 
+61 8 9313 8680,  Fax: +61 8 9320 9497, e-mail: 
jseaton at transport.wa.gov.au).

54th UITP International Congress to be held in London, 20-25 May 
2001. International Exhibition of Public Transport - City 
Transport 2001. London, England, 21-24 May 2001. In conjunction 
with the 54th UITP International Congress. (International 
Association of Public Transport (UITP), Avenue Herrmann-Debroux 17, 
B-1160 Brussels, Belgium, Tel:+32 2 673 6100, Fax: +32 2 660 1072, 
E-mail: administration at uitp.com, URL: http://www.uitp.com).

"Transed 2001: Towards Safety, Independence and Security. 9th 
International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly 
and Disabled People." Warsaw, Poland, 2-5 July 2001. 
ABSTRACTS DEADLINE 20 June 2000. (Contact: TRANSED, 02-783 
Warsaw 59, PO Box 10, Poland.  Fax: +48 22 8316526, Email: 
transed2001 at idn.org.pl).

"9th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR)" to be held 
at ASEM International Convention Center, Seoul, July 22-27, 2001. 
Co-organisers: Korean Society of Transportation & The Korea 
Transport Institute. Deadline for submission of abstracts April 
15, 2000.  (For further information, contact: Secretariat of 9th 
WCTR Conference, The Korea Transport Institute, 2311 Daehwa-Dong, 
Ilsan-Gu, Koyang-city, Kyonggi-Do, 411-410, KOREA. Tel : 
+82-344-910-3100, Fax: +82-344-910-3200, Email: 
wctr at cis.koti.re.kr, Web: http://www.koti.re.kr/~wctr).

"Fourth Conference of the Eastern Asian Society for Transportation 
Studies (EASTS)", Hanoi, Vietnam, 24-26 October 2001 hosted by the 
Transportation Science Society of Vietnam (TSSV) [Contact: Office 
of the EASTS Secretary General, c/o Association for Planning and 
Transportation Studies, K-Wing 6F, 5-2-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, 
Tokyo 102-0083, Japan. Tel: +81 3 32651774, Fax: +81 3 32215489, 
Email: easts at sa2.so-net.ne.jp, 
http://ichini.cv.titech.ac.jp/~easts/)


14. QUICK QUOTE
Dato' Seri Samy Vellu, Malaysian Minister for Public Works, 
responded as follows to attacks from civic groups over Government 
plans to  go ahead with a massive new bridge-tunnel between Penang 
Island and the mainland: 

"This is not a privatised project. This is a government project 
and there is no need for public opinion
". He went on to say 
that there would be no proper roads in the country if public 
opinion was needed for construction of roads. He said the 
Government was borrowing money from overseas to undertake the 
project and not utilising public funds. 

(for more details on the Penang "Third Link" controversy see 
several messages in late March on the Malaysia Transport list
http://www.egroups.com/messages/malaysia-transport).


-----------------------------------------------------
Written and compiled by A. Rahman Paul Barter 

We rely on you for our news. Please keep the contributions coming. 
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The Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific 
(the SUSTRAN Network) promotes and popularises people-centred, 
equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the 
Pacific.