[sustran] Re: Information on 'Bike Taxi'

[Craig Townsend]

Anil,

At 03:22 AM 25/08/2004, you wrote:
>I saw clearly two groups of people on this topic. One for the bike-taxis 
>and another against it. However, both of them lack solid research logic. 
>We are only selling our arguments and observations till now.

I'm not sure that the discussion lacks logic, but we definitely lack data 
and detailed studies on specific cities and comparing cities. To some 
extent the discussion is now more generally on the topic of motorcycles in 
cities rather than just motorcycle taxis. I don't think that the discussion 
is so polarized into "for" and "against" camps - we're just exploring the 
very real advantages and disadvantages of motorcycles whether as taxis or 
private means of travel.

>
>Let's keep this debate going for some time (see how far we would go). Now, 
>I am trying to summarise what we have discussed about bike-taxis in last 
>few days. Arguments - for and against it. I will post them after 
>completion. May be we could then lead towards some research on this issue, 
>as mentioned my Jonathan.

I agree that there is a need for a research agenda, followed by funding!

>
>At this point, could anyone provide me the history of these bike-taxis? 
>Like; are they operating in these cities from the very beginning or they 
>have been introduced afterwards. There might be some literatures 
>justifying its introduction. It would be very interesting to learn, why 
>they were introduced? There might be some thought on these bike-taxis by 
>the policymakers at that time.
>
>Anticipating some literatures, not just arguments.

I seem to remember coming across a paper from Jonathan's colleague Prof. 
Yordphol at AIT on motorcycles in Bangkok.

In Cervero's overview of informal transport he looks at informal transport 
services offered by vans, motorcycles, and pedicabs in Bangkok, but not on 
the environmental and social impacts which seem to be the concern of our 
current discussion. (Cervero, Robert. 2000. Informal Transport in the 
Developing World. Nairobi: United Nations Centre for Human Settlements 
(Habitat)).

Vuchic and Litman compare the costs of various modes including motorcycles 
in developed country cities (in both cases motorcycles come out as a high 
cost mode because of the high rate of accidents and associated external costs):

Vuchic, Vukan R. 1999. Transportation for Livable Cities. New Brunswick, 
New Jersey: Center for Urban Policy Research.

Litman in his work which is posted online (e.g., see 
http://www.vtpi.org/tca/tca06.pdf) compares the costs of various modes.

Late last year here on Sustran there was reference made to a document "A 
comparison study on motorcycle traffic development in some Asian countries 
– case of Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam", although I just glanced at it and 
there isn't much which would help us with the current discussion of the 
relative costs and benefits of motorcycles in cities of the developing 
world. 
http://www.easts.info/Awards/ICRA-ComparisonStudyMotorcycleDevelopment.pdf

Regards,

Craig Townsend

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