[sustran] Re: Information on 'Bike Taxi'

[Brendan Finn]

I've really enjoyed this discussion, as well as Jonathon's great descriptions of the reality. 

While the focus has been on bike-taxi for urban areas, I came across an article on bike-taxis in rural areas in Africa. Some of the material may be of interest, and perhaps the author (Gina Porter) has either done further research or can direct interested persons to someone else who has.

World Transport Policy and Practice, Volume 8, Issue 4
Gina Porter
"Improving mobility and access for the off-road rural poor through intermediate means of transport"

www.eco-logica.co.uk/WTPPhome.html 

Hope this is of use.

With best wishes, 

Brendan Finn. 
_______________________________________________________________________
Contact details are : e-mail : etts at indigo.ie   tel : +353.87.2530286 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Craig Townsend 
  To: Anil K. Raut ; Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 3:34 PM
  Subject: [sustran] Re: Information on 'Bike Taxi'


  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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