[sustran] Re: Transportation Modal Choice in Asian Cities

[Walter Hook]

A point of clarification on the Transport Modal Choice in Asian Cities that was just sent around. 

Karl just pointed out to me that this table of modal split data was attributed to the Institute for Transport Policy and Development.  

Some people might be confused by this.  Our name is the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, though I believe this attribution refers to us.   We are also not comfortable with this table being attributed to ITDP.  

As a favor to CAI Asia, ITDP's intern John Lindsey prepared this table from some data from various sources, in support of CAI Asia's efforts to provide background for a proposal it was preparing for various work to European sources.  While it is a reasonable compliation of what data is available out there, we never intended for this data to be used as an authoritative document, it was never reviewed by any ITDP staff, and we had no idea it was going to be released more broadly.  ITDP is not currently working on a more authoritative assessment of modal split trends in the region, and as such would like our name removed from the attribution. 

Collating more accurate modal split data is not a priority for ITDP, and if one is done I agree with Setty Pendakur that a research based institution like TRB, or the CAI Asia itself with techncial review by some experts, would be a more appropriate venue. CAI itself might systematically request this data from its members using a consistent methodology, and then use one or two experts to assess the validity of the results.  

regards,
Walter Hook, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)
127 West 26th Street, Suite 1003
New York, NY 10001
Ph:  (212) 629-8001
Fax: (212) 629-8033
 
Promoting environmentally sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide
 
Visit http://www.itdp.org
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: aables at adb.org 
  To: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org 
  Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 4:04 AM
  Subject: [sustran] Transportation Modal Choice in Asian Cities



  Sent in behalf of Cornie Huizenga 
  CAI-Asia 

  Dear all, 

  The urban transport sector remains a major contributor to air pollution in Asian cities. Decision makers and development agencies are starting to realize that more active policies are required to address the problems of air pollution, road safety and congestion associated with rapid motorization. 

  An emerging movement in developed and developing countries is the promotion and improvement of public transportation and non-motorized transport in urban areas. In Asia, there are a number of cities with projects on improving public transportation (Bus Rapid Transit development), non-motorized transportation and pedestrian access. Experience from these cities in developed and developing countries have shown that substantial benefits on urban air quality and traffic congestion can be achieved, not to mention the relatively 'cheaper' cost required in implementing the project. 

  However, in order to plan effective sustainable urban transport programs and policies it is important to have a good picture of the manner in which the urban transport sector is developing. A frequently heard complaint is that there is no recent overview of modal split data and trends therein for cities in Asia.  The Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia),  with the help of other organizations like EMBARQ/WRI Center for Transportation and Environment and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), has therefore taken the initative to gather updated information on modal split data in selected Asian cities (see attached ). This compilation is also posted online at http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-60210.html 



  We would like to receive your comments on the data that we have gathered. If you had additional studies please send us copies of the studies. You can also add the information to the table but in that case please send us the complete reference for our information. We are especially interested in trends for individual cities, which have been calculated making use of the same methodology and definitions for the different years.  Some trends can be observed from the data posted but in many cases different definitions and methodologies have been used that make the trends somehow questionable. 

  We thank you for your cooperation as always. Please send your inputs to Aurora Fe Ables aables at adb.org. We would like to receive them if possible by 30 June, 2005. 


  Best regards, 
  Cornie Huizenga
  Head of Secretariat
  Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia)
  Asian Development Bank
  Tel (632) 632-5047
  Fax (632) 636 2198
  Email chuizenga at adb.org
  http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia

  www.adb.org



------------------------------------------------------------------------------




  ================================================================
  SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/20050624/cacf3697/attachment.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1763 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/20050624/cacf3697/attachment.gif