[sustran] Re: International Comparisons - Help Please!

Lee Schipper SCHIPPER at wri.org
Tue Aug 29 01:20:21 JST 2006


Dear All.  As a veteran of 30 years of international comparisons, I would be very cautious with national or so called local data, particularly aggregates. Even population is tricky, and more often than not counted under different definitions for different cities in the same data base. Just try to compare Shanghai, Tokyo, Chongching, Mexico City and Sao Paulo from different internationally recognized data bases and see what variations you get. 

So little of this kind of work starts with a clear set of references, assumptions, rules (like how to measure local income or how to use purchasing power parity to measure income in different countries), and so little of what Alan asks for is actually known by the best local experts and stakeholders, let alone published in an open and scientifically verifiable manner. Most, repeat most studies or data bases do not make assumptions, even the simple matter of the DATE of each datum transparent.   

The problem with so many of these broad (but not deep) efforts it the data themselves cannot be related to anything that is available locally..neither for updating or expanding. For some of us, using data goes beyond Alan's deadline, rather data are away of allowing stakeholders in different cities to talk to each other, and when they don't recognize their own regions the talks often break down. 

I don't know the reference cited but from its data I fear that very little of the motorization wave in Asia, whether two or four wheeled, is capture in the experience available for an international comparison  published as early as 1995.

I wish my scars from all of these difficulties over the years would have healed, but they just have not.


Lee 

Lee Schipper
Director of Research
EMBARQ, the WRI Center
for Sustainable Transport
10 G St. NE
Washington DC, 20002
+1202 729 7735
www.embarq.wri.org

>>> sutp at sutp.org 8/28/2006 9:50:33 AM >>>
Dear Alan,

 

This might be a good source with some interesting figures (checking a trend
of various cities from 1960-1990) in a recent paper: 

 

Fujiwara A. and J. Zhang (1995), Evaluating Sustainability of Urban
Development in Developing Countries incorporating Dynamic Cause-Effect
Relationships over Time, Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for
Transportation Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 4349-4364. 

 

www.easts.info/on-line/journal_06/4349.pdf 

 

Good luck to you.

 

Best Regards,

Thirayoot 

 

 

  _____  

From: sustran-discuss-bounces+sutp=sutp.org at list.jca.apc.org 
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+sutp=sutp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf Of
Alan Howes
Sent: 28 ******* 2549 13:33
To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport; UTSG at JISCMAIL.ac.uk 
Cc: sustrandiscusslist
Subject: [sustran] International Comparisons - Help Please!

 

I have just discovered that I have a presentation to make in not much more
than 24 hours, to an audience of Mumbai decision-formers.  Working title -
""Urban transport - learning from the mistakes of others".  It's stretching
my core specialisation a bit (Public Transport / Buses), and as I am in
Mumbai I don't have access to reference sources back in the office (which
are pretty UK-oriented anyway).

 

So I am looking for some (on-line) data on international transport
comparisons - preferably urban rather than rural.  Things like - 

- Cars owned per head

- Car USAGE per head

- %age urban area devoted to roads

- pollution levels / greenhouse gas emissions

- Modal share data

 

Trend data would be useful too.

 

It may well be that a lot of what I am looking for is in the UITP's
Millennium Cities Database - but the problem is it is not available on-line,
and the summary data I have from it is back at the ranch (and possibly
corrupted).

 

I am currently looking at Todd Litman's VTPI page "Why Manage Transportation
Demand?" http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm51.htm , which has plenty of appropriate
words but not many numbers - it has plenty of links though, some of which
may well be useful.  And I will also look at SUTP.  But if anyone can give
me a more precise steer, I would be most grateful.

 

Regards, Alan Howes

currently at Dharavi Bus Depot, Mumbai, India

alan.howes at cbuchanan.co.uk 

 

 

-- 
Alan Howes
Associate Transport Planner
Colin Buchanan

4 St Colme Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6AA

Tel:       +44 131 226 4693

Mobile:  +44 7952 464335

email:   <mailto:alan.howes at cbuchanan.co.uk> alan.howes at cbuchanan.co.uk 

www: http:/www.cbuchanan.co.uk/

 

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