[sustran] Re: What lessons can America learn from the rest of the world .. .?

[Dino Teddyputra]

Message from USA/Germany/Indonesia...

Just my 2 cents, since I also believe there are still a lot of things that
America could benefit from international experiences (and certainly
vice versa) in terms of sustainable transport development. I would recommend
doing comparative studies between the US and the Western European countries
since the two geographic areas are comparable in terms of income level, but
have huge differences in terms of transportations service levels especially
in land transport modes: rail, public transport and non-motorized transport.
Though some of the western European concepts made it to be quite popular in
the US (like traffic calming which is originally from Holland/Germany, I
think), there are sill many other transport concepts that could be used to
improve the transport sector in the US.

Public Transport
One thing that strikes me most just from my casual observation is that how
slow improvements are made in the public transport sector in the US. In San
Francisco I still see the same Muni buses and Bart trains that I probably
saw 16 years a go when I went there as a backpacker. The Caltrain train
system that connects San Francisco and San Jose still uses the old-style
diesel-electric technology which makes them very slow to accelerate and
decelerate (actually quite ironic for the high-tech area of Silicon-Valley
that it's servicing). And the the T-Line here in Boston breaks down too
often and its subway stations still look dark and dusty like storage rooms
though they're constantly under renovation. If one compares this situation
to cities in Western Europe like Berlin or Hamburg, where you can see
visible improvements in public transport every five years or so (such as
modernized subway stations, new trains/buses, real-time arrival/departure
information system etc...), the difference is quite dramatic considering
their similarly high income levels. So there must be something behind it in
terms of public transport sector management that can be learned from the
more successful examples.

Bike Transport
The other thing that I miss while living in the US is good bike
facility. One would notice that the bike facilities here are far from
adequate, esp. for little children and elderly cyclists, even in places like
Palo Alto or Standford campus that have the highest bike use in the country.
>From my car-less living in Berlin for 15 years as a cyclist, I consider
myself as an experienced utilitarian cyclist. But I wouldn't dare riding my
bike on many streets in SF or here in Boston where the effective clearance
for cyclists on bike lanes are often reduced to one foot wide due to the
moving traffic, debris along the curb, parked cars or simply poor design. I
read those news articles when cyclists died from getting doored by a parked
car or having to merge with the fast moving traffic and got hit by a
reckless driver. Personally, my partner and I almost got killed by speeding
cars when riding our bikes to the Pumpkin Festival in Halfmoon Bay through a
street that was displayed as a "bike route" on a map; We were so traumatized
that we had to hire a pick up truck and transport our bikes on the truck to
avoid that killer street on our way back home. Anyways, extensive studies,
development policies, design manuals on bike transport have been made and
applied successfully in Western Europe, and they could be studied for its
application in the US context.

Other areas that came to my mind that the US could pursue towards more
sustainable transport:

- Transportations Impact Control (e.g. in California quite loose and
general, esp as required by CEQA vs. more stringent and comprehensive in
Germany which includes not only traffic impacts, but sometimes also air
pollution impacts and often noise impacts to make sure that developments are
inline with the federal "immision protection law"),
- Land use planning process towards land use pattern that is more NMT and
public transport friendly (e.g. more mixed land use and mix-use buildings),
- More integrated transportation planning practice, incl. providing more
"integrated transportation planning" majors at Universities (Many practicing
transportation planners in the US that I encountered seemed to have traffic
engineering or civil engineering background as opposed to a more
multi-disciplinary background that includes sociology, psychology,
economics etc. within the realms of transport).

I find transferring experience from one place to another as very
interesting. Obviously, due to different economic systems, land-use
patterns, people's preferences etc. some things would be harder, but some
are easier to try out or implement. Also language can be a barrier, which is
probably the reason why there seems to be less transfer from the non-English
speaking European countries to the US as the other way round. But you're
lucky in the US because Americans are generally quite open to new ideas,
which is an asset. I am currently working for an aid agency assisting
several cities in Indonesia implementing improvements learned from other
cities within and outside the country.

So good luck in this exciting time of change! Hopefully the on-coming
stimulus plan would include a substantial amount of sustainable transport
projects that would really bring a real change in the transport field.

Cheers,
Dino



Dr.-Ing. Dino Teddyputra
Traffic and Transportation Planning Engineer
Brookline, MA 02245
USA

Fax: +1(530) 618 5041
Phone: +1 (617) 365 7846
Germany: +49-174-840 2131
Indonesia: +62-859-3535 2227
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