[sustran] Re: Is Asia moving in the direction of restricting the use of private cars?

Carlosfelipe Pardo carlosfpardo at gmail.com
Tue Apr 3 11:07:43 JST 2012


This is a most interesting topic. There is frequently the notion that 
push (getting people out of their cars) must follow pull (getting them 
into public transport etc). The problem is always finding out what is an 
adequate level of pull measures. The example of Bogotá is most telling: 
in the decade of 1990 everyone said nothing could be done because we had 
very bad public transport. Then TransMilenio came in and improved the 
situation incredibly (say from 1 to 10 in quality). Now, 12 years after 
TransMilenio, there is still no significant TDM measure implemented 
because people still believe that we must have better public 
transport.... and we will go on and on.

I am sure this cycle will keep on going in every city that poses the 
question until someone (mayor or whoever) says that it is definitely a 
chicken-and-egg problem and we will not find our way into sustainable 
transport unless something is done now regarding TDM measures - as many 
as possible. Hiding behind the pull-before-push argument will not really 
get us anywhere.

Best regards,

Carlos.

On 02/04/2012 03:12 a.m., Cornie Huizenga wrote:
> Dear Jean-Francois,
>
> Of course transport policy will be a combination of objectives.  However
> what I was trying to describe is a new development that it is the
> policy/decision makers, sometimes as the national level but often at the
> local level, who come to the insight that step 1 and 2 is not able to
> ensure that cities are functioning smoothly and that more radical measures
> are required.
>
> I have some problems with the way that you are describing the situation in
> Ho Chi Minh City: "*both cities identify 2015 as a turning point,
> estimating that their public transport system will be good enough so that
> restricting car use will be legitimate (emphasis added)". *This still
> implies somehow that additional public transport is an alternative to
> private mobility.  Examples of Beijing and Mexico city, where there has
> been substantial expansion in public transport in recent years, had very
> large growth figures in private transport (Beijing 700,000 cars in 2010,
> before they put in place a quota of 240,000 per year in 2011, and about
> 500,000 in Mexico city in 2010) show that it is a fallacy that you can
> build enough pubic transport capacity quickly enough to provide a
> convincing alternative to private motorization.
>
> The example of Shanghai (and Singapore for that matter) shows that you it
> pays off to start early with phase 3 and put this in place simultaneously
> with phase 2.  Once the genie is out of the bottle and the cars are on the
> road it will be very hard to get them under control.
>
> I agree that the change that I talk about is still in its infancy but it is
> fascinating to see the growing number of news items coming up, also in the
> Indian press about decision makers saying things on controlling private
> motorization which a number of years were impossible.  Last week we had an
> event in New York at the UN on sustainable transport with NGOs, MDB, EU,
> USA and Indonesia. Guess who was the most vocal in calling for radical
> solutions: "we should not build more highways and we should control the
> number of cars", yes, it was the Assistant Minister for Environment from
> Indonesia.
>
> Change is in the air and we should cultivate it.
>
> Cornie
>
> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 3:27 PM,<jfdoulet at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>
>> Dear Cornie,
>>
>> I totally agree with you. Howerver, when looking at the rationale behind
>> congestion charge options in emerging Asia, we see that what you call the
>> third option/phase is being legitimized by the option/phase 2: local
>> governments are thinking about restricting the use of cars when they
>> consider that the public transport offer is good enough.
>>
>> In Vietnam, both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have set up a plan to curb car
>> use in the future: Hanoi, through higher parking fees and Ho Chi Minh City,
>> through congestion charge. When you look into the agenda supporting those
>> measures, you notice that both cities identify 2015 as a turning point,
>> estimating that their public transport system will be good enough so that
>> restricting car use will be legitimate. You can find more or less the same
>> roadmap in other big Asian metropolis, like Jakarta.
>>
>> Indeed, it will make a real change if cities from emerging Asia could
>> succeed in implementing transportation schemes that combine intelligently
>> the three options/phases you are mentioning. The only city I know so far
>> who did it is Shanghai. I am more skeptical about other cities. The pace of
>> motorization is very fast all over emerging Asia and the political will to
>> set up a comprehensive and strong urban transportation strategy doesn't
>> seem to be very high.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Jean-Francois Doulet, PhD
>> Associate Professor, Paris Institute of Urban Planning
>> Vice-director, Sino-French Center for Urban, Regional and Planning Studies
>> +33615253328
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Cornie Huizenga<cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org>
>> Sender: sustran-discuss-bounces+jfdoulet=yahoo.com at list.jca.apc.org
>> Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 09:34:40
>> To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
>> Subject: [sustran] Is Asia moving in the direction of restricting the use
>> of
>>         private cars?
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> I came across the following news article on Viet Nam:
>>
>> Vietnamese  *Deputy PM advocates restricted use of private vehicles*
>> 15 Mar, 2012
>> Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Chairman of the National Traffic
>> Safety Committee, on Thursday instructed the Ministries of Finance and
>> Transport to submit a proposal that will restrict use of privately owned
>> vehicles by increasing toll fee, in a move to restore more traffic order
>> and safety in Ho Chi Minh City.
>> On Thursday afternoon, Deputy PM Phuc, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang
>> and representatives from other relevant departments and ministries met with
>> City leaders to find ways to improve traffic safety and curb congestion.
>>
>> http://www.lookatvietnam.com/2012/03/deputy-pm-advocates-restricted-use-of-private-vehicles.html
>>
>> For me this fits in quite well with a recent insight that I had on the
>> manner in which thinking on sustainable transport is developing in the
>> Asian region.  I see three main phases in the way that governments are
>> approaching transport planning: (1) built your way out of construction -
>> under this approach national and city governments resort to massive
>> construction programs - e.g. the 6 ring roads in Beijing, (2) when the
>> first approach does not solve congestion problems governments invest in
>> massive expansion of public transport, (metro, BRT, etc) and put in place
>> temporary restrictions on use of cars based on plate numbers, and (3) once
>> the first two methods are not working consider limiting the growth of
>> vehicles (e.g Shanghai and Beijing) or the use of vehicles through
>> congestion charges, urban road tolling etc.   My impression/expectation is
>> that we will see more of the third approach in Asia in the coming years.
>> It is interesting so far that it is governments who are in the lead on this
>> and that this is not the result from extensive lobbying from international
>> NGOs or development organizations who still are focused largely on phase 2
>> - the creation of alternative public and NMT transport infrastructure and
>> services.
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>> Cornie
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cornie Huizenga
>> Joint Convener
>> Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
>> Mobile: +86 13901949332
>> cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org
>> www.slocat.net
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