[sustran] Big issues to talk about

[Dharm Guruswamy]

On Sun, 11 May 1997, Paul Barter wrote:

> Dear sustran-discuss participants
> 

Let me just add a few notes on some of the very germane issues Paul
raised.

> *        Air pollution and its health impacts (which pollutants are the
> priority in different countries or cities?).

Often this is a factor of other (non point and stationary) sources of
pollution and local meteorological and geographical conditions.

> *        Safety (especially for vulnerable road users).

This should mean all road users.. I believe that road fatality rates in
East Asia (outside of Japan) are higher than those in the United States
overall, but fatality rates for pedestrians and bicyclist are
particularily high.

> *        City-friendly and city-unfriendly transport (cities and towns face
> severe impacts from transport. Why do Asian cities seem to have such big
> problems with cars and motorcycles, even though car ownership is much lower
> than in the west?)

I may get in trouble for saying this on this list, but the main reason
that these problems manifest themselves is that the amount of space in
these cities devoted to road transportation is around 10%, meanwhile the
typical range in comparable western cities is as high as 25% (New York).
If automobile ownership is to grow some consideration for both
improved roads and off street parking MUST be made, otherwise motorist
will park on sidewalks (and even use sidewalks as traffic lanes if they
can get away with it), double park, etc.. creating havok.  Now when I say
widen streets, I don't mean all streets, just arterials... I fully support
the implementation of traffic calming techniques on side/residential
streets to prevent encroachment by a ever growing fleet of automobiles.

> *        Global impacts of transport such as climate change (Should we just
> concentrate on getting rich countries to reduce their emissions or should
> we ALSO be searching for ways for lower income countries to avoid a
> high-emissions future? )

There is no question that as automobile ownership rates begin to rise in
Asia that there will be major atmospheric changes both at the local and
global level. 

---
Dharm Guruswamy - 3rd year grad. student, City Planning & Civil Engineering
snail mail: 960 Atlantic Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
phone/fax: HOME (404) 685-3294  WORK (404) 894-6402	
internet:dharm at trec.ce.gatech.edu : www:http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~dg63