From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jun 2 09:08:02 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 08:08:02 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd- Reuters: INDIA'S MARUTI SAYS CUTTING CAR EMISSIONS Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990602080802.007999a0@relay101.jaring.my> forwarded from the Best listserv: From: "Scott B. Nelson" Subject: Reuters: INDIA'S MARUTI SAYS CUTTING CAR EMISSIONS INDIA'S MARUTI SAYS CUTTING CAR EMISSIONS NEW DELHI - India's leading car-maker Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) said late last week that following a Supreme Court ruling, it will meet stringent internationally accepted emmission norms for its vehicles by April 2000. As a step towards cleaning up New Delhi's notoriously polluted streets, India's Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that all new cars sold in and around the national capital must conform to Euro I emission standards from June 1, and be ready for tougher Euro II rules by April next year. "We definitely will introduce Euro II (emission norms) by 1 April 2000 as stipulated by the Supreme Court," MUL's managing director R.S.S.L.N. Bhaskarudu told reporters after a board meeting. "With reference to Euro I we have been working very hard and our engineers have been working very closely with the Suzuki Motor Corp and we are confident of introducing Euro I by first week of June," Bhaskarudu added. Maruti, an equal venture between the Indian government and Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said it was unlikely to increase the price of cars to upgrade technology. "Immediately, we have no plans to increase the price," said Bhaskurudu. MUL, which has about 80 percent share of the Indian car market, was hit most by the court order as only some of its car models met the stiff emission norms. From halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id Wed Jun 2 20:04:17 1999 From: halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id (Harun al-Rasyid Sorah Lubis) Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 18:04:17 +0700 Subject: [sustran] System dynamics in transport policy analysis Message-ID: <00c401beace7$a976a360$1102cda7@harun.si.itb.ac.id> Most applied model in transport are non-structural and lack of feedback mechanisms. Therefore , we have to select some scenarios in order to predict the uncertainty of the future behavioural response. And partly problem of GIGO is one of the nightmare. A simple illustration of private vs. public transport strategy, i.e. building more roads (capacity) is predicted by the model to ease congestion, in fact what happen in the future is even more congested. This is explained, why this family of model is lack of feedback mechanism. Although, perhaps, other choice dimensions apart from route were considered, but how the construction and motorisation lobbies would took place during the time horison were out of hand. Feedback-rich model is belong to , some says, the system dynamics, which capable of telling the whole structure of the problem and their interactions. Maybe people recently involving in the policy analysis of transport and the environment could share their view on this issue. The reasons I asked this is due to the danger of using the non-structural model in a developing world problem, as delay of policy implementation may take place, high growth, etc. , apart from the basic problems of the lack of data base and lack of funding. Harun al-Rasyid S. Lubis http://trans.si.itb.ac.id Traffic Lab, Transport Engineering Division Dept. of Civil Engineering - ITB Jl. Ganeca 10 Bandung 40132 - Indonesia Tel/Facs. +62 22 250 23 50 halubis@trans.si.itb.ac.id From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu Jun 3 12:37:00 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 03 Jun 1999 11:37:00 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: news from the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, India Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990603113700.007fa210@relay101.jaring.my> transport-related items fowarded from CSE's regular bulletin on what's new on their website. What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, India In a clear case of the industry slapping a lawsuit when truth begins to hurt ? TELCO, an Indian automobile giant, had served notice on CSE director Anil Agarwal and deputy director Sunita Narain for their candid article in Business Standard against dieselisation of private vehicular fleet. And the notice was for a whopping Rs 100 crore defamation suit. TELCO has now dropped the defamation suit on the basis of a one and half inch, single column clarification that appeared in the Business Standard stating, "The article ?The engines of Devil? published in Business Standard on March 16 referred to the automobile industry as a whole, and not any one company or its products. As is well known, there are at least ten manufacturers of diesel vehicles in India." However, while backing out, TELCO sent a more interesting note to Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain which highlighted that there would be no question of any proceedings against the authors. Meanwhile, inspite of these attempts to gag and intimidate activists, CSE is even more determined to fight dieselisation. On World Environment Day, June 5th, CSE cordially invites you to a public meeting on 'People for Clean Air'. Shiela Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi will preside and a Statement of Concern will be released by a panel discussion on the health impact of Delhi's deadly air. For the details on the meeting and CSE's campaign, go to http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/cmp/cmp53.htm Fatal attraction The thirst for diesel in India is growing. Diesel variants of Ford, Mercedes, Fiat Uno, Indica, Mitsubishi and many more have hit the road. As companies go in for hard sell of these cars, dieselmania grips the customers too. What most people are ignorant of or prefer to ignore is the fact that diesel fumes are highly carcinogenic and pose a serious threat to public health. Many Indian cities, especially Delhi, are already reeling under high concentrations of diesel-related pollutants like small particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen and ozone. What was supposed to be cheap fuel for the the poor -- farmers for whose pumpsets and tractors the government had subsidised the price of diesel -- is now driving the cars of the rich. Morally and environmentally reprehensible, yet there is nobody in the government to stop this killer trend. Down To Earth analysis at http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte990531/dte_cover.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------ Applying the brakes Environmentalists score a major victory as the Supreme Court tightens emission standards in Delhi, sending the automobile industry into a tizzy.Check it out at http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte990531/dte_news.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- A message from our Director, Anil Agarwal: No mood for a party The country is clearly not in a mood for a bash. But that did not stop the event-managers of India Incorporated, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), from holding its annual bash with the fancy title of National Conference and Annual Session on Preparing for the Next Millennium. But unfortunately, in typical Bollywood style, the bash (wrongly called a conference) had mostly form rather than substance. The state of the economy was the highlight of the meeting. But what was amazing was that there was not even a platform to discuss the growing problem of industrial and vehicular pollution and how Indian industry will respond to this concern. When it comes to the issue of environment, Indian industry plays the ostrich. Undoubtedly, its feathers are pretty but its head is buried in the sand. While the buzz of e-commerce has been accepted, the discordant noise of environment has been conveniently left out. Industry makes sweet sounds about protecting and caring for the environment. It says the right things but invariably does the wrong things. And this is because it does not internalise the issue nor does it care to understand the seriousness of the concern. For example, hardly any company has good environmental experts to advise it on corporate policy. The ostrich syndrome aside, environment is an issue that will in future pinch and increasingly hurt industry. The New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment publishes a monthly database of clippings on industry and environment. Its monthly listing of industrial firms that are taken to court on environmental issues shows that there are over 10 such cases reported by the media every month. There are probably many more which are not reported as citizens? groups, environmentalists and even villagers are now taking polluting factories to court or contesting the setting up of industrial and infrastructure units. The recent Supreme Court order on air pollution that not only advances EURO-I emission norms by 10 months and EURO-II by five years, but also literally places a restriction on the number of cars that can be registered in the capital, is yet another case. What industry fails to understand is the precarious situation it is in. That it works in a country that has a high population density and, in particular, a large number of poor people. And that in such circumstances, the environment provides for the basic needs of the people. Therefore, it is not an aesthetic matter of clean water, but a life and death matter of drinking water. The destruction of the environment affects livelihoods and lives and not just lifestyles. High population pressure also means that there is no plot of land or water body that is not used ? and used with intensity ? for daily survival. Short-changing the environment will, in these circumstances, inevitably lead to conflict. Furthermore, it must be noted that industrialisation per se, is extremely polluting, as it makes intensive use of resources and energy. Estimates are that over 20 years, from 1975 to 1995, India?s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 2.5 times, industrial pollution load increased by about  4 times, and vehicular pollution load by about 8 times. This is not surprising. The post-war economic boom had immediately landed cities of the industrialised world, from Tokyo to Los Angeles, into devastating air pollution problems even as all water sources near them began to be poisoned to death. Having learnt from their mistakes, Western societies have conducted themselves with much greater discipline with respect to the environment and have also invested substantially in relatively environment-friendly technologies. Japan is said to have spent over 20 per cent of its GDP on pollution prevention investment in the 1970s. Even then, the battle is far from won. Various quantities of toxins still enter the global ecosystem as a result of economic processes in the West. An industrial and automobile boom is unfolding in India. Therefore, Indian industry will have to move forward in a manner that is both responsible and yet economically effective. This can definitely be done. First of all, this will need a restructuring of the mental framework of industrial managers to take into account environmental considerations. Then will come changes in industrial practice and this does not always mean higher costs because there is a tremendous amount of resource wastage by industry at the moment. At another level it will require foresight and an ability to leapfrog into clean technologies. It is not necessary that we have to take incremental steps to improve our environment. The automobile industry, for instance, may well find that it is more economic to move straight into EURO-II emission norms from its current pre-EURO-I norms. But one thing is clear: that if the current mind-set persists, Indian industry will ensure that the next millennium will be a living hell for all of us. May be industrial managers should start preparing us for the new millennium by training all of us on how to survive bouts of cancer. ? Anil Agarwal Visit our website at www.cseindia.org or www.oneworld.org/cse and check out what's new. Our website carries our science and environment fortnightly Down To Earth and a daily environment newsflash by subject categories. We also give regular updates on all of our campaigns on topics like vehicular pollution, climate change, biodiversity, water resources, wildlife, forests etc. Our online library of books, journals, images and videos is searchable through a thesaurus of environmental keywords. We are also looking for reciprocal linking to other websites in this area. Let us know your website address and we would be happy to link to you. Please feel free to forward this message to other interested individuals. Usha Sekhar Website Unit Centre for Science and Environment **************************************************************** * NOTE CHANGE IN OUR EMAIL ADDRESS: PLEASE NOTE IT AS FOLLOWS * **************************************************************** CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT ( CSE ) 41, TUGHLAKABAD INSTITUTIONAL AREA, NEW DELHI- 110 062 TELE: 698 1110, 698 1124 698 3394, 698 6399 FAX : 91-11-698 5879 VISIT US AT: http://www.cseindia.org Email: webadmin@cseindia.org **************************************************************** From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu Jun 3 12:43:09 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 03 Jun 1999 11:43:09 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: [tmip] System dynamics in transport policy analysis Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990603114309.00825830@relay101.jaring.my> A reply to Harun's message. This one bounced because it came from an address which is not subscribed to the list. Our anti-spam measures cause these problems. From: Juan de Dios Ortuzar Subject: Re: [tmip] System dynamics in transport policy analysis In-Reply-To: <00c401beace7$a976a360$1102cda7@harun.si.itb.ac.id> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Harun al-Rasyid, Incorrect models or models incorrectly used have problems. I am convinced that consistent equlibrium models (which are available in some places nowadays) perform better than what you describe (for instance, building more roads does not necessarily lead to less congestion, on the contrary, as mode choice may change with the improvement, a new equilibrium is reached where more people use cars and congestion may even end being worse). The trouble is if you use inconsistent models (as most available in practice) or if you do not have the ability or experience to interpret correctly the model output (which is often not simple at all to judge). One problem that current models do have though is that the sequence of dcecisions does not matter (according to the model) while it certainly does in practice. Think about implementing road pricing before or after implementing substancial improvements to the public transport system. Cheers, J de D Ortuzar A 06:04 PM 2/06/99 +0700, Harun al-Rasyid Sorah Lubis escribi=F3: >From: "Harun al-Rasyid Sorah Lubis" > >Most applied model in transport are non-structural and lack of feedback >mechanisms. ... quoted stuff deleted ..... Juan de Dios Ortuzar e-mail: jos@ing.puc.cl Departamento de Ingenieria de Transporte Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Casilla 306, Cod. 105, Santiago 22, Chile Tel: 56-2-686 4822 Fax: 56-2-553 0281 From I95BERNIEW at aol.com Sun Jun 6 21:39:21 1999 From: I95BERNIEW at aol.com (I95BERNIEW@aol.com) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 08:39:21 EDT Subject: [sustran] (no subject) Message-ID: <2af50f2b.248bc5f9@aol.com> Is anyone familiar with traveler information which is targeted to off-peak transit users? Any ideas or opinions on what special traveler information needs potential off-peak users may have and what information should be provided to boost off-peak ridership would be appreciated. Thanks for your help. Bernie Wagenblast From ccordero at amauta.rcp.net.pe Mon Jun 7 12:59:58 1999 From: ccordero at amauta.rcp.net.pe (Carlos Cordero V.) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 22:59:58 -0500 Subject: [sustran] RV: June Bulletin of the human scale transportation Message-ID: <008101beb09a$51009f40$b4b601c8@q8v1n7> The bulletin of human scale transportation June, 1999 The life joins I write an article for a local magazine about the good ways of recovering our neighborhoods since a transport point of view, an old topic in the hope of a more inhabitable city. At the same time, as giving air to the words and brain, i review ' Primavera con una esquina rota', a novel by Mario Benedetti on the Latin American exile during the seventies. I only need to reach the first pages: " I would say that it is necessary to begin to take possession of the streets. Of the corners. Of the sky. Of the cafes. Of the sun, and what is more important, of the shade. When one ends up perceiving that a street is not longer foreigner, then the street stops to look at us like strangers. And this way with everything" And then that day I cannot continue writing the article, i let life to join, i let Benedetti's characters write it for me, with other and better words. *** The Velo Mondial 2000 Conference is going to be an excellent opportunity to take impulse before bending the corner of this century. When we met in Barcelona the conference still looked like a distant idea. Today the first official announce has been printed and June of the next year and Amsterdam are almost at hand. As many of you know, Ciclored is coordinating the Latin American component for this event. In the following bulletin we will send you a group of initiatives related to our participation. For the time being, we are requesting simultaneous translation to Spanish during the conference so that nobody will miss the transport news for the next century. The deadline to present the abstracts is August 16th. So harry up! To request the first announcement write to info@velomondial2000.nl or go to www.velomondial2000.nl Bike Culture The last issue of Bike Culture arrives to our door. This magazine admirabily combines diverse texts and pictures that rescue the vast tradition of european cyclism with the last human powered tech developments. This 17 issue brings, among others, a tourist chronicle in Italy, a photo report about India, the revival of Roadsters, and a frame building book review . As you see, for every taste. Just take a ride without brakes through http://bikeculture.com *** Where are Belgrade, Kosovo, Eritra and Ethiopia? Last decade they have been seen in Central America, at the end of the seventies they burn in Afghanistan and even before John and Nikita, in Vietnam. The same old war that moves their steps. We have seen them to walk, backpackingto their children and on foot avoiding the indifference, State reasons and the holes of fear. Those lands without names that disguising their adolescent in military forces and keep old people in refugees. The same endless line of moving destinies, escaping from the horror that falls from the sky. *** >From some place of Australia that I don't know, we have received the working paper ' Urban Transport Models: a review ' Published by the Bureau of Transport Economics. The title is exact: a good and concise comparison of the models and theoretical aproaches used by the transport planners. Curiosities in this respect: bte@dot.gov.au Du Brazil Between the 3 and 6 of June in Boca Fria (Rio de Janeiro) will be discussed the feasibility of some ciclistic projects during the 1? seminar in cicloturism. As to follow the route of the sun, the 12 and 13 in Guaratingueta (Sao Paulo) it will be carried out a meeting to oil the project Ciclobrasil 2000 ( see our May issue). Also 'The friends and users of the bicycle' prepare the ' National Diagnostic of bicycle urban use. As you realize Brazil it is not simply Samba and Carnival. Reissues We launch this bulletin to mobilize feet, pedal initiatives and ideas. Among the last and good ones are Alfonso Sanz's books ' The bicycle in the city' and ' ' To Calm the traffic' which has been reissued by the spanish Ministerio de Fomento. Telephone (24 hours): 91 5976187 Fax: 91 5976186 e mail: cpublic@mfom.es More about movies "The best cyclist scene on cinema i saw was in 'Good Morning Vietnam' when Robin Williams buys bicycles from two Vietnamese in order to follow a girl that he liked, but its friend (Forrest Whitaker) ride one without tires and pedal on the pure rims, it is brilliant!, but he just survived of being rolled by a truck. Would somebody dare to mount this way a bicycle?" We do believe, that only Enrique Galvez Durand does, who sends us this text. http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/4685 The cyclist of the noon Since i was a child i see passing by in front of my house the poet Antonio Cisneros. Some years ago he surprised us writing about the invincible ' Ciclsitias del mediod?a'. The last time that I saw him, requested his permission to reproduce in this bulletin his chronicles of pedals in the wind. "For sure" was his response. Unfortunately for you, we do not dare to make a translation of it. If you know spanish we will be glad to send you the original version. We hope this bulletin has been digestible. Greetings from Lima, Carlos Carlos Cordero V. CICLORED - Centro de Asesor?a y Capacitaci?n para el Transporte y Ambiente San Juan 242, Lima 33, Per? tel : (51) 1 4460175 telfax (51) 1 4472675 e mail: ccordero@amauta.rcp.net.pe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/19990606/4aa799aa/attachment.htm From ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Tue Jun 8 03:14:57 1999 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 14:14:57 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] Global City-Regions Conference, LA October 21-23 1999 (fwd) Message-ID: Upcoming conference hosted by the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research in Los Angeles 21-23 October 1999 entitled "Global City-Regions Conference" The keynote speaker will be World Bank President James Wolfensohn. Information is available at http://www.sppsr.ucla.edu/globalcityregions. From sustran at po.jaring.my Tue Jun 8 10:22:09 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 09:22:09 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: UK National Car-Free Day Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990608092209.007c6dc0@relay101.jaring.my> forwarded from pednet list: Date: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 07:52:02 +0100 From: Geraint Jennings Subject: pednet: From today's Times - National Car-Free Day This message sent to pednet by Geraint Jennings . June 7 1999 Car-free days may be imposed on cities MINISTERS are preparing radical plans to allow town and city centre roads to be shut for one day a year to persuade motorists to leave their cars at home (Arthur Leathley writes). Tomorrow's National Car-Free Day may be the last on which drivers have no formal restrictions. Local councils are prevented by law from one-off road closures, except in the case of emergencies but ministers have been impressed by French success in greatly reducing traffic when roads are shut on car-free days. Thirty-five towns and cities in France used the restriction last year, cutting car traffic by up to a third, and reducing noise and pollution. A wide-ranging Transport Bill to allow road closures and councils to charge motorists is being prepared for the next session of Parliament starting in the autumn. Legislation allowing new charges to be introduced in London is already close to finishing its passage through Parliament. In France, local councils are compelled to draw up detailed reports of the effects of Car-Free Day, testing public reaction and monitoring pollution and noise levels. Tomorrow's British equivalent will be much lower profile, but many bus and rail companies are offering discounts and special facilities to encourage drivers to switch to public transport and environmental groups are encouraging drivers to walk or cycle to work where possible. Andrew Davis, director of the Environmental Transport Association, a campaigning motoring organisation behind Car-Free Day, said: "We have built up public awareness but we now need to go further. We want the Government to give financial and legal backing to the event to give it a higher profile." =================== Distributed for purposes of study and research in accordance with the fair dealing provisions of the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. So there. From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jun 9 10:25:09 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1999 09:25:09 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Introduction to Ciudad Viva of Chile Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990609092509.007f65f0@relay101.jaring.my> An introduction to an active coalition in Santiago de Chile, resent to sustran-discuss with the permission of the author. Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 09:11:45 -0400 To: SUSTRAN Resource Centre From: Lake Sagaris Subject: Re: Ciudad Viva Hi Rahman Thanks so much for your message and the copies of Sustran, which have been arriving over the past few days. We are very much a group of community organizations, which has been forced to take on transport issues because of the Public Works Ministry highway project. Fortunately, we've had the support of some of Chile's best transport engineers and other experts and have been able to do a really fine job educating ourselves and raising the issues involved in highway vs other models for resolving city transport problems. Here's some information on us, from our web page, which is in Spanish, English (short version) and French (short version) at http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Andes/1583/ Hope you're well. Lake Why we reject the Costanera Norte The Costanera Norte is a 33 kilometre long highway project that would cut through the historical heart of Santiago, Chile, bringing destruction to Pedro de Valdivia Norte, the San Crist?bal Hill and Park, Bellavista, refuge for artists and writers, the textile sector of Patronato, the central market and eateries around the Vega, the Vega Chica, the Tirso de Molina fruit fair, and the poor but proud communities of Independencia, many of which face expropriation - all to provide a highway for drivers from wealthy Las Condes, Vitacura, and other neighbourhoods. For the people of Santiago, this highway represents a kind of car-oriented city that has failed miserably elsewhere in the world. Our authorities have refused to admit that large highways always generate more car-trips. Just as London's M25 was quickly saturated by traffic, so the Costanera Norte will find itself overcrowded and dysfunctional. But by then, Chileans will have spent US$380 million, including millions in subsidies to private companies who are supposed to run the highway. Ozone and other pollutants in Santiago's already toxic smog will have increased, and the damage to living communities will be irreparable. We citizens, organized in civil society, must choose whether our cities of the future will be quiet places with plenty of parks and efficient, fair and non-polluting transport systems, or whether they'll continue their current decline into asphalt jungles, with unbreathable air, and a car-based transportation system. Our "Coordinator No to the Costanera Norte", or Coalition for a Fair Santiago, as we have chosen to call ourselves in English, is composed of 25 permanent neighbourhood, street fair, storekeepers, restaurant and other organisations representing 50,000 citizens in the Providencia, Independencia and Recoleta jurisdictions of Santiago. We're working hard to ensure that our corners of Santiago, Chile, continue to welcome friends from around the world, who enjoy our streets and galleries and bustling markets. We started this effort in December 1995 and in December 1998 helped to ensure that no companies participated in the public tender for the concession for this project. Nonetheless, in April 1999, the Frei government once again ordered a new tender to be held. We are continuing to oppose the highway and are optimistic that it will eventually be stopped for good. In the meantime, we're forming a permanent, non-profit organization called Ciudad Viva (Living City) to work on transport, urban planning and renovation, environmental and other issues in our centre-of-the-city context. Please write, call or visit us, at our Santiago address or at our website. http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Andes/1583/ ciudadviva@lake.mic.cl Tel> 562 777 3331 Fax> 562 732 3079 At 01:49 PM 5/29/99 +0800, you wrote: >Dear Lake > >Thank you very much for your email. I am thrilled to hear about your >organisation. > >I am taking the liberty of subscribing you to the sustran-discuss list, >which is a discussion list on exactly this kind of issues. The traffic on >the list is still quite light so I don't think you will find it too >overwhelming. Please feel free to contribute. You will also receive our >SUSTRAN News Flash service via the sustran-discuss list. I will seperately >send you one or two of the recent News Flashes, as they should contain >useful information and contacts for you. > >I would love to include a short profile of your organisation in our next >News Flash, if you are willing? Could you send me a short email with about >400 words on your organisation, including contact details. This may be >useful to you as you might then be contacted by some other similar >organisations who can offer help and support. > >The SUSTRAN Resource Centre is a small organisation in Malaysia but we are >a key focal point of the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and >the Pacific (SUSTRAN) which a loose network of organisations and >individuals who are interested in promoting "people-centred and sustainable >transport". We have active contacts in many countries, primarily in Asia. > >Very best wishes, >A. Rahman Paul BARTER >SUSTRAN Resource Centre >P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. >Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my >Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ Ojo/Note: Cambio de Fax/Change of Fax number: Numero vigente es/New number is 732 3079. From halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id Wed Jun 9 18:02:58 1999 From: halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id (Harun al-Rasyid Sorah Lubis) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 16:02:58 +0700 Subject: [sustran] transport - energy - emission modeling Message-ID: <000a01beb256$ded0a5a0$1102cda7@harun.si.itb.ac.id> I am now reviewing models for predicting energy consumption and emission in urban transport sector, and need your favour to pin point direction for some of the following issue. I am not sure which network traffic model includes energy consumption / emission in the model. I noticed work by Mike Taylor ( South Australia) and Troy Young (UC Davis) is developing such a feature into a network model called IMPAEC, BUT do not know the progress so far. SATURN, if I am not mistaken, only provide fuel consumption. Is strategic model like MEPLAN has that feature as well ? Any other operating model better predict both energy and emission in a city-wide basis. Harun al-Rasyid S. Lubis http://trans.si.itb.ac.id Traffic Lab, Transport Engineering Division Dept. of Civil Engineering - ITB Jl. Ganeca 10 Bandung 40132 - Indonesia Tel/Facs. +62 22 250 23 50 halubis@trans.si.itb.ac.id From mfksjmt at fs1.ar.man.ac.uk Wed Jun 9 10:59:52 1999 From: mfksjmt at fs1.ar.man.ac.uk (mfksjmt@fs1.ar.man.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 10:59:52 GMT0BST Subject: [sustran] Transport-energy-emissions modelling Message-ID: <68E60AA4EE5@orpheus.man.ac.uk> Dear Mr Harun al-Rasyid S. Lubis You may be interested to know that the Land-Use/Transport model TRANUS includes the ability to predict energy and fuel consumption of not only the transport sector but of the building stock as well. My colleagues and I have recently used TRANUS to predict transport and land-use energy consumptions and emissions for a small city in England and are developing a model for a local authority in a region of Scotland to do the same. Details of these two projects can be found at http://www.art.man.ac.uk/transres/suscity0.htm Details of the TRANUS model can be found at http://www.modelistica.com. Hope this is of some help Best regards Jeff Turner Research Fellow Dept. of Planning University of Manchester UK Tel +44 (0)161 275 6948 Fax +44(0)161 275 6893 Web site: http://www.art.man.ac.uk/transres From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Thu Jun 10 01:31:42 1999 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 18:31:42 +0200 Subject: [sustran] RE: alt-transp GNGM newsletter #2 In-Reply-To: <199906091543.LAA23491@freenet3.carleton.ca> Message-ID: <000a01beb295$8e7d4c40$1607fea9@cybercable.fr> Michael Yates makes the excellent point: >> The increasing evidence of the need to increase police enforcement and support it with strong community support at the local level suggests that the "engineering" view of traffic calming being essential is both out of date and too expensive.<< My comment after years of rather careful observation in a wide variety of circumstances, however, is that drivers (me included) are not reasonable people, and they will, ALWAYS, go as fast as the street architecture permits. This suggests to me that the ONLY policy that is going to work and make the streets safe is via physical reconstruction and the limitation of straight unencumbered shoots. But we can also observe that with good community support and unrelenting positive pressure on the politicians, administrators, media, and the "powers that be", it is possible to reshape the local street network bit by painful bit. Takes a bunch of years, but the real challenge is that of getting the ball rolling. What is more, there is a whole generation of traffic engineers and planners who have been cranked out of the school system in the last decade or so, who are often quite ready to help make this happen. Or do I have this wrong? Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From arno at daastol.com Thu Jun 10 15:56:43 1999 From: arno at daastol.com (Arno Mong Daastoel) Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 08:56:43 +0200 Subject: [sustran] New and photos from Fornebu, Oslo References: Message-ID: <004001beb30e$6793b500$04f1f081@amd> The Mayor of Baerum (-where the new IT-centre will be built - at the abandoned airport of Oslo, Forenbu), Odd Reinsfelt, pulled the sheets off our model and project yesterday. He then gave a 10 minuted pep-talk for the project. The director of infrastructure in the Oslo (Akershus) region later promised on TV to start an inquiry on the suitability of PRT. More info at our website: http://sportaxi.com Best! Arno From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri Jun 11 11:09:11 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 10:09:11 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: alt-transp GNGM newsletter #2 In-Reply-To: <000a01beb295$8e7d4c40$1607fea9@cybercable.fr> References: <199906091543.LAA23491@freenet3.carleton.ca> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990611100911.00818c10@relay101.jaring.my> At 18:31 9/06/99 +0200, Eric Britton responded to an item on alt-transp from Michael Yeates. The original item is also worth sharing here on sustran-discuss, see below. I have also emailed Michael to ask for more information about this Global Network for Gentle Mobility. Paul. Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 18:33:44 +1000 (GMT+1000) From: Michael Yeates .... Subject: GNGM newsletter #2 This is a brief summary of issues in the next newsletter which I can fax but not put into electronic form. 1. There are three major trends (1) extending low speed areas by traffic calming (very expensive), (2) reducing speed limits in larger local areas (problematic unless in very large areas) and (3) lowering the "default" speed limit over whole cities and regions, the default limit being the "normal" speed limit in the absense of speed signs. Here are examples. Switzerland: a successful petition (130000 signatures - only needed 100000) to commence a referendum process to implement 30km/h as urban "default" limit. The referendum should be held in 3-4 years. Scotland: a series of extended trials of large areas of 20mph (30km/h) UK: major government (DETR) review of "speed policy" AND increased community pressure on police to include dangerous driving and speeding enforcement as a major priority (CTC News) AND "The Slower Speeds Initiative" (both urban and rural roads) Sweden: "Vision Zero" ... aims to kill nobody! Graz, Austria: 30km/h default speed limit for the whole city (the first inthe world) with 50km/h on the main roads. Unley, Adelaide, South Australia: 40km/h without traffic calming on all roads except where 60km/h on main roads with (very importantly) a long term trial of the effects of different frequency of police enforcement (a world first perhaps?) backed by strong local community support (about 70-80% support) with 60km/h on main roads [note that the default speed limit in Australia is 60km/h on all streets and roads except where signed otherwise!] South East Queensland 50km/h in Local streets: This is where I live however while reducing the default from 60 to 50 [over a region with some 2 million people and covering about 200km x 100km] is a good thing, at the same time the government is insisting local authorities INCREASE the speed limit on existing 40km/h streets without traffic calming to 50 to be consistant and credible for motorists! Residents, cyclists, pedestrians don't count apparently even in areas where local authorities previously decided a reduced speed zone was appropriate! Comments: The increasing evidence of the need to increase police enforcement and support it with strong community support at the local level suggests that the "engineering" view of traffic calming being essential is both out of date and too expensive. In the absense of committed enforcement, of course lower speed zones won't work! Unley is therefore a very useful case study of the effect of policing+community support+educational and promotional campaigns given the 60km/h "normal" urban speed limit in Australia. "Speed control and transport policy" by Stephen Plowden and Mayer Hillman (Policy Studies Institute, London) is an excellent reference on both urban and non-urban speed issues. I will fax copies of the "Newsletter" only to those who I cannot contact by email however if you would like a copy, let me know.Iit is very brief and includes some repetition including our meeting in Graz and the background to GNGM and the name "gentle mobility" and its relationship to Graz. There might be an opportunity to include a stream on "gentle mobility" at Velo-Mondiale in 2000 or if not, a side stream. What do you think? Please feel free to provide very brief news items, updates, contacts etc to m.yeates@mailbox.uq.edu and to pass on this version to others however, I can really only manage a limited mailing address at this stage. My biggest shock after cycling in Graz just for the 7-8 days was returning to our 60km/h (38mph) traffic ...! I just did not realise how easy it is to forget bad habits, enjoy urban cycling in (reasonable "gentle" traffic) and then relearn them again on returning! Michael Yeates From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri Jun 11 17:13:42 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 16:13:42 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Jakarta's pedicab drivers' Network - fwd Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990611161342.007c33f0@relay101.jaring.my> The latest edition of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights' excellent newsletter, "Housing by People in Asia", No. 12, April 1999, has several inspiring items on transport issues. I plan to post them here on the sustran-discuss list over the next few days. Here are the first two items on pedicab drivers' efforts to get organised in Jakarta. SUSTRAN Network Steering Council member, Walter Hook of ITDP was recently in Jakarta and met with several groups, including UPC and LPIST that are involved in helping the pedicab drivers to organise themselves. Perhaps he has something to add? Paul. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Resource Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. MEET GOPUR, ONE OF JAKARTA'S 5,000 PEDICAB DRIVERS A video documentary produced by Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) describes the life of Gopur, one of Jakarta's pedicab drivers, and looks at how the govemment's pedicab policy flip- flops have affected his life and the lives of thousands of others like him (drawn from notes sent by the UPC's Edi Saidi). Gopur is thirty-five years old, and lives in a tiny rented room he shares with four other pedicab drivers. Once a month, he returns to Pemalang, a small town about 300 kilometres east of Jakarta, where his wife, a seasonal worker in the rice fields, looks after their four children. When Gopur first came to Jakarta in 1978, he worked in a factory, then later sold fruit. When the economic crisis hit, fruit prices skyrocketed and most of his customers could no longer afford his papayas, guavas and pineapples, and his earnings plunged from 30,000 to 10,000 Rupiahs a day - that's about the cost of 4 kilos of rice. To supplement his dwindling fruit business, Gopur started driving a friend's pedicab, which he rents for 2,500 Rupiahs a day. It turned out to be his best-earning job yet. He could earn Rp.15,000 in a morning - sometimes more - by carrying people and goods around the old market at Jelambar Baru in West Jakarta. This added income allowed him to send home almost 150,000 Rupiahs every two weeks. Gopur hopes that some day, when the pedicab ban is lifted, he can buy his own pedicab and stop worrying about the rent. he doesn't want his children to follow the path he has taken, wants them to have a better life. "Any job would do, as long as it is not pedicab driving. It is hard, you know, to be harassed every day by the eviction squad." JAKARTA PEDICAB DRIVERS NETWORK The three-wheeled, human-powered pedicab can transport two or three passengers, or carry just about any kind of goods, from sacks of rice and vegetables to furniture or tethered goats. Because they are safe, comfortable and cheap, the slow-moving pedicab is a favorite with women who use them for daily marketing and for picking up kids from school. And it's a decent job, too. Where factory workers work long hours and take home 10,000 Rupiahs a day, at the most, a pedicab driver can make up to 25,000 a day, with flexible work times. Pedicabs have been around for half a century, but in the early 1990s, a new law banned pedicabs from Jakarta's streets, claiming they weren't safe, caused traffic jams and had a "high correlation with Jakarta's crime rate." Since then, the popular pedicab hasn't gone away, it's just gotten a lot riskier to drive one. Confiscation - the pedicab driver's biggest nightmare - can mean loss of job, income, investment. Last June, amidst a worsening economic crisis and a growing pro-reform movement in Indonesia, Jakarta's newly-appointed Governor Sutiyoso announced that pedicabs would again be allowed to operate. He did this without first repealing the old law, though, and faced strong criticism from the city council. Thousands of pedicab drivers came flooding into Jakarta from villages all over Java, and by July, more than 5,000 pedicabs were doing a brisk business on the city's streets. Some rent pedicabs for two or three thousand rupiahs a day, others borrowed from relatives and cashed in life- savings to buy second-hand pedicabs of their own for 300,000 rupiahs. (A new pedicab costs about half a million rupiahs.) But after only one week of free pedicabbing, pressure from opponents in the government and in the powerful motor transport lobby reversed the policy. Pedicabs were again confiscated, leaving thousands of men without jobs - this time hopelessly in debt. Unless they happen to come from the same village or stay in rented rooms together, most of Jakarta's pedicab drivers don't know each other. When pedicabs are confiscated, drivers deal with the crisis alone, and most never get their vehicles back. During the ban, the Urban Poor Consortium began working with pedicab drivers in five communities. They organised rallies, which provided a platform for drivers to meet, organise themselves and discuss strategies for dealing with eviction squads, negotiating with the municipality. The Pedicab Drivers Network now includes 3,000 drivers in 24 communities, and has initiated a weekly savings scheme. The ban is still on, but pedicabs are still on the street. A big demonstration in October, which resulted in the release of all confiscated pedicabs to their owners, has given a big boost to the drivers' struggle for their right to work. CONTACT: Urban Poor Consortium (Konsorsium Kemiskinan Kota) Billy Moon Blok H-I/7 Jakarta 13450 Phone/Fax: 62.21.8642915 e-mail: upc@centrin.net.id Urban Poor Website: http://welcome.to/urbanpoor From sustran at po.jaring.my Sat Jun 12 10:48:18 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 09:48:18 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: (long) Downsizing Infrastructure : From Mega to "Nega" Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990612094818.00796690@relay101.jaring.my> From: "Ajay Darshan Behera" To: Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 03:39:38 +0530 Subject: [kabelvag] Downsizing Infrastructure : From Mega to "Nega" " The theoretical basis for negagallons, negamiles, and negajunk is the same as for negawatts. Namely, demand for water, automobile travel, and materials is elastic: it can change quickly as incentives change. Experience with drought in Northern California, for example, has shown that water demand can be cut by more than 50 percent for homes, 60 percent for parks, and 20 percent for businesses. During the 1977 drought, in fact, several Northern California municipalities slashed their consumption by nearly 60 percent.Japan and most Western European countries, moreover, generate only about half as much waste per capita as the United States. Heavily taxed "tipping fees" at landfills are $200 to $300 per ton in Japan, where land is at a premium and indigenous resources are scarce. This pricing, 10 times the U.S. level, more accurately reflects the true costs of using the land and stimulates innovation in recycling methods.Despite the allure of the private automobile, driving can be moderated as well. On Sao Paulo's aggressively promoted "Alert Days" - a demonstration program to relieve air pollution - automotive travel fell 90 percent. And per capita auto use in much of Western Europe is 20 to 55 percent below the U.S. level. Granted, the much greater size of the United States requires more transportation infrastructure. But Canada, similar both culturally and geographically, drives 10 percent less than the United States and has less than half the roadway mileage per capita, according to John Pucher, associate professor of urban planning at Rutgers University." ---------- Downsizing Infrastructure Clark Wieman, Technology Review, Vol. 99, May 1996, p 48 - CLARK WIEMAN is research director of the Infrastructure Institute at Cooper Union in New York City. ---------- As cities stagger under the cost of building and maintaining public works, investment in concrete and steel must give way to more efficient alternatives. The United States has made a multitrillion-dollar investment in infrastructure, from waterworks to streets and highways to electrical networks. Systems in many urban areas are reaching the end of the their useful lives, trapping local governments in a seemingly unwinnable game of triage: as federal and state support dwindles, officials must decide which systems to salvage. And infrastructure funding will become even tighter as local and state governments are asked to shoulder a growing portion of the costs of programs addressing AIDS, housing, childcare, and other pressing social problems. Clearly it is in local government's best interest to pursue least- cost solutions to problems posed by aging public works. Part of the answer entails a major shift in the way government approaches infrastructure planning. Today, most agencies overseeing public works think in narrow terms of capital construction or reconstruction. But in many cases, there are alternative Well-thought-out environmental regulation, land-use planning, and demand management can delay or completely offset concrete-and-steel solutions, saving billions. In most cases, the new approaches boil down to two sometimes distinct, sometimes overlapping concepts: reducing demand and improving long-term planning. Cutting Consumption Bringing demand for infrastructure under control presents cities with a huge challenge. Total vehicular travel has grown fivefold in the past four decades, per capita solid-waste generation has doubled, and water consumption has outpaced population growth in many metropolitan areas. Today a typical four-person household drives 28,000 miles, generates 5,800 pounds of municipal waste, and consumes an estimated 115,000 gallons of water in one year. A major culprit is infrastructure policies that shield consumers from the true costs of the services they receive. Consider the effects of direct government subsidies. To varying degrees, each type of system - roadways, waterworks, sewage plants, and power plants - receives public funding from local or federal sources. Such financial support, while certainly necessary, distorts the systems' actual cost. For example, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a consortium of transportation analysts in the New York City region, estimates that automotive taxes and tolls cover just 65 percent of the cost of using the city's roads and bridges - including the cost of maintenance and providing traffic patrols. Under this estimate, taxpayers subsidize New York City motorists by $2.4 billion annually. Similarly, a U.S. Department of Transportation study found that user fees and earmarked taxes covered just 69 percent of nationwide highway expenditures in 1985. Other subsidies are indirect. U.S. motorists fail to cover an estimated $400 billion in "external" costs - the price of pollution, noise, congestion-related delays, and excess wear on infrastructure - according to a 1994 study by Kohnheim and Kecham, a leading New York City engineering firm. Failure to cover these costs with automobile surcharges, gasoline taxes, or tolls in effect pushes up the demand for infrastructure, adding to the wear and motivating bureaucracies to expand capacity. Today these consumption patterns are colliding with the financial obstacles to building new systems and replacing old ones. The hurdles are compounded by worries over jammed highways, overflowing landfills, and unhealthy urban air, not to mention widespread concern that communities drowning in a sea of cars - and asphalt - are becoming less and less attractive places to live and work. But there is immense potential for improving the efficiency with which we travel, consume material, and use water. In this regard, the enormous gains made in the efficiency of electric power consumption - which have caused a leveling of demand - serve as an inspiration. >From Mega to "Nega" Energy guru Amory Lovins first outlined in 1976 how superefficient technologies - from light bulbs to electric motors to industrial chillers - can lead us down a "soft" energy path that dramatically cuts electrical use while maintaining living standards. Though at first it met with strong criticism from the electrical industry, Lovins's vision is today widely accepted. Some 20 utilities now aggressively push efficiency, while as many as half have moderate conservation programs, according to David Moskowitz, director of the Regulatory Assistance Project in Gardiner, Maine, an educational resource for public utility commissions. Central to this vision is the idea that people don't demand electricity - they demand the services electricity provides: light, ice cubes, preserved food. As equipment becomes more efficient, service levels and standard of living can be maintained on far fewer kilowatts, providing the opportunity to eliminate the most expensive, dangerous, and polluting power plants. The same logic can be applied to transportation, water use, and garbage generation. After all, people don't demand highways or wastewater treatment plants or landfills - they demand transportation, potable water, and efficient removal of waste. Just as the electrical industry has shown that small investments in efficiency can offset huge investments in power generation, so can communities meet the demand for other services without spending billions on new public works. How do we change the current incentives that boost U.S. consumption and the need for supporting infrastructure? Lovins's concept of the "negawatt" may offer some answers even outside the realm of power generation. In essence, negawatts are a measure of electricity "supply" derived from efficiency. They cost only one-tenth to one-fifth as much as electricity from a new power plant. As Lovins puts it, "One can think of a 14 watt replacement for a 75 watt lamp as a 61 negawatt power plant." By the early 1990s, utilities in at least eight states were actively investing in negawatts - with as many as three-quarters of all utilities expressing interest before a recent wave of deregulation and restructuring destabilized the market. Southern California Edison is a prime example. Between 1981 and 1994, the utility cut electricity demand by an average of almost 500 megawatts per year, for a combined saving equivalent to the output of at least three nuclear power plants. Utilities that take such steps realize a profit, since expenses - in terms of both capital investment and operating costs - fall faster than revenues. Perhaps similar marketlike mechanisms could motivate public-works agencies to stem consumption of their services and, in the longer term, to cut their investment in infrastructure. It is conceivable that public agencies could be recast as public-private utilities comparable to electric utilities. Properly devised, these enterprises could profit from marketing the logical follow-on to negawatts - negamiles, negagallons, and negajunk. While these utilities would not be dispensing a commodity like gas or electricity, they would have authority over travel, municipal or commercial waste, or water consumption - and the supporting infrastructure - within a given territory. Of course, that authority would not extend to rationing or controlling flows; rather, the utilities would quantify usage and implement strategies to moderate consumption, with the financial payback distributed to customers within the region. Similar to today' s agencies, they would have authority to issue bonds to build and maintain infrastructure, with debt service supported by user fees or taxes. But as with Lovins's negawatt scenario, they would have the incentive to cut consumption levels through investment in water- saving technologies, transit and telecommuting, and waste-reduction methods. Indeed, the new nega-units could, like negawatts, become a commodity that can be traded between utilities, even between customers. The theoretical basis for negagallons, negamiles, and negajunk is the same as for negawatts. Namely, demand for water, automobile travel, and materials is elastic: it can change quickly as incentives change. Experience with drought in Northern California, for example, has shown that water demand can be cut by more than 50 percent for homes, 60 percent for parks, and 20 percent for businesses. During the 1977 drought, in fact, several Northern California municipalities slashed their consumption by nearly 60 percent. Japan and most Western European countries, moreover, generate only about half as much waste per capita as the United States. Heavily taxed "tipping fees" at landfills are $200 to $300 per ton in Japan, where land is at a premium and indigenous resources are scarce. This pricing, 10 times the U.S. level, more accurately reflects the true costs of using the land and stimulates innovation in recycling methods. Despite the allure of the private automobile, driving can be moderated as well. On Sao Paulo's aggressively promoted "Alert Days" - a demonstration program to relieve air pollution - automotive travel fell 90 percent. And per capita auto use in much of Western Europe is 20 to 55 percent below the U.S. level. Granted, the much greater size of the United States requires more transportation infrastructure. But Canada, similar both culturally and geographically, drives 10 percent less than the United States and has less than half the roadway mileage per capita, according to John Pucher, associate professor of urban planning at Rutgers University. Taking advantage of this elasticity in demand, redesigned bureaucracies could become seedbeds for innovations in efficiency, which could be marketed around the world. (Lovins estimates that the global market for electrical efficiency is $1 trillion; the nega market for waste, water, and travel may be larger.) It is not difficult to imagine transportation utilities with a staff of telecommuting experts providing technical assistance to firms looking to cut auto travel. Water departments could design and install water-saving retrofits like gray-water systems (which use recycled water for toilets and irrigation). They could also profit from encouraging customers to install more efficient fixtures; a 1994 New York City study showed that providing a $240 rebate for converting to low-flow showerheads and toilets would cost only one- third of the $8-12 billion price tag for developing new water sources. The market-based nega concept could provide a palatable alternative to government intervention in everything from auto congestion to interstate garbage flows. The San Francisco Bay Forum, a consortium of business leaders, academics, and government officials, advocates using market incentives to cut auto travel and spread demand throughout the day as a means to counter impending regulatory measures. The forum's " Market-Based Solutions to the Transportation Crisis" recommends a system of emission fees, highway user fees weighted to reflect congestion levels, and the replacement of free parking with employee travel allowances. Users would still have free choice, but price signals would push them to choose the most economical and socially beneficial mode and time of travel. The monies generated could fund an expanded range of choices, including more transit and more high-occupancy vehicle lanes. Planning Ahead Properly designed and regulated, the infrastructure utilities would work with local public agencies to pursue mutual planning goals. Long- term planning, the other main route besides demand management to cutting infrastructure spending, is often overtaken by daily crises, especially in mature cities with aging public facilities. But some municipalities are undergoing what Eileen Kaufman, chief planner for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), calls a "paradigm shift" in planning - a move away from capital construction and toward innovative and cost-effective solutions. In 1990, for example, the DEP established a program to protect upstate watershed areas that provide the city with 1.5 billion gallons of water daily. The logic is simple: the cleaner the water at the source, the lower the cost of rendering it fit to drink. Designed to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's mandated water-quality levels for New York City, the program became politically charged - pitting environmental activists against an upstate business community emboldened by a new Republican governor. Still, a management plan was recently accepted by the EPA. A combination of development controls, preservation of strategic buffer zones near reservoirs, and upgrading of upstate treatment plants, costing some $1 billion, is now in place to offset an estimated $6-8 billion investment in water filtration infrastructure downstream, according to environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose organization, Hudson Riverkeeper, was formed to protect deteriorating New York City water quality. Another New York City effort, the award-winning Bluebelt Project, is moving beyond conventional methods of managing water runoff from streets - methods that amount to "putting everything in a pipe." Thirty- year-old plans for developing 5,000 acres of wild land on Staten Island are being revamped to reduce wastewater infrastructure and preserve wetlands. New schemes call for diverting storm water to acreage that would remain undeveloped - in essence, an urban wetland. By using existing streambeds instead of building huge sewer mains, the program will save $50 million in sewer construction as well as offset the need to expand wastewater treatment. At the same time, the scheme will preserve natural drainage patterns for flood control, provide community open space, and protect wildlife habitat. In Minneapolis, vigorous waste-management planning has eliminated the once-pressing need to expand landfill capacity, according to James Craig, senior engineer of Hennepin County's Environmental Management Agency. A campaign launched in the early 1980s developed a multifaceted approach to handling the waste of the area's nearly 1 million residents. First, it put in place one of the nation's most aggressive recycling programs; recycling rates have soared from about 25 percent in the late 1980s to 48 percent today. Next the campaign upgraded a waste- to-energy plant and developed a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant that turns some of the municipal waste into a coal substitute burned by the local electric utility. Now the focus is on waste prevention, a concept that can include exchanges of reusable materials between companies, the more sparing use of paper within offices, and procurement procedures that eliminate surplus materials. Similarly, in Seattle, projections in the early 1980s of dwindling landfill space spurred waste management policies based on "noncapital programs," according to Jeffrey Gaithsford, manager of the city's recycling program. Since 1986, recycling rats have grown from 18 to 50 percent, circumventing the need for new incinerators. To reduce the demand for automotive travel, the key policy approach is urban planning that makes more efficient use of land. A group known as 1000 Friends of Oregon, a nationally recognized planning-advocacy organization based in Portland, points to the "3 Ds" of appropriate land-use planning. The first is density - the ratio of residences to acreage. Experience in San Francisco has shown that people in compact neighborhoods make 42 percent fewer auto trips than their suburban counterparts. A doubling of density cuts vehicle miles traveled by 30 percent. Besides being advantageous for transportation, denser development offsets other infrastructure costs as well. A 1989 study by the Urban Land Institute, a research and education group in Washington, D.C., showed that infrastructure costs per dwelling unit drop precipitously as density increases. The combined costs of utilities, schools, and streets fall from $90,000 for one dwelling sited on four acres to just over $10,000 per unit for developments that place 30 residences on an acre. The second D is designation - the extent to which residential, commercial, and industrial uses are mixed or isolated - which determines the distance between trip origins and destinations. As zoning became legally mandated early in the century, it was used to separate hazardous smokestack industries from residential and commercial centers. This history is still reflected in most modern zoning codes, which designate homogeneous, isolated uses of land, greatly increasing trip distance. In many cities, such zoning makes driving virtually essential and greatly inhibits pedestrian and bicycle travel. By contrast, mixed-use developments, which place offices, shops, residences, and other types of buildings side by side, can cut automobile travel. Many planners argue that mixed use also creates a more active and interesting social setting and promotes a greater sense of community and neighborhood. The final D is functional design, which is required to expand transportation options and make communities more livable. Even in dense mixed-use areas, drainage ditches, large parking lots, and busy streets lacking crosswalks can be obstacles to pedestrian, bicycle, and public-transit travel. Pedestrians find cul-de-sacs and streets with no sidewalks especially vexing. To put these infrastructure-saving concepts into practice, however, communities will have to reexamine their attitudes toward another big D, development. Pucher of Rutgers argues that development in the United States is largely haphazard, fixated on the return on private investment and blind to social consequences. By contrast, most Western European governments have a long tradition of guiding development and a far lower tolerance for dispersed private land use. In Sweden and Denmark, for example, development is coordinated with public investment in convenient transit lines, and in many cases dispersed growth is virtually prohibited. In Canada, too, strong regional planning gives high priority to dense, coordinated land use - and local governments provide tax bonuses for high-density development and strictly limit downtown parking to promote public transit. The United States, with its habituation to urban sprawl, averages 2.5 times as many roadway miles per capita as European countries, and just over twice as many as Canada. And transit use in Western Europe is 3 to 8 times higher than in the United States. Coordinated dense land use can cut governments' share of operational costs for transit. Contrary to the common belief that European countries spend more public funds on transit, the fact is that in 1982 the United States led Western developed countries in per-passenger transit subsidies, paying 86 cents per trip. Other countries' subsidies ranged from 73 cents in Sweden to just 13 cents per trip in Switzerland. Simply put, compact development makes transit more attractive, and commuters are willing to pay more for it. Any development pattern that promotes transit over automotive travel is a prime way of cutting infrastructure costs. Transit not only offsets the automobile's indirect costs - pollution and congestion - but is substantially cheaper in direct capital costs. For example, the Oregon Department of Transportation estimates that a certain six-lane highway into Portland, carrying 3,000 peak-hour passengers, would cost $3.24 billion, including the necessary expansion of approach roads. A light- rail line for the same corridor would cost just $1.5 billion, while carrying 1,000 more rush-hour passengers, according to G.B. Arrington, director of strategic planning for Tri-Met, the regional transit agency. And ridership could be expanded to 6,000 much faster and more cheaply than highway capacity could. Transit investment today can also help city planners cut long-term transportation costs, circumventing the problems that now face aging cities like New York. The city must contend with a multibillion-dollar deficit in rebuilding a massive network of auto infrastructure dating from roughly 1930 to 1960. For example, an estimated $1 billion is needed for just a three-mile stretch of elevated highway, Brooklyn' s Gowanus Expressway. While the costs aren't exactly comparable, upgrading the entire subway system, which services a billion passengers annually, cost $16 billion over 10 years. Per-passenger costs for reconstructing transit are thought to be roughly one-tenth those of highways. The Portland Experience Even though dense, coordinated land use is pretty alien to the American landscape, municipalities that are hungry for solutions have an excellent model to follow. Portland, Ore., is on the forefront of U.S. cities in addressing the joint problems of poor air quality, auto congestion, unsightly and inefficient sprawling suburban development, and skyrocketing infrastructure costs. The city's current planning efforts are rooted in progressive urban strategies - not unlike the multifaceted policies of European cities - launched more than 20 years ago in anticipation of a surge of growth. Dispensing with plans in the early 1970s to build a new freeway, Gov. Tom McCall spearheaded a move to develop new regional transportation strategies stressing transit. And in 1972, Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt, in cooperation with community and business leaders, devised a redevelopment plan that encouraged downtown retail development, boosted downtown development densities, created a residential zone in the urban core, and curtailed downtown parking. Today, MAX, a 15-mile light-rail line, is among the nation's most successful new transit systems, with more than 60 miles of suburban extensions under development or in planning. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 40 acres of open green space on the banks of the Willamette River, has replaced six lanes of asphalt. Similarly, Pioneer Square, a bustling downtown open space that anchors Portland's civic and retail center, sits on the former site of a parking garage. And pedestrian- friendly design, including tree-lined transit malls, has become a cornerstone of downtown redevelopment. Portland has also taken major steps to discourage driving downtown. While most zoning codes require a minimum amount of parking per square foot of development, Portland takes the opposite approach, placing a ceiling on parking spaces. The Downtown Parking and Circulation Policy allows just 7 spaces per 10,000 square feet of development near transit lines and 10 spaces per 10,000 square feet elsewhere. The policy also bans the demolition of buildings to create surface parking lots. Not coincidentally, the city's once-serious air-quality violations are a thing of the past. All major project designs are geared toward pedestrians and transit riders. Pioneer Place, a $180 million downtown complex, is most easily reached by three surrounding transit lines. An $85 million convention center in the eastside Lloyd District is fronted by a light-rail station and a pedestrian plaza. And a new 19,200-seat stadium for the Portland Trailblazers, being developed in coordination with MAX, will include just 3,400 off-street parking spaces. But perhaps the most innovative move has been to discourage sprawl by establishing an "urban growth boundary." Beyond the boundary, land is strictly zoned as either forest or farmland; within the boundary, building laws encourage the development of compact, livable communities. This approach allows Portland both to grow efficiently and to conserve open space surrounding the city. Portland is now reaping the benefits of its careful planning. Curtailed auto travel has eliminated the need to add two highway lanes to each major artery entering Portland and to build three downtown parking garages 30 stories high, according to Keith Bartholomew, staff attorney for 1000 Friends of Oregon. By making the downtown more inviting, the integrated policies also helped create 30,000 new inner-city jobs, without appreciable increases in vehicles, trips or parking spaces. Planners credit the efforts with attracting $900 million in private investment - plus $440 million worth of planned projects - near transit lines. Community design schemes like Portland's can be the center of a policy of reinvigorating inner cities, easing environmental impacts, attracting and guiding private development, and adding life to the typical suburban model of strip malls, office parks, and oversized and barricaded single- family lots often criticized as sterile and lifeless. And the bottom line is that it's cheaper. In Portland's case, avoiding several hundred million dollars in highway construction is a conspicuous byproduct of well-considered community-based planning. This drive toward efficient development can surely be translated elsewhere, and in other areas of infrastructure. Look what has happened in electric power: even though Lovins's calls for efficiency in the mid-1970s were branded a "siren philosophy" - a prelude to a New Dark Age - U.S. Gross National Product climbed more than 50 percent by 1990, while total energy use grew just 9 percent. The energy needed per dollar of economic activity fell by nearly a quarter, mostly because of greater energy efficiency. A combination of market incentives and planning efforts can expand these efficiency gains to water, waste, and travel - reducing pollution, creating more livable cities, and providing hundreds of billions of dollars in savings as municipalities downsize their infrastructure. -------------------- eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/kabelvag www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications From sustran at po.jaring.my Sun Jun 13 10:57:35 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 09:57:35 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Karachi's Tongas: Down but not out - fwd Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990613095735.00799e60@relay101.jaring.my> More from the latest edition of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights' newsletter, "Housing by People in Asia", No. 12, April 1999, which has several items on transport issues. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Resource Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. On Karachi's 750 kilometres of roadways, you enter into a wild dance with at least 12 million people, a million motorized vehicles. and every imaginable kind of non-motorized vehicle - bicycles, rickshaws, carts drawn by horses, bullocks, mules and men. But moving 12 million people around the city is a complicated task and the informal transport sector is bearing the lion's share. Karachi's Tongas: Down but not out ... For the past few years, the Urban Resource Centre (URC) in Karachi has plunged into virtually every aspect of the city's transport - researching existing transport systems, parking, highways, trains, vehicular pollution, getting out vital information on city transport plans that mean eviction and mayhem, lobbying against ill-conceived transport ideas and proposing their own solutions for improvements in the city's transport (many of which have been adopted!). An astonishing 70% of Karachi's transport needs are met by the informal sector, and URC continues gathering information about these immense informal systems which keep Karachi moving - from private buses, to renegade trucks, right down to push-carts and rickshaws. Here are a few notes on one of Karachi's oldest, but fastest-disappearing forms of informal transport - the tonga - drawn from URC reports. The tonga, or horse-drawn passenger cart, is one of Pakistan's most economical and environmentally friendly means of short-distance commuting, but tongas are rapidly disappearing from Pakistan's cities. The bustling Lea Market is one of the last places in Karachi were tongas are still plying, charging only three rupees to carry a person to various parts of Lyari. In Karachi's pre-automobile days, as throughout much of South Asia, when tongas were the only form of individual, for-hire urban transport, the streets were filled with the cheerful clip-clop of thousands of tongas. The carts themselves are still beautifully crafted from wood and iron, gaily painted with flowers and geometric patterns, and fitted overhead with sun bonnets. The small horses which draw them wear smart harnesses, fitted with blinders and ornamental plumes, while the tongawallahs sling sacks of green grass underneath for fodder breaks. But over the years, the Lea Market has become one of the most congested areas in Karachi, as well as its most busy bus terminus. Almost every building around the market contains a "godown" (warehouse) or some kind of storage facilities in its ground floor, and these bring in large numbers of heavy trucks to load and unload goods, day and night. All these large vehicles not only cause traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, but make the streets quite hazardous for tongas. Plus, a large area, which for a hundred years was the city's official tonga stand, has been given over to buses and commercial development. "Now it is very dangerous to ply a tonga on the city roads," one tongawallah named Kuchwan reports. "We are unable to compete with fast moving vehicles. The roads are broken and accidents are common." The number of tongas is gradually decreasing. According to Kuchwan, there were over 400 tongas in the early 80s, but now they number less than 100 around Lea Market. Despite these facts. a large number of Karachi-wallahs still prefer travel by the gentle tonga over the more available buses, putting those few tongawallahs still in business in great demand. One never sees a tonga waiting for commuters, only commuters waiting for tongas! Contact: Karachi Urban Resource Centre 3/48 Maulimabad Housing Society off Khalid bin Walid Road Karachi 74800, PAKISTAN Tel. +92 21 455 9275, Fax. +92 21 444 288 E-mail: urc@inet.com.pk From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Sun Jun 13 20:13:01 1999 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton) Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 13:13:01 +0200 Subject: [sustran] First ten WTPP articles ready for author review and comment Message-ID: <000201beb58d$b3911ac0$95c4fea9@cybercable.fr> Dear Authors and Friends of Carsharing, Well, there is indeed progress. This is not exactly a military operation, but step by small thoughtful step we do indeed advance. The result is, I think you will now be able to begin to see, is going to be worth both the effort and the wait. If you check into the Consortium at http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/, you will see that under DRAFT CHAPTERS there are now lodged the first ten draft articles. Lower down on that same page you will see a list of outstanding pieces that have been variously discussed in the past, at least some of which we anticipate will make their way here to our grubby ink-stained editorial offices before http://www.ecoplan.org end of the month. And since this is such an organic, non-mechanical operation (in case you haven't noticed), there may be some of you authors who will want to take advantage of this opportunity to see and place their piece in their emerging context. With this in mind, I have placed these first ten pieces in the rough order in which I think that should appear, as well as bundling the whole lot in two zipped files for easy downloading. Perhaps you will want to have a look at your article in its context, which may provide an opportunity and incentive for you to make a few changes, both in order to allow us to avoid unnecessary redundancy and repetition, and perhaps to point up some things that may be made more salient and relevant b this broader context. You will see and decide this for yourselves. One of the more outrageous laggards at this point is your servant, who hopes to have something to add within the week. One of the reasons that I have held off on this (in addition to pure sloth) is that I see my role as not only that of providing some of the deeper historical context to this, which seems reasonable seeing that we have been looking at these projects for close to three decades now, but also in an attempt to sew the whole thing together in some useful and interesting way. That we will see shortly. And to those of you who have volunteered to provide reviews and comments, now is the time. My hope is that you will take one or two of these pieces and let at least the author and your editor have the benefit of your comments and suggestions. And should any of you wish to have a whack at the whole thing, that would be a huge help. As to how you make your comments, do it as you wish. One handy way for those of you who have it is the annotation facility that is build into MS Word (your most un-neighborly software provider). Finally, as we draw near we still need your counsel and help in finding the one missing piece in this puzzle -- some group or person who will be willing to underwrite a very large print run of this special edition. Printing and binding costs run about a Euro per copy, and we are hoping to print five or ten thousand in this public service role. There should be a Ministry, Foundation, agency, city or even an individual who would be eager to make this happen. Can you help us find them and make our case? We would like to be able to distribute the special report not only to our faithful subscribers, but also and for free in support of carsharing programs, projects and groups anywhere who might need them. Our idea is that they can be useful both for their information content, but also as a certain "mark of authority", which can help the nascent carshare group go down to the local city hall, public transport operator, media and other eventual and much needed partners and, with confidence, slap the Journal down on their desk and say, "You see, we could do that here....." And they could, you know. Eric Britton P.S. You may want to change your bookmark for the consortium to http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/index-2.htm, since we have added a general cover page in an attempt to set the context for first time visitors. ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon Jun 14 14:34:22 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 13:34:22 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Parliamentary cycling groups questions Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990614133422.0080a9a0@relay101.jaring.my> Dear sustran-discussers Can anyone help Oliver on this? I am certain there is no such parliamentary cycling group in Malaysia, alas. Paul From: Oliver Hatch Subject: Parliamentary cycling groups Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 01:06:40 +0100 Dear Colleagues, As you may know, there is a large and active all party cycle group of representatives in the UK national parliament. The group is formally called 'The All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group' (APPCG). The group now has 62 members from all political parties, and has members in both the upper and lower House. The aim of the group is to support the cycle in the legislative work of the Parliament, raise the profile of cycling, and also make the conditions better for those who work in and visit the parliamentary buildings by bicycle. I am the Secretariat of the UK group. the group has been very supportive in all these areas. This Wednesday, as part of National Bike Week, about 60 parliamentarians, including the Road Safety Minister will cycle to work at the parliament building. The UK group has formed links with the cycle group in French parliament (Assemble National), know of existing groups in many other parliaments/asemblies (USA, Switzerland, Italy, ?, ?) and also that a group is planned to be launched soon in Holland and maybe elsewhere as well. Building on these existing links, the UK group would now like to extend and formalise the connections between these groups in different countries. The intention of the UK group is to act as the international secretariat of parliamentary cycling groups. Ben Bradshaw MP (Member of Parliament) as Chair of the UK group has therefore asked me to find out what the situation is in other countries both in Europe and round the world. If you do not know the answers for your country, but know of a person or group who does, please do forward this message to them. Equally, if you know of other countries with parliamentary groups, or have an e-mail newsletter, please broadcast this message to them so that we can find out the true situation. I would like to know the answers to the following questions: 1) Is there an all party cycling group in your national parliament? 2) If so, could you provide me with the contact person's name, postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail contact address. 3) What relationship does the contact person have with the parliament. In other words, are they inside the parliament or are they an outside group providing support to the group? 4) How many members does the all party group have, and what is the total number of members of parliament? 5) What are the group's main activities? 6) what success has the group had? The APPCG is producing the first issue of a newsletter for the group, and I will send a copy to all those who reply giving me information, and also provide their postal address. I look forward to your reply. Oliver Hatch Secretariat to the APPCG ************************************************* Oliver Hatch 31 Arodene Road London SW2 2BQ United Kingdom Telephone: +44-208-674-5916 Fax: +44-208-671-3386 Mobile phone: +44411-423655 e-mail: ************************************************ From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon Jun 14 19:58:54 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 18:58:54 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Velo Mondial 2000 Conference Web Site Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990614185854.007ca360@relay101.jaring.my> >Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 10:47:31 +0200 >From: phoenix >X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (Win95; I) >X-Accept-Language: en ..... >Subject: Velo Mondial 2000 Web Site > >Please find the new V?lo Mondial 2000 internet site at: > >http://www.velomondial2000.nl/ > >Please connect connect your internet site to ours and pass on this >message as much as possible!. > > > >Thanks, > > >Pascal J.W. van den Noort >Managing Director V?lo Mondial 2000 > > > > > > From litman at islandnet.com Wed Jun 16 01:14:11 1999 From: litman at islandnet.com (Todd Litman) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 09:14:11 -0700 Subject: [sustran] WHO Charter on Transport and Health Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19990615091411.01058990@mail.IslandNet.com> A Charter on Transport and Health is likely to be signed this week at the World Health Organisation Conference in London. It emphasizes the links between traffic pollution and poor health, and other social and environmental problems associated with automobile dependency. The draft version of this document can be found at: http://www.who.dk/London99/transport02e.htm Sincerely, Todd Litman, Director Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" 1250 Rudlin Street Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560 E-mail: litman@islandnet.com Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman From litman at islandnet.com Wed Jun 16 01:57:59 1999 From: litman at islandnet.com (Todd Litman) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 09:57:59 -0700 Subject: [sustran] Transportation Cost Analysis Summary Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19990615095759.0105c8d0@mail.IslandNet.com> Dear Friends, I just posted a fairly detailed summary of my 240-page report "Transportation Cost Analysis" at our website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman. It describes various transportation costs, developes a framework for comparing the costs of different modes under various travel conditions, and discusses implications and applications of this information. It is fully referenced with weblinks providing additional information on various costs. It should be a useful document for anybody working with transportation planning and policy issues. Over the next week I plan to send out a newsletter announcing this new document. I'd greatly appreciate it if you can review the version that I posted and send me any comments by the end of this week so I can make corrections and improvements before doing more publicity. Thanks. Sincerely, Todd Litman, Director Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" 1250 Rudlin Street Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560 E-mail: litman@islandnet.com Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman From ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Wed Jun 16 02:39:56 1999 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 13:39:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] Re: Transportation Cost Analysis Summary In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19990615095759.0105c8d0@mail.IslandNet.com> Message-ID: Todd, I have not read your summary yet, but keep up the good work. As always, I publicize your work. One question, though. At the APTA conference session on equity and environmental justice in Toronto, a BART board member asked if there were any studies showing the equity implications of various transit funding methods. I mentioned your work, but several people scoffed, saying you were only concerned with auto versus transit. Are they right, or am I right? Eric From litman at islandnet.com Wed Jun 16 05:48:02 1999 From: litman at islandnet.com (Todd Litman) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 13:48:02 -0700 Subject: [sustran] Re: Transportation Cost Analysis Summary In-Reply-To: References: <3.0.5.32.19990615095759.0105c8d0@mail.IslandNet.com> Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19990615134802.0105d200@mail.IslandNet.com> At 01:39 PM 6/15/99 -0400, Eric Bruun wrote: >One question, though. At the APTA conference session on equity and >environmental justice in Toronto, a BART board >member asked if there were any studies showing the equity implications >of various transit funding methods. I mentioned your work, but several >people scoffed, saying you were only concerned with auto versus transit. >Are they right, or am I right? Eric They couldn't be farther from the truth. My goal is to broaden the debate beyond cars vs. transit to recognize a wider range of options (TDM, non-motorized transport, pricing incentives, land use reform), and to incorporate issues such as equity, as well as a full range of economic, social and environmental impacts. See the reports at our website including: * Evaluating Transportation Equity * Defining and Quantifying Public Transit Benefits * Potential TDM Strategies * Guide to Calculating TDM Benefits The first two papers listed above specifically discuss the equity of transit funding. An important point is that although automobile and public transit are subsidized about the same per passenger-mile (automobile subsidies include free parking, subsidized roads and traffic services, and uncompensated accident and environmental impacts, while transit also recieves direct financial subsidies), transit dependent users travel far less per year than an average driver. As a result, the average driver recieves much more total subsidy per year than the average transit dependent person. The inequity is even greater for people who rely primarily on non-motorized modes (walking and cycling). Hopefully, by posting these reports at our website there will be more opportunity for people to see for themselves the kind of research our institute performs, and the resources we can provide. Sincerely, Todd Litman, Director Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" 1250 Rudlin Street Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560 E-mail: litman@islandnet.com Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman From elis29 at hotmail.com Wed Jun 16 09:17:40 1999 From: elis29 at hotmail.com (Elly Sinaga) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 17:17:40 PDT Subject: [sustran] Impact of transport policy to land use Message-ID: <19990616001741.62263.qmail@hotmail.com> I am now reviewing the impact of transport policy on land use. I used the LILT model created by MR. Roger Mackett a long time ago. Actually, I am looking for a model which is not so complicated, because I would try to use it for a city in developing countries, which we usually have problem on data. I heard about ITLUP, but I do not know the model it used. From the abstract it seems quite interesting to me. Any ideas or information about this would be appreciated, thank you for anybody assistance. Elly Sinaga elis29@hotmail.com Land transport training centre Ministry of Communication/Transportation Republic of Indonesia ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jun 16 11:05:58 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 10:05:58 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: UK children's 'play' roads plan Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990616100558.007b5730@relay101.jaring.my> forwarded from the pednet list: Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 19:59:03 +0100 From: Geraint Jennings Subject: pednet: From today's Sunday Times - Home Zones This message sent to pednet by Geraint Jennings . June 13 1999 Cars face ban in children's 'play' roads by Lynn Eaton GO PLAY in the road, son. Fifty towns are planning to turn residential streets into "home zones" where cars are discouraged and road markings are replaced by pitches for ball games and benches for spectators. The radical scheme is meant to make Britain's streets as safe as in pre-war days, when children could play in the road and vehicles were expected to make way for them. On roads selected for the home zone schemes, cars would be restricted to 20mph, with one-way systems, lane restrictions and other features to deter through traffic. The move, to be announced by the transport department next month, has delighted road safety campaigners - and provoked anger from motoring organisations. Helen Liddell, the transport minister, said that six of the 50 towns would be given the go-ahead initially. One of the most radical proposals is for Brixton, south London, where roads off busy Brixton Hill could be laid out with games pitches, trees and benches. Games such as basketball are favoured over football because there is less risk of balls damaging property. Another project in Ealing, west London, suggests that five residential streets be turned into a play area marked out for basketball, hopscotch and other games. Stirling, central Scotland, wants to strip out the "No Ball Games" signs that have adorned its suburban streets for years and replace them with notices telling youngsters that they can now play in the road - and others warning motorists to take other routes. Home zones are well-established in parts of Europe. The idea originated in Amsterdam in 1972 with a campaign launched by a journalist who had seen one of her children killed and another injured by reckless drivers. The Right of Way for Children Foundation has been so successful that many of Amsterdam's residential roads are virtually car-free. In Britain 11,000 pedestrians were killed or seriously injured in road accidents in 1997. Nearly 4,000 were aged under 16. Motoring organisations say that "road calming" is the wrong way to cut such figures. Paul Watters, head of policy at the AA, said: "A lot of our members get very irritated about road humps. They may reduce accidents but they also damage their exhausts." =================== Distributed for purposes of study and research in accordance with the fair dealing provisions of the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. So there. ***************** Geraint Jennings ******************* Artist, Teacher, Green, and general all-round good egg geraint@itl.net ************* http://user.itl.net/~geraint/ ************* From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jun 16 11:01:40 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 10:01:40 +0800 Subject: [sustran] RE: alt-transp GNGM newsletter #2 Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990616100140.007b5730@relay101.jaring.my> This bounced because Michael Yeates is not yet on the sustran-discuss list and our anti-spam measures include not allowing non-members to post. Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:45:24 +1000 (GMT+1000) From: Michael Yeates X-Sender: gnmyeate@dingo.cc.uq.edu.au To: Eric Britton cc: alt-transp@flora.org, sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org, m.yeates@mailbox.uq.edu.au Subject: RE: alt-transp GNGM newsletter #2 .. Yes Eric, I do think you have "it" wrong , at least partially. Remember that driving a vehicle is authorised by law and established by behaviour. So if the speed limit is 60km/h (38mph) as it is in Australian cities (a worst case scenario on a global basis for comparative settings it appears), then motorists are "entitled" to drive at or near that speed. Remember that the same applies in 50km/h (30mph) and in slower zones. Similarly, that increased likelihood of enforcement will encourage increased compliance. You are correct about the "road environment" however the experience of deliberate policy (eg in Europe) and current examples (eg Beijing, Delhi) suggests that the slower the speed environment, the more likely people are to walk or cycle. Hence, in lower speed environments with "appropriate" increases in enforcement, it is likely more people will cycle and walk and thus become in effect "mobile traffic calming devices". What increase in enforcement is needed? The work in Unley (South Australia) suggests not a lot ... PROVIDED that it responds to the reported non-compliance as reported by residents and local road users eg cyclists and pedestrians. So in a nutshell, it appears that the need for traffic calming devices while still appropriate, is diminished and can increasingly be replaced by enforcement once large areas of lower speed limits are in place. Much cheaper and less controversial. Road killing is a crime ... it should also be controlled and policed. If three jumbo aircraft crashed killing all aboard and many innocent bystanders each year in Australia, governments would consider doing "something" about it. While 1500-2000 fatalities is small in international terms, road slaughter is one of the few crimes, sorry "accidents", we allow in part by condoning speed limits that are too high to ensure or reduce crash fatalities. MY On Wed, 9 Jun 1999, Eric Britton wrote: > Michael Yates makes the excellent point: > > >> The increasing evidence of the need to increase police enforcement and > support it with strong community support at the local level suggests that > the "engineering" view of traffic calming being essential is both out of > date and too expensive.<< > > My comment after years of rather careful observation in a wide variety of > circumstances, however, is that drivers (me included) are not reasonable > people, and they will, ALWAYS, go as fast as the street architecture > permits. This suggests to me that the ONLY policy that is going to work and > make the streets safe is via physical reconstruction and the limitation of > straight unencumbered shoots. > > But we can also observe that with good community support and unrelenting > positive pressure on the politicians, administrators, media, and the "powers > that be", it is possible to reshape the local street network bit by painful > bit. Takes a bunch of years, but the real challenge is that of getting the > ball rolling. What is more, there is a whole generation of traffic engineers > and planners who have been cranked out of the school system in the last > decade or so, who are often quite ready to help make this happen. > > Or do I have this wrong? > > Eric Britton From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jun 16 11:24:38 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 10:24:38 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: fwd: Parliamentary cycling groups questions Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990616102438.007b5730@relay101.jaring.my> This bounced because it came from an address that is not on the sustran-discuss list and our anti-spam measures include not allowing non-members to post. From: "ganant" To: "Sustrans Discussion List" Cc: Subject: Re: [sustran] fwd: Parliamentary cycling groups questions Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 18:21:42 +0530 ... Dear Oliver: Though millions of Indians use bicycles as their major choice for commuting, there is no political support to this activity. There is thus no Parliamentary group on cycling. There are however, some NGOs, (like Exnora International, e-mail: exnora@giasmd01.vsnl.net.in) which are fighting a losing battle as the automotive sector is driving the pace of growth in the Indian economy. Cars are flooding congested cities and towns, crowding out the cyclists who have no supportive policymakers. Using a bicycle to commute to work and back is considered a class issue, and only those who cannot afford scooters and cars have to pedal for mobility. Moreover, even the mass transit modes like suburban trains and buses are for the "lower class." I was recently in Cambridge, and know first hand the importance that cycling is receiving as an option among UK policymakers. I am happy to read that Parliamentarians are to ride to work to highlight the idea. Please do let me know more about the programme, so that we can write about it in our newspaper, one of the largest English dailies in India, The Hindu. Best G.Ananthakrishnan Chief Reporter The Hindu, 859 - 860 Anna Salai Chennai (formerly Madras) India 600 002 Tel: + 91 44 8413344 Fax: + 91 44 8535325 -----Original Message----- From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Cc: oh@velo-city.org Date: Monday, June 14, 1999 4:43 PM Subject: [sustran] fwd: Parliamentary cycling groups questions >Dear sustran-discussers >Can anyone help Oliver on this? I am certain there is no such parliamentary >cycling group in Malaysia, alas. >Paul > > >From: Oliver Hatch >Subject: Parliamentary cycling groups >Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 01:06:40 +0100 > >Dear Colleagues, >As you may know, there is a large and active all party cycle group of >representatives in the UK national parliament. The group is formally called >'The All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group' (APPCG). The group now has 62 >members from all political parties, and has members in both the upper and ...... From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu Jun 17 11:14:13 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 10:14:13 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Phnom Penh's moto-dub (motorcycle taxi) drivers Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990617101413.00833cd0@relay101.jaring.my> More from the latest edition of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights' newsletter, "Housing by People in Asia", No. 12, April 1999, which has several items on transport issues. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Resource Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. MOTO-DUB DRIVERS IN PHNOM PENH In a city like Phnom Penh, which has no public transport system, crossing the city leaves you few choices. You either walk, bicycle, hire a cyclo (Pedicab) or jump on one of the city's thousands of motorcycle taxi, called in Cambodia "moto-dub" (a Khmer version of the French "moto-double" : motorbike for two.) A moto-dub can carry 1 - 3 passengers or transport goods lashed on the back or loaded into connected trailers. Motos are gradually replacing cyclos (single-passenger cycle rickshaws, with the passenger sitting in front) as the city's chief people-mover. In 1997, the number of motorbikes in the city had topped 115,000. Moto drivers wear the characteristic "p-cap" and sit in front of hotels, schools, temples, markets and at street corners, raising their hands and calling "Mo-to?". A moto is a cherished investment and a moto driver never leaves his moto unattended, since theft is moto-dub's biggest fear. The market is a bit saturated these days, and competition for fares is cut-throat, but a moto-dub can still earn about 7,000 Riels (US$2) a day, which in impoverished Phnom Penh isn't bad for a day's work. Contact the URC in Phnom Penh for a copy of their study on Moto-dubs. Urban Resource Centre (URC), PO Box 2241, Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA. Tel. +855-23 211474. E-mail: urcpp@forum.org.kh From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Fri Jun 18 17:57:22 1999 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 10:57:22 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Transportation investments and real estate values Message-ID: <000701beb968$94552d20$e7e1fea9@cybercable.fr> Robert Ayres of the Center for Environmental and Resource Management is attempting to develop some statistical information and background on this topic and has asked me for leads. The idea of course is simple enough -- someone invests in transportation improvements in a given area and, maybe, real estate values go up. Sounds logical, but does anyone know where he can turn for some statistical evidence of what actually happens in some cases. Of course we will be pleased to share our results. Kind thanks, Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From roland at actrix.gen.nz Fri Jun 18 19:03:35 1999 From: roland at actrix.gen.nz (Roland Sapsford) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 22:03:35 +1200 Subject: [sustran] Re: Transportation investments and real estate values References: <000701beb968$94552d20$e7e1fea9@cybercable.fr> Message-ID: <376A1976.8491C777@actrix.gen.nz> One place to examine for data is the area of contingent valuation studies on noise etc. What is called 'hedonic pricing' (for obscure reasons) uses changes in values of property to indicate a 'price' for exposure to noise etc. In the process people collect large amounts of data on property values and various demographic variables so they can try and isolate out the effects of noise changes. Some of the data from before and after studies of new projects could be used to estimate impacts of transport investment on property values. I looked long and hard for information on the topic of roading investment and property values last year. I found very little info that I would call reliable. Most studies don't actually isolate out transport investment from other factors to a satisfactory extent. I also came across many general references to Toronto but no specific data. Perhaps Prof Peter Newman at Murdoch in Perth, Australia may have some good suggestions. His email is newman@central.murdoch.edu.au but he is away for the next week or so at least. Hope that is of some help. Cheers Roland Eric Britton wrote: > Robert Ayres of the Center for Environmental and Resource Management is > attempting to develop some statistical information and background on this > topic and has asked me for leads. The idea of course is simple enough -- > someone invests in transportation improvements in a given area and, maybe, > real estate values go up. Sounds logical, but does anyone know where he can > turn for some statistical evidence of what actually happens in some cases. > > Of course we will be pleased to share our results. > > Kind thanks, > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France > email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. > In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) -- Roland Sapsford roland@actrix.gen.nz; (+64-4)934-1106;(+64-21)65-1105(m) PO Box 11-708, Manners St, Wellington, New Zealand "The most insidious form of ignorance is misplaced certainty" (Robert Costanza) From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Fri Jun 18 21:00:53 1999 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:00:53 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Americans Against Traffic Calming Message-ID: <000f01beb982$37265a60$e7e1fea9@cybercable.fr> Came across this somewhat unusual Web site today: Americans Against Traffic Calming http://www.io.com/~bumper/ada.htm From litman at islandnet.com Fri Jun 18 22:32:36 1999 From: litman at islandnet.com (Todd Litman) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 06:32:36 -0700 Subject: [sustran] Transportation investments and real estate values In-Reply-To: <000701beb968$94552d20$e7e1fea9@cybercable.fr> Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19990618063236.01067100@mail.IslandNet.com> At 10:57 AM 6/18/99 +0200, Eric Britton wrote: >Robert Ayres of the Center for Environmental and Resource Management is >attempting to develop some statistical information and background on this >topic and has asked me for leads. The idea of course is simple enough -- >someone invests in transportation improvements in a given area and, maybe, >real estate values go up. Sounds logical, but does anyone know where he can >turn for some statistical evidence of what actually happens in some cases. Check the urban economics literature, which is based on the assumption that transportation improvements increase property values. There are lots of studies that back this up in general, although the effects of additional highway capacity appear to be decreasing since most areas already have adequate roadway access. If there is really a lack of suitable land for development and lack of highway access is really a constraint on access to that land, a highway is probably going to increase property values. But if demand is weak or the highway provides only marginal transportation improvement, there may be little effect on real estate values. The report by the Standing Committee on Trunk Road Assessment, Transport Investment, "Transport Intensity and Economic Growth," DETR (London; http://www.roads.detr.gov.uk/roadnetwork/heta/sactra98.htm), 1997, concluded that most economic impacts (such as changes in property values) are economic TRANSFER not true economic BENEFITS. Thus, a dollar gained in one community is a dollar lost somewhere else in the region. Note that the same effects are true of transit improvements. See Herman Huang, "The Land-Use Impacts of Urban Rail Transit Systems," Journal of Planning Literature, Vol. 11, No. 1, August 1996, pp. 17-30 and Steven Lewis Workman and Daniel Brod, "Measuring Neighborhood Benefits of Rail Transit Accessibility," Transportation Research Record 1576, 1997, pp. 147-153. Also see: Amy Helling, "Transportation and Economic Development; A Review," Public Works Management & Policy, Vol. 2, No. 1, July 1997, pp. 79-93. Marlon Boarnet, "New Highways & Economic Productivity: Interpreting Recent Evidence," Journal of Planning Literature, Vol. 11, No. 4, May 1997, pp. 476-486. Nijkamp and Blaas, Impact Assessment and Evaluation in Transport Planning, Kluwer, 1993, p. 45-49. Christine Kessides, The Contributions of Infrastructure to Economic Development, World Bank Discussion Paper #213 (www.worldbank.org), 1993. Piet Rietveld, "Spatial Economic Impacts of Transport Infrastructure Supply," Transportation Research, Vol. 28A, No.4, p. 339. From litman at islandnet.com Sat Jun 19 00:55:03 1999 From: litman at islandnet.com (Todd Litman) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 08:55:03 -0700 Subject: [sustran] VTPI NEWS, Summer 1999 Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19990618085503.00a10d10@mail.IslandNet.com> ----------- VTPI NEWS ----------- Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" --------------------------------- Summer 1999 Vol. 2, No. 2 ------------------------------- NEW AND REVISED REPORTS AT VTPI WEBSITE http://www.islandnet.com/~litman The VTPI website has more than two dozen reports available for free downloading, covering a wide range of transportation planning and policy issues. These resources provide practical strategies for incorporating social and environmental values into transportation decision making. There are also links to other useful websites. ------------------------------- NEW REPORT *Transportation Cost Analysis Summary* This 45-page paper provides an overview of transportation costing issues. It defines major cost categories, describes how costs are estimated, summarizes major findings, and explores implications of this research. It provides estimates of twenty costs for eleven transport modes under three travel conditions. This creates a framework for comparing the costs of different modes under various conditions, and potential benefits from policies that change travel patterns. The report discusses how this information can be used in transportation decision making, and responds to various criticisms of transport costing. An appendix summarizes previous transportation cost studies. Like all VTPI reports, it has extensive citations and references. REVISED REPORTS The following reports have been significantly revised: *Evaluating Traffic Calming Benefits, Costs and Equity Impacts* This 30-page paper describes traffic calming devices and methods, discusses various impacts of traffic calming, and provides guidance for evaluating traffic calming projects. It lists references and websites for additional traffic calming information. *Evaluating Transportation Equity* This 22-page paper discusses different types of equity, describes ways to evaluate transportation equity, and provides examples of transportation equity analysis. *Generated Traffic; Implications for Transport Planning* This 21-page paper describes how the effects of generated traffic (also called "induced travel") can be incorporated into transport planning. It describes various types of generated traffic, how to measure and predict their impacts, and how ignoring these effects skews analysis and results in economically inefficient investments and policies. *Quantifying the Benefits of Non-Motorized Travel for Achieving TDM Objectives* This 20-page paper explores how walking and cycling can help achieve Transportation Demand Management objectives, provides guidance on quantifying these benefits, and discusses practical ways for communities to encourage non-motorized transport. *Pavement Busters Guide* This guidebook describes how current zoning and transportation practices result in excessive amounts of land being paved for roads and parking facilities, discusses the economic, social and environmental costs that result, and describes practical strategies for reducing pavement requirements while maintaining mobility and access. *Potential Transportation Demand Management Strategies* This 24-page paper provides a comprehensive list of strategies that can help create a more efficient and equitable transportation system. It includes extensive citations and references for TDM strategies and programs, many available on the Internet. *Win-Win Transportation Management Strategies* Our revised Win-Win webpage now includes references and web links for each recommended strategy. Win-Win strategies are technically feasible and cost effective ways to solve transport problems by increasing consumer choice and removing market distortions that cause inefficient travel patterns. They are justified for their economic benefits (reduced congestion, road and parking facility costs, accident reductions and consumer savings) and also provide substantial social, environmental and equity benefits. If fully implemented they could approximately achieve the Kyoto emission reduction objectives for transportation while increasing economic productivity, employment, and consumer welfare. Win-Win strategies demonstrate that environmental protection need not conflict with economic development. A revised version of "Reply to Criticisms of Transportation Costing" will be posted at our website next week. REVIEWS *Transportation Paradise; Realm of the Nearly Perfect Automobile?* Professor John Pucher's Review Of "Driving Forces" by James A. Dunn, Jr., to be published in Summer 1999 Transportation Quarterly. Pucher argues that Dunn misrepresents complex transportation policy debates as simple ideological conflicts between an irrational "anti-auto vanguard" and rational American consumers. Pucher concludes that many problems dismissed in Dunn's book are significant, and an ideologically neutral perspective (neither "pro" or "anti" auto) justifies policy shifts toward more balanced transportation. This review is posted at our website at the author's request. *Todd Litman's review of "Roads in a Market Economy" by Gabriel Roth*. This review discusses strengths and weaknesses of Roth's book. Roth argues that the current transportation system could be more efficient and equitable if market principles were applied to road transport, including full cost pricing of road and parking facilities, and marginal cost pricing of externalities such as congestion, accidents and pollution. Although it includes much useful economic analysis, many readers may be put off by its excessive pro-highway, pro-corporation, anti-environmentalist, anti-transit, and anti-government ideology. It insults those with different perspectives and contains technical inaccuracies that result from an uncritical acceptance of highway/automobile industry claims. ------------------------------- EMPLOYER PROVIDED TAX-EXEMPT TRANSIT BENEFITS U.S. tax law now allows employees to recieve tax exempt transit benefits as an alternative to subsidized parking (for information see The USEPA Commuter Choice Program http://www.epa.gov/orcdizux/transp/comchoic/f98029.htm). Canada does not have such a policy. As a result, most commuters who drive have subsidized parking but virtually none are offered transit subsidies as an alternative. A coalition of transportation, municipal government, environmental and labour organizations are lobbying to change this practice. On April 13th, the House of Commons carried Motion 360 by a vote of 241 to 25. Even the Prime Minister stood in favour of the motion. Although this is a non-binding resolution asking Revenue Canada to implement this policy change, it sends a strong signal that the people of Canadian favor making transit benefits tax exempt. Much of the discussion of this issue was based on a study we performed two years ago, "Employer Provided Transit Passes; A Tax Exempt Benefit" for the Transit Advocacy Project. Our analysis showed that giving commuters this incentive to shift from driving to public transit provides significant benefits at virtually no cost. For more information on this issue contact project coordinator Amelia Shaw at shawa@octranspo.com. ------------------------------- TRB SUSTAINABILITY TASK FORCE VTPI Director, Todd Litman, has been appointed to Transportation Research Board Task Force A5T57 on Transportation and Sustainability, which will explore how sustainability issues affect transportation, and how transportation affects sustainability. ------------------------------- CONSULTING Please contact us for transportation research assistance and policy analysis. VTPI is currently working on the following consulting projects: ? A study of distance-based insurance pricing. ? Development of a bicycle/pedestrian planning guidebook. ? An NCHRP study of ways to more accurately incorporate economic and social impacts into transportation planning. ? Evaluating the benefits of a university commute trip reduction program. ? Assistance to the Way to Go! School Program which promotes alternative transportation for school trips. ------------------------------- The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is dedicated to innovative research and analysis. We develop practical tools for incorporating social and environmental values into transportation decision making. Please let us know if you have comments or questions about any information presented in this newsletter, or if you would like to be removed from our mailing list. Feel free to pass this newsletter and other VTPI information to anybody who may find it useful. Todd Litman, Director Victoria Transport Policy Institute 1250 Rudlin Street Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560 E-mail: litman@islandnet.com Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman From A.J.Plumbe at Bradford.ac.uk Sat Jun 19 07:25:26 1999 From: A.J.Plumbe at Bradford.ac.uk (Antony Julian Plumbe) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 18:25:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] Re: Transportation investments and real estate values In-Reply-To: <000701beb968$94552d20$e7e1fea9@cybercable.fr> Message-ID: Dear Eric, The Light Rail Transit new lines in Kuala Lumpur are partly financed I understand by allowing the private companies developing the lines also to develop shopping centres at selected stations and recoup their costs through rental of the shops. The same principles are used in many BOT type contracts in Asia. Closer to Europe, I think you will find an article in the Journal of Transport Economics and Policy published about 1988 reporting a hedonic price analysis applied to the housing around Manchester airport. The author may have a suitable data base. Tony Plumbe On Fri, 18 Jun 1999 10:57:22 +0200 Eric Britton wrote: > Robert Ayres of the Center for Environmental and Resource Management is > attempting to develop some statistical information and background on this > topic and has asked me for leads. The idea of course is simple enough -- > someone invests in transportation improvements in a given area and, maybe, > real estate values go up. Sounds logical, but does anyone know where he can > turn for some statistical evidence of what actually happens in some cases. > > Of course we will be pleased to share our results. > > Kind thanks, > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France > email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. > In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) > ---------------------- A. J. Plumbe, Co-ordinator M.Sc. in Project Planning and Management, email: a.j.plumbe@bradford.ac.uk Fax: International: +44-1274-235280 Domestic : 01274-235280 Phone: International : +44-1274-235264 Domestic : 01274-235264 Mailing Address: DPPC, Bradford University, Richmond Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, U.K., BD7 1DP. From ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Sat Jun 19 03:05:46 1999 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:05:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] Re: Transportation investments and real estate values In-Reply-To: <000701beb968$94552d20$e7e1fea9@cybercable.fr> Message-ID: Mr. Ayres should contact the public relations office of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in Washington, DC. There has been extensive study about the increased value of land along MetroRail lines. They also have a large joint development project going on now that is based on increasesd values. Eric Bruun On Fri, 18 Jun 1999, Eric Britton wrote: > Robert Ayres of the Center for Environmental and Resource Management is > attempting to develop some statistical information and background on this > topic and has asked me for leads. The idea of course is simple enough -- > someone invests in transportation improvements in a given area and, maybe, > real estate values go up. Sounds logical, but does anyone know where he can > turn for some statistical evidence of what actually happens in some cases. > > Of course we will be pleased to share our results. > > Kind thanks, > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France > email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. > In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) > > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Sat Jun 19 11:16:22 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 10:16:22 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Transportation investments and real estate values In-Reply-To: References: <000701beb968$94552d20$e7e1fea9@cybercable.fr> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990619101622.0086d100@relay101.jaring.my> At 18:25 18/06/99 -0400, Tony Plumbe wrote: >The Light Rail Transit new lines in Kuala Lumpur are >partly financed I understand by allowing the private >companies developing the lines also to develop shopping >centres at selected stations and recoup their costs >through rental of the shops. The same principles are >used in many BOT type contracts in Asia. I don't believe there is any explicit or systematic policy for helping to fund rail lines with real-estate developments (although such things are often considered secret here) but there are some specific examples apparently. In the case of the first LRT system, STAR LRT, I was told explicitly by company officials that there was no such arrangement to allow them to develop land around or above stations. This surprised me. I believe them because I don't see any developments springing up. I don't know if the second LRT system, PUTRA LRT, has rights to develop real-estate around stations. It may be so, at least indirectly, since PUTRA is owned by a large business conglomerate called Renong. There are at least two major new developments that have been begun since the line began to be constructed (at the Taman Jaya station and the huge KL Sentral development) but I don't know their ownership situation. A third system, the PRT monorail, the CBD phase of which is under construction, was going to be associated with a MAJOR real-estate development, namely the Linear City development which was to have straddled the Klang River over several kilometres. Maybe this is the example that you were referring to? I believe the same corporation was involved in both. However, I beleive that the Linear City project is either cancelled or postponed indefinitely. The Malaysian Railways (Keratapi Tanah Melayu - KTM) has operated electric commuter trains (suburban heavy rail) here since 1995 and does have extensive land holdings apparently. I don't know how many of the land holdings are at appropriate stations. The KL Sentral development must be directly helping KTM to some extent, since it is going up where their old marshalling yards and warehouses used to be. There is at least one other development taking place along this system (in southern Petaling Jaya) with a major shopping centre to be built over and around a new station. This one is certainly an example. A rail line to the new airport is under construction (express rail link ERL). I have not heard of any joint-development arrangements. The city terminus is at the huge KL Sentral development and one station will be in central Putrajaya (the new administrative centre for Malaysia) and there should be enormous development potential there. I have no knowledge if the company is actually involved in such joint developments however. There have been no explicit announcements on it as far as I know. Best wishes, Paul A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Resource Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From sustran at po.jaring.my Sat Jun 19 11:29:23 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 10:29:23 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: British Medical Journal on transport Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990619102923.0086d8d0@relay101.jaring.my> forwarded from pednet This message sent to pednet by Peter Jacobsen. In the current issue of the British Medical Journal, the lead editorial and several articles address car use. see their web site for more: http://www.bmj.com/ ..... The carnage wrought by major economic change: ecological study of traffic related mortality and the reunification of Germany ? Commentary: Road deaths in European countries Flaura K Winston, Craig Rineer, Rajiv Menon, Susan P Baker, and Mark McCarthy BMJ 1999;318 1647-1650 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/318/7199/1647 A different route to health: implications of transport policies Carlos Dora BMJ 1999;318 1686-1689 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7199/1686 World Bank must do more to develop safe and sustainable transportation systems Ian Roberts BMJ 1999;318 1694 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7199/1694 From sustran at po.jaring.my Sat Jun 19 10:18:09 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 09:18:09 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990619091809.00814e10@relay101.jaring.my> Dear sustran-discussers, Can anyone provide any help or information for our friends in Bangkok? A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ ______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________ Subject: Re: Looking for statistics on PWD's. Author: Topong Kulkhanchit at Internet Date: 17/6/99 14:56 We, disabled people in Thailand are facing with challenge from Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) , because of the many broken promises. On December 5, 1999 the "Bangkok Sky train” the frist mass transit system in Thailand will be inaugerated and start operation, unfortunately without accessibility for any handicapped passengers including disabled people. The usual public transportation, such as bus, train, even taxi have not been accessible for us already. DPI-Thailand or the National Council of the Disabled of Thailand and many other ncerning organizations have been asking for street level elevator access since 1 3, the beginning of construction. While BMA Governor Krissada Arunwong declined todo so. New Governor Bichit Rattakul took officer in 1996 and acknowledged because of lackof vision caused improper contraction and foresight in design. On November 27, 1995; mass rally of over 400 PWDs was luanched in the City of Bangkok which targete to Bangkok City Hall, Government HQ, Ministry of Interior and residence of the Prim Minister to demand accessible facility in the controversial Skytrain. Immediate tion was taken by the Ministry of Interion when an urgent meeting was called upo with the combination of representative of all concerns. Negotiation was made during the meeting and DPI-Thailand representative stepped backward by accepting lift installation at only 5 out of 23 stations with a condition that completion must be at the first day of official service (December 5, 1999). At this moment, with only 5 months remains installation process has not been initiated yet. We are informed the uncertainty if the five station will be ready or not. Use of sky walks to adjacent privately owned buildings such as shopping malls is introduced by the authority instead of lifts. Whether or not these buildings are accessible for the disabled or elderly because of stairs or steps, or whether or not these buildings are open during the full operating schedule of the “Sky train”, was no taken into consideration. When groups of disabled people ask city officials why the promised access, however limited, is not going to be available, these officials hide behind vague answers and “bureaucratic”. We, Thai citizens with various disablilities would like very much, indeed, to hear critics from our friends worldwide : “What can we do, and what can you do, to have the Governor of Bangkok and/or the Government make good on their promises, and make a public facility truly accessible to the all of the public”. All the elderly, pragnants, small kids in Thailand will join us to celebrate "equalization of opportunity and full participation". Please send your idea(s) to e-mail addresses below : Thai newspapers webmaster@thairath.co.th Info@Dailynews.co.th Webmaster@Khaosodusa.com Bangna@nation.nationgroup.com webmaster@thannews.th.com mati@asianet.co.th Webmaster@bangkokpost.net Thai Radios Webmaster@mcot.or.th 107FM@infonews.co.th FM97@email.ksc.net Bangkok Business KT_pol@nation.nationgroup.com KT_sport@natoion.nationgroup.com KT_jpk@nation.nationgroup.com KT_edu@nation.nationgroup.com Thai Television Internet@tv3.co.th Webadmin@galaxy.tv.co.th ch7@asiaweb.co.th Webmaster@mcot.or.th tv11@iirt.net, mcic@iirt.net hotline@itv.co.th prgroup@itv.co.th mailto:prgroup@itv.co.th With best regards Topong Kulkhanchit Access Office, DPI-Thailand Tel/fax 662-243-6828 e-mail : dpith@loxinfo.co.th, handipro@loxinfo.co.th From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Sat Jun 19 14:48:25 1999 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 07:48:25 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19990619091809.00814e10@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <000001beba17$59a740a0$8388fea9@cybercable.fr> Dear Friends, This brings up an awfully tough and in many ways anguishing choice (which I don't say so lightly: having my dear mother confined to a wheelchair for the last couple fo years has served as a continuing reminder), to which perhaps we at the Journal World Transport Policy & Practice could possibly make a modest contribution. Here is an idea. We could begin to plot out a special edition for the year 2000 -- which is given over to setting out an array of alternative activist, interventionist strategies and guidelines -- with advantages, cautions and downsides (thinking, for example, of some of the fallout of the US situation over the last decade). Our rough model for this might be the special edition that we are presently working to prepare on carsharing (see http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/). Such a publication, jointly prepared by a group of leading transportation activists and thinkers from around the world, could in turn be the subject of translation and aggressive distribution around the world -- in an attempt to provide a base of thoughtfulness, knowledge and perspective on the subject. It could then be used in support of conferences, demonstrations, political campaigns, etc. Moreover, if the entire process of preparation is carried out in the interactive manner which we believe to be most appropriate for this sort of thing (again, see the carshare stuff), the very process itself can be a source of ideas, collaboration and resources. This is a decision for our gray bearded editor in chief, the redoubtable Professor John Whitelegg to take, but now he has an opportunity to react to this in public. On the other hand, this may be unnecessary or redundant, or otherwise unwelcome. Perhaps our colleagues here might share their ideas and reactions to this right here? That could help us take an informed decision. Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From j.whitelegg at lancaster.ac.uk Sat Jun 19 23:53:54 1999 From: j.whitelegg at lancaster.ac.uk (John Whitelegg) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 15:53:54 +0100 Subject: [sustran] access for the dis(differently) abled Message-ID: <01BEBA6C.0F8EBE80@ras-pptp-5.lancs.ac.uk> Dear Sustran colleagues, I'm sure we would all want to convey our professional disappointment to the relevant Thai authorities about disabled access. We at World Transport Policy and Practice (WTPP) will certainly do so. We could also write/e-mail the transport persons in the World Bank, the European Parliament and in the United Nations. This lack of careful, human consideration for the needs of others is a fundamental error and we should do whatever we can to make sure that (1) it is remedied in Thailand and (2) it is not repeated elsewhere. Perhaps we could circulate relevant names and addresses of those who should be written to in these international organisations? I can offer two brand new, very capable and very socially aware British MEPs (Green party) who were elected exactly one week ago: Dr Caroline Lucas Ms Jean Lambert Both can be written to at the European Parliament, rue Wiertz, Brussels, Belgium. I'm sure there will be e-mail addresses in the very near future. Finally, please let me have any suggestions for papers for WTPP on the topic of access for everyone and if there is enough material we will run a special issue. Very best wishes John Whitelegg From litman at islandnet.com Sun Jun 20 00:29:51 1999 From: litman at islandnet.com (Todd Litman) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 08:29:51 -0700 Subject: [sustran] Re: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19990619091809.00814e10@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19990619082951.0109dc10@mail.IslandNet.com> I suggest contacting the organization Access Exchange International (email: globalride-sf@worldnet.att.net) which provides resources for improving mobility services for physically disabled people throughout the world. They have done some really creative and helpful work in many developing countries. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have a website at this time. Sincerely, Todd Litman, Director Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" 1250 Rudlin Street Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560 E-mail: litman@islandnet.com Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman >Subject: Re: Looking for statistics on PWD's. >Author: Topong Kulkhanchit at Internet >Date: 17/6/99 14:56 > > >We, disabled people in Thailand are facing with challenge from Bangkok >Metropolitan Administration (BMA) , because of the many broken promises. >On December 5, 1999 the "Bangkok Sky train” the frist mass transit >system in Thailand will be inaugerated and start operation, >unfortunately without accessibility for any handicapped passengers >including disabled people. The usual public transportation, such as bus, >train, even taxi have not been accessible for us already. DPI-Thailand >or the National Council of the Disabled of Thailand and many other >ncerning organizations have been asking for street level elevator access >since 1 3, the beginning of construction. While BMA Governor Krissada >Arunwong declined todo so. > >New Governor Bichit Rattakul took officer in 1996 and acknowledged >because of lackof vision caused improper contraction and foresight in >design. On November 27, 1995; mass rally of over 400 PWDs was luanched >in the City of Bangkok which targete to Bangkok City Hall, Government >HQ, Ministry of Interior and residence of the Prim Minister to demand >accessible facility in the controversial Skytrain. Immediate tion was >taken by the Ministry of Interion when an urgent meeting was called upo >with the combination of representative of all concerns. Negotiation was >made during the meeting and DPI-Thailand representative stepped backward >by accepting lift installation at only 5 out of 23 stations with a >condition that completion must be at the first day of official service >(December 5, 1999). At this moment, with only 5 months remains >installation process has not been initiated yet. We are informed the >uncertainty if the five station will be ready or not. > >Use of sky walks to adjacent privately owned buildings such as shopping >malls is introduced by the authority instead of lifts. Whether or not >these buildings are accessible for the disabled or elderly because of >stairs or steps, or whether or not these buildings are open during the >full operating schedule of the “Sky train”, was no taken into >consideration. > >When groups of disabled people ask city officials why the promised >access, however limited, is not going to be available, these officials hide >behind vague answers and “bureaucratic”. > >We, Thai citizens with various disablilities would like very much, >indeed, to hear critics from our friends worldwide : “What can we do, and >what can you do, to have the Governor of Bangkok and/or the Government >make good on their promises, and make a public facility truly accessible >to the all of the public”. All the elderly, pragnants, small kids in >Thailand will join us to celebrate "equalization of opportunity and full >participation". > >Please send your idea(s) to e-mail addresses below : >Thai newspapers >webmaster@thairath.co.th >Info@Dailynews.co.th >Webmaster@Khaosodusa.com >Bangna@nation.nationgroup.com >webmaster@thannews.th.com >mati@asianet.co.th >Webmaster@bangkokpost.net > >Thai Radios >Webmaster@mcot.or.th >107FM@infonews.co.th >FM97@email.ksc.net > >Bangkok Business >KT_pol@nation.nationgroup.com >KT_sport@natoion.nationgroup.com >KT_jpk@nation.nationgroup.com >KT_edu@nation.nationgroup.com > >Thai Television >Internet@tv3.co.th >Webadmin@galaxy.tv.co.th >ch7@asiaweb.co.th >Webmaster@mcot.or.th >tv11@iirt.net, mcic@iirt.net >hotline@itv.co.th >prgroup@itv.co.th >mailto:prgroup@itv.co.th > >With best regards >Topong Kulkhanchit >Access Office, DPI-Thailand >Tel/fax 662-243-6828 >e-mail : dpith@loxinfo.co.th, handipro@loxinfo.co.th > > From rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org Sat Jun 19 11:24:38 1999 From: rverzola at phil.gn.apc.org (Roberto Verzola) Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 11:24:38 Subject: [sustran] Re: Transportation investments and real estate values Message-ID: <199906191618.AAA01256@phil.gn.apc.org> >The Light Rail Transit new lines in Kuala Lumpur are >partly financed I understand by allowing the private >companies developing the lines also to develop shopping >centres at selected stations and recoup their costs >through rental of the shops. The same principles are >used in many BOT type contracts in Asia. We in the Philippines have a very bad experience about this approach. The government took precisely this approach with our Light Rail Transit III, and the private consortium doing the project made very pedestrian-unfriendly decisions with no public consultations or hearings, based on purely commercial considerations. The loading/unloading stations are essentially malls. Some of them were located *mid-way* between major highway crossings, requiring pedestrians to walk very long distances (500m. or more) as they shift from one mode to another. Our LRT III is less a system for bringing the public to their home and workplaces, but more a system for moving shoppers from one mall to another, using public land freely given to private developers by the government. Roberto Verzola From ccordero at amauta.rcp.net.pe Mon Jun 21 01:53:13 1999 From: ccordero at amauta.rcp.net.pe (Carlos Cordero V.) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 11:53:13 -0500 Subject: [sustran] RV: July and the bulletin of HST Message-ID: <002601bebb3d$93017ce0$35b601c8@q8v1n7> The Bulletin Of Human Scale Transportation July, 1999 The little pieces and the puzzle Thinking about transportation changes, as life does. Years ago the only thing that seemed to care was to accomodate more cars and build faster roads, even putting aside any other social function. Now a more integrated view arises and give privilege to the encounter for all above the speed of few ones , where circulation can be subordinate to nearness and proximity. The accent of the modern vision moves away from the physical infrastructure and our best civil work tries to demolish the frontiers that divide knowledge and that impede a full approach to the reality: The present and the one imagined. >From another front, on this creative exercise speaks Eduardo Galeano *: "The frontiers among the genders has to be break, to allow the language to be truly free and able to express this insistent energy of freedom that encourages us in the reality, when we allow it to be as magic as it wants to be. For that reason it is not classifiable what I do, neither I want it to be ...are strange things, everything at the same time. I would like to find a way of writing whose outcome is a kind of synthesis among different genders, and can take the best of each one. And above all, able to tie what the untied system unties every day: the world of the emotions and the world of the ideas, for instance "they say that" there are things to think and things to feel. I would like to join what has been divided by a quarter culture, for a human condition which break us in little pieces. And every time is more difficult to join the little pieces to recover this sensation of wholeness that give its almost cosmic sense to things, This is what give sense to things. It is about a broken reality, a wholeness that breaks continually up, for a system that quarters everything: separating the body from the soul, the vocation from the work, the past from the present, the written language from the oral language. I feel happy to speak the same way I write. At least, that it is the proof I am not so fucked up, that i have not internalized or accepted inside of me those rules that impose me a double language: a language to write and another to say, or to speak. I don't want to have two languages, I want to have one, and that it looks like me as much as what i am and to this continuous tentative that I make of joining what is broken in me, to help the others to join their own little pieces and join them to each other." We are going to El Salvador at the end of July to participate in the international workshop Deals on Wheels, thanks to the kind invitation of the UNEP, collaborating center of United Nations on energy and environment with headquarters in Denmark. The objective of the workshop is to promote the discussion of sustainable transport iniciatives in developing countries. The event is hosted by the Salvadoran Center of Appropriate Technology (CESTA). Going back, will tell you the news. The pedestrian horoscope (Cancer) In this month of July you should take care of you, especially when going by the so called Cycleway of Arequipa avenue. It is going to be seven years now since the Municipality of Lima have not repair a single of those countless holes that enchant this route. Mar?a Luisa writes from Bolivia: "Dear Carlos: ... I belong to ASEO (Ecological Association of the East), founded in 1987, institution that contributed in this district to wake up the environmental conscience. I been living in Santa Cruz, for 20 years now and I was born in Spain, in a town of Le?n, Cacabelos is called, it is in the the way to Santiago of Compostela (that many travel by bike) and since i was a littel girl I adore the bikes. Santa Cruz, the main pole of economic development of Bolivia, in its characteristics is like Iquitos, or at least I recognized this way years ago, reading Pantale?n y Las Visitadoras (a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa) The traffic is chaotic, and the city suffers the impact of thousand " transformers " (second hand Japanese cars, converted to the american system) In spite of the fact that the conditions are not the best to cycle, generally i carry out my acitivities by bike, because I not live very far from the center and I do not have to travel any radial highway or big avenue, surrounded by little buses that are the main enemies of cyclists and pedestrians. But I am not the only "arrofaldada" ("brave" in Santa Cruz), this city attracted lots of immigrants' from the highlands with a long tradition of using bikes and workers like gardeners with its tools pack tied to the rack, newspapers sellers and the bricklayers are elements of the urban landscape that secretly but firmly ride among the traffic and horns. However, being Santa Cruz a plane, very plane city, I could take advantage of this characteristics to promote the THS... In 1996 from ASEO, we mobilize the entire one Sunday June 5 in the morning to carry out the Cicletada, it was stupendous, joined us by one elephant of the circus, the mayor, the traffic boss with his subordinates in a triple bike, strange bicycles, children and families, couples in love with bikes and balloons, you cannot imagine it, was a great success, it came along with great promising speeches, more than enough, we were happy in fact. At the same time we started an exhibition with 103 pictures, many of them from Cuba and Mexico, it was denominated "Bicycles and tricycles like transport alternatives" The exhibition was exhibited in museums, schools, hotels, local meetings and it arouses enthusiasm and interest. All that I tell you could make you suspect some results, but Nothing. We got to build ramps for disabled users in the main square which is a symbol because they would have to come flying to use them; The governemnt ruined the urban park putting a " ciclovia " and we had the promise that in a two way under construction it would be incorporated a real " cicleway", but for political matters it has gotten complicated and the double road in question is coming with many problems. I hope not boring you with this tiresome speech. With the good mood injection of your bulletins I plan to recapture the project of installing ecological taxis in downtown, so that an organization of street kids called Callecruz drive them. And to recapture the proposal of the pedestrian center ... A hug and see you soon, Mar?a Luisa" Intersections In the morning rush, a woman with a kind gesture and a beautiful smile stops her car and let to pass to our humble bicycle: I conclude that humankind still has salvation. The policletos Definitively human scale transportation contributes with sensibility and fresh language to life. To the Colombian example ( see May issue), follows the healthy news from Cuernavaca, " On May 5 began in this city the metropolitan service of tourist attention in bicycle, better known as " The Policletos ". A team of 26, men and women, perfectly equipped with helmets, gloves and communication devices, the policletos of Cuernavaca, are working in the historical center of the city, so much to help to the tourism with tips and informations, like to prevent the delinquency. In a non distant future it is foreseeen to increase to 50 people for this special group. The citizenship received with enthusiasm and curiosity the new policemen, taking pictures along with them and showing respect for their work of traffic regulation. We are sure that this will mean a step for a growing respect of the bicycle like means of transport! Congratulation to the municipal authorities for this decision! "The story that West Beirut tell us is set in the civil war that the Lebanon suffered during the seventies. Three young friends live in a neighborhood of the Muslim Beirut and they travel the city by bicycle. They see the city beign divided in two so was not possible to go to the only store that develop super 8 films; . Beloved it is the history of friendship that exists among our main characters". West Beirut: France - Lebanon 1998 Director: Ziad Doveri. This text is a courtesy of the eagle eye of Luis Enrique (Spain). Sundays of soccer Along the coast of Miraflores, amid the football day, not very far from where we run behind gifted ball, comes two greetings from a big bicycle and a small one. Or Patricia and Mateo, her little boy. When finishing the sport banquet, Thomas (husband and and father of the bikers) relates that after Mateo learnead how to manage his bicycle, he feels more secure and also keeps a better mood. We spoke of the difference that means for a boy to explore the boundaries of his/her world for their own means, of socializing in freedom. We say goodbye. Then I discover how difficult is to walk with the sun lighting inside. * * * Until the next one, saludos de Carlos Carlos Cordero V. CICLORED - Centro de Asesor?a y Capacitaci?n para el Transporte y Ambiente San Juan 242, Lima 33, Per? tel : (51) 1 4460175 telfax (51) 1 4472675 e mail: ccordero@amauta.rcp.net.pe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/19990620/91201c16/attachment.htm From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon Jun 21 10:20:45 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 09:20:45 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: RE: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990621092045.007f7b20@relay101.jaring.my> This informative response bounced because Naziaty is not subscribed to sustran-discuss. To: SUSTRAN Resource Centre , sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Subject: RE: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 22:41:03 +0800 ... Dear Topong Kulkhanchit and friends, With what little experience I have in dealing and 'working' with the City Hall of Kuala Lumpur, and recollecting the stories that my colleagues, such as Christine Lee, who had campaign and peacefully demonstrated against STAR-LRT's exclusion of the disabled in 1994 in Kuala Lumpur; I find a similar pattern happening to the Bangkok advocates. At one time, the government ministries called upon the demonstrating groups for a discussion, and persuaded them not to demonstrate and promised to look into the matter in 1994 back then. STAR-LRT still has not solved the problem, but as a result another privatised company PUTRA-LRT designed disabled friendly stations in 1998 / 99. Malaysia's infra-structure projects in the 90s are basically privatised projects done by local companies , sometimes with a lot of foreign expertise.They are being funded of course by the Finance Ministry and the policies are made by the Economic Planning Unit. Is Skytrain a privatised project and part of a massive re-structuring of transportation infrastructure? Analyse the Skytrain in a contextual situation; meaning looking at it as a whole with many other different projects that the government is doing on transportation. Try to get informal one-to-one discussion with a transport engineer, not necessarily from BMA but a local consultant, just to get the right information first on how the government machinery and funding work. If it is a one-off project just to appease a short term measure; the voice by the Bangkok disabled users is not going to be 'important', compared to a more massive restructuring project. Money is always being cited as the problem, but the real problem is the 'heart' of bureaucracy or the people that makes the decision. A transport engineer that did a lot of study for Malaysian government told me that money is the the least of the problems, but it is always the excuse. Firstly,you have to get contacts in the government. Map out your resource together among your groups. It's no use just having a lot of support from the media. Good that you have so, but go all out to get support from the key government people. Find support from mainstream NGOs like the women's groups etc. or a group that have been successful before. Get help from pro-active academics, professionals and researchers. Have small discussions and meetings. Build your information base. Secondly, then form your strategies. Bring disabled issues alongside with mainstream transportation lobby groups. If they are not strong, you make them strong. Maybe in your case it takes the disabled to show the way. Join in the other causes and bring women and children's concern in, such as 'family-based advocacy'.. School-children safety campaign, for instance. Work short, medium and long-term strategies, rather than just concentrate on the 'shouting-match'... Finally, you can mobilise your resources including the contacts that you have. Work on a variety of projects and one of them happen to be the Skytrain project. Be able to relax awhile and only 'push' during a right time. When you 'push', it could be continuous or it could be sporadic. This I meant to be campaigning via media, communication, such as writing letters, commenting in the press, phone calls etc. But still push for your rights from the consumer and Bangkok resident point of view, in terms of equal opportunities etc. Try to get the views into to the mainstream consumer rights. Convince the mainstream lobby groups to campaign for you. The problem in Bangkok may be different than in Kuala Lumpur and in KL we have a long way to go. But as a disabled person, I realised very much that we have to bring our problems to be aligning with mainstream concerns. It is like getting into this big boat and helping it to steer the right course. In Malaysia, transportation issues are a big block and that it is part of the government's agenda. Mega-projects and strong on infrastructure. I talked with government engineers who symphatise with pedestrian friendly and the disabled plight, but they always give the money excuse. Then, I realised that the disabled is considered as 'little barking dogs' that is a nuisance. Yes, I truly feel that this is what they think of us. We must get the facts, and the backing of solid ideas from professionals and government people. There is no other way, but to make them sit up and look at us. When we make strong cases and back with viable solutions, will they sit up and notice. I am afraid you cannot rely on a few organisations to help you such as DPI etc. Don't just come on the 'disabled' banner. That is all that I can relate now. Please contact further. Naziaty Mohd Yaacob, Dept of Architecture, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603. Co-ordinator of Accessible Built Environment Research Centre [ABLE], University of Malaya. Adviser of Access Initiative Group [AIG] Member of Forum for Equitable and Environmental-friendly Transport [FEET] -----Original Message----- From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre [SMTP:sustran@po.jaring.my] Sent: Saturday, June 19, 1999 9:18 AM To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Cc: Topong Kulkhanchit; naziaty@alambina.um.edu.my; san.unescap@un.org Subject: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok Dear sustran-discussers, Can anyone provide any help or information for our friends in Bangkok? From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon Jun 21 22:14:58 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 21:14:58 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990621211458.007f7180@relay101.jaring.my> More from Bangkok. Re: Bangkok Sky Train In Thailand Dear Friends, Thank you very much, indeed, for your comments toward accessibility issue in Bangkok Sky Train which to be started on December 5, 1999. It is now unavoidable for us, Thai citizens with disabilities, to gather again on coming Monday June 21, 1999. We, 600 PWDs represent nationwide, will join together at 05.00 AM , near government HQ on Monday 21st June and move to Government HQ. We will block a street toward the Government HQ to cause a traffic disorder. Many radio programs will report traffic situation. Public will learn what is happenning to PWDs' rights. We demand the Prime Minister to meet us and express his determinative opinion toward provision of accessible facilities in Bangkok Sky Train. We'll not dissemble but stay as long as until we receive reliable answer that lifts will be installed at main 5 stations within Dec 5, 1999 which is the first day of its operation. We're not sure what will happen. Maybe no answer from the government. Maybe, we'll get faint from hot sun shine. Maybe, we'll hungry. Maybe, we'll get sleepy. But only what we'll say, we'll go back home unless we receive firm respond from the authority. What we need now is your supporting message. Please send to us just only few words. We're not sure we 're strong enough to cope with this crisis. Your words will em-moral us. We're looking forward to your words very soon. Thanks. Regards Topong Kulkhanchit Access Officer, DPI-Thailand From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon Jun 21 22:15:37 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 21:15:37 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990621211537.0080bc10@relay101.jaring.my> A fowarded message from non-subscriber Ms SAN Yuenwah at the Disability programme/Disadvantaged Groups Section, United Nations, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (it bounced because the sustran-discuss list only accepts messages from susbscribers) Paul. ---------------------- From: san.unescap@un.org ... Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 16:47:37 -0400 ... Subject: Re: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok ... Dear Eric Britton, I am delighted to learn from your email of the existence of the "Journal World Transport Policy & Practice". If you have the means to bring out a special year 2000 edition as outlined in your email below, please do so. There is a critical need to highlight the issue of accessible public transport policy and practice in as many relevant forums as possible. The means your describe would be excellent and timely. Transport policy makers in the developing countries should have full access to information on the costs of not including access features in transport policies and plans; they should not have to repeat the mistakes made, and undone at great expense, by others. I look forward to the edition. San Yuenwah (Ms) Disability programme/Disadvantaged Groups Section United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok Author: at Internet Date: 19/6/99 7:48 Dear Friends, This brings up an awfully tough and in many ways anguishing choice (which I don't say so lightly: having my dear mother confined to a wheelchair for the last couple fo years has served as a continuing reminder), to which perhaps we at the Journal World Transport Policy & Practice could possibly make a modest contribution. Here is an idea. .......... From sustran at po.jaring.my Tue Jun 22 12:54:09 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 11:54:09 +0800 Subject: [sustran] [sustran] access for the dis(differently) abled Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990622115409.007fa3a0@relay101.jaring.my> Some good news from Monday's demonstration in Bangkok. Also more suggestions for follow-up. Paul Subject: BOUNCE sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org: Non-member submission from [san.unescap@un.org] ... Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 22:13:26 -0400 To: .....long recipient list suppressed Subject: sustran access for dis(differently) abled persons ... Dear Mr John Whitelegg, I am grateful to Paul Barter for linking us up and generating so quickly support for Topong and other Thai disabled persons today. Thank you for your response and the information on the two new MPs. I have just spoken with Topong who informed me that the Royal Thai Government has agreed to share with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) the cost of introducing access in five new stations by 5 December 1999 so that Thai persons with disabilities will be able to join in the inauguration of the new mass transit system on that day. I am sure that Topong will send more details himself when he has recovered. I have further encouraged Topong to write up his experiences since the very beginning. This would be one contribution to the proposed WTPP edition. Topong has a video tape of today's demo. There is also an earlier video of a demo for the same purpose held in 1994. There are altogether 23 new stations in the Bangkok system. Today's government agreement on cost sharing (to enable the BMA to honour an earlier agreement concerning the introduction of access in five stations) is only a beginning. We need to find various ways of encouraging timely government decisions on access provisions at the planning stage. For those already building new or renovating existing mass transit systems, somewhat different strategies may be needed. What are the arguments for and against, the options and the strategies that have worked? Under what circumstances were those strategies effective? What are the experiences of failure and success in promoting transport access? For those engaged in advocacy on this issue, this type of information is vital. We also need to introduce transport access as a key issue in forums on infrastructure development attended by hard-nosed decision-makers, especially to influence both public and private sector decisions in the developing countries. I recall the Kuala Lumpur (KL) experience in which the private sector entity refused to introduce access to the system it was building, while the government officials were supportive of the transport access issue and the efforts made by disabled persons to convince the private sector to change. Paul Barter has access to a key disabled person, Christine Lee Soon Kup, who had been involved in the KL experience. So another possibility of a paper from KL. Concerning more information from this part of the world, you might approach Mr. Mike J. Legge, Section Engineering Manager (Building Design), MTR Corporation, Hong Kong SAR, China, for a case-study on the Hong Kong SAR experience, which has some very useful lessons for transport decision-makers in the Asia-Pacific region. Mr Legge has an interesting story to share; his email is: mike@mtrcorp.com The Transport, Communications, Tourism and Infrastructure Development Division of ESCAP had taken a first step on this in 1997 when it agreed to a proposal from the Social Development Division (also in ESCAP) to introduce the issue of public transport access for the first time at ESCAP's intergovernmental legislative committee forum on transport matters. However, far more needs to be done to mainstream this issue into infrastructure development policy, planning and programming assistance by inter-governmental bodies. Yes, the attention of the World Bank, as also that of the regional banks, should indeed be drawn to the issue of transport access and the needs of transport disadvantaged persons. With Kalle Konkkola of the National Council on Disability, Helsinki, I hope to be able to make an attempt with the Asian Development Bank in the very near future. Yes, I agree with Eric Britton, there is an urgent need for a special millennium WTPP edition - on the right to accessible public transport! Looking forward to the edition, Best wishes, San Yuenwah (ms, family name: san) Disability programme/Disadvantaged Groups Section Social Development Division United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand san.unescap@un.org http://www.unescap.org/decade (ESCAP homepage on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002: Full Participation and Equality) ........ From sustran at po.jaring.my Tue Jun 22 13:25:48 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 12:25:48 +0800 Subject: [sustran] FYI: Bangkok Skytrain protest photo Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990622122548.00828a00@relay101.jaring.my> Subject: BOUNCE sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org: Non-member submission from [kirk bendall ] .... To: "sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org" Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 01:08:05 "GMT" Subject: FYI: Bangkok Skytrain protest photo Hello all, for your information, the Australian Financial Review printed the AP photo of Skytrain access protestors in wheelchairs, on p15 today, captioned so. This was beside an article on the Thai Banlruptcy Court opening. The article, without pic, is at [http://www.afr.com.au/content/990622/world/world3.html] regards, Kirk Bendall Action for Public Transport Sydney http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~jimd/apt/ _________________________________________________________________ Get your free Australian email account at= http://www.start.com.au/ From t9802 at utsunomiya-u.ac.jp Wed Jun 23 12:05:24 1999 From: t9802 at utsunomiya-u.ac.jp (Mohsin J. Sarker) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 12:05:24 +0900 Subject: [sustran] Road Area Ratio References: <3.0.6.32.19990612094818.00796690@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <000a01bebd25$3d4193a0$0500a8c0@mohsin> Hello Everybody I am Looking for road area ratio of different cities in worldwide and also it's strandards in different countries or cities. Could any one help me in this regard by giving me possible references and sources of this data. Thanking you in anticipation. Wish you all the best. Mohsin J. Sarker Regional Planning Utsunomiya University Email : t9802@cc.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp From t9802 at utsunomiya-u.ac.jp Wed Jun 23 12:08:49 1999 From: t9802 at utsunomiya-u.ac.jp (Mohsin J. Sarker) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 12:08:49 +0900 Subject: [sustran] Road Area Ratio References: <3.0.6.32.19990612094818.00796690@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <002901bebd25$b745d800$0500a8c0@mohsin> Hello Everybody I am Looking for road area ratio of different cities in worldwide and also it's standards in different countries or cities. Could any one help me in this regard by giving me possible references and sources of this data. Thanking you in anticipation. Wish you all the best. Mohsin J. Sarker Regional Planning Utsunomiya University Email : t9802@cc.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp From ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Thu Jun 24 04:00:45 1999 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 15:00:45 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] Re: Appeal for help from disabled people in Bangkok In-Reply-To: <000001beba17$59a740a0$8388fea9@cybercable.fr> Message-ID: Eric #1: I am forwarding this to Rosemary Mathias and Roy Lave, chair and past chair of the US Transportation Research Board Committee on Paratransit. It might want to participate, or at least publicize your search for authors. Eric #2 On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Eric Britton wrote: > Dear Friends, > > This brings up an awfully tough and in many ways anguishing choice (which I > don't say so lightly: having my dear mother confined to a wheelchair for the > last couple fo years has served as a continuing reminder), to which perhaps > we at the Journal World Transport Policy & Practice could possibly make a > modest contribution. Here is an idea. > > We could begin to plot out a special edition for the year 2000 -- which is > given over to setting out an array of alternative activist, interventionist > strategies and guidelines -- with advantages, cautions and downsides > (thinking, for example, of some of the fallout of the US situation over the > last decade). Our rough model for this might be the special edition that we > are presently working to prepare on carsharing (see > http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/). > > Such a publication, jointly prepared by a group of leading transportation > activists and thinkers from around the world, could in turn be the subject > of translation and aggressive distribution around the world -- in an attempt > to provide a base of thoughtfulness, knowledge and perspective on the > subject. It could then be used in support of conferences, demonstrations, > political campaigns, etc. Moreover, if the entire process of preparation is > carried out in the interactive manner which we believe to be most > appropriate for this sort of thing (again, see the carshare stuff), the very > process itself can be a source of ideas, collaboration and resources. > > This is a decision for our gray bearded editor in chief, the redoubtable > Professor John Whitelegg to take, but now he has an opportunity to react to > this in public. > > On the other hand, this may be unnecessary or redundant, or otherwise > unwelcome. Perhaps our colleagues here might share their ideas and > reactions to this right here? That could help us take an informed decision. > > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France > email@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > 24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896. > In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) > > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri Jun 25 10:23:29 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 09:23:29 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Cart-pushers of Kathmandu Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990625092329.007ee2e0@relay101.jaring.my> One more from the latest edition of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights' newsletter, "Housing by People in Asia", No. 12, April 1999, which has several items on transport issues. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Resource Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. The cart-pushers of Kathmandu Thelagada is the Nepali word for push-cart, an ancient means of transport which, along with donkey-carts and back-loaders, still carry goods around Kathmandu. In a city of narrow lanes and maze-like alleys, push-carts can carry goods where trucks can't, without polluting or using expensive fuel imports. Cart-pushing is hard work, but offers ready employment to poor men, especially new migrants from the hills. Thelawalas work in teams of two, one steering and one pushing the load, and cluster around the city's wholesale markets, where a team can make 100 to 150 Rupees for carrying a full load of construction materials, foodgrains, furniture or dry-goods one kilometre. For a cart-pusher, better health and stronger legs means more loads and more income. They all rent their carts, on a contract basis, for 500 or 600 Rupees a month, and take home around 2,000 Rupees (US$35) a month, most of which goes to families back in the village, while the thelawalas curl up and sleep on their carts at night. But Kathmandu's remaining 346 thelawalas are finding less space and greater dangers on the streets, increasingly filled with motor vehicles. A 1998 study on push-carts by Nusha Raj Shrestha blames a decline in push-carts on transport planning and investment in Kathmandu, which has focused on motorized transport, ignoring the needs of older, more sustainable forms of transport, like the thelagadas. (Contact ACHR for more details about Nusha's cart-pusher study. Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), Secretariat, 73 Soi Sonthiwattana 4, Ladprao 110, Bangkok 10310, Thailand. Tel. +662 538 0919, Fax. +662 539 9950, e-mail: achrsec@email.ksc.net) From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri Jun 25 10:42:13 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 09:42:13 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Road Area Ratio Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990625094213.007f4c30@relay101.jaring.my> Subject: BOUNCE sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org: Non-member submission from ["Dr.Rajeev Saraf" ] ...... Subject: Re: [sustran] Road Area Ratio To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org .... A report by Peter Newman has this data for many cities in Developing and devloped countries. May be Paul, can give you the exact reference. Typically, for urban areas, 10% of the total area is marked for transportation related activities as an standard. This is for master plan (i.e., city level facilities) level facilities. For example, fo delhi it includes only roads that have a ROW of more than 24 metres. As you go down to the next level, say zonal level, then the % increases. At a neighbourhood level, it can be as high as 30 to 40% of the total area. ___________________________________________________________________________ Dr Rajeev Saraf | Urban and Transport Planner | SENIOR PROJECT SCIENTIST | PHONE : 91-11-6858703 APPLIED SYSTEM RESEARCH PROGRAM | EMAIL : sarafrk@cbme.iitd.ernet.in IIT DELHI 110016 | FAX : 91-11-6862037 INDIA | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Mohsin J. Sarker wrote: > Hello Everybody > > I am Looking for road area ratio of different cities in worldwide and also > it's standards in different countries or cities. Could any one help me in > this regard by giving me possible references and sources of this data. > Thanking you in anticipation. Wish you all the best. > > Mohsin J. Sarker > Regional Planning > Utsunomiya University > Email : t9802@cc.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp From mobility at igc.apc.org Sat Jun 26 05:15:52 1999 From: mobility at igc.apc.org (ITDP) Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 16:15:52 -0400 Subject: [sustran] Driving Forces-further thoughts Message-ID: <3773E377.94C7F2B4@igc.apc.org> I finally had a look at james Dunn's book, Driving Forces. Its not very profound and full of ridiculous statements but there are a few valid points which are worthy of discussion, such as: a. the external costs of driving in the WRI study and some others are exaggerated in the cases mentioned. I agree that parking lots in private shopping centers do not constitute a subsidy to drivers, (except for tax breaks they might get for providing the parking) as these costs are reflected in the costs of rent and products at the shopping center. 'External costs that are actually paid by other motorists is also analytically not very neat. Of course, this accepts that a considerable amount of the external costs of driving are valid. b. he may also be right that the benefits of motor vehicle trips and road enhancements are also not entirely quantified. There probably are some economic development benefits in some cases, not in others. reducing travel times and costs can increase the market area of some firms making possible greater returns to scale and can also minimize warehousing costs in some cases. Old Keynesian arguments about broader social benefits of social overhead capital have been well criticized recently but may retain some validity. c. point that urban dispersal may have lowered housing costs is possible and deserves to be addressed. Certainly japan which is the most public transit dependent OECD country also has the highest housing prices among OECD countries. this really needs to be addressed by us. I've been arguing that land rents (capturing agglomeration economies) are not equivalent to transport costs from a growth perspective (land rent is profit, and hence savings/investment, while transport costs are 'consumption). Public policies encouraging higher density investment into the built environment making possible agglomeration economies should be explored by us as well as growth controls. d. conspiracy theories about the destruction by GM of traction companies in the US being responsible for the loss of pubic transit ridership are probably exagerated and a minor factor, since transit ridership also fell in cities where this did not occur. there are much larger structural forces at work here. U.S. policy since the New Deal was trying to stimulate consumption to get us out of the Great Depression and cyclical economic crises, and a whole host of polices stimulated auto and housing consumption. e. He's also right to criticize some anti-highway advocacy folks for having a 'synoptic' point of view, particularly regarding the land use debates, meaning that they assume there is some decision-making body or should be some decision-making body which has the power to reshape urban form in some ideal way, rather than ideal urban form emerging out of a superior decision-making process. f. critique of some of the costs of sprawl literature based on empirical data showing that costs are pretty similar is probably not controlling for land costs and pricing distortions for all sorts of urban services but nonetheless was interesting. g. true that travel times to work on average are not increasing nearly as significantly as one might think or by international standards and dispersal of economic activity may have something to do with this. American exceptionalism here is quite interesting, but not very informative for developing countries. The strengths of the book are his review of the legislative history of major US transport sector policy changes, some of which was new to me anyway and interesting. Particularly interesting that large sections of the highway lobby support gas tax increases if earmarked to roads, and even if not entirely earmarked if they yield more money for highways. As a political scientist rather than an economist or a planner, you would expect this part to be the strongest, and it is, though oversimplified and positions are misrepresented in some cases. His positions are also not straight forward pro-highway. He calls for some good things; tightening CAFE standards, abolishing the earmarking of gas tax revenues all together. The book is full of errors, oversimplications, and complete misrepresentations, but these points at least were worthy of more serious consideration. Problems with the Book As Eric Bruun points out, he completely exaggerates the power of the anti-highway forces, though it is very flattering that he things we are so powerful. If only it were true! He makes some positively ludicroius statements about anti-car activists 'taking their cars away' and 'Americans could lose their automobiles and still suffer global warming.' This sort of thing makes the book difficult to consider seriously. he also takes on the weakest points of us anti-car folks, rather than the strongest points. John Pucher's points about his ignoring the validity of many other negative externalities such as safety etc. are of course correct. He's very hostile to all traffic demand management measures, somehow forgetting that traffic congestion is disfunctional for motorists as well as non-motorists, and his understanding of congestion pricing theory is fairly limited. He shares the falacy that somehow 'cars' are more modern or the way of the future, whereas many vehicles he would consider 'backward' no doubt, such as bicycle taxis and cycle rickshaws were actually invented after the automobile, street cars are from a similar period, and all are over a hundred years old. One could argue that cars are in fact a bit obsolete not in terms of their use but in terms of their economic importance, with the value of Microsoft now greater than all but 12 countries. With so much economic power concentrated in these new technology industries, the lobbying power of the auto industry is probably declining, which is probably the only reason we are making any progress. He uses rather transparent rhetorical devices of exaggerating the two extreme views in order to appear to be embracing the reasonable 'middle'. Its not a very profound book but does provide a minor service to those of us concerned about more sustainable transport systems in challenging at least some weak points in our arguments. Best, Walter Hook -- Access ITDP's New Website: www.ITDP.org The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy 115 W. 30th Street - Suite 1205 - New York, NY 10001 - USA tel: (212) 629-8001 fax: (212) 629-8033 From pendakur at interchange.ubc.ca Sat Jun 26 12:11:21 1999 From: pendakur at interchange.ubc.ca (V. S. Pendakur) Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 10:11:21 +0700 Subject: [sustran] Re: Driving Forces-further thoughts Message-ID: <000301bebfc9$75a609a0$10319fcb@notebook> It would be quite interesting to invite these folks to a major conference and have a forum to discuss these "very useful and intelligent" statement. I sincerely hope that they have information to back up the statements in the book. Cheers. -----Original Message----- From: ITDP To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Date: June 26, 1999 4:02 AM Subject: [sustran] Driving Forces-further thoughts >I finally had a look at james Dunn's book, Driving Forces. > >Its not very profound and full of ridiculous statements but there are a >few valid points which are worthy of discussion, such as: > >a. the external costs of driving in the WRI study and some others are >exaggerated in the cases mentioned. I agree that parking lots in >private shopping centers do not constitute a subsidy to drivers, (except >for tax breaks they might get for providing the parking) as these costs >are reflected in the costs of rent and products at the shopping center. >'External costs that are actually paid by other motorists is also >analytically not very neat. > >Of course, this accepts that a considerable amount of the external costs >of driving are valid. > >b. he may also be right that the benefits of motor vehicle trips and >road enhancements are also not entirely quantified. There probably are >some economic development benefits in some cases, not in others. >reducing travel times and costs can increase the market area of some >firms making possible greater returns to scale and can also minimize >warehousing costs in some cases. Old Keynesian arguments about broader >social benefits of social overhead capital have been well criticized >recently but may retain some validity. > >c. point that urban dispersal may have lowered housing costs is possible >and deserves to be addressed. Certainly japan which is the most public >transit dependent OECD country also has the highest housing prices among >OECD countries. this really needs to be addressed by us. I've been >arguing that land rents (capturing agglomeration economies) are not >equivalent to transport costs from a growth perspective (land rent is >profit, and hence savings/investment, while transport costs are >'consumption). Public policies encouraging higher density investment >into the built environment making possible agglomeration economies >should be explored by us as well as growth controls. > >d. conspiracy theories about the destruction by GM of traction companies >in the US being responsible for the loss of pubic transit ridership are >probably exagerated and a minor factor, since transit ridership also >fell in cities where this did not occur. there are much larger >structural forces at work here. U.S. policy since the New Deal was >trying to stimulate consumption to get us out of the Great Depression >and cyclical economic crises, and a whole host of polices stimulated >auto and housing consumption. > >e. He's also right to criticize some anti-highway advocacy folks for >having a 'synoptic' point of view, particularly regarding the land use >debates, meaning that they assume there is some decision-making body or >should be some decision-making body which has the power to reshape urban >form in some ideal way, rather than ideal urban form emerging out of a >superior decision-making process. > >f. critique of some of the costs of sprawl literature based on >empirical data showing that costs are pretty similar is probably not >controlling for land costs and pricing distortions for all sorts of >urban services but nonetheless was interesting. > >g. true that travel times to work on average are not increasing nearly >as significantly as one might think or by international standards and >dispersal of economic activity may have something to do with this. >American exceptionalism here is quite interesting, but not very >informative for developing countries. > >The strengths of the book are his review of the legislative history of >major US transport sector policy changes, some of which was new to me >anyway and interesting. Particularly interesting that large sections of >the highway lobby support gas tax increases if earmarked to roads, and >even if not entirely earmarked if they yield more money for highways. >As a political scientist rather than an economist or a planner, you >would expect this part to be the strongest, and it is, though >oversimplified and positions are misrepresented in some cases. > >His positions are also not straight forward pro-highway. He calls for >some good things; >tightening CAFE standards, abolishing the earmarking of gas tax revenues >all together. > >The book is full of errors, oversimplications, and complete >misrepresentations, but these points at least were worthy of more >serious consideration. > >Problems with the Book > >As Eric Bruun points out, he completely exaggerates the power of the >anti-highway forces, though it is very flattering that he things we are >so powerful. If only it were true! He makes some positively >ludicroius statements about anti-car activists 'taking their cars away' >and 'Americans could lose their automobiles and still suffer global >warming.' This sort of thing makes the book difficult to consider >seriously. he also takes on the weakest points of us anti-car folks, >rather than the strongest points. John Pucher's points about his >ignoring the validity of many other negative externalities such as >safety etc. are of course correct. He's very hostile to all traffic >demand management measures, somehow forgetting that traffic congestion >is disfunctional for motorists as well as non-motorists, and his >understanding of congestion pricing theory is fairly limited. He shares >the falacy that somehow 'cars' are more modern or the way of the future, >whereas many vehicles he would consider 'backward' no doubt, such as >bicycle taxis and cycle rickshaws were actually invented after the >automobile, street cars are from a similar period, and all are over a >hundred years old. One could argue that cars are in fact a bit obsolete >not in terms of their use but in terms of their economic importance, >with the value of Microsoft now greater than all but 12 countries. With >so much economic power concentrated in these new technology industries, >the lobbying power of the auto industry is probably declining, which is >probably the only reason we are making any progress. He uses rather >transparent rhetorical devices of exaggerating the two extreme views in >order to appear to be embracing the reasonable 'middle'. > >Its not a very profound book but does provide a minor service to those >of us concerned about more sustainable transport systems in challenging >at least some weak points in our arguments. > >Best, >Walter Hook > >-- >Access ITDP's New Website: www.ITDP.org >The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy >115 W. 30th Street - Suite 1205 - New York, NY 10001 - USA >tel: (212) 629-8001 fax: (212) 629-8033 > > > From kwood at central.co.nz Sun Jun 27 17:59:09 1999 From: kwood at central.co.nz (Kerry Wood) Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 20:59:09 +1200 Subject: [sustran] Re: Driving Forces-further thoughts Message-ID: Hi everybody Following up on Walter Hook's comments on James Dunn's book I think there IS some subsidy to drivers in supermarket parking lots: Drivers pay the same shop prices as non-drivers, so the non-drivers are subsidising parking. However, this effect is only large if most shoppers are non-drivers, and by then it doesn't matter much... But I shan't be buying the book: Thanks Walter Kerry Wood MIPENZ, MCIT Transport Consulting Engineer Phone/fax + 64 4 801 5549 e-mail kwood@central.co.nz 1 McFarlane St Wellington 6001 New Zealand From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon Jun 28 13:29:36 1999 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 12:29:36 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Road Area Ratio In-Reply-To: <199906231201.VAA28453@mail.jca.apc.org> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19990628122936.007bc990@relay101.jaring.my> Rajeev Saraf wrote in response to Mohsin J. Sarker's request: >A report by Peter Newman has this data for many cities in Developing and >devloped countries. May be Paul, can give you the exact reference. >Typically, for urban areas, 10% of the total area is marked for >transportation related activities as an standard. This is for master plan >(i.e., city level facilities) level facilities. For example, fo delhi it >includes only roads that have a ROW of more than 24 metres. As you go >down to the next level, say zonal level, then the % increases. At a >neighbourhood level, it can be as high as 30 to 40% of the total area. The Murdoch University ISTP team, led by Jeff Kenworthy and Peter Newman did start to collect some of this data and we published a small amount in on or two papers. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that this item of data was difficult to get on a consistent basis. So there is no comprehensive set of road ration data to my knowledge. This question came up last year on the utsg list (and here on sustran-discuss). The person who asked the question (Stephen Marshall) made a summary of the replies available to anyone who wanted it. It is a useful document. It is a 60 Kb file in Word 6 format and I now have a copy from Stephen. If anyone wants it then please email me off-list and I will send it to you. If you can't handle Word 6.0 then let me know and I will send it as text only. Best, Paul. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. Tel/Fax: +60 3 2742590, E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my Web: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Resource Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From gordonselway at gn.apc.org Mon Jun 28 20:29:19 1999 From: gordonselway at gn.apc.org (Gordon Selway) Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 12:29:19 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: Driving Forces-further thoughts Message-ID: On Kerry's point, rather than the book: There is a separate problem, which arises from the provision of car parking and location at sites more readily accessible by car rather than other modes, namely that the non-drivers do not have access to the supermarket, except by eg paying for a cab (all costs up front) one-way, or even both. Or by going to a shop with higher prices which is much more readily accessible to them. In either way, the driver takes on some of the supermarket's externalities, but does not shell out for them straightaway (and in the UK certainly, some of those costs would have in effect been met by the driver's employer, though this may be changing), but the non-driver (often in the poorer, more social excluded groups of society) has to pay immediately and from her/his own pocket. [Or is this standard?] wbw Gordon Selway [A planning/transport campaigner in the British Isles] At 8:59 pm 27/6/1999, Kerry Wood wrote: >Hi everybody >Following up on Walter Hook's comments on James Dunn's book >I think there IS some subsidy to drivers in supermarket parking lots: >Drivers pay the same shop prices as non-drivers, so the non-drivers are >subsidising parking. However, this effect is only large if most shoppers >are non-drivers, and by then it doesn't matter much... >But I shan't be buying the book: Thanks Walter >Kerry Wood MIPENZ, MCIT >Transport Consulting Engineer >Phone/fax + 64 4 801 5549 e-mail kwood@central.co.nz >1 McFarlane St Wellington 6001 New Zealand From JohnErnst at csi.com Mon Jun 28 23:07:06 1999 From: JohnErnst at csi.com (John Ernst) Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 08:07:06 -0600 Subject: [sustran] [sustran] Re: Driving Forces-parking costs Message-ID: <4.0.2.19990627122645.00a97e30@pop.site1.csi.com> Thanks, Walter, for giving us more info on Dunn's "Driving Forces" book. I'd also be reluctant to concede Dunn's argument that parking lots in private shopping centers are not a subsidy to drivers. Bangkok provides an example. The government requires buildings to include parking. Because of the high water table, most parking lots are constructed above ground in what could be prime commercial space. The newer underground lots require heavy sealing and pumping capacity. Both types are clearly an expensive undertaking. However, these parking spaces typically cost users less than US$1 per half-day. Many are free. So the difference is paid through prices on merchandise -- or hotel rooms, office services, etc -- which are the same for everyone regardless of what mode they use. So there's an effective parking subsidy paid by non-drivers to drivers through the identical pricing. Calculating the dollar value would be interesting, but perhaps not the point. Throughout Asia, parking is just one of the many conveniences extended to those in private cars. They also have shorter distances to walk, over better tended terrain, often shielded from sun or rain by a roof or a doorman's umbrella. All of these are not offered to those in public transit or on bicycles. The higher prices paid to subsidize parking spaces just adds to the injury. On a more positive note, shopping centers sometimes assist public transit. The North EDSA ShoeMart mall in Manila at least provides loading areas for the FX paratransit vehicles in part of their huge, free parking lot. John At 6/27/99 08:59 PM +1200, Kerry Wood wrote: ... >I think there IS some subsidy to drivers in supermarket parking lots: >Drivers pay the same shop prices as non-drivers, so the non-drivers are >subsidising parking. However, this effect is only large if most shoppers >are non-drivers, and by then it doesn't matter much... Walter Hook wrote: >...I agree that parking lots in >private shopping centers do not constitute a subsidy to drivers, (except >for tax breaks they might get for providing the parking) as these costs >are reflected in the costs of rent and products at the shopping center. ! - PLEASE NOTE new e-mail address: johnernst@csi.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - John Ernst Urban Transport Ecologist 8 Sukhumvit Soi 49/9 Bangkok 10110, Thailand johnernst@csi.com Tel +66(1) 813-1819 Fax +1(801) 365-5914 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From litman at islandnet.com Tue Jun 29 00:29:40 1999 From: litman at islandnet.com (Todd Litman) Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 08:29:40 -0700 Subject: [sustran] Re: Driving Forces-further thoughts In-Reply-To: <3773E377.94C7F2B4@igc.apc.org> Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19990628082940.00a84c00@mail.IslandNet.com> At 04:15 PM 6/25/99 -0400, Walter Hook wrote: >a. the external costs of driving in the WRI study and some others are >exaggerated in the cases mentioned. I agree that parking lots in >private shopping centers do not constitute a subsidy to drivers, (except >for tax breaks they might get for providing the parking) as these costs >are reflected in the costs of rent and products at the shopping center. >'External costs that are actually paid by other motorists is also >analytically not very neat. This has been a common issue of debate. Some economists (Tony Gomez-Ibanez, Mark Delucchi) define free parking provided by businesses as "bundled goods" rather than externalities. Gomez-Ibanez argues that this must be economically efficient (to avoid transaction costs associated with charging for parking), while Delucchi emphasizes that it results, at least in part, from other market distortions such as zoning laws and and tax policies that encourage this practice. In any case, I argue that this is functionally an externality. Externalities (or "subsidies") can be defined in three ways: 1. Marginal This requires that the prices (what consumers pay directly for a good) reflect full marginal costs. This is the only definition to use when analyzing economic efficiency. By this definition free parking is an externality and represents underpricing which encourages excessive automobile use. Such underpricing may be worthwhile to avoid transaction costs, but since the inefficiency of underpricing are additive (i.e., underpricing parking doesn't just result in excessive parking costs, it also causes excessive traffic congestion, accidents, pollution and consumer costs by encouraging increased driving) most free parking is probably inefficient. 2. Individual This concerns whether each individual pay for the costs they impose. Horizontal equity requires that, in general, consumers "get what they pay for and pay for what they get". As some others have pointed out, free parking supplied by businesses violates this principle because some people don't drive. A customer who arrives at a store by walking, bicycling or transit pays for parking they don't use, therefore subsidizing those who arrive by car (who tend to be wealthier, so this also violates vertical equity). The same occurs for workers, since employee parking subsidies are part of employee benefits, so money spent on parking for those who drive means less money for employee wages and other benefits. 3. Sector (group) Level This concerns whether each group pay the costs it imposes. It ignores the inequity of cross-subsidies that occur within a group (some motorists are subsidized by other motorists), and is arbitrary since it depends on how groups are defined. For example, if your neighbor's dog barks, is this an external cost if your household has no dogs but an internal cost if you are dog owners? Is traffic noise an internal cost if you own a car, but an external cost if you are car free? What about motorcycle noise? Group level analysis is common because it represents political analysis (which is concerned with decisions are made by groups), but it has little meaning in economics (which is concerned with decisions made by individual consumers and firms). It is common for political debates about externalities and subsidies to focus on things such as whether truckers as a group are subsidized by motorists as a group, but effective economic analysis (concerning both economic efficiency and equity) must ask whether individual consumers pay the costs they impose. To put this another way, externalities represent a subsidy of one good or activity over another good or activity. Free local roads subsidize underprice driving while overpricing housing. As a result, people consume more driving and less housing than they would choose in a more neutral market. Whether it is the same consumers or different consumers who eventually bear the costs is irrelevant from an efficiency perspective, and the equity impacts depend on how much individual consumers value the various goods. Somebody who loves to drive and has minimal housing needs benefits from this market distortion, while somebody who loves housing but does not enjoy driving is worse off, regardless of whether a simple financial accounting would show that they individually pay for the parking they consume. Whether you define free parking provided by businesses as an externality or bundled good, the practice represents a market distortion that underprices automobile travel, exacerbates problems (or to use a more economic term, "increases social costs") such as congestion, accidents, pollution and consumer costs, and is inequitable to individuals. >b. he may also be right that the benefits of motor vehicle trips and >road enhancements are also not entirely quantified. There probably are >some economic development benefits in some cases, not in others. >reducing travel times and costs can increase the market area of some >firms making possible greater returns to scale and can also minimize >warehousing costs in some cases. Old Keynesian arguments about broader >social benefits of social overhead capital have been well criticized >recently but may retain some validity. The question is not whether motor vehicle use provides benefits. Obviously it does or people would not be shelling out a major portion of their income to drive. However, the real question is whether marginal benefits exceed marginal costs which would justify existing high levels of automobile use (probably not), and whether external marginal benefits exceed external marginal costs which would justify underpricing automobile use (almost certainly not). There is no reason to assume that there are significant external marginal benefits from driving (i.e., you benefit if all of your neighbors drive MORE than they do now) for the simple reason that rational consumers tend to internalize benefits and externalize costs. Researchers that have looked for external benefits have found few, and virtually no marginal external benefits. For more discussion of these issues see our newest report "Transportation Cost Analysis Summary." It includes a description of various costs associated with motor vehicle use a summary of previous transportation cost studies. In a few days I will be posting a revised version of our report "Reply to Criticism of Transportation Costing" which will also discuss which costs are really "external." These reports are available at http://www.islandnet.com/~litman. Sincerely, Todd Litman, Director Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" 1250 Rudlin Street Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560 E-mail: litman@islandnet.com Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman From ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Tue Jun 29 01:18:56 1999 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 12:18:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] more on agglomeration re. Hook's review of Driving Forces-further thoughts In-Reply-To: <3773E377.94C7F2B4@igc.apc.org> Message-ID: On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, ITDP wrote: > I finally had a look at james Dunn's book, Driving Forces. > [snip] > > c. point that urban dispersal may have lowered housing costs is possible > and deserves to be addressed. Certainly japan which is the most public > transit dependent OECD country also has the highest housing prices among > OECD countries. this really needs to be addressed by us. I've been > arguing that land rents (capturing agglomeration economies) are not > equivalent to transport costs from a growth perspective (land rent is > profit, and hence savings/investment, while transport costs are > 'consumption). Public policies encouraging higher density investment > into the built environment making possible agglomeration economies > should be explored by us as well as growth controls. > The Dennis Agreement from 1992 for the Stockholm region explicitly used agglomeration as a justification to improve the transport system. There were some interesting plots of GRP versus density and other materials in this report. Unfortunately, I do not have an electronic version or I would post parts of it. > > > > From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue Jun 29 01:02:46 1999 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (Eric Britton) Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 18:02:46 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Carsharing, Sustainable Transportation and You Message-ID: Dear Friends, Over at The Commons, we are gradually closing in on that special issue of World Transport Policy & Practice that we are preparing on the surprising topic of Carsharing and Sustainable Transportation. And just in case you are not up to speed on what is going on under this unassuming name, may I invite you to check out the first 14 pieces which are now available on our site (at http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/ ) and ready for the downloading (see Contents below). My fond hope is that we can encourage some of you to have a look and, if possible, to offer comments and suggestions for the authors and editors as we move toward actual publication. I think that you will find that most of the stuff that describes actual projects is at least fairly well known -- but it is when the authors get down to such matters as to how these systems can be made to integrate with public and non-motorized transport and for the first time offer a true alternative movement system to the owner/driver car, that you may find things most interesting. Also that last article by Bradshaw on how this can work with the neighborhood economy is, to my mind at least, very good stuff indeed and worth your consideration and perhaps your comments. In fact, if we can begin to assemble some good comments and discussion, we might want to think about actually adding the best of these to the final publication. Finally... we are looking for sponsors, places, and/or events to which this publication might somehow be tied and put to work. Pity if the only thing that were to happen is that it would go on the shelves of a couple of hundred research libraries... one more pile of paper to be read with a sigh, if at all. We live in a world that greatly needs good ideas that can actually be made to work, and carsharing just happens to be one of them, Eric Britton ========= 1. A Short History of Carsharing in the 90's (Sperling, Shaheen, Wagner) 2. Car Sharing As A Socio-Technical Learning System (Harms and Truffer) 3. Who are the early adopters of car sharing? A brief history of car sharing in Denmark (Th?gersen and Norre) 4. Sweden: Getting Mobilised (Strid) 5. Car Sharing Organizations in Latin America:Examining Prospects For Santiago (Zegras and Gackenheimer) 6. How Our Family Kicked The Car Habit (Bradshaw) 7. Praxit?le: The Ambitious Station Car Experiment in France (Parent et al) 8. So You Want to Start a Carsharing Service (Brook) 9. CarLink - A Smart Carsharing System (Shaheen) 10. A Survey of Carsharing Preferences (Abraham) 11. The Adoption of Car Sharing in Portland Oregon: Case Study of the Diffusion Process (R. Katzev) 12. The Bremen Approach To Carsharing And Transport System Integration (Glotz-Richter - Editor/co-author sought) 13. Edinburgh City Car Club Goes Live (Saunders, Rye et al) 14. How Car-sharing Will Help Re-establish the Neighbourhood Economy? (Bradshaw) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: winmail.dat Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 10484 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/19990628/cabf382a/winmail.bin From mobility at igc.apc.org Wed Jun 30 23:51:48 1999 From: mobility at igc.apc.org (ITDP) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 10:51:48 -0400 Subject: [sustran] Re: Driving Forces-further thoughts References: <3.0.5.32.19990628082940.00a84c00@mail.IslandNet.com> Message-ID: <377A2F04.5314D32B@igc.apc.org> I still don't buy that private shopping center parking is subsidizing motorists except for tax breaks for employer provided parking and in the case that regulations are forcing developers to build more parking units than they otherwise would, which I would guess is rare in the US. I'm going to lay out what I think the Neoclassical argument would be, and see if anyone is convinced. The Shopping Center owners will build additional units of parking so long as the marginal revenue they receive from that last customer is greater than the marginal cost of providing the additional parking. If the marginal revenue of providing that last unit of parking is less than its marginal cost, a shopping center owner will not build it or he will be losing money. Unfortunately, in the U.S., bus passengers tend to be low income people. As such, they probably spend less at shops than motorists, so even though the marginal cost of providing parking to them his higher, the marginal revenue earned from them is also probably higher. Unless the marginal revenue is lower than the marginal cost, I don't think you have much of a case for a subsidy or an externality. The value of the land (and the land rent) on which the shopping center sits is largely a reflection of its accessibility. The less people need to spend to reach the shopping mall, (ie. if 90% of the people are able to walk to the shopping mall), then the land rent is going to be much higher than in the case where most peole will have to drive. The theory of the bid-rent curve indicates that total rent plus total travel costs will tend toward a constant in a metropolitan area. The cheaper the place is to reach, (ie. easy to get there by transit and bus) the higher the rent will be. Therefore, whatever mode you take, the cost of your access will be reflected in the land rent and passed on to the products you buy. >From the shopper's point of view, they will shop at the store which offers the items they want at the lowest cost plus the lowest cost of reaching the store. If a store was spending more money on parking than it was receiving from the motorists who use the parking, its prices would have to be higher than at other stores which were more pedestrian friendly. Thus, they would lose their business, as these shoppers would shop somewhere else, perhaps in a downtown shopping center without any parking. Of course, these downtown shops and residents of higher density areas are paying greater rent directly because their transport costs are lower. > Externalities (or "subsidies") can be defined in three ways: > > 1. Marginal > This requires that the prices (what consumers pay directly for a good) > reflect full marginal costs. This is the only definition to use when > analyzing economic efficiency Efficiency is achieved only when the price reaches a level where marginal revenues equal marginal costs and average costs. If the price equals marginal revenues and marginal costs at a point below average costs, you have a strong case for a subsidy. Best, Walter