From ganant at vsnl.com Thu Jan 6 03:29:49 2000 From: ganant at vsnl.com (Ananthakrishnan) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 23:59:49 +0530 Subject: [sustran] bus lanes Message-ID: <000701bf57ab$051eec40$f386c5cb@vsnl.net.in> Chennai (Madras), India, has had a bus lane on a small stretch of its major roadway, Mount Road (Anna Salai) for over five years now, but this system stretching over about 3 km now faces threat. Police have suggested doing away with it, because it does not have the kind of traffic that the adjacent car lane does. Rising urban prosperity and a declining bus network have led to pressure that cars be given more space. It has not helped the cause of commuters using the buses, that cars are used by those in authority and in influential positions, be it politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen or even senior journalists. If you travel by bus, you are just one of the multitude of struggling Indians. The most amazing statement that has been cited in support of the idea to do away with the dedicated bus lane comes from the city development authority (Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority) : that nowhere in the world is a lane made available for buses, at the cost of other road users. Should Asians go through the development cycle and learn at enormous cost, that the answer to mobility in big cities can primarily be only public modes ? Any interesting experiences ? Would help in writing a critical piece for my newspaper. G.Ananthakrishnan, Chennai-based journalist can be reached at Tel: + 91 44 8413942 , Fax: + 91 44 8415395. From robertc at uclink.berkeley.edu Thu Jan 6 04:54:59 2000 From: robertc at uclink.berkeley.edu (Rob Cervero) Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 11:54:59 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: informal transport report In-Reply-To: <383C6F88.7D875191@igc.org> Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20000105115459.00758fb0@uclink4.berkeley.edu> Hi Walter: Hope all's well with the New Year. I finished my report on informal transport. It's a final draft, though it's pretty polished and ready to go. I would welcome comments and suggestions if you'd have time to read through at least parts of it. I feel it's of book quality, thus I've approached Brian Williams about getting a non-profit publisher to release it. If UNCHS can give it wide distribution, that's fine as well. I'll mail the report to you. You going to be a TRB? I'm making my once every 4 year trip. If so, hope to see you there. Regards, Robert From robertc at uclink.berkeley.edu Thu Jan 6 05:21:51 2000 From: robertc at uclink.berkeley.edu (Rob Cervero) Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 12:21:51 -0800 Subject: [sustran] oops Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20000105122151.006b216c@uclink4.berkeley.edu> Yikes! Sorry gang...my post was intended to be a private message to Walter. But if anyone wants to discuss informal transport -- the motodub of Phnom Pehn, trolley skates of Manila, okada of Lagos, etc. -- I'm game. Rob From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu Jan 6 11:23:29 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 10:23:29 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: bus lanes In-Reply-To: <000701bf57ab$051eec40$f386c5cb@vsnl.net.in> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000106102329.00877e60@relay101.jaring.my> At 23:59 5/01/00 +0530, you wrote: >Chennai (Madras), India, has had a bus lane on a small stretch of its major >roadway, Mount Road (Anna Salai) for over five years now, but this system >stretching over about 3 km now faces threat. ... I have no knowledge of this particular stretch of Chennai bus lane and how effective it is. But the trend all over Asia is to extend and improve on-road priority for buses. In almost every Asian case that I know of these are lanes that used to be mixed traffic lanes. It is precisely when there is intense competition for road space that it becomes most important to give public transport priority. Some Asian examples of bus lanes (that were taken from mixed-traffic lanes) include: Seoul + other Korean cities (massive expansion of bus-lane networks since 1990 with further expansion and improvements planned); Taipei (fantastic network opened in 1995 has helped reverse trend of declining bus ridership. I will email you (off-list) a scanned photo (jpeg) of one of their bus lanes which, like most of them in Taipei, runs down the centre of the street); Nagoya, Japan also has some centre-street bus lanes; Singapore (extensive network - rigorously enforced); Hong Kong (extensive bus and tram priorities); Bangkok (extensive network since early 1980s including some "contra-flow lanes". Enforcement slackened by the end of 1980s so only the contra-flow lanes were working. But I hear that there is now a renewed determination to enforce the bus lanes in Bangkok.); Kuala Lumpur (several bus lanes since 1996 - apparently done a little hastily but in some cases are working quite well); Jakarta (several lanes - to be expanded); There are many many other successful examples from all over the world, including especially Brazil (including but not only Curitiba) and Western Europe (eg London has been improving bus priority in the 1990s). My comment on the Chennai situation: I believe that buses now carry a higher percentage of passengers in Chennai compared with cars. But I would bet that cars already occupy more road space than buses. I would guess that the bus speeds have already been dropping recently as the number of cars rises rapidly. So, in order to protect the bus system from congestion, there is probably a strong case for a massive expansion of the bus priority system in Chennai, not a reduction! Hope this helps. Paul. PLEASE NOTE NEW 8 DIGIT TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN) P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. TEL/FAX: +60 3 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my SUSTRAN: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS: http://www.egroups.com/group/sustran-discuss/ The SUSTRAN network promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From jbeuving at inzet.nl Thu Jan 6 19:38:01 2000 From: jbeuving at inzet.nl (Joost Beuving) Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 11:38:01 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Benin In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.20000105122151.006b216c@uclink4.berkeley.edu> Message-ID: Dear Rob, And how about "zemidjans"in Cotonou, Benin? Presently I am working on a project, together with three Beninese counterpart organization, on a project, aiming at supporting sustainable transport in Cotonou. Interesetd? Greetings, Joost Beuving INZET - Vereniging voor Noord - Zuid Campagnes Keizersgracht 132 - I NL - 1015 CW Amsterdam tel: +31-(0)20-627 33 39 fax: +31-(0)20-627 38 39 internet: http://www.inzet.nl email: jbeuving@inzet.nl From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Thu Jan 6 21:01:20 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 13:01:20 +0100 Subject: [sustran] bus lanes In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000106102329.00877e60@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: Dear Ananthakrishnan, Paul, Colleagues, Let me try to add usefully to this thread if I may. Since time is awfully short this morning, I am afraid that this must take the form of several hasty bullets. But perhaps others can come in and fill out the underlying issues, arguments and positions that one must take. After all the object is, simple though it is to write or say it, no more, no less than sustainable transportation. * The trick with bus lanes is that they just cannot be isolated from the greater whole of which they are inevitably part. They are difficult, delicate creatures that can make it only in a broader supportive, more or less coherent environment of policy and behavior. * There have been lots of cases in the past , lots of places, in which bus lanes have not worked out. * Also, the truth is that there are many more ways of getting them right than getting them wrong. * And further, even most of those that are there and "working satisfactorily" today are not nearly as powerful or useful as sustainability tools as they might be. (Bearing in mind that sustainability does NOT preclude throughput efficiency.) * In my years of observation and work in this sector, I note that the police out there on the street and trying to cope every day tend to know a great deal more about the realties of life out there than most transport planners sitting at their desks with their fine Western training, analytic tools and points of view. (Object lesson: If you can't get the cops on your side, then you are probably making a big mistake. That does not mean, however, that they are going to come up with the answers themselves. But they must be part of the analytic and remedial process.) * One short term response that has worked pretty well in some places where lanes have not been respected is of curse to run them AGAINST the other traffic flow. * Another is to ensure that there is enough bus traffic to "justify" the exclusive lane in the eyes of the observers (i.e., all those drivers who are competitors for the scarce road space). * Another (but only once the above is ensured) is to figure out both "street architecture" enforcement routines and a certain minimum of enforcement (traffic police? drivers enabled to issue tickets? hmmm.) to keep the whole thing reasonable clean and working. * Paul Barter's recommendation for a massive expansion of the Chennai bus lanes is no doubt the right way to go, but the problem always of course is how to get from here to there. The only way to do this is to CONVINCE!!! A final point on this. It strikes me that at present we, i.e., all those of us who care about these matters, do not yet have the means to ensure that the case of sustainable transport concepts such as these get their full and fair hearing, when and where it is needed. (We can preach to the converted, of course, and think that does the job, but it surely does not.) Sure there are NGOs (and the best of these are indeed getting better and better), consultants (but they have to sell their services and thus have apparent vested interests), researchers and university types (who have their own agenda), and a few other bits and pieces (including, for example, me and maybe you) which are all potential parts of the solution process which is needed to advance the sustainable transportation agenda. As are, potentially, some of the international organizations such as the Bank, the OECD and others... though truth to tell most of them have mixed agenda and at you look close and hard at what they actually think about and do for the most part, you will find that sustainable transportation is pretty far down on their overall agenda. All this leaves me with what I think is an interesting thought. Who can walk in to the office of the mayor and governor responsible for Chennai (already quite a task to arrange), get them to sit down, listen hard and come on board the sustainable transportation bandwagon once and for all -- and then help guide them to do what is needed and possible, when it is needed and possible, without bringing the crowds out into the street and getting them hung and/or thrown out of office for all their fine thoughts? Guess I'll have to keep thinking about that one. Eric Britton At 23:59 5/01/00 +0530, you wrote: >Chennai (Madras), India, has had a bus lane on a small stretch of its major >roadway, Mount Road (Anna Salai) for over five years now, but this system >stretching over about 3 km now faces threat. ... I have no knowledge of this particular stretch of Chennai bus lane and how effective it is. But the trend all over Asia is to extend and improve on-road priority for buses. In almost every Asian case that I know of these are lanes that used to be mixed traffic lanes. It is precisely when there is intense competition for road space that it becomes most important to give public transport priority. Some Asian examples of bus lanes (that were taken from mixed-traffic lanes) include: Seoul + other Korean cities (massive expansion of bus-lane networks since 1990 with further expansion and improvements planned); Taipei (fantastic network opened in 1995 has helped reverse trend of declining bus ridership. I will email you (off-list) a scanned photo (jpeg) of one of their bus lanes which, like most of them in Taipei, runs down the centre of the street); Nagoya, Japan also has some centre-street bus lanes; Singapore (extensive network - rigorously enforced); Hong Kong (extensive bus and tram priorities); Bangkok (extensive network since early 1980s including some "contra-flow lanes". Enforcement slackened by the end of 1980s so only the contra-flow lanes were working. But I hear that there is now a renewed determination to enforce the bus lanes in Bangkok.); Kuala Lumpur (several bus lanes since 1996 - apparently done a little hastily but in some cases are working quite well); Jakarta (several lanes - to be expanded); There are many many other successful examples from all over the world, including especially Brazil (including but not only Curitiba) and Western Europe (eg London has been improving bus priority in the 1990s). My comment on the Chennai situation: I believe that buses now carry a higher percentage of passengers in Chennai compared with cars. But I would bet that cars already occupy more road space than buses. I would guess that the bus speeds have already been dropping recently as the number of cars rises rapidly. So, in order to protect the bus system from congestion, there is probably a strong case for a massive expansion of the bus priority system in Chennai, not a reduction! Hope this helps. Paul. A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN) From sagaris at lake.mic.cl Fri Jan 7 00:15:23 2000 From: sagaris at lake.mic.cl (Lake Sagaris) Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 11:15:23 -0400 Subject: [sustran] Re: bus lanes In-Reply-To: References: <3.0.6.32.20000106102329.00877e60@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000106111523.007df100@127.0.0.1> I've been following the exchange on bus lanes with great interest. There is a very successful example of express lanes along Avenida Grecia in Santiago, Chile -- curiously, it has not been duplicated anywhere else in the city, in spite of the fact that some 60% of daily trips are still made by bus here, versus 20% by car. As a citizens' group that started up by fighting a major highway project and that has gone on from there to learn about and advocate with increasing commitment express and other bus lanes, bike lanes, pedestrian preference, etc. in the city, Eric's final question hit the spot -- >A final point on this. It strikes me that at present we, i.e., all those of >us who care about these matters, do not yet have the means to ensure that >the case of sustainable transport concepts such as these get their full and >fair hearing, when and where it is needed. (We can preach to the converted, >All this leaves me with what I think is an interesting thought. Who can >walk in to the office of the mayor and governor responsible for Chennai >(already quite a task to arrange), get them to sit down, listen hard and >come on board the sustainable transportation bandwagon once and for all -- >and then help guide them to do what is needed and possible, when it is >needed and possible, without bringing the crowds out into the street and >getting them hung and/or thrown out of office for all their fine thoughts? Curiously, this may not be as difficult as planners believe -- if you're willing to get out and take your message directly to neighborhood associations and other citizens' groups. These differ from the usual NGOs very significantly (although we often work well together with NGOs and I'm certainly not knocking them) in that these organizations usually have elected leaders who represent a sizeable mass of people -- ie voters. Our experience in dealing with three different municipal governments (we are a 25-orgnanization coalition spread through different municipal areas) is that a determined, well-informed citizens' group can have enormous impact on city policy, whether city officials are particularly competent or not (competence, obviously, helps). The fact that our circle of advisors includes some of Chile's most distinguished urbanists and transport engineers has strengthened both the academics -- we have functioned as an amplifier for the opinions and information most relevant to our territory -- and of course to our groups, because of the quality of our proposals. Part of our impact, of course, is that we represent the groups who normally oppose major changes to basic city infrastructure and public space, particularly when we have not been consulted PRIOR to implementation. If planners, experts, elected officials begin by consulting community organizations during the DIAGNOSIS stage, their proposals will be much MUCH better, and good ones tend to have the ACTIVE SUPPORT of community groups, who are more than happy to be fighting for something worthwhile, rather than against a plan that looks and may indeed be disastrous. Chile has neighborhood associations, Juntas de Vecinos, built into the political structure, which helps, but even here, social capital, civil society and participation was very badly damaged by 17 years of military rule. Nonetheless, neighborhood groups are formidable opponents to many official projects. This strength can be put to very good use when academics/experts join their knowledge with our practical experience. All best Lake Sagaris Ciudad Viva (Living City), Chile From kerry.wood at paradise.net.nz Sat Jan 8 09:04:24 2000 From: kerry.wood at paradise.net.nz (Kerry Wood) Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2000 13:04:24 +1300 Subject: [sustran] Bus lanes Message-ID: <38767F00.BC727EAB@paradise.net.nz> I am in the middle of a paper on speeding up ALL traffic by making public transport faster and more efficient. Here are some bits from it (sorry, it has diagrams which get messy on e-mail) ISTP data shows that cities with low car use have low overall transport costs. (I have used their figures for operating cost of non-freight transport) For as long as the debate is about road building for cars, it is not so much about improving transport as about how quickly it will get worse. Huge figures for the cost of congestion are meaningless in a policy context because there is no prospect of realising the savings: Mogridge (1997) refers to ?ghost city? traffic flows. They can also be used to support any option, and so cannot discriminate between options. It has been known since the Buchanan report (1963) that full motorisation is impracticable in a large city - especially if that city has a high density. Speeding up motor traffic is self-defeating in four ways: -- If the car-carrying capacity of the road is increased, the cost curve for cars is flattened. The result is that some passengers switch from passenger transport to car use. More cars quickly offset the savings and costs return to their old level (the cost curve is very steep in congested traffic, so mode switching does not have to be on a large scale). However, passenger transport costs increase because there are fewer passengers: fares may rise, the operator may take off some services, or the service may even close. Higher costs encourage more passengers to switch to car use, so car costs rise until they reach the new passenger transport costs. When the readjustments are complete the point where the cost curves for passenger transport and cars cross is at a higher cost than before the capacity increase: the road ?improvement? has increased costs for everybody. -- Capacity increase in an urban area simply releases suppressed demand. This accounts for the common observation, first made in the 1930s, that a new urban highway does not reduce traffic on the old route (SACTRA 1994). SACTRA?s explanation is that new capacity induces new traffic on an important scale, which is not allowed for in most transport modelling. -- Urban design effects. For example, good car mobility allows supermarkets to drive local stores out of business, frustrating accessibility and needing more mobility to meet the demand created -- Buses are slowed down in four ways. They have greater difficulty in re-entering a faster traffic stream after a stop, or in crossing fast traffic to reach a right turn lane; they consistently miss traffic lights set to give motor traffic a ?green wave? through several junctions, because of the need to stop for passengers; they suffer long delays at traffic lights set to maximise traffic capacity by using long phases; and they often follow a more circuitous route to pick up passengers. Suppressed demand is usually a smaller economic problem than excess demand. SACTRA (1999) studied the economic impacts of reducing traffic, and concluded: ?The external costs arising from road transport provide a rationale for traffic reduction insofar as it arises from the alignment of marginal benefit with marginal social cost. (7.125) ?..a more efficient allocation of resources might result from well?targeted reduction measures. There is a strong case for correcting market failure since marginal social costs appear to exceed marginal benefit on many journeys.? (7.126) Reducing capacity also has little effect on speeds. Cairns and her co-workers (1998) found 47 traffic reduction schemes where usable data was available, with an average area-wide reduction of 25% of the capacity of the altered streets. Crucially, they could not find any example of capacity reduction causing ?traffic chaos,? beyond a short adjustment period (it will be alright by Friday), even when there were catastrophic reductions due to earthquakes. Road building making the situation worse is called the Downs-Thomson effect. Thomson (1977) describes the process like this: ?If the decision to use public or private transport is left to the free choice of the individual commuter, an equilibrium will be reached in which the overall attractiveness of the two systems is about equal, because if one is faster, cheaper and more agreeable than the other there will be a shift of passengers to it, rendering it more crowded while the other becomes less so, until a position is reached where no?one on either system thinks there is any advantage in changing to the other... ?Hence we derive one of the golden rules of urban transport: the quality of peak?hour travel by car tends to equal that of public transport.? Studies of door-to-door travel speeds in several cities show that speeds on public and private transport are remarkably similar, and studies of household travel surveys show that about 15% of commuter cars are not used every day: there is mode switching going on. Zurich is one of several European cities that have pursued a policy of improving public transport for some years. It is a particularly interesting example because excellent results have been achieved at comparatively low cost, with few subways and some surprisingly old vehicles. The head of VBZ, the Zurich transport authority, claims: ?The only way to reduce traffic problems is to promote public transport . ?Our strategy has been promoting public transport, reducing non-essential car traffic, funneling traffic onto trunk roads, reducing parking provision and encouraging pedestrians and cyclists.? (Heierli 1996) Cost/modal split diagrams (following Mogridge) show that speeding up passenger transport also speeds up cars EVEN IF SPACE IS TAKEN FROM CARS TO MAKE ROOM FOR PASSENGER TRANSPORT. This is what has been done in Zurich, as well as many other European cities. It seems to boost rather than depress the economy. ISTP data includes in-vehicle speeds for private and passenger transport for a range of cities, as well as the proportion of journeys to work by car. Plotting these gives a clear boundary line, which seems to represent the Downs-Thomson effect: all the cities quoted by Mogridge are on on close to this line. Mogridge (1997) mentions sample calculations suggesting that in central London average traffic speeds could be doubled by favouring passenger transport: clearly this would being major commercial benefits. Trucks have to be considered, but they do not necessarily need more road space - they are usually only about 10% of a traffic stream. A common assumption is that business people need car access, but what they really need is good access. Heierli (1996) says: ?Zurich has... succeeded in giving its public transport operators the image of modern companies with a clear customer focus, which... results in a very positive image. The outcome of this is that there is no stigma attached to travelling by tram in Zurich; indeed, anyone who does not use the tram tends to be regarded as out of touch. ?Our politicians make regular use of public transport (not just at election times) and leading figures from economic and academic life would not consider commuting in any other way.? References Buchanan, C (1963) Traffic in Towns. London: HMSO Cairns, S; Hass?Klau, C and Goodwin, P (1998) Traffic impact of highway capacity reductions: assessment of the evidence. London: Landor. Heierli, R (1996) European Lecture: Public transport in Zurich. Proc Instn Civil Engineers, Transport 117, November Mogridge, MJH (1997) The self?defeating nature of urban road capacity policy. Transport Policy 4 (1) pp 5?23 Thomson, JM (1977) Great cities and their traffic. London: Gollancz. Quoted in Mogridge (1997) I like the idea of running bus lanes in the ?wrong? direction to keep cars out of the lane. Thanks Lake. Another approach is to raise bus lanes about 80-120 mm above the general traffic lanes (or about 150 mm with a beveled kerb), so that motor vehicles can use them at low speed in emergency, but not just to save a few seconds. Brussels uses a thing like a painted broken line, but the ?paint? is concrete and 100 mm high. A good design for a ?bus gate? to keep other traffic out of a bus lane is a narrow section of road, between kerbs, with a level surface where the bus wheels go but a dip where the narrower car wheels go. It doesn?t matter if the inner wheels on the back axle of the bus are unsupported. The dip can be enough to slow cars down, or deep enough to stop them, and a ridge (low enough to clear the bus differential) stops them from going over the dip too fast for their wheels to drop in. The trouble is that it is comparatively expensive, because the dip needs separate drainage. -- Kerry Wood MICE MIPENZ MCIT Transport Consultant 1 McFarlane Street, Wellington 6001, New Zealand Phone + 64 4 971 5549 From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Sat Jan 8 20:52:59 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 12:52:59 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Bus lanes & Moore's Law revisited In-Reply-To: <38767F00.BC727EAB@paradise.net.nz> Message-ID: I guess that since Kerry Wood posted this here (and for those who may not have Kerry's notes in front of you I have (exceptionally) logged in the whole thing below) it's cause comments and perhaps useful ideas and reflections are in order. Let me have a shot, but first a word from our sponsor: Kerry, it is a splendid thing indeed to see so much good sense making its way into halls of transport counsel (and of course better yet when they make their way into transport practice). For a long time, these were for most cities marginal ideas, so far out of the mainstream of what was perceived to be possible and desirable that they never even began to get a hearing. How rewarding it is, therefore, after a couple of decades to see such ideas starting to shape the mainstream. We still are a bit of a way from that accomplishment of course, but it strikes me that we are now beginning to be well on our way. All it takes is more work, more imagination and more examples on the ground which are just so extremely striking that they can no longer be denied (thanks, Zurich, Curitiba and eventually hundreds of other cities, mainly in Europe, which are starting to change the rules and our perceptions of what works and what most evidently does not). Observations on the draft: 1. "...speeding up ALL traffic by making public transport faster and more efficient..." I am afraid that a tremble at the hypothesis so stated, as I am sure you do. But permit me to carry on for a moment on this. The advantage of putting it this way of course is that it pre-empts the cars-first crowd, by suggesting to them that what's good for the system will also be good for them. That may be cagey politics but it's dangerous and I think ultimately quite wrong. Dangerous, because it may give them more rope to go out and make THEIR traffic hustle along even faster, which of course gives all the other modes the short end of the stick... once again. And wrong of course because as Wood and others have abundantly pointed out, the only way to make any sense out of the system is to render the environment steadily, each day a little more, somewhere between unfriendly and inimical to the good old private car. In the sustainable city, you will see the odd solo-driver car here and there during the day, just like you see the old Spotted Owl, and it will set you to wondering "Whatever is THAT doing HERE?" 2. "...raise bus lanes.." Ouch. This strikes me like a first-generation "solution", for which one can understand all the reasons and thinking behind it but which one still needs to pop right into the dustbin. This is not to toss out the problem of lane clearing, which I think can be solved (later), but it is to suggest that anything more than a thick stripe of plastic paint or whatever is both potentially dangerous and unfriendly to others out there on the street. They also tend to be quite ugly, even threatening, and I do think that we already have enough ugly and threatening things in most of our cities not to consciously opt for more. 3. "...bus gate..." broadly as above. To conclude: Bus lanes are a terrific way to start to organize thinking and practice on sustainable transport in cities, because they are concrete, they now come complete with a growing number of convincing demonstration sites (meaning that you can just haul your politicos and traffic mavens over to a selection of places so they can see for themselves.... perchance to dream), because they do not require enormous gobs of hard earned taxpayer dollars, and because it's something that any city can start to move toward, say, beginning tomorrow morning. All you have to do is find a way to sell the idea, and then, with proper preparation, it should simply sell itself. A final wrinkle and observation: Think of bus lanes and all that goes with them (including the SurfaceMetro concept, pace Curitiba) as today being still in theory and in practice in very early stages of their evolution. Say, the on-street equivalent of an Apple II on your desk in 1977 and just about everyone who passes asks you why ever would you waste your time with that. Filing recipes? Conclusion: Let's get together and see if we can apply Moore's Law to transport in cities. Wouldn't you say that 18 months is just about the right amount of time to demonstrate that we too can double and half? Might we think about that together too? Eric Britton P.S. If I can have the author's permission, we would like to post his completed article as the Essay of the Month on the @Access on the Web site at http://www.ecoplan.org/access . The idea is to encourage both distribution of leading edge thinking on these matters, as well as discussion. The author would be in good company, if you check it out - the present resident of that slot being Peter Drucker. ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) Fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896 Fax/voicemail hotline: In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) >From Kerry Wood [kerry.wood@paradise.net.nz] on 08/01/2000 I am in the middle of a paper on speeding up ALL traffic by making public transport faster and more efficient. Here are some bits from it (sorry, it has diagrams which get messy on e-mail) ISTP data shows that cities with low car use have low overall transport costs. (I have used their figures for operating cost of non-freight transport) For as long as the debate is about road building for cars, it is not so much about improving transport as about how quickly it will get worse. Huge figures for the cost of congestion are meaningless in a policy context because there is no prospect of realizing the savings: Mogridge (1997) refers to 'ghost city' traffic flows. They can also be used to support any option, and so cannot discriminate between options. It has been known since the Buchanan report (1963) that full motorisation is impracticable in a large city - especially if that city has a high density. Speeding up motor traffic is self-defeating in four ways: * If the car-carrying capacity of the road is increased, the cost curve for cars is flattened. The result is that some passengers switch from passenger transport to car use. More cars quickly offset the savings and costs return to their old level (the cost curve is very steep in congested traffic, so mode switching does not have to be on a large scale). However, passenger transport costs increase because there are fewer passengers: fares may rise, the operator may take off some services, or the service may even close. Higher costs encourage more passengers to switch to car use, so car costs rise until they reach the new passenger transport costs. When the readjustments are complete the point where the cost curves for passenger transport and cars cross is at a higher cost than before the capacity increase: the road 'improvement' has increased costs for everybody. * Capacity increase in an urban area simply releases suppressed demand. This accounts for the common observation, first made in the 1930s, that a new urban highway does not reduce traffic on the old route (SACTRA 1994). SACTRA's explanation is that new capacity induces new traffic on an important scale, which is not allowed for in most transport modelling. * Urban design effects. For example, good car mobility allows supermarkets to drive local stores out of business, frustrating accessibility and needing more mobility to meet the demand created * Buses are slowed down in four ways. They have greater difficulty in re-entering a faster traffic stream after a stop, or in crossing fast traffic to reach a right turn lane; they consistently miss traffic lights set to give motor traffic a 'green wave' through several junctions, because of the need to stop for passengers; they suffer long delays at traffic lights set to maximise traffic capacity by using long phases; and they often follow a more circuitous route to pick up passengers. Suppressed demand is usually a smaller economic problem than excess demand. SACTRA (1999) studied the economic impacts of reducing traffic, and concluded: "The external costs arising from road transport provide a rationale for traffic reduction insofar as it arises from the alignment of marginal benefit with marginal social cost. (7.125) "..a more efficient allocation of resources might result from well?targeted reduction measures. There is a strong case for correcting market failure since marginal social costs appear to exceed marginal benefit on many journeys." (7.126) Reducing capacity also has little effect on speeds. Cairns and her co-workers (1998) found 47 traffic reduction schemes where usable data was available, with an average area-wide reduction of 25% of the capacity of the altered streets. Crucially, they could not find any example of capacity reduction causing 'traffic chaos,' beyond a short adjustment period (it will be alright by Friday), even when there were catastrophic reductions due to earthquakes. Road building making the situation worse is called the Downs-Thomson effect. Thomson (1977) describes the process like this: "If the decision to use public or private transport is left to the free choice of the individual commuter, an equilibrium will be reached in which the overall attractiveness of the two systems is about equal, because if one is faster, cheaper and more agreeable than the other there will be a shift of passengers to it, rendering it more crowded while the other becomes less so, until a position is reached where no?one on either system thinks there is any advantage in changing to the other... "Hence we derive one of the golden rules of urban transport: the quality of peak?hour travel by car tends to equal that of public transport." Studies of door-to-door travel speeds in several cities show that speeds on public and private transport are remarkably similar, and studies of household travel surveys show that about 15% of commuter cars are not used every day: there is mode switching going on. Zurich is one of several European cities that have pursued a policy of improving public transport for some years. It is a particularly interesting example because excellent results have been achieved at comparatively low cost, with few subways and some surprisingly old vehicles. The head of VBZ, the Zurich transport authority, claims: "The only way to reduce traffic problems is to promote public transport . "Our strategy has been promoting public transport, reducing non-essential car traffic, funneling traffic onto trunk roads, reducing parking provision and encouraging pedestrians and cyclists." (Heierli 1996) Cost/modal split diagrams (following Mogridge) show that speeding up passenger transport also speeds up cars EVEN IF SPACE IS TAKEN FROM CARS TO MAKE ROOM FOR PASSENGER TRANSPORT. This is what has been done in Zurich, as well as many other European cities. It seems to boost rather than depress the economy. ISTP data includes in-vehicle speeds for private and passenger transport for a range of cities, as well as the proportion of journeys to work by car. Plotting these gives a clear boundary line, which seems to represent the Downs-Thomson effect: all the cities quoted by Mogridge are on on close to this line. Mogridge (1997) mentions sample calculations suggesting that in central London average traffic speeds could be doubled by favouring passenger transport: clearly this would being major commercial benefits. Trucks have to be considered, but they do not necessarily need more road space - they are usually only about 10% of a traffic stream. A common assumption is that business people need car access, but what they really need is good access. Heierli (1996) says: "Zurich has... succeeded in giving its public transport operators the image of modern companies with a clear customer focus, which... results in a very positive image. The outcome of this is that there is no stigma attached to travelling by tram in Zurich; indeed, anyone who does not use the tram tends to be regarded as out of touch. "Our politicians make regular use of public transport (not just at election times) and leading figures from economic and academic life would not consider commuting in any other way." References Buchanan, C (1963) Traffic in Towns. London: HMSO Cairns, S; Hass?Klau, C and Goodwin, P (1998) Traffic impact of highway capacity reductions: assessment of the evidence. London: Landor. Heierli, R (1996) European Lecture: Public transport in Zurich. Proc Instn Civil Engineers, Transport 117, November Mogridge, MJH (1997) The self?defeating nature of urban road capacity policy. Transport Policy 4 (1) pp 5?23 Thomson, JM (1977) Great cities and their traffic. London: Gollancz. Quoted in Mogridge (1997) I like the idea of running bus lanes in the 'wrong' direction to keep cars out of the lane. Thanks Lake. Another approach is to raise bus lanes about 80-120 mm above the general traffic lanes (or about 150 mm with a beveled kerb), so that motor vehicles can use them at low speed in emergency, but not just to save a few seconds. Brussels uses a thing like a painted broken line, but the 'paint' is concrete and 100 mm high. A good design for a 'bus gate' to keep other traffic out of a bus lane is a narrow section of road, between kerbs, with a level surface where the bus wheels go but a dip where the narrower car wheels go. It doesn't matter if the inner wheels on the back axle of the bus are unsupported. The dip can be enough to slow cars down, or deep enough to stop them, and a ridge (low enough to clear the bus differential) stops them from going over the dip too fast for their wheels to drop in. The trouble is that it is comparatively expensive, because the dip needs separate drainage. -- Kerry Wood MICE MIPENZ MCIT Transport Consultant 1 McFarlane Street, Wellington 6001, New Zealand Phone + 64 4 971 5549 From heckler at quickweb.com.ph Sun Jan 9 13:00:52 2000 From: heckler at quickweb.com.ph (Heckler) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 12:00:52 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Manila MRT Message-ID: <003e01bf5a57$168f2e00$b8c2e2d8@heckler> To those of who interested in what's been happening to the EDSA MRT since its opening last Dec. 15, here's the scoop as far as I can tell. The main thing is no one's riding the train which is, of course, too bad. Personally, I think it shows what corporate greed can do despite this supposed age of "corporate social responsibility." Well. the market responded and rejected the fares set for the MRT. I think commuters generally appreciate the convenience (comfort, time savings, throw in everything you can think of) the MRT offers since the trains were supposedly packed on the first day of operations -- when a ride was free. After that, only a handful have been using the trains -- 10% of the projected daily ridership of 300,000 (to a maximum of 500,000). Someone calculated that it would cost Php100 for someone living in Quezon City (one end of the tracks) to commute to Makati (the opposite end) because when you get off the station, you still have to find transport to get to your final destination. That's a substantial chunk out of the wages of us folks who don't have slush funds. The government, specifically the Dept. of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), operator of the MRT, believes that it's the half-finished condition of the stations that's discouraging ridership. I've been on the train twice and I can vouch for that. The stations are about three storeys high which is the height of the stairs one has to climb to get to the platform. (In some stations, one has to climb up this flight, walk down another flight and then walk up again a second set of stairs to get to the platform.) I say people taking breathers mid-way as they tried climbing up to the platform. The government has had to get the builder to build escalators. The built-in elevators for the disabled and elderly are supposed to be small and narrow and I haven't seen anyone using them. It's probably because the disabled and elderly can't even get to the stations because access to them isn't easy even for us temporarily abled types. OK, so the DOTC says when the stations are all finished, they expect ridership to increase to projected levels. But if that doesn't happen (which by all indications won't), only then will they reconsider the fare levels. I don't think the bureaucrats even believe it themselves because they are already trying to get the MRT builders to take less than the guaranteed $1 million a year or so that they've been promised as lease payment. So, trying to determine a fare that will attract ridership (i.e, a fair price for the comsumer), not just to line the pockets of the owner/operator/builder and their banks, is important after all. I wonder what's the story with the Bangkok Sky Train? Ramon Fernan III From tjb at pc.jaring.my Sun Jan 9 20:25:32 2000 From: tjb at pc.jaring.my (tjb) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 19:25:32 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Manila MRT References: <003e01bf5a57$168f2e00$b8c2e2d8@heckler> Message-ID: <002b01bf5a94$3e13ae00$7bf1fea9@p350> So let's get real. Why is it that ALL MRT systems except Hong Kong lose money (and Hong Kong is losing money on new lines too) . The fact is that the figures NEVER add up and the only ways for MRT systems to operate is either a) Government subsidies or b) other subsidies to operators - normally provision of prime land in city centres for commercial development These conclusions from numerous MRT/LRT projects around the world are so obvious that the only conclusions I can draw from the failed systems are that a) developer/operators are simply STUPID and/or b) developer/operators are politically well connected and simply expect to get bailed out when things go wrong c) I am missing the point!!?? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Barry EValue Engineering Sdn Bhd www.evalueco.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Heckler To: Sustran Discuss Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 12:00 PM Subject: [sustran] Manila MRT > To those of who interested in what's been happening to the EDSA MRT since > its opening last Dec. 15, here's the scoop as far as I can tell. > > The main thing is no one's riding the train which is, of course, too bad. > Personally, I think it shows what corporate greed can do despite this > supposed age of "corporate social responsibility." Well. the market > responded and rejected the fares set for the MRT. I think commuters > generally appreciate the convenience (comfort, time savings, throw in > everything you can think of) the MRT offers since the trains were supposedly > packed on the first day of operations -- when a ride was free. After that, > only a handful have been using the trains -- 10% of the projected daily > ridership of 300,000 (to a maximum of 500,000). Someone calculated that it > would cost Php100 for someone living in Quezon City (one end of the tracks) > to commute to Makati (the opposite end) because when you get off the > station, you still have to find transport to get to your final destination. > That's a substantial chunk out of the wages of us folks who don't have slush > funds. > > The government, specifically the Dept. of Transportation and Communication > (DOTC), operator of the MRT, believes that it's the half-finished condition > of the stations that's discouraging ridership. I've been on the train twice > and I can vouch for that. The stations are about three storeys high which is > the height of the stairs one has to climb to get to the platform. (In some > stations, one has to climb up this flight, walk down another flight and then > walk up again a second set of stairs to get to the platform.) I say people > taking breathers mid-way as they tried climbing up to the platform. The > government has had to get the builder to build escalators. The built-in > elevators for the disabled and elderly are supposed to be small and narrow > and I haven't seen anyone using them. It's probably because the disabled and > elderly can't even get to the stations because access to them isn't easy > even for us temporarily abled types. OK, so the DOTC says when the stations > are all finished, they expect ridership to increase to projected levels. But > if that doesn't happen (which by all indications won't), only then will they > reconsider the fare levels. I don't think the bureaucrats even believe it > themselves because they are already trying to get the MRT builders to take > less than the guaranteed $1 million a year or so that they've been promised > as lease payment. > > So, trying to determine a fare that will attract ridership (i.e, a fair > price for the comsumer), not just to line the pockets of the > owner/operator/builder and their banks, is important after all. I wonder > what's the story with the Bangkok Sky Train? > > Ramon Fernan III > > From pendakur at interchange.ubc.ca Mon Jan 10 13:35:27 2000 From: pendakur at interchange.ubc.ca (Dr. V. S. Pendakur) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 20:35:27 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Manila MRT References: <003e01bf5a57$168f2e00$b8c2e2d8@heckler> <002b01bf5a94$3e13ae00$7bf1fea9@p350> Message-ID: <001f01bf5b24$373602a0$1e5e17cf@ramakka> It appears that basic tenets of good planning are missing both in Bangkok and Manila. There is not much consideration of user convenience in the design of stations and access to stations. The estimates of ridership appear to have been made as if the riders would not balance cost, time and convenience factors. Were there any sensitivity analyses done? If so, what were bottom ridership figures to make this financially viable? Feasibility decisions appear to have been made outside of the context of users and rider convenience. No wonder the ridership in both cases is much less than expected. Have people forgotten that there is a strong relationship between incomes, costs, time values and convenience? Strange things happen and will continue to happen, including the selection of technology for all the wrong reasons. Now the entire political and administrative system will try to repair the damages and make it, possibly, yet worse than it already is. Under these circumstances, what is the appropriate role for the NGOs in both cities? Cheers. ----- Original Message ----- From: tjb To: Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 3:25 AM Subject: [sustran] Re: Manila MRT > So let's get real. Why is it that ALL MRT systems except Hong Kong lose > money (and Hong Kong is losing money on new lines too) > > . The fact is that the figures NEVER add up and the only ways for MRT > systems to operate is either > a) Government subsidies or > b) other subsidies to operators - normally provision of prime land in city > centres for commercial development > > These conclusions from numerous MRT/LRT projects around the world are so > obvious that the only conclusions I can draw from the failed systems are > that > > a) developer/operators are simply STUPID > and/or > b) developer/operators are politically well connected and simply expect to > get bailed out when things go wrong > c) I am missing the point!!?? > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Tony Barry > EValue Engineering Sdn Bhd > > www.evalueco.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Heckler > To: Sustran Discuss > Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2000 12:00 PM > Subject: [sustran] Manila MRT > > > > To those of who interested in what's been happening to the EDSA MRT since > > its opening last Dec. 15, here's the scoop as far as I can tell. > > > > The main thing is no one's riding the train which is, of course, too bad. > > Personally, I think it shows what corporate greed can do despite this > > supposed age of "corporate social responsibility." Well. the market > > responded and rejected the fares set for the MRT. I think commuters > > generally appreciate the convenience (comfort, time savings, throw in > > everything you can think of) the MRT offers since the trains were > supposedly > > packed on the first day of operations -- when a ride was free. After that, > > only a handful have been using the trains -- 10% of the projected daily > > ridership of 300,000 (to a maximum of 500,000). Someone calculated that > it > > would cost Php100 for someone living in Quezon City (one end of the > tracks) > > to commute to Makati (the opposite end) because when you get off the > > station, you still have to find transport to get to your final > destination. > > That's a substantial chunk out of the wages of us folks who don't have > slush > > funds. > > > > The government, specifically the Dept. of Transportation and Communication > > (DOTC), operator of the MRT, believes that it's the half-finished > condition > > of the stations that's discouraging ridership. I've been on the train > twice > > and I can vouch for that. The stations are about three storeys high which > is > > the height of the stairs one has to climb to get to the platform. (In > some > > stations, one has to climb up this flight, walk down another flight and > then > > walk up again a second set of stairs to get to the platform.) I say people > > taking breathers mid-way as they tried climbing up to the platform. The > > government has had to get the builder to build escalators. The built-in > > elevators for the disabled and elderly are supposed to be small and narrow > > and I haven't seen anyone using them. It's probably because the disabled > and > > elderly can't even get to the stations because access to them isn't easy > > even for us temporarily abled types. OK, so the DOTC says when the > stations > > are all finished, they expect ridership to increase to projected levels. > But > > if that doesn't happen (which by all indications won't), only then will > they > > reconsider the fare levels. I don't think the bureaucrats even believe it > > themselves because they are already trying to get the MRT builders to take > > less than the guaranteed $1 million a year or so that they've been > promised > > as lease payment. > > > > So, trying to determine a fare that will attract ridership (i.e, a fair > > price for the comsumer), not just to line the pockets of the > > owner/operator/builder and their banks, is important after all. I wonder > > what's the story with the Bangkok Sky Train? > > > > Ramon Fernan III > > > > > From duarterf at ez-poa.com.br Mon Jan 10 21:31:48 2000 From: duarterf at ez-poa.com.br (Duarte Rosa Filho) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 10:31:48 -0200 Subject: [sustran] Re: bus lanes Message-ID: <000801bf5b6a$6f357aa0$4c97f8c8@duarte> Greetings from Brazil. Take a look at these sites. May be you will find some texts in English on the Brazilian experience with bus lanes. The arguments used by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, which you mentioned in your e-mail, is an absurd. Try to ask them how many passengers or people can be moved by car instead of by bus in a lane. Duarte http://www.unb.br/ft/enc/sict/ http://www.antp.org.br/ http://www.geipot.gov.br/ -----Mensagem original----- De: Ananthakrishnan Para: Sustrans Discussion List Data: Quarta-feira, 5 de Janeiro de 2000 16:38 Assunto: [sustran] bus lanes >Chennai (Madras), India, has had a bus lane on a small stretch of its major >roadway, Mount Road (Anna Salai) for over five years now, but this system >stretching over about 3 km now faces threat. > >Police have suggested doing away with it, because it does not have the kind >of traffic that the adjacent car lane does. Rising urban prosperity and a >declining bus network have led to pressure that cars be given more space. > >It has not helped the cause of commuters using the buses, that cars are used >by those in authority and in influential positions, be it politicians, >bureaucrats, businessmen or even senior journalists. If you travel by bus, >you are just one of the multitude of struggling Indians. > >The most amazing statement that has been cited in support of the idea to do >away with the dedicated bus lane comes from the city development authority >(Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority) : that nowhere in the world is >a lane made available for buses, at the cost of other road users. > >Should Asians go through the development cycle and learn at enormous cost, >that the answer to mobility in big cities can primarily be only public modes >? > >Any interesting experiences ? Would help in writing a critical piece for my >newspaper. > > >G.Ananthakrishnan, Chennai-based journalist can be reached at Tel: + 91 44 >8413942 , Fax: + 91 44 8415395. > > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Duarte de Souza Rosa Filho.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 802 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/20000110/625ec0d0/DuartedeSouzaRosaFilho.vcf From townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au Wed Jan 12 02:23:58 2000 From: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au (Craig Townsend) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 09:23:58 -0800 Subject: [sustran] HCMC Highway Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000111092358.0079e850@central.murdoch.edu.au> This news item was forwarded to me from VNForum: Trans City Highway to Combat Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Woes HANOI, Jan 7 Asia Pulse - In the latest measure to alleviate the traffic that regularly slows Ho Chi Minh City cars to a crawl, municipal authorities have announced a plan to build a 21.4km-long, east-west highway. Officials said the Japan International Co-operation Bank (JICB) had agreed to provide loans of more than Y67,055 million (US$664,000) for the project, which has already been submitted to the Government for approval. According to the Project Management Board (PMB), once approved, the work will begin early this year and be completed in 2005. The project will link National Highway 1 to Tran Van Kieu Street, Chuong Duong Wharf, and the Thu Thiem Tunnel to be built under the Sai Gon River and join up with the Hanoi Highway in District 2. Dong-Tay Highway will be 21.4 km in length, making it the city's longest interior road. The VND1,037 billion first section will be 13.6 km long and six lanes wide, running from Tran Van Kieu and Ham Tu streets to Chuong Duong Wharf. It will begin at Binh Chanh District on National Highway 1 and end at Khanh Hoi Bridge. The VND3,010 billion Thu Thiem Tunnel will be 1.9km-long and have entrances at Calmette Bridge and Ong Cay Bridge. Pedestrians and bicycles will be prohibited in the six-lane tunnel. The 5.9km-long third section will link Thu Thiem Tunnel to District 2 on Ha Noi Highway. PMB reports that about 5,214 houses will have to be demolished for the project. Under the same project, the city plans to upgrade five bridges and build about 20 pedestrian walkways with the assistance of Japan's Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund. The city also plans to invest VND1,200 billion to build 15 new residential areas with a total 6,153 apartments for relocation purposes. The OECF has already sent a group of experts to Vietnam for a final technical, environmental impact, and waste water treatment assessment. VNA ________________________________________________ Craig Townsend Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy Murdoch University South Street, Murdoch Perth, Western Australia 6150 tel: (61 8) 9360 6293 fax: (61 8) 9360 6421 email: townsend@central.murdoch.edu.au From carbusters at wanadoo.fr Wed Jan 12 05:57:55 2000 From: carbusters at wanadoo.fr (Car Busters) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 20:57:55 -0000 Subject: [sustran] CAR BUSTERS IS MOVING! Message-ID: <01bf5c76$8869e1c0$LocalHost@non.wanadoo.fr> Hello everybody, After spending two years liberating France from the car culture (and almost suceeding), it is now time to move on and conquer the next country? yes, in a couple of days we will settle down in Prague, the beautiful capital of the Czech Repulic. Our new address is now: --------------------------------------------------------------------- CAR BUSTERS Magazine and Resource Centre Kratka 26, 100 00 Praha 10, Czech Republic Tel: +(420) 2-781-08-49 ; Fax: +(420) 2-781-67-27 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Aside from the change of location we remain what we are: a quarterly multilingual magazine and resource center for the international car-free/anti-car movement. We aim to build and maintain the movement, facilitate exchange and cooperation among activists and campaigners, inspire new activists, reach out to a broader public, and change the world. One year subscriptions are still 82FF, 24DM, 9 British Pounds, 17.5 US$ or the equivalent to 24 "Ecos" (contact us for the Eco rate in your country). Happy Busting. - Sina, Domenica, Anya, Randy and Wlad From pascal at pop.gn.apc.org Wed Jan 12 21:50:06 2000 From: pascal at pop.gn.apc.org (Pascal Desmond) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 12:50:06 +0000 Subject: [sustran] Re: HCMC Highway In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000111092358.0079e850@central.murdoch.edu.au> Message-ID: While it is good to see some pedestrian infrastructure [altho if they didn't build the road it is likely that the walkways would be superfluous], it is saddening to see Vietnam adopting the same disastrous policies as the rest of us ... especially when you consider how they defeated the U.S.A. [and before them France and Japan] using bicycles as the main component of their military logistics. The first acquisitions of a post-austerity society are affluenza and amnesia. >From: Craig Townsend >Trans City Highway to Combat Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Woes > >HANOI, Jan 7 Asia Pulse - In the latest measure to alleviate the traffic >that regularly slows Ho Chi Minh City cars to a crawl, municipal >authorities have announced a plan to build a 21.4km-long, east-west >highway. Officials said the Japan International Co-operation Bank (JICB) >had agreed to provide loans of more than Y67,055 million (US$664,000) for >the project, which has already been submitted to the Government for approval. > > >Under the same project, the city plans to upgrade five bridges and build >about 20 pedestrian walkways with the assistance of Japan's Overseas >Economic Co-operation Fund. Kind regards Pascal Desmond. From i-ce at cycling.nl Fri Jan 14 20:56:20 2000 From: i-ce at cycling.nl (Interface for Cycling Expertise) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 12:56:20 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Velo Mondial Interactive Training Programme Message-ID: <20000114115804Z29052-249+18298@discus.nl.uu.net> Dear sir, madam, I-ce, Interface for Cycling Expertise is organising a special week of training on cycling for urban planners, traffic experts, cycling unionists and others interested in bicycle policy. The training will take place within the framework of the Vélo Mondial 2000 conference, consisting of a world conference on cycling, the training and a bicycle festival. Vélo Mondial 2000 will take place in Amsterdam from 19 till 22 June. In the following week, from Monday 26 till Friday 30 June, I-ce offers a unique training programme which aims at giving an overview of the potential of cycling in practice and of the importance to integrate it in all relevant policy issues, traffic and non-traffic. The training will give the participants tools to make and carry out policy plans. The training will also deal with the importance and how to organise the involvement of partners (government, business and community groups). A lot of attention will be given to the several aspects of cycling and how you can meet the different wishes of the different groups (i.e. cycling to work, cycling as a sport). Furthermore, the training will focus on the planning and the realisation of provisions for bicycles. For more information I would like to refer you to our website (http://www.cycling.nl). Or just email to: training-ice@cycling.nl With kind regards, Ms Verele de Vreede Training coordinator ************************************** Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-ce) Predikherenstraat 17 3512 TL Utrecht The Netherlands tel. +31 - 30 - 230 45 21 fax +31 - 30 - 230 45 21 http://www.cycling.nl ************************************** From sustran at po.jaring.my Sat Jan 15 12:11:44 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 11:11:44 +0800 Subject: [sustran] What's new at CSE, India Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000115111144.00807be0@relay101.jaring.my> Several new transport-related items at the CSE web site. >From: "webadmin" >Organization: Center For Science and Environment >To: >Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2000 16:28:30 +0530 >Subject: What's new at CSE, India ... > >What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New >Delhi, India > >Among the glitzy cars and short skirts that are the usual >attractions of the annual auto expo held in New Delhi, CSE's >exhibition on air pollution stood out as a grim reminder that >there is a hidden price behind the expanding automobile sector. >An indication comes from the statistic that every time the GDP >in India doubles, air pollution rises by 8 times. CSE's press >release is at > >http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/au/au4_20000113.htm >------------------------------------------------- ... > >Dirty rich city > >It will take $3.8 billion to clear the thick haze of dirty >particles in the Hong Kong air. Check it out at > >http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte2000115/dte_srep1.htm >------------------------------------------------- ... > >A message from the Director, Anil Agarwal: > > >Conspiracy to kill > > >THE total lack of interest and foresight that the Atal Bihari >Vajpayee government is showing while dealing with the country's >growing pollution is downright appalling, to say the least. An >excellent indicator of this came recently when the government >reconstituted the council on trade and industry to set up eight >working groups ranging from good governance to education and >health with the full participation of India's industrial >leaders. But there was not one group that dealt with industrial >growth and environmental pollution, almost as if this issue does >not figure on the Vajpayee government's political agenda. > >All over the world, experience has shown pollution rises >extremely rapidly with industrial growth. A study carried out by >the World Bank showed that when the Thai economy doubled during >the 1980s, the total quantity of poisonous pollutants released >went up ten times. The Centre for Science and Environment found >that during the period 1975-1995 during which the Indian economy >grew by about 2.5 times, the total quantity of pollutants >increased by eight times. Not surprisingly, almost every Indian >town and city is choking because of vehicular pollution today. > >Most people tend to think that Delhi is one of the most polluted >cities in the world. The high levels of deadly particles in >Delhi's air probably make it the worst in the world. Mexico City >looks like a kitten in front of Delhi. All this is relatively >well known because the World Health Organization monitors air >pollution in some 20 metropolises of the world and Delhi indeed >comes out pretty bad in this sample of cities. The Indian media >has also publicised this fact. > >But what is not well known is that when Delhi's air pollution is >compared with the air pollution in other Indian cities, this >capitally polluted city appears quite clean. The Central >Pollution Control Board has just released data on air pollution >levels recorded in 90 cities in 1997. This data shows that >Shillong is the only town that has clean air round the year. The >Prime Minister's own constituency, Lucknow, suffers from >pollution that is worse than Delhi. > >Should all this be surprising? Not at all. Within just 15 years >of what economists call the post-Second World War economic boom >(1945-1960), a period during which the Western world created >unprecedented material wealth, literally every Western city from >Tokyo to London and Los Angeles began to gasp for clean air and >every Western river from the Rhine to the Thames had become a >sewer, much like our Yamuna. And Japan was reeling under unknown >and crippling neurological disorders like the frightening >Minamata disease. The same is happening in India today and, in >fact, all across Asia. > >The growing pollution in the West led to a powerful >environmental movement that then forced Western politicians to >take the matter seriously. They did two things. During the 1970s >and 1980s, these countries poured in enormous sums of money to >control pollution. According to one estimate, nearly 25 per cent >of the industrial investment in Japan in the post-70s period >went towards pollution control. And the governments strictly >enforced their pollution control laws. As a result, the air and >water had become a lot cleaner by the late 1980s and early >1990s, that is, in a period of about 20 years or one generation. >The battle is, however, still not won. The West still has to >find ways to deal with carbon dioxide pollution of the >atmosphere, disposal of hazardous industrial waste (which often >gets shipped to developing countries), growing groundwater >pollution and disruption of the nitrogen cycle because of >largescale use of fertilisers and manure, among a number of >other vexing problems. > >The question that we need to ask ourselves is whether we will be >able to see a turnaround in India in the next 20 years? It is >extremely doubtful that this will be the case. India's economy >is just beginning to grow. Industrial development, agricultural >modernisation and urbanisation - all of which pump poison into >the environment - are still at a nascent stage. We still have a >long way to go. Therefore, we can see enormous quantities of >poisons being produced in the decades to come. And on top of all >this, at the turn of the century, India does not have the >wherewithal to emulate the West of the 1970s. Firstly, India's >current per capita income is still not even a fraction of >Western per capita incomes of the 1970s. As a result, India will >remain heavily constrained in investing in high quality, >environmentally-sound technology. India will continue to use low >quality, highly-polluting technologies for a long time. > >Secondly, India's regulatory system is highly corrupt and >incompetent in dealing with the new challenges arising out of >pollution. And, finally, there is as yet no powerful popular >movement against pollution, which can translate into votes and >put the fear of God into our politicians. > >What we, therefore, see is absolute mayhem in the years to come. >What took the West one generation to control could take our >already heavily polluted India as much as two to three >generations to control, in other words, some 40-50 years. > >What does all this mean for the Indian economy and Indian >industrialists? The answer is 'Simply nothing'. Pollution will >hardly have any effect on Indian industry and the Indian >economy. They will continue to grow. But what will this mean for >Indians - the country's common people who can least afford to >deal with diseases like cancer, neurological disorders and so on >when they still find it difficult to deal with malaria and >diarrhoea? For them, it will mean a lot - in terms of an >appalling quality of life and premature death. Already some one >million people die every year because of polluted water and some >hundred thousand due to air pollution. > >In other words, more than one million a year die unnecessarily >because the government cannot ensure clean air and water. And in >the years to come this number will rise further, unless strong >steps are taken to start controlling pollution right away. If >the turnaround takes two to three generations instead of one, we >are talking of more than 50 million fatalities at the least >because of the government's incompetence and political apathy. > >In a nation where the population has already reached one billion >and is still growing, one can even be cynical and say that 50 >million deaths is hardly a big price to pay for economic >development. The Vajpayee government appears to be giving us >precisely this message with its inability to factor in >environmental concerns into its industrial development policy. > >Yet all this mayhem can be prevented but only if the government >develops some foresight on the issue and sets up an effective >regulatory framework which gives industry the right incentives >and signals to be environment-friendly. The work done by the >Centre for Science and Environment, under its Right to Clean Air >Campaign, has repeatedly shown that India's industrial leaders >do not recognise that pollution is a serious problem. They also >definitely do not want to take any proactive steps to control it >in the absence of an effective regulatory framework. Industry's >argument is that in a competitive environment no company will >invest in more expensive environment-friendly technologies and >competition will inevitably force it to the lowest common >denominator unless government rules and regulations prevent that >from happening. > >A fine example of this kind of behaviour by industry was brought >to the knowledge of the public when industry rushed in head over >heels to meet EURO I vehicular pollution standards (imposed in >Europe in 1992). All this was a result of the April 1999 Supreme >Court order that made it mandatory to impose these standards in >less than three months and EURO II standards in less than a >year. Till then, all companies, Indian and foreign, from Maruti >to Mercedes, had been merrily selling outdated technology >because government regulations in India imposed EURO I standards >from 2000 and EURO II standards from 2005. Even a joint sector >company like Maruti was found way behind the times although it >was exporting EURO II cars to Europe to meet standards imposed >there. > >Now in 2000, Indian companies like Maruti and foreign companies >like Toyota and Ford will be selling EURO III compliant vehicles >in Europe. But none of them will care to introduce these in >India because they are not expected to do so under government >regulations. Thus, Europe will get squeaky clean technology even >though its skies are clean and India will continue to get >outdated technology even though its skies are a deadly grey. > >All this can begin to change rapidly. Just like changes brought >about by the Supreme Court order, but only if the government >decides that this is a task that it wants to undertake. If not, >we should be prepared for a living hell. Our current crop of >politicians, given their age, will disappear in the next 10 to >20 years, but they will leave behind an absolutely unliveable >legacy for our children. They will find it hard to believe that >India had such callous 'leaders'. > >- 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, a weekly Feature Service >of articles on environment and a daily environment news flash 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 at >http://data.cseindia.org > >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 Sat Jan 15 12:16:54 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 11:16:54 +0800 Subject: [sustran] (Fwd) UNCTAD's Book of Aspirations Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000115111654.00878620@relay101.jaring.my> >Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 17:39:19 -0000 >Subject: (Fwd) UNCTAD's Book of Aspirations >From: priyanthi.fernando@mcmail.com >To: rural-transport-development@mailbase.ac.uk ... > >Apologies for cross-posting but thought this might be our chance to >get messages about accessibility and mobility into other forums. > >So write your piece! > > >------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- >Date sent: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 12:42:47 +0000 >Subject: UNCTAD's Book of Aspirations >From: "GREAT Network" >To: "Development-Gender" >Send reply to: development-gender@mailbase.ac.uk > >---------- >From: Anna.Faelth@unctad.org >Date: Thu, Dec 30, 1999, 9:32 am > > > Dear All, > > Let your voice be heard through UNCTAD's Book of Aspirations! > > > The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), a > Geneva-based branch of the United Nations that champions economic > development, is reaching out to the public at large. It is looking > for concrete ideas that can help improve people's social and economic > well-being, especially in developing countries. Everyone, everywhere > is invited to participate. > > * * * > > On the eve of the new millennium, Mr. Rubens Ricupero, > Secretary-General of UNCTAD, has launched a Year 2000 project entitled > the Book of Aspirations. The idea has its roots in the consultations > with ordinary citizens which were undertaken just before the 1789 > French Revolution; these resulted in a "book of grievances". The Book > of Aspirations will focus on possible solutions to current economic > problems -- ideas to give reasons for real hope of a better future > for the citizens of the 21st century. > > Three thousand dignitaries from almost 200 countries, attending the > UNCTAD X Conference in Bangkok this February, will benefit from your > ideas and suggestions. Later in the year, the final Book will be > compiled, and published for the benefit of a global audience. > > > Participate, using these questions as a guide: > > *What could make our children's lives better than our own in practical > and material terms? > *For example, what could help create new jobs and businesses, increase > wages, reduce income inequality, or facilitate international trade? > *How do you think this can be achieved? > *What could you, your community, organization or Government do about > it? > *What could international organizations do about it? > *What role could international trade, finance, investment, or > technology play? > *Which success stories could show your idea in action? > *Which trends convey hope of a better economic future (e.g. the more > participatory role of women; the growing influence of civil society > on government policies)? > > Send your entries (3 pages maximum, please, unless by prior agreement) > by 31 January 2000 for presentation at the UNCTAD X Conference (or by > 31 July 2000 for inclusion in the final Book). > > Entries can be submitted in English, French or Spanish (if possible) > and will be selected and edited by UNCTAD. Send via: > > e-mail: hopebook@unctad.org > Internet: http://www.unctad-10.org/index.htm > fax: ++41-22-907-0043; attention Sophia Twarog, Project > Manager > post: Book of Aspirations, E.9043, UNCTAD/ERS, > Palais des Nations, > CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. > > Please include information about yourself (name, occupation, > nationality, company/organization, mailing address, e-mail, fax, and > optionally sex and age). > > > Thank you very much in advance and we hope to give voice to your > voice! > > > Best wishes for the New Year, > > Anna Faelth at UNCTAD > > > >----------------------------------------------------- >The GREAT Network > >development-gender@mailbase.ac.uk >http://www.uea.ac.uk/dev/greatnet/ >----------------------------------------------------- >Priyanthi Fernando >Executive Secretary >International Forum for Rural Transport and Development >2nd Floor, Premier House >150 Southampton Row >London WC1B 5AL >Tel: +44 020 7 278 3676 Fax: +44 020 7 278 6880 >email: ifrtd@gn.apc.org OR priyanthi.fernando@mcmail.com >Web page: http://www.gn.apc.org/ifrtd From wcox at publicpurpose.com Sat Jan 15 22:36:11 2000 From: wcox at publicpurpose.com (Wendell Cox) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 07:36:11 -0600 Subject: [sustran] Re: What's new at CSE, India References: <3.0.6.32.20000115111144.00807be0@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <004201bf5f5d$7da62160$663ce6cf@newmicronpc> Re the excerpt below, I have been trying to obtain this UN list of 20 most polluted cities, but have unsuccessful. Do you have a source or a web reference that I could consult? Thank you. Wendell Cox >>>snip>>>> > > >Most people tend to think that Delhi is one of the most polluted > >cities in the world. The high levels of deadly particles in > >Delhi's air probably make it the worst in the world. Mexico City > >looks like a kitten in front of Delhi. All this is relatively > >well known because the World Health Organization monitors air > >pollution in some 20 metropolises of the world and Delhi indeed > >comes out pretty bad in this sample of cities. The Indian media > >has also publicised this fact. ----- Original Message ----- From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre To: Sent: Friday, January 14, 2000 9:11 PM Subject: [sustran] What's new at CSE, India > Several new transport-related items at the CSE web site. > > >From: "webadmin" > >Organization: Center For Science and Environment > >To: > >Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2000 16:28:30 +0530 > >Subject: What's new at CSE, India > ... > > > >What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New > >Delhi, India > > > >Among the glitzy cars and short skirts that are the usual > >attractions of the annual auto expo held in New Delhi, CSE's > >exhibition on air pollution stood out as a grim reminder that > >there is a hidden price behind the expanding automobile sector. > >An indication comes from the statistic that every time the GDP > >in India doubles, air pollution rises by 8 times. CSE's press > >release is at > > > >http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/au/au4_20000113.htm > >------------------------------------------------- > ... > > > >Dirty rich city > > > >It will take $3.8 billion to clear the thick haze of dirty > >particles in the Hong Kong air. Check it out at > > > >http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte2000115/dte_srep1.htm > >------------------------------------------------- > ... > > > >A message from the Director, Anil Agarwal: > > > > > >Conspiracy to kill > > > > > >THE total lack of interest and foresight that the Atal Bihari > >Vajpayee government is showing while dealing with the country's > >growing pollution is downright appalling, to say the least. An > >excellent indicator of this came recently when the government > >reconstituted the council on trade and industry to set up eight > >working groups ranging from good governance to education and > >health with the full participation of India's industrial > >leaders. But there was not one group that dealt with industrial > >growth and environmental pollution, almost as if this issue does > >not figure on the Vajpayee government's political agenda. > > > >All over the world, experience has shown pollution rises > >extremely rapidly with industrial growth. A study carried out by > >the World Bank showed that when the Thai economy doubled during > >the 1980s, the total quantity of poisonous pollutants released > >went up ten times. The Centre for Science and Environment found > >that during the period 1975-1995 during which the Indian economy > >grew by about 2.5 times, the total quantity of pollutants > >increased by eight times. Not surprisingly, almost every Indian > >town and city is choking because of vehicular pollution today. > > > >Most people tend to think that Delhi is one of the most polluted > >cities in the world. The high levels of deadly particles in > >Delhi's air probably make it the worst in the world. Mexico City > >looks like a kitten in front of Delhi. All this is relatively > >well known because the World Health Organization monitors air > >pollution in some 20 metropolises of the world and Delhi indeed > >comes out pretty bad in this sample of cities. The Indian media > >has also publicised this fact. > > > >But what is not well known is that when Delhi's air pollution is > >compared with the air pollution in other Indian cities, this > >capitally polluted city appears quite clean. The Central > >Pollution Control Board has just released data on air pollution > >levels recorded in 90 cities in 1997. This data shows that > >Shillong is the only town that has clean air round the year. The > >Prime Minister's own constituency, Lucknow, suffers from > >pollution that is worse than Delhi. > > > >Should all this be surprising? Not at all. Within just 15 years > >of what economists call the post-Second World War economic boom > >(1945-1960), a period during which the Western world created > >unprecedented material wealth, literally every Western city from > >Tokyo to London and Los Angeles began to gasp for clean air and > >every Western river from the Rhine to the Thames had become a > >sewer, much like our Yamuna. And Japan was reeling under unknown > >and crippling neurological disorders like the frightening > >Minamata disease. The same is happening in India today and, in > >fact, all across Asia. > > > >The growing pollution in the West led to a powerful > >environmental movement that then forced Western politicians to > >take the matter seriously. They did two things. During the 1970s > >and 1980s, these countries poured in enormous sums of money to > >control pollution. According to one estimate, nearly 25 per cent > >of the industrial investment in Japan in the post-70s period > >went towards pollution control. And the governments strictly > >enforced their pollution control laws. As a result, the air and > >water had become a lot cleaner by the late 1980s and early > >1990s, that is, in a period of about 20 years or one generation. > >The battle is, however, still not won. The West still has to > >find ways to deal with carbon dioxide pollution of the > >atmosphere, disposal of hazardous industrial waste (which often > >gets shipped to developing countries), growing groundwater > >pollution and disruption of the nitrogen cycle because of > >largescale use of fertilisers and manure, among a number of > >other vexing problems. > > > >The question that we need to ask ourselves is whether we will be > >able to see a turnaround in India in the next 20 years? It is > >extremely doubtful that this will be the case. India's economy > >is just beginning to grow. Industrial development, agricultural > >modernisation and urbanisation - all of which pump poison into > >the environment - are still at a nascent stage. We still have a > >long way to go. Therefore, we can see enormous quantities of > >poisons being produced in the decades to come. And on top of all > >this, at the turn of the century, India does not have the > >wherewithal to emulate the West of the 1970s. Firstly, India's > >current per capita income is still not even a fraction of > >Western per capita incomes of the 1970s. As a result, India will > >remain heavily constrained in investing in high quality, > >environmentally-sound technology. India will continue to use low > >quality, highly-polluting technologies for a long time. > > > >Secondly, India's regulatory system is highly corrupt and > >incompetent in dealing with the new challenges arising out of > >pollution. And, finally, there is as yet no powerful popular > >movement against pollution, which can translate into votes and > >put the fear of God into our politicians. > > > >What we, therefore, see is absolute mayhem in the years to come. > >What took the West one generation to control could take our > >already heavily polluted India as much as two to three > >generations to control, in other words, some 40-50 years. > > > >What does all this mean for the Indian economy and Indian > >industrialists? The answer is 'Simply nothing'. Pollution will > >hardly have any effect on Indian industry and the Indian > >economy. They will continue to grow. But what will this mean for > >Indians - the country's common people who can least afford to > >deal with diseases like cancer, neurological disorders and so on > >when they still find it difficult to deal with malaria and > >diarrhoea? For them, it will mean a lot - in terms of an > >appalling quality of life and premature death. Already some one > >million people die every year because of polluted water and some > >hundred thousand due to air pollution. > > > >In other words, more than one million a year die unnecessarily > >because the government cannot ensure clean air and water. And in > >the years to come this number will rise further, unless strong > >steps are taken to start controlling pollution right away. If > >the turnaround takes two to three generations instead of one, we > >are talking of more than 50 million fatalities at the least > >because of the government's incompetence and political apathy. > > > >In a nation where the population has already reached one billion > >and is still growing, one can even be cynical and say that 50 > >million deaths is hardly a big price to pay for economic > >development. The Vajpayee government appears to be giving us > >precisely this message with its inability to factor in > >environmental concerns into its industrial development policy. > > > >Yet all this mayhem can be prevented but only if the government > >develops some foresight on the issue and sets up an effective > >regulatory framework which gives industry the right incentives > >and signals to be environment-friendly. The work done by the > >Centre for Science and Environment, under its Right to Clean Air > >Campaign, has repeatedly shown that India's industrial leaders > >do not recognise that pollution is a serious problem. They also > >definitely do not want to take any proactive steps to control it > >in the absence of an effective regulatory framework. Industry's > >argument is that in a competitive environment no company will > >invest in more expensive environment-friendly technologies and > >competition will inevitably force it to the lowest common > >denominator unless government rules and regulations prevent that > >from happening. > > > >A fine example of this kind of behaviour by industry was brought > >to the knowledge of the public when industry rushed in head over > >heels to meet EURO I vehicular pollution standards (imposed in > >Europe in 1992). All this was a result of the April 1999 Supreme > >Court order that made it mandatory to impose these standards in > >less than three months and EURO II standards in less than a > >year. Till then, all companies, Indian and foreign, from Maruti > >to Mercedes, had been merrily selling outdated technology > >because government regulations in India imposed EURO I standards > >from 2000 and EURO II standards from 2005. Even a joint sector > >company like Maruti was found way behind the times although it > >was exporting EURO II cars to Europe to meet standards imposed > >there. > > > >Now in 2000, Indian companies like Maruti and foreign companies > >like Toyota and Ford will be selling EURO III compliant vehicles > >in Europe. But none of them will care to introduce these in > >India because they are not expected to do so under government > >regulations. Thus, Europe will get squeaky clean technology even > >though its skies are clean and India will continue to get > >outdated technology even though its skies are a deadly grey. > > > >All this can begin to change rapidly. Just like changes brought > >about by the Supreme Court order, but only if the government > >decides that this is a task that it wants to undertake. If not, > >we should be prepared for a living hell. Our current crop of > >politicians, given their age, will disappear in the next 10 to > >20 years, but they will leave behind an absolutely unliveable > >legacy for our children. They will find it hard to believe that > >India had such callous 'leaders'. > > > >- 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, a weekly Feature Service > >of articles on environment and a daily environment news flash 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 at > >http://data.cseindia.org > > > >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 Mon Jan 17 10:41:18 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 09:41:18 +0800 Subject: [sustran] SUSTRAN News Flash #36: People-centred and sustainable transport news Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000117094118.00809540@relay101.jaring.my> Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) P.O. Box 11501, 50748 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Fax/Phone: +(60 3) 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my SUSTRAN News Flash #36 15 January 2000 People-centred and sustainable transport news CONTENTS 1. Wanted: Stories of Positive Change 2. PROFILE: The Afribike Project 3. Two-strokes in Thailand Doomed by Pollution Regulations 4. Indonesian Consumers' Org. Provides Transport Complaint Posts 5. Pollution Highlighted at Delhi Auto Expo 6. Children Threatened by Air Pollution 7. Ho Chi Minh City Expressway Loan from Japan 8. Car-free Sundays in Italian City Centres 9. RESOURCES 10. INTERNET RESOURCES 11. EVENTS 12. LIGHTER SIDE 1. WANTED: STORIES OF POSITIVE CHANGE Do you know any stories of how positive change has come about in transport? The SUSTRAN Network is keen to share such stories with our readers. Don't be shy - we are interested in large-scale or small-scale examples; big successes or small ones. We especially want to hear from low-income and middle-income countries. Please also share the human dimension - the STORY not just the bare facts. Who was involved in making the difference? Your story, however humble it may be, could inspire others around the word. All comments, suggestions and contributions from readers are always most welcome. Such contributions make this News Flash service possible. 2. PROFILE: THE AFRIBIKE PROJECT One such story is the fledgling Afribike Project in South Africa which is demonstrating the potential of bicycles to improve lives and livelihoods in the townships. Bicycles had been rare in the townships. In December 1998, ITDP and Re~Cycle helped the Afrika Cultural Centre (ACC)to set up the Afribike workshop in Johannesburg. Bicycles donated in the UK and USA are being refurbished and made available to low-income cyclists. Classes in bicycle operation, maintenance and repair are taught to teens and adults. Inexpensive load-carrying workbikes are fabricated from used bicycles under the supervision of Soni (Sam) Maswanganyi, the Afribike head mechanic and Soweto bicycle enthusiast extraordinaire. The Gauteng Self-Employed Women's Association were the first group to take the course. For a detailed account of the on-going project and the people behind it see the web sites of either Re-Cycle or the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). [Contacts: AFRIBIKE, PO Box 13244 Hatfield 0028, South Africa. Tel. +27 11 482 5990, Fax. +27 11 482 4723, Email. afribike@mweb.co.za; RE~CYCLE ("Relieving Poverty - Taking Old Bikes to New Territory") 60 High Street, West Mersea, Essex, CO5 8JE, UK. Email: info@re-cycle.org, URL: http://www.re-cycle.org; INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY (ITDP), 115 W. 30th Street, Suite 1205, New York, NY 10001 USA. Email: mobility@igc.apc.org, URL: http://www.itdp.org] 3. TWO-STROKES IN THAILAND DOOMED BY POLLUTION REGULATIONS Thailand is to begin to apply new and tougher emission standards on motorcycle manufacturers next year. These will almost certainly have the effect of phasing out two-stroke engine motorcycles. The new regulations will make it impossible both "technically and economically" to manufacture two-stroke motorcycle engines which emit white exhaust fumes that are more hazardous than those from four-stroke engines. The current standard sets the maximum level of carbon monoxide (CO) in exhaust pipe emissions at 13 grams/kilometre, and at 5g/km for hydrocarbon (HC). The new standard reduces allowable CO emissions to 4.5 g/km and HC emissions to 3 g/km. However, technically hydrocarbon emissions from two-stroke engines can only be reduced to 3g/km, while emissions from four-stroke engines can be lowered to 0.8-1 g/km. Even the current standard, in place since 1994, is already tough for two-stroke motorcycles to pass. [Source: forwarded by a SUSTRAN Network participant based on an article in the Bangkok Post, 17 December 1999] 4. INDONESIAN CONSUMERS' ORGANISATION PROVIDES TRANSPORT COMPLAINTS POSTS The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (or Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia - YLKI) organised "Complaints Posts" at each of the main bus and train stations in Jakarta during the recent Muslim Festive season (Aidilfitri) when millions of Indonesians flood back to their home villages. The posts operated for 9 days (1 to 9 January) and received complaints from the public about the safety, comfort, service, etc. of transport services. The volunteers at the posts also provided advocacy materials about making transport safer and more humane. [Contact: Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia (YLKI), Jl. Pancoran Barat VII/1, Duren Tiga, Jakarta Selatan 12760, Indonesia. Phone: 62-21-7981858, 7981859, Fax: 62-21-7981038, e-mail: konsumen@rad.net.id] 5. POLLUTION HIGHLIGHTED AT DELHI AUTO EXPO Among the glitzy cars at the annual auto expo held in New Delhi the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) placed a shocking exhibition on air pollution in India's cities. CSE has found that during the period 1975-1995 during which the Indian economy grew by about 2.5 times, the total quantity of pollutants increased by eight times. CSE's press release is at: http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/au/au4_20000113.htm [Contact: 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 062, India. Fax: +91-11-698 5879, Email: webadmin@cseindia.org, URL: http://www.cseindia.org] 6. CHILDREN THREATENED BY AIR POLLUTION The World Resources Institute (WRI) has produced a report stating that millions of the worlds' children are being exposed to high concentrations of air pollution. Children living in large cities, especially in developing countries, are facing exposure to air pollution levels that are two to eight times higher than the maximum exposure levels set by the World Health Organisation. Due to these pollution levels, more than 80% of deaths related to respiratory diseases occurring in developing nations, occur among children under the age of five. The WRI has also highlighted the need for stricter standards, with more efficient use of energy, stricter standards for vehicles, and better traffic management. The WRI's "Urban Air Pollution Risks to Children: A Global Environmental Health Indicator", is available via the WRI web site: http://www.wri.org [Source: Swedish NGO Secretariat on Acid Rain - http://www.acidrain.org] 7. HO CHI MINH CITY EXPRESSWAY LOAN FROM JAPAN Ho Chi Minh City plans to build a 21.4km-long, 6-lane, east-west highway. The Japan International Co-operation Bank (JICB) has agreed to provide loans for the project which will link National Highway 1 to Tran Van Kieu Street, Chuong Duong Wharf, and the Thu Thiem Tunnel to be built under the Sai Gon River and join up with the Hanoi Highway in District 2. It is estimated that about 5,214 houses will have to be demolished for the project. [Sources: VNA, forwarded from VNForum by a keen sustran-discuss member]. 8. CAR-FREE SUNDAYS IN ITALIAN CITY CENTRES Beginning on February 6, fourteen Italian cities, including Rome, Florence and Milan, are to ban cars from their city centres every Sunday. This follows a successful trial last September which dramatically lowered pollution levels. Public transport will be made more frequent on Sundays to compensate. Cities joined the experiment on a voluntary basis but the national Government has provided financial incentives to those that join the scheme. [Source: newsgroups]. 9. RESOURCES CAR BUSTERS Magazine. One year subscriptions US$17.5 [Contact: PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS FOR CAR BUSTERS MAGAZINE AND RESOURCE CENTRE, Kratka 26, 100 00 Praha 10, Czech Republic. Tel: +(420) 2-781-08-49 ; Fax: +(420) 2-781-67-27, Email: carbusters@ecn.cz, URL: http://www.antenna.nl/eyfa/cb] SEVERAL RESOURCES FROM UITP - International Association of Public Transport, Avenue Herrmann-Debroux 17, B-1160 Brussels, Belgium, Tel +32 2 673 6100 - Fax +32 2 660 1072, E-mail: administration@uitp.com, URL: http://www.uitp.com] --- Light Rail Trends 1998. Conclusions of the major survey on the influence of a light rail system in city development and population. Price 1900 BEF (1520 BEF for UITP members). --- Proceedings of the 53rd UITP International Congress on Public Transport, May 23-28 1999, Toronto, Canada are available on CD ROM. Price 5500 BEF (4400 BEF for UITP members). --- VIDEO "Save the City". This video shows how urban planning, integrated with an active transport policy, can Save the City. Success stories from around the world show how it can work. Price 500 BEF (400 BEF for UITP members). Two new Transport and the Economy supporting reports from the UK's Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment (SACTRA) have been published and made available in pdf (Acrobat) format on the web at http://www.roads.detr.gov.uk/roadnetwork/sactra/support99/ --- A Framework for Assessing Studies of the Impact of Transport Infrastructure Projects on Economic Activity (262kb) --- Taxation, Economic Growth and the Double Dividend (153kb) Faiz, A. et al. 1996. "Air pollution from motor vehicles: standards and technologies for controlling emissions". Washington, DC: World Bank. (Lists recent and forthcoming, emission standards in several countries). The Tramways of Brazil: A 130 - Year Survey by Allen Morrison. New York: Bonde Press, 1989. ISBN 0-9622348-1-8. The entire text is on the web at: http://members.aol.com/tranviario/01.html 10. INTERNET RESOURCES CORRECTION: In the last SUSTRAN News Flash (#35) the contact details for the New Zealand Sustainable Transport Network (STN) were outdated. The correct web site is http://www.eeca.govt.nz - then follow the Transport signpost. MALAYSIA-TRANSPORT LIST - discussions on how to make transport in Malaysia more people-centred, equitable and sustainable - http://www.egroups.com/list/malaysia-transport/ Australian Cycling Promotion Fund (a voluntary contribution by companies supplying bicycle products and related services in Australia) - http://www.cycling-australia.com - See also http://www.bikenews.org/1999/18.htm for an article on this initiative. Electric Transport in Latin America, an inventory of electric transportation in Latin America -http://members.aol.com/almo1435/etla.html Tram Views of Asia: Early 20th Century photographs of trams in Asia - http://members.aol.com/trolleyana/tva.html New Thesis - "Personal mobility or community accessibility: A planning choice with social, economic and environmental consequences" by William Ross, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP), Murdoch University, Australia. - http://wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/RESEARCH/wross/wross.htm New at the site of the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute - http://www.vtpi.org: - "The Trouble With Minimum Parking Requirements" by Donald Shoup - "Local Politician's Guide to Urban Transportation" by Gordon Price, Councillor, City of Vancouver. ( among other things) The Bicycle News Agency - http://www.bikenews.org [Contact: Ernst Poulsen, editor@bikenews.org] European Cyclist's Federation (ECF) Main Office, Rue de Londres, 15 (b 3), B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. E-mail: office@ecf.com, URL: http://www.ecf.com Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA) promotes better public transport through light rail, tramway and metro systems - http://www.lrta.org Center for Neighborhood Technology, 2125 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60647, USA. URL: http://www.cnt.org The Institute on Independent Living serves self-help organisations of disabled people who work for equal opportunities, self-determination and self-respect. It maintains a full-text online library including access and transport issues. For example, see the current debate "Independent Living for the rich only?" [Contact: Adolf Ratzka, Director, ratzka@independentliving.org, http://www.independentliving.org TRIS, Transportation Research Information Service, the world's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic database on transportation, is online at - http://www.bts.gov/ntl/tris/ or http://tris.amti.com/ TravelSmart - successful and innovative community-based Travel Demand Management project in Perth, Western Australia achieved a 14% reduction in car travel, an increase in travel-based exercise from 12 minutes to 16 minutes per person per day, and a 13:1 overall benefit cost ratio. It "paid" for itself twice over in reduced road trauma alone. [Contact: Bruce James, Email: BJames@Transport.wa.gov.au, URL: http://www.travelsmart.transport.wa.gov.au]. 11. EVENTS International Conference and Exhibition: Sustainable Transportation and Clean Air, May 31-June 2, 2000, Jakarta, Indonesia. [Contact: Sustainable Transportation and Clean Air Conference Secretariat c/o Clean Air Project, Jakarta, Jalan Wijaya XII, No. 44, 12160 Jakarta, Indonesia. Phone: +62 21 739 40 41, Fax: +62 21 722 30 37, E-mail: cap@swisscontact.or.id]. UITP conference: "Public Transport - The Challenge". 10-11 April 2000, Mexico City, Mexico. [Contact: International Association of Public Transport (UITP), Avenue Herrmann-Debroux 17, B-1160 Brussels, Belgium, Tel +32 2 673 6100 - Fax +32 2 660 1072, E-mail: administration@uitp.com, URL: http://www.uitp.com] "CODATU IX World Congress on Urban Transportation" - central theme: Urban Transportation and the Environment, Mexico City 11-14 April 2000 [Contact: CODATU IX Scientific Committee, Christian JAMET, 9/11, Av. De Villars 75007 Paris, France. Fax: +33 1 44 18 78 04, E-mail: christian.jamet@stp-paris.fr]. "VELO MONDIALE 2000 World Bicycle Conference", June 18-22, 2000, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [Contact: Congress Organisation Services, Fax: +31 24 360 1159, http://www.velomondial2000.nl/] I-ce, Interface for Cycling Expertise, is organising a special week of training on cycling for urban planners, traffic experts, cycling unionists and others. It will take place in Amsterdam from Monday 26 till Friday 30 June (the week after Velo Mondiale). [Contact: training-ice@cycling.nl, http://www.cycling.nl]. "Reinventing Mobility - Challenge of the 21st Century", June 24 - 27, 2000, Bremen, Germany. Organised by bremen initiative, the global campaign for business-municipality partnership towards a sustainable future for cities. [For further information: Ecolo-Ecology and Communication, Leher Heerstr. 102, D-28359 Bremen - Germany. Phone: +49-421-23.00.11.0; Fax:+49-421-23.00.11.18; E-mail: conference2000@bremen-initiative.de, Visit http://www.bremen-initiative.de] "ProBike/ProWalk 2000 conference" 11th International Conference on Bicycling and Walking, 5-9 September, 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Abstracts can be submitted until 14 February. [Contact: The National Center for Bicycling and Walking, Bill Wilkinson or Peter Moe, 1506 21st Street NW Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036, USA. Email: bikefed@aol.com, URL: http://www.bikefed.org]. "UITP Melbourne 2000 Public Transport Conference Event", 8-13 October 2000, includes both the International Union of Public Transport (UITP) Light Rail Conference and the Asia/Pacific Congress and City Transport Exhibition. Additional information is available on the website of the Government of Victoria (Australia) at: http://www.lightrail2000.vic.gov.au [Contact: International Association of Public Transport (UITP), see above] "XI Panamerican Conference in Traffic and Transportation Engineering", 19-23 November, 2000, Gramado, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. [Contact: Dr. Luis Antonio Lindau, President of the Organising Committee, Escola de Engenharia/UFRGS, Pra?a Argentina n.9 Sala 408, 90040-020 Porto Alegre, Brasil. Tel: + 55 51 316 3596, Fax : + 55 51 316 4007, email: panam@orion.ufrgs.br, Web: http://www.ufrgs.br/panam] 54th UITP International Congress, London, 20-25 May 2001 (Call for Papers is now open) AND International Exhibition of Public Transport - City Transport 2001. London, England, 21-24 May 2001. [Contact: International Association of Public Transport (UITP), see above] "9th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR)" to be held at ASEM International Convention Center, Seoul, July 22-27, 2001. Deadline for submission of abstracts April 15, 2000. [Contact: Secretariat of 9th WCTR Conference, the Korea Transport Institute, 2311 Daehwa-Dong, Ilsan-Gu, Koyang-city, Kyonggi-Do, 411-410, KOREA. Tel : +82-344-910-3100, Fax: +82-344-910-3200, Email: wctr@cis.koti.re.kr, Web: http://www.koti.re.kr/~wctr] 12. LIGHTER SIDE A quick solution to pedestrians' problems crossing the road? How about a roll-up zebra crossing that you can carry around with you! See pictures at http://info.pitt.edu/~ctnst3/chindogu/chin10.html ----------------------------------------------------- Written and compiled by A. Rahman Paul Barter We rely on you, the participants in the network, for our news. Thank you very much to all those who have contributed. Please keep the contributions coming. We welcome brief news and announcements from all over the world. The Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From sustran at po.jaring.my Tue Jan 18 10:57:57 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 09:57:57 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: EARTH DAY IN WORLD CAPITALS Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000118095757.0086f7c0@relay101.jaring.my> Earth Day 2000 events seem to include many that are transport-related. >X-Sender: b4_worldwide@mail.siteconnect.net >Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 14:30:00 -0800 >To: worldwide@earthday.net >From: Earth Day Worldwide >Subject: EARTH DAY IN WORLD CAPITALS > > >Happy New Year! > >Earth Day Network now includes 4000 groups in 167 countries! > >Only 3 and a half months remain till Earth Day 2000! Huge Earth Day events >will be held in the world's major cities, some of which are sampled in this >email bulletin. Please tell us what you're planning for Earth Day 2000! > >HIGHLIGHTS - EARTH DAY IN WORLD CAPITALS > >Mexico City, Mexico. CONAE, Union de Grupos Ambientalistas, and other >groups and agencies are coming together to create a major Earth Day event >to educate people about clean energy. > >Rio de Janeiro/Sao Paulo, Brazil. Earth Day in Brazil will be part of the >activities being organized to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the >arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil. > >Beijing, China. The Earth Day 2000 China Committee is planning a major >campaign with a February media launch and a week of activities in April, >including a Celebration Ceremony in Beijing with music, speeches, and a >photo exhibit. > >Sydney, Australia. There will be a large Critical Mass bicycle rally. > >Tokyo, Japan. Earth Day 2000 Japan is coordinating a bike rally, shutting >down streets in the heart of the city to cars, and focusing attention on >air pollution. > >Seoul, South Korea. The Korea Earth Day Coalition and KFEM are organizing >an Earth Day fair and a bike rally which will shut down streets to cars. >The event will be held simultaneously with the event in Tokyo, Japan. > >Rome, Italy. Legambiente, the Country Coordinator for Italy, will >coordinate a major block-off of city streets to cars in Rome and in 100 >other cities in Italy. > >Warsaw, Poland. A clean energy fair and picnic will be held at Pola >Mokotowskie Park in Warsaw on April 30th. The event, which will cap a month >of Earth Day activity, will involve 60,000 people. > >Dhaka, Bangladesh. A coalition of groups, led by ESDO, is organizing a >series of Earth Day events, which will culminate in a rally that will >involve 20,000 people. > >Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, South Africa. Our Country Coordinator, >GroundWork, will launch a campaign in South Africa calling for an >improvement in legislation and policy around the oil refining industry in >South Africa. > >Taipei, Taiwan. 50,000 people will attend an Earth Day concert and >environmental fair at Chiang Kai Shek Square. > >Lagos, Nigeria. NGOs from around the country will be organizing to protest >environmental injustices surrounding the fossil fuel industry, and will >bring attention to the necessity of clean energy alternatives. > >Istanbul, Turkey. There will be a parade and concert in Taksim Square. > >Washington D.C., USA. Hundreds of thousands of people will take part in a >huge Earth Fair, featuring a solar powered stage with national musical acts >and speakers. > >To learn more details, or to contact local organizers, please see our >website, at http://www.earthday.net. > >*********** > >HELP SPREAD THE EARTH DAY WORD... Invite your friends and colleagues to >develop Earth Day plans. They can subscribe to this list by sending a >message to mailto:worldwide@earthday.net with the word "subscribe" in the >subject line. > >If you would like to stop receiving this bulletin, reply to this >message and put the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. > >This email is also being sent in French and Spanish. >-------------------------------------------------------- >Earth Day 2000 Worldwide Team: >Mark Dubois >Shalini Ramanathan >Serryn Janson >Frana Milan >Vickery Prongay >Helen Couture Rodriguez > > >Earth Day Network >91 Marion St. Seattle, WA 98104 USA >Tel: + 1.206.876.2000 >Fax: + 1.206.682.1184 >worldwide@earthday.net >www.earthday.net From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jan 19 10:50:54 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 09:50:54 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Re: Are petrol taxes regressive Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000119095054.0083de70@relay101.jaring.my> An interesting post on the utsg list below - part of a recent thread on "are petrol taxes regressive?" Transport equity is a major concern here at sustran-discuss so you may be interested in the two new reports mentioned below. Paul. >Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 14:32:30 GMT >Reply-To: Dave.duFeu@ed.ac.uk >Subject: Re: Are petrol taxes regressive >From: Dave du Feu >To: utsg@mailbase.ac.uk > >Two relevant publications are as below, both based solely >on the UK situation. I have also given my >web, email and phone contacts for IPPR and CPRE but have not >checked if these are up to date. I have not checked if these reports >are available on the web. > >A. Transport taxation & Equity, Skinner & Ferguson, pub. IPPR, 1998 > www.ippr.org.uk h.scott@ippr.org.uk 0171.470.6100 (UK phone no.) > >B. Rural Transport Policy & Equity, pub. CPRE, 1998 > www.greenchannel.com/cpre info@cpre.org.uk 0171.976.6433 > >The report (A) includes discussion on fuel taxes within its >wider discussion of transport taxes. The general conclusion seems to be >that petrol tax is progressive with the UK population at large and >regressive within the UK motoring population. However, it is less >regressive than might be expected in that latter population, since >better off people tend to drive much further than poorer people with >cars. > >They identify the most serious problem as being for poor rural motorists >- though certainly not for rural motorists in general. > >Report (B) is looking at wider rural transport policy, >and that includes some discussion about petrol taxes. > >Both organisations involved in producing the above reports come I think >from an environmental and an equity perspective, and take a broadly >sympathetic view of petrol and motoring taxes. They both therefore >also make some effort to suggest ways in which regressive aspects >can be countered - notably the effects on poor rural motorists. > >======================================================================= >Dave du Feu --- Phone: 0131-650-3202 --- Email: Dave.duFeu@ed.ac.uk >Computing Officer -- Public Health Sciences / Medical Statistics Unit >Medical Buildings Teviot Place University of Edinburgh EH8 9AG > > PLEASE NOTE NEW 8 DIGIT TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. TEL/FAX: +60 3 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my SUSTRAN: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jan 19 13:04:26 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 12:04:26 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: IATSS Research / Call for Paper Announcement Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000119120426.0087ae10@relay101.jaring.my> >ANNOUNCEMENT >Calling for the Submission of Papers on Risk Management in Transport > >Transportation has undergone extensive development with high demand in public, private and commercial sectors. However, environmental deterioration and traffic accidents including those resulting from disasters, frequently have a tremendous impact on our lives. Since it is impossible to avoid all negative effects of transport, effective risk management of transport has become essential. The key elements of risk management are the prevention of accidents and the reduction of loss caused by accidents. > >In this special issue, we intend to discuss new paradigms and perspectives in risk management in transport, comprising risk identification, risk assessment, risk prevention and risk control in all transportation modes. We invite contributions to IATSS Research Vol.24, No.2 (Fall 2000) on the various topics related to Risk Management in Transport. > >Masafumi YANO >Chairman >The Editorial Board > >Prospective authors should submit an abstract (approximately 300 words) and the title of paper by February 15, 2000 to the contact address listed below, including the author's name, affiliation, full mailing address, FAX number, telephone number and e-mail address. > >Authors of accepted abstracts will be informed by February 29, 2000 and asked to submit a paper by May 31, 2000 that should be no longer than 6 pages in the journal (approximately 20 pages of double-spaced A4 paper) including figures and tables. Completed papers will be reviewed by at least two referees in accordance with the Editorial Board policy. Authors will be advised of referees' comments and suggested revision of papers where necessary. > >CONTACT >Please address responses to the call for papers or inquiries for additional information to: > >IATSS Research Editorial and Advisory Board >International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences >6-20, 2-chome, Yaesu, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0028 JAPAN >FAX: +81-3-3272-7054 >E-mail: iatss@db3.so-net.ne.jp From townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au Thu Jan 20 08:34:07 2000 From: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au (Craig Townsend) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 15:34:07 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Manila to shift to unleaded gas Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000119153407.0079f840@central.murdoch.edu.au> >From the Manila Times Internet Edition, 19 January 2000 Buy gas converters for those old cars LEADED gasoline will be completely phased out from all Metro Manila service stations starting April this year. This emerged following the signing of a memorandum of agreement yesterday by Energy Secretary Mario Tiaoqui and officials of Petron Corp., Caltex Philippines, Inc., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Flying V, Total Petroleum Philippines Corp., Subic Bay Distribution Inc., Eastern Petroleum Corp. and Unioil Corp. Tiaoqui said Metro Manila’s complete shift to unleaded gasoline is a full nine months ahead of the national mandatory phaseout of leaded gasoline by January 2001, as mandated by Republic Act 8479 or the Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999. He said the early phaseout of leaded gasoline would go a long way in minimizing air pollution in the metropolis. “Definitely unleaded gasoline is a more environment-friendly fuel. We are glad, therefore, that the concerted move for an early phaseout of leaded gasoline is being actively supported by the three oil major companies and the new industry players,” Tiaoqui said. Officials from the old and new players in the oil industry said they would need at least two months to complete the full transition to unleaded gasoline of all Metro Manila service stations. To implement the move, the oil firms also need to invest $2 billion to refine and distribute oil products that will conform to the requirements of the Clean Air Act. According to Tiaoqui, the DoE and the oil industry aim to make the country fully unleaded within the year. Unleaded gasoline was first introduced in the market in February 1994. However, motorists were initially hesitant to use the product due, among others, to an erroneous perception that it had less power. To overcome this bias, Congress reduced the price of unleaded gasoline by lowering its excise tax by P1 per liter to P4.35 a liter. Since then, usage of unleaded gasoline has been on the rise. Currently, the product accounts for at least 45 percent of total gasoline sales. Meanwhile, Tiaoqui also said consumers can expect further reductions in the sulfur contents of diesel fuel from the present level of 0.5 weight percent to 0.2 in 2001 and further to 0.05 in 2003. He said the department would be conducting regular fuel quality tests on gasoline sales to monitor compliance with the agreement on leaded gasoline phaseout. ________________________________________________ Craig Townsend Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy Murdoch University South Street, Murdoch Perth, Western Australia 6150 tel: (61 8) 9360 6293 fax: (61 8) 9360 6421 email: townsend@central.murdoch.edu.au From papon at inrets.fr Wed Jan 19 18:28:45 2000 From: papon at inrets.fr (Francis PAPON) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 10:28:45 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Are petrol taxes regressive? reposted from UTSG Message-ID: Message found on another list that somebody on the sustran list may answer. >From: "Transrech List" >To: transrech@univ-lyon2.fr >Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 10:05:22 +0100 >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Subject: Are petrol taxes regressive? reposted from UTSG >Priority: normal >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from Quoted-printable to 8bit by >mailhost.univ-lyon2.fr id KAA23587 >Precedence: list >X-Sequence: 1285 > >Message de/from Darb?ra > >*************************************** >I suspect road fuel taxes to be regressive. I believe this issue is >probably well documented. Unfortunately I could not find any data breaking >down house-hold expenditure on transport by household income class. > >I would very much like to have this data for the UK, or for London, or for >any European country. Does anyone know where I could get it? > >Thank you. (and sorry for my approximate English) > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Richard Darbera >LATTS >Ecole Nationale des Ponts & Chaussees >6-8 Avenue Blaise Pascal >Cite Descartes >F77455 Marne la Vallee Cedex 2 >FRANCE >Tel. O1 64 15 38 34 >Fax O1 64 15 36 00 >e-mail darbera@latts.enpc.fr >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > >********************[ INFORMATIONS TRANSRECH ]************************* >Recherche dans les archives de transrech par mots clefs >http://listes.cru.fr/arc/transrech@univ-lyon2.fr/ > >ABONNEMENT/SUBSCRIPTION (To subscribe send a message to) >listserv@univ-lyon2.fr with the text "sub transrech + nom etc... " > >DESABONNEMENT (To unsubscribe send a message to) >listserv@univ-lyon2.fr with the text "unsub transrech" > >******** [ The moderator : Lbaumstark@plan.gouv.fr ] *************** > Francis Papon, mailto:francis.papon@inrets.fr INRETS/DEST/EEM, fax +33145475606 2, av. du G?n?ral Malleret-Joinville, F-94114 Arcueil France http://www.inrets.fr/infos/centres/inrets/velo_arcueil.html From rajendra.aryal at undp.org Wed Jan 19 20:07:44 2000 From: rajendra.aryal at undp.org (Rajendra Aryal) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 16:37:44 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Re: Are petrol taxes regressive? reposted from UTSG References: Message-ID: <38859B00.88800621@undp.org> Dear Colleague, You could probably contact Dr. Gerhard Metchies at GTZ office in Eschborn, Germany. As far as I remember he was making carrying out some study on fuel price and taxes. With best wishes. Rajendra Aryal Programme Officer United Nations Capital Development Fund Nepal Francis PAPON wrote: > Message found on another list that somebody on the sustran list may answer. > > >From: "Transrech List" > >To: transrech@univ-lyon2.fr > >Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 10:05:22 +0100 > >MIME-Version: 1.0 > >Subject: Are petrol taxes regressive? reposted from UTSG > >Priority: normal > >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from Quoted-printable to 8bit by > >mailhost.univ-lyon2.fr id KAA23587 > >Precedence: list > >X-Sequence: 1285 > > > >Message de/from Darb?ra > > > >*************************************** > >I suspect road fuel taxes to be regressive. I believe this issue is > >probably well documented. Unfortunately I could not find any data breaking > >down house-hold expenditure on transport by household income class. > > > >I would very much like to have this data for the UK, or for London, or for > >any European country. Does anyone know where I could get it? > > > >Thank you. (and sorry for my approximate English) > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >Richard Darbera > >LATTS > >Ecole Nationale des Ponts & Chaussees > >6-8 Avenue Blaise Pascal > >Cite Descartes > >F77455 Marne la Vallee Cedex 2 > >FRANCE > >Tel. O1 64 15 38 34 > >Fax O1 64 15 36 00 > >e-mail darbera@latts.enpc.fr > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > > >********************[ INFORMATIONS TRANSRECH ]************************* > >Recherche dans les archives de transrech par mots clefs > >http://listes.cru.fr/arc/transrech@univ-lyon2.fr/ > > > >ABONNEMENT/SUBSCRIPTION (To subscribe send a message to) > >listserv@univ-lyon2.fr with the text "sub transrech + nom etc... " > > > >DESABONNEMENT (To unsubscribe send a message to) > >listserv@univ-lyon2.fr with the text "unsub transrech" > > > >******** [ The moderator : Lbaumstark@plan.gouv.fr ] *************** > > > > Francis Papon, mailto:francis.papon@inrets.fr > INRETS/DEST/EEM, fax +33145475606 > 2, av. du G?n?ral Malleret-Joinville, F-94114 Arcueil France > http://www.inrets.fr/infos/centres/inrets/velo_arcueil.html From wcox at publicpurpose.com Thu Jan 20 06:30:57 2000 From: wcox at publicpurpose.com (Wendell Cox) Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 15:30:57 -0600 Subject: [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. References: <3.0.6.32.20000118095757.0086f7c0@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <000801bf62c4$7a8c7280$713ce6cf@newmicronpc> Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London Times 2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New York and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give a url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." Best regards, Wendell Cox -- WENDELL COX CONSULTANCY: International Public Policy, Economics, Labor, Transport & Strategic Planning THE PUBLIC PURPOSE: Internet Public Policy Resource: http://www.publicpurpose.com Transport Policy Discussion Group: http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-group.htm DEMOGRAPHIA: http://www.demographia.com Urban Policy Discussion Group: http://www.demographia.com/db-group.htm Telephone +1 618 632 8507; Fax +1 618 632 8538 - P.O. Box 841- Belleville, Illinois 62222 USA "To facilitate the ideal of government as the servant of the people by identifying and implementing strategies to achieve public purposes at a cost that is no higher than necessary." From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu Jan 20 13:55:43 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 12:55:43 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. In-Reply-To: <000801bf62c4$7a8c7280$713ce6cf@newmicronpc> References: <3.0.6.32.20000118095757.0086f7c0@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000120125543.007e8a10@relay101.jaring.my> Dear Wendell, I am puzzled too by the graph on air pollution in cities that you mentioned. The graph gives its source as the Atmospheric Research and Information Centre. Here are their contact details. I am also cc'ing this message to them. Sue Hare / Joe Buchdahl - Coordinators Atmospheric Research and Information Centre Dept. of Environmental & Geographical Sciences Manchester Metropolitan University Chester Street Manchester M1 5GD Tel: 0161 247 1590/3, Fax: 0161 247 6332 E-mail: aric@mmu.ac.uk Internet: http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/arichome.html At 15:30 19/01/00 -0600, you wrote: > >Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air >pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London Times >2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas >over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New York >and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not >reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. > >http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif > >Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give a >url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > >Best regards, >Wendell Cox PLEASE NOTE NEW 8 DIGIT TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. TEL/FAX: +60 3 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my SUSTRAN: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Thu Jan 20 17:37:31 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 09:37:31 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. In-Reply-To: <000801bf62c4$7a8c7280$713ce6cf@newmicronpc> Message-ID: Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." That's really terrific. What a thoughtful and competent conclusion on the part of the media. Just cause they see London up there as the "best performer" on the world list of eco-horrors, they feel safe to conclude that there's no problem. And so it ever goes. I detest conspiracy theories (as much as anything else because they put you in such awful company), but in this case one is justified in wondering if.... Of course there is a conspiracy. And of course it is one of banality and complacency, in good part made possible because the people who should know better (that's you and me my friends) simply do not seem to know how to grab and hold the stage. By being "intellectually responsible", by being "specialized", by agreeing to do yet more studies (which either implicitly accept the inertial premises of an environmentally reactionary political establishment or, if we don't, by not making too much of a fuss about it), by conferring and incessantly talking to each other all the time about matters of common professional interest .... Hey, there are only 24 hours in the day, and if we spend all our time doing this, no wonder that "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." Your servant is of course as guilty as the rest. One more little white mouse nibbling harmlessly in his corner of the warm cage. Here's a piece of more hopeful news. Peter Wiederkehr of the OECD's EST (Environmentally Sustainable Transportation) program mentioned to me en passant yesterday that their global analysis of pollution factors has revealed something quite surprising. Namely that it would not take an awful lot of rejiggling of the transport system, at least within the OECD region, in order to achieve some MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS in air quality. This is great news if true. As I understand it, he is not talking about Factor of Ten (or whatever) stuff, but rather has concluded that if we can only find a way to package the solution set (which in turn consists of a number of very specific, low cost, trend-busting "sustainability triggers"), it is something that we should be able to sell to the politicians (that is those who are not yet in jail or under investigation) and the public. I am going to ask him to put some of this in our forum here (for which I am ever grateful to good Paul) for your information and consideration. And hopefully your ideas and feedback, both to Peter and to the rest of us. Eric Britton From heckler at quickweb.com.ph Thu Jan 20 23:21:23 2000 From: heckler at quickweb.com.ph (Heckler) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 22:21:23 +0800 Subject: [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on Message-ID: <000d01bf6351$ff8a0780$aec2e2d8@heckler> For those of you who remember the letter that the Philippine NGO Sustainable Transport Network sent to Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Jejomar Binay endorsing his proposal for a carfree day in Metro Manila, hereunder is his verbatim reply (and uncommented as well). Dear Mr. Fernan: Thank you so much for your very encouraging letter of October 18, 1999. It was such a welcome respite from the barrage of criticism we received, ever since the plan to hold car-less days in Metro Manila saw print in several newspapers. I do not want to dampen your enthusiasm, but lest you be led to prematurely entertain expectations on the proximity of the plan's implementation, I would like to inform you that it is still under study. Allow me just the same to clarify that this was not primarily intended as a traffic management scheme. It was born out of our concern for the improvemenet of Metro Manila's air shed. As you and your group may well know, Metro Manila, with a vehicle density of 435 vehicles per kilometer of road is already the 9th most polluted metropolis among the 40 best cities in Asia and 70 percent of its air pollutants is accounted to vehicular emissions. Admittedly, it will take sometime before the plan can be implemented as this is dependent on the existence of an efficient mass transport system. And if it is any positive sign, this requirement has already been started to be put in place by the government. Again, thank you very much and we look forward to your continued support. Very truly yours, Jejomar C. Binay Chairman From negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA Fri Jan 21 09:22:18 2000 From: negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA (Paula Negron Poblete) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 19:22:18 -0500 Subject: [sustran] information needed Message-ID: <01BF637B.B8E7F600.negronpp@magellan.umontreal.ca> Hello everyone, I'm looking for information about modal split in public transport in the cities of New York and Vancouver, if someone has some information, please contact me at negronpp@magellan.umontreal.ca Tanks a lot _________________ Paula Negron Poblete Universite de Montreal Faculte d'Amenagement From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri Jan 21 00:48:32 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 23:48:32 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Taiwan - Bicycle Kingdom or Bicycle Hell? Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000120234832.00822dc0@relay101.jaring.my> This was sent in by Austral Bike Book, an online bicycle industry news service (http://austral.bikebook.com.tw), in response to our request for stories of positive change. > >Taiwan - Bicycle Kingdom or Bicycle Hell? >New Industry Advocacy Initiative - 1,000 Bikes Donated for Free Public Use in Taipei > >By Stephen Jack > >Bicycle industry insiders in Taiwan proudly refer to the island as the Bicycle Kingdom. Even with world market demand in the doldrums this is no idle claim. With export sales of 8.8 million units in 1997 Taiwan's international importance as a supplier in the last decade is without question. But expect blank stares from ordinary people if you describe Taiwan as a Bicycle Kingdom. The so called Bicycle Kingdom exists only in trade figures, at trade shows or inside local bicycle factories. Because when it comes to bicycle use and the state of riding conditions at home, Taiwan is definitely no Bicycle Kingdom. Bicycle Hell, would be a better description. During the last 30 years of Taiwan's industrial transformation and economic growth, the bicycle has been almost totally shunted aside and forgotten as a form of adult transportation. The small numbers who do cycle now are forced to do so in appallingly unsafe and polluted traffic conditions. > >If you expected this incongruity to cause embarrassment to the industry responsible for many of the best bicycles rolling around the streets of cities like Amsterdam or San Francisco you might be mistaken. The mentality in the Taiwan bicycle industry is firmly hitched to the large volume export wagon. Few Taiwan companies take seriously what is >usually perceived as a comparatively small local market (607,000 units in 1995 or just under 7 percent of total Taiwan production). With industry executives typically only viewing the traffic scene from a Mercedes Benz or BMW and precious few people who cycle employed throughout the industry, there is little genuine home-grown empathy for Taiwan cyclists from within the industry. > >With advocacy groups a rare species and governments that are uninterested, it seems like no one is sticking up for the bicycle in Taiwan. Until now. > >Enter the scene, Giant Manufacturing, the local bicycle company that stands head and shoulders above all others, some very large bicycle parts makers and the Taipei City Government, led by a publicity-loving but effective mayor. What has emerged is a bold new initiative that just could be the start of a significant change in attitude towards urban transportation. Well, maybe. > >The city's Bureau of Transportation has long term plans to improve both traffic and environmental conditions, including getting commuters to cycle from home to metro-rail system stations. Recently, in response to this plan, Giant donated 1,000 city bicycles to the Taipei City Government. A Giant spokesperson said that current conditions for riding bicycles on Taipei roads are very poor and that apart from public parks there are few places where it is possible for people to enjoy cycling safely. The new bicycles are now free for public use in five of the city's parks. > >Giant was unwilling to reveal the cost of the bicycles or the program but said the bicycles were specifically designed and built for the Taipei City bike-in-a-park program. The bicycles can be ridden by adults or children and require a minimum of maintenance. Component parts for the bicycles were donated by Kenda Rubber, Sram, KMC, Lee Chi and Cheng Shin Rubber. > >Giant is also responsible for the cost of the maintenance and repairs which will be performed by Giant mechanics. Giant and the parts makers also provided 1,032 bike racks while an insurance company donated coin-in-the-slot locks. Users pay a deposit of NT$50 (US$1.50) to release a bicycle from a lock, similar to the system used by supermarkets to try to ensure shopping trolleys are returned. > >While the bike-in-a-park plan won't help traffic conditions or make on-road cyclists feel safer, it will help get non-cycling Taipei people on bikes and hopefully, enthusiastic about them. Given the current bleak circumstances for cyclists this is potentially a great step forward. But whether it leads to other initiatives in the future depends as much on >further action by cyclists and environmentalists as it does on companies like Giant. But who knows, if things do progress, one day park-riding cyclists may even feel safe enough to venture onto the roads? > >When asked about the possibility of similar operations starting up in other Taiwan cities, the Giant spokesperson replied without hesitation, "If other cities have a plan we would be pleased to co-operate with them." Yes, that is correct; Giant is actually generously prepared to offer free bicycles to other interested city governments. I would like to imagine cyclists and others inundating city government offices and bicycle companies around Taiwan with calls and letters demanding programs like Taipei's but unfortunately I can't. I guess we have a way to go before Taiwan is really a Bicycle Kingdom. > >Oct. 22 1998 > >(from Austral Bike Book - http://austral.bikebook.com.tw) > >___________________________________________________________________________ >VISIT the BIKE BOOK Web Magazine for the latest International Bicycle Industry & Advocacy News > >Subscribe to our FREE Newsletter (email) > >We also publish *** BIKE BOOK Chinese Edition ***, distributed widely by post to the Taiwan bicycle industry. > >Austral Bike Book >12, Alley 12, Lane 51, Cheng Kung Road, Tali 412, Taichung County, Taiwan >Tel:+886 4 493 2283 Fax:+886 4 493 2273 >News: newsABB@inside.com.tw >Advertising: adsABB@inside.com.tw >___________________________________________________________________________ > > > From ganant at vsnl.com Fri Jan 21 13:17:13 2000 From: ganant at vsnl.com (Ananthakrishnan) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 09:47:13 +0530 Subject: [sustran] cyclerickshaw project Message-ID: <014d01bf63c6$67f13a40$6986c5cb@vsnl.net.in> I am trying to get the latest on the India Cycle Rickshaw Improvement Project. Chennai (Madras) has several traditional cyclerickshaws, operated largely by ageing and sickly slum dwellers. But their numbers have dwindled, as they have been practically pushed out of the feeder transport category by high powered three wheeled autorickshaws, owned by those who are frontmen for politicians and bureaucrats, including police. A new model cyclerickshaw has enormous potential, especially in the newly developing residential suburbs. G.Ananthakrishnan, Chennai-based journalist can be reached at Tel: + 91 44 8413942 , Fax: + 91 44 8415395. From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri Jan 21 11:58:59 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 10:58:59 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000121105859.0082de30@relay101.jaring.my> A reply from ARIC on the pollution graph used in the Times article. Thanks very much to ARIC for a rapid response. >From: "Joe Buchdahl" >Organization: Manchester Metropolitan University >To: SUSTRAN Resource Centre >Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 15:54:22 GMT >Subject: Re: [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. >Reply-to: j.buchdahl@mmu.ac.uk >Priority: normal > >To whom this may concern. > >The chart to which you refer to has been artificially constructed by >the Times based on data in one of aric's fact sheets. Go to our home >page, click: information > on-line fact sheets > Web format > Air >quality and Acid Rain series (older readers) fact sheet 11. You will >see quite how unscientific the Times have been. > >Joe Buchdahl >aric > ... From townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au Sat Jan 22 07:11:37 2000 From: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au (Craig Townsend) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 14:11:37 -0800 Subject: [sustran] [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000121141137.007a4350@central.murdoch.edu.au> >From the Philippine Star Online, 21 January 2000 Crackdown on pedicabs Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Jejomar Binay ordered yesterday a relentless arrest operation against abusive pedicab and tricycle drivers who continuously ply major thoroughfares in Metro Manila. Binay said that he will seek the support of all the mayors in Metro Manila to efficiently rid major thoroughfares of pedicabs and tricycles. He noted that under the law, pedicab and tricycles are allowed only to travel on side streets and not on major thoroughfares. "This unlawful act, which has been proven dangerous as evidenced by a number of accidents along the C-5 Road and other areas in the metropolis which resulted in death of tricycle passengers, must be stopped," Binay said. Binay said that since the franchising and regulation of pedicabs and tricycles are now vested on local government units (LGUs), the cooperation of local government officials is critical for the campaign to succeed. "There is a need to rationalize the issuance of permits for pedicabs and tricycles. This must be swiftly addressed," Binay said. Binay appealed to all mayors and barangay leaders to thoroughly study the significance of the MMDA's campaign and to implement the necessary sanctions against all erring pedicab and tricycle drivers. He said that an occular inspection conducted recently by the MMDA's Traffic Operations Center (TOC) in the five police districts of Metro Manila, showed that several pedicab and tricycle operators and drivers' associations are maintaining illegal terminals along several major thoroughfares. The result of the occular inspection will be forwarded by Binay to all mayors in Metro Manila for proper and appropriate action. "I am certain that the Metro Manila mayors will be one with me in this crusade," Binay said. -- Jose Rodel Clapano >From: "Heckler" >Reply-To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org >To: "Sustran Discuss" >CC: "Obet Verzola" , "Mine Watch" >, "Green Forum" >, "cacp" , "Parplays" > >Subject: [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on >Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 22:21:23 +0800 > >For those of you who remember the letter that the Philippine NGO Sustainable Transport Network sent to Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Jejomar Binay endorsing his proposal for a carfree day in Metro Manila, >hereunder is his verbatim reply (and uncommented as well). > >Dear Mr. Fernan: > >Thank you so much for your very encouraging letter of October 18, 1999. It was such a welcome respite from the barrage of criticism we received, ever since the plan to hold car-less days in Metro Manila saw print in several newspapers. > >I do not want to dampen your enthusiasm, but lest you be led to prematurely entertain expectations on the proximity of the plan's implementation, I would like to inform you that it is still under study. > >Allow me just the same to clarify that this was not primarily intended as a traffic management scheme. It was born out of our concern for the improvemenet of Metro Manila's air shed. As you and your group may well >know, Metro Manila, with a vehicle density of 435 vehicles per kilometer of road is already the 9th most polluted metropolis among the 40 best cities in Asia and 70 percent of its air pollutants is accounted to vehicular emissions. > >Admittedly, it will take sometime before the plan can be implemented as this is dependent on the existence of an efficient mass transport system. And if it is any positive sign, this requirement has already been started to be put in place by the government. > >Again, thank you very much and we look forward to your continued support. > >Very truly yours, > >Jejomar C. Binay >Chairman ________________________________________________ Craig Townsend Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy Murdoch University South Street, Murdoch Perth, Western Australia 6150 tel: (61 8) 9360 6293 fax: (61 8) 9360 6421 email: townsend@central.murdoch.edu.au From kisansbc at bom5.vsnl.net.in Sat Jan 22 08:33:14 2000 From: kisansbc at bom5.vsnl.net.in (kisansbc@bom5) Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 15:33:14 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Bus Lanes Message-ID: <20000122164900.0714746581@bom5.vsnl.net.in> 21 January 2000 Dear Paul, Your email of 05.01.2000 gives representative information on cities having bus lanes. It must be admitted that though citizens and authorities are talking for bus lanes, they are not provided on substantial scale. Compared to total kilometrage of roads in a city, only a few have bus lanes. This is being done to silence the opposition of nonmotor car/ vehicle owners. It is more like a bait to citizens demanding precedence for public road transport. But do bus lanes work even in a limited manner? Cities of the developing countries have considerable number of nonmotorised vehicles for movement of man and goods. Hawkers and other encroachments are rampant. They occupy firs tlane designated as bus lane. Many cities do not have pavements invariably for pedestrian movement. Pavements wherever they exist are usurped by shop extensions, hawkers and parked 2-3-4 wheelers. Implementation is poor together very low respect for law in the motorists. Where a single traffic lane is designated as bus lane, large number of buses plying create chaos. Bus stops and traffic junctions create a piling up of buses on a single lane. Cross lanes and streets without traffic control pose accident hazard. Opening of markets has resulted in increasing the number of motor cars tremendously. For instance, motor cars are increasing at the rate of 7-8% per annum in Mumbai against a population incarease of 2%. India has become the target for large international motorcar makers. Now foreign second hand cars are making entry. Cars have started percolating into towns and villages which are not built for motor traffic. Should we in SUSTRAN ask for bus lanes and feel happy on receiving bus lane on a few roads for a limited patch? There are roads in Mumbai which are banned for public transport - BEST services by municipalised bus transport undertaking but there are no roads closed to private car. Even 3 km length on Mount Road in Chennai is only symbolic offering while other roads continue to create problems. Kisan Mehta President Save Bombay Committee From premag at bom5.vsnl.net.in Sun Jan 23 02:57:44 2000 From: premag at bom5.vsnl.net.in (PREMA/ BRITTO) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 12:57:44 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: sustran-discuss V1 #545 References: <200001201700.CAA63114@mail.jca.apc.org> Message-ID: <001101bf6513$27b635e0$7032c5cb@britto> ----- Original Message ----- From: sustran-discuss To: Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 12:00 PM Subject: sustran-discuss V1 #545 > * To leave, send the message UNSUBSCRIBE sustran-discuss-digest > * to majordomo@mail.jca.ax.apc.org > > sustran-discuss Friday, January 21 2000 Volume 01 : Number 545 > > > > In this issue: > > [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 15:30:57 -0600 > From: "Wendell Cox" > Subject: [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > > Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air > pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London Times > 2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas > over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New York > and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not > reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. > > http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif > > Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give a > url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > > Best regards, > Wendell Cox > > - -- > WENDELL COX CONSULTANCY: International Public Policy, Economics, Labor, > Transport & Strategic Planning > > THE PUBLIC PURPOSE: Internet Public Policy Resource: > http://www.publicpurpose.com > Transport Policy Discussion Group: > http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-group.htm > > DEMOGRAPHIA: http://www.demographia.com > Urban Policy Discussion Group: http://www.demographia.com/db-group.htm > > Telephone +1 618 632 8507; Fax +1 618 632 8538 - P.O. Box 841- Belleville, > Illinois 62222 USA > > "To facilitate the ideal of government as the servant of the people by > identifying and implementing strategies to achieve public purposes at a > cost that is no higher than necessary." > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 12:55:43 +0800 > From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre > Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > > Dear Wendell, > > I am puzzled too by the graph on air pollution in cities that you > mentioned. The graph gives its source as the Atmospheric Research and > Information Centre. Here are their contact details. I am also cc'ing this > message to them. > > Sue Hare / Joe Buchdahl - Coordinators > Atmospheric Research and Information Centre > Dept. of Environmental & Geographical Sciences > Manchester Metropolitan University > Chester Street > Manchester M1 5GD > Tel: 0161 247 1590/3, Fax: 0161 247 6332 > E-mail: aric@mmu.ac.uk > Internet: http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/arichome.html > > At 15:30 19/01/00 -0600, you wrote: > > > >Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air > >pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London Times > >2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas > >over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New York > >and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not > >reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. > > > >http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif > > > >Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give a > >url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > > > >Best regards, > >Wendell Cox > > PLEASE NOTE NEW 8 DIGIT TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER > > A. Rahman Paul BARTER > Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia > and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) > P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. > TEL/FAX: +60 3 2274 2590 > E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my > SUSTRAN: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ > > The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises > people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport > with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 09:37:31 +0100 > From: eric.britton@ecoplan.org > Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > > Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > > That's really terrific. What a thoughtful and competent conclusion on the > part of the media. Just cause they see London up there as the "best > performer" on the world list of eco-horrors, they feel safe to conclude that > there's no problem. And so it ever goes. > > I detest conspiracy theories (as much as anything else because they put you > in such awful company), but in this case one is justified in wondering > if.... > > Of course there is a conspiracy. And of course it is one of banality and > complacency, in good part made possible because the people who should know > better (that's you and me my friends) simply do not seem to know how to grab > and hold the stage. By being "intellectually responsible", by being > "specialized", by agreeing to do yet more studies (which either implicitly > accept the inertial premises of an environmentally reactionary political > establishment or, if we don't, by not making too much of a fuss about it), > by conferring and incessantly talking to each other all the time about > matters of common professional interest .... Hey, there are only 24 hours in > the day, and if we spend all our time doing this, no wonder that "Traffic > Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > > Your servant is of course as guilty as the rest. One more little white > mouse nibbling harmlessly in his corner of the warm cage. > > > Here's a piece of more hopeful news. > > Peter Wiederkehr of the OECD's EST (Environmentally Sustainable > Transportation) program mentioned to me en passant yesterday that their > global analysis of pollution factors has revealed something quite > surprising. Namely that it would not take an awful lot of rejiggling of the > transport system, at least within the OECD region, in order to achieve some > MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS in air quality. This is great news if true. As I > understand it, he is not talking about Factor of Ten (or whatever) stuff, > but rather has concluded that if we can only find a way to package the > solution set (which in turn consists of a number of very specific, low cost, > trend-busting "sustainability triggers"), it is something that we should be > able to sell to the politicians (that is those who are not yet in jail or > under investigation) and the public. > > I am going to ask him to put some of this in our forum here (for which I am > ever grateful to good Paul) for your information and consideration. And > hopefully your ideas and feedback, both to Peter and to the rest of us. > > Eric Britton > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 22:21:23 +0800 > From: "Heckler" > Subject: [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on > > For those of you who remember the letter that the Philippine NGO Sustainable > Transport Network sent to Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman > Jejomar Binay endorsing his proposal for a carfree day in Metro Manila, > hereunder is his verbatim reply (and uncommented as well). > > Dear Mr. Fernan: > > Thank you so much for your very encouraging letter of October 18, 1999. It > was such a welcome respite from the barrage of criticism we received, ever > since the plan to hold car-less days in Metro Manila saw print in several > newspapers. > > I do not want to dampen your enthusiasm, but lest you be led to prematurely > entertain expectations on the proximity of the plan's implementation, I > would like to inform you that it is still under study. > > Allow me just the same to clarify that this was not primarily intended as a > traffic management scheme. It was born out of our concern for the > improvemenet of Metro Manila's air shed. As you and your group may well > know, Metro Manila, with a vehicle density of 435 vehicles per kilometer of > road is already the 9th most polluted metropolis among the 40 best cities in > Asia and 70 percent of its air pollutants is accounted to vehicular > emissions. > > Admittedly, it will take sometime before the plan can be implemented as this > is dependent on the existence of an efficient mass transport system. And if > it is any positive sign, this requirement has already been started to be put > in place by the government. > > Again, thank you very much and we look forward to your continued support. > > Very truly yours, > > Jejomar C. Binay > Chairman > > ------------------------------ > > End of sustran-discuss V1 #545 > ****************************** > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Sat Jan 22 15:54:04 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 14:54:04 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: mobile wheelchair service help request Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000122145404.00852100@relay101.jaring.my> A request for help and information from Southern India. >From: "Chapal" >To: >Subject: RE: SUSTRAN News Flash #36: People-centred and sustainable transport news >Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 13:14:09 +0530 > >Dear Rahman, > >Thanks for sending us your SUSTRAN NEWS FLASH. We are trying to introduce >Mobile wheelchair service for people with disabilities in Bangalore - South >of India. We are looking for a vehicle which could be easily accessible for >people with disabilities. Do you have information whether any organisation >can help us to obtain it and launch the service. > >Thanks for updating us - we will write to you with our article very soon. > >With best wishes - Chapal > A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. TEL/FAX: +(60 3) 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran (under construction) The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From sustran at po.jaring.my Sun Jan 23 00:24:15 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 23:24:15 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: sustran-discuss V1 #545 In-Reply-To: <001101bf6513$27b635e0$7032c5cb@britto> References: <200001201700.CAA63114@mail.jca.apc.org> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000122232415.007eb730@relay101.jaring.my> Dear Prema and Britto, You sent a message to sustran-discuss today but there was no message from you... just a copy of the recent digest message that you had received. I think perhaps you meant to do something else... perhaps change your subscription?? Is there anything I can do to help? Best wishes, Paul. At 12:57 22/01/00 -0500, you wrote: > >----- Original Message ----- >From: sustran-discuss >To: >Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 12:00 PM >Subject: sustran-discuss V1 #545 > > >> * To leave, send the message UNSUBSCRIBE sustran-discuss-digest >> * to majordomo@mail.jca.ax.apc.org >> >> sustran-discuss Friday, January 21 2000 Volume 01 : Number >545 >> >> >> >> In this issue: >> >> [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. >> [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. >> [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. >> [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 15:30:57 -0600 >> From: "Wendell Cox" >> Subject: [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. >> >> Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air >> pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London >Times >> 2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas >> over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New York >> and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not >> reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. >> >> http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif >> >> Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give >a >> url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." >> >> Best regards, >> Wendell Cox >> >> - -- >> WENDELL COX CONSULTANCY: International Public Policy, Economics, Labor, >> Transport & Strategic Planning >> >> THE PUBLIC PURPOSE: Internet Public Policy Resource: >> http://www.publicpurpose.com >> Transport Policy Discussion Group: >> http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-group.htm >> >> DEMOGRAPHIA: http://www.demographia.com >> Urban Policy Discussion Group: >http://www.demographia.com/db-group.htm >> >> Telephone +1 618 632 8507; Fax +1 618 632 8538 - P.O. Box 841- >Belleville, >> Illinois 62222 USA >> >> "To facilitate the ideal of government as the servant of the people by >> identifying and implementing strategies to achieve public purposes at a >> cost that is no higher than necessary." >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 12:55:43 +0800 >> From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre >> Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. >> >> Dear Wendell, >> >> I am puzzled too by the graph on air pollution in cities that you >> mentioned. The graph gives its source as the Atmospheric Research and >> Information Centre. Here are their contact details. I am also cc'ing this >> message to them. >> >> Sue Hare / Joe Buchdahl - Coordinators >> Atmospheric Research and Information Centre >> Dept. of Environmental & Geographical Sciences >> Manchester Metropolitan University >> Chester Street >> Manchester M1 5GD >> Tel: 0161 247 1590/3, Fax: 0161 247 6332 >> E-mail: aric@mmu.ac.uk >> Internet: http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/arichome.html >> >> At 15:30 19/01/00 -0600, you wrote: >> > >> >Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air >> >pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London >Times >> >2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas >> >over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New >York >> >and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not >> >reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. >> > >> >http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif >> > >> >Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give >a >> >url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." >> > >> >Best regards, >> >Wendell Cox >> >> PLEASE NOTE NEW 8 DIGIT TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER >> >> A. Rahman Paul BARTER >> Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia >> and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) >> P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. >> TEL/FAX: +60 3 2274 2590 >> E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my >> SUSTRAN: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ >> >> The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises >> people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport >> with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 09:37:31 +0100 >> From: eric.britton@ecoplan.org >> Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. >> >> Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." >> >> That's really terrific. What a thoughtful and competent conclusion on the >> part of the media. Just cause they see London up there as the "best >> performer" on the world list of eco-horrors, they feel safe to conclude >that >> there's no problem. And so it ever goes. >> >> I detest conspiracy theories (as much as anything else because they put >you >> in such awful company), but in this case one is justified in wondering >> if.... >> >> Of course there is a conspiracy. And of course it is one of banality and >> complacency, in good part made possible because the people who should know >> better (that's you and me my friends) simply do not seem to know how to >grab >> and hold the stage. By being "intellectually responsible", by being >> "specialized", by agreeing to do yet more studies (which either implicitly >> accept the inertial premises of an environmentally reactionary political >> establishment or, if we don't, by not making too much of a fuss about it), >> by conferring and incessantly talking to each other all the time about >> matters of common professional interest .... Hey, there are only 24 hours >in >> the day, and if we spend all our time doing this, no wonder that "Traffic >> Fumes do not Harm London's Health." >> >> Your servant is of course as guilty as the rest. One more little white >> mouse nibbling harmlessly in his corner of the warm cage. >> >> >> Here's a piece of more hopeful news. >> >> Peter Wiederkehr of the OECD's EST (Environmentally Sustainable >> Transportation) program mentioned to me en passant yesterday that their >> global analysis of pollution factors has revealed something quite >> surprising. Namely that it would not take an awful lot of rejiggling of >the >> transport system, at least within the OECD region, in order to achieve >some >> MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS in air quality. This is great news if true. As I >> understand it, he is not talking about Factor of Ten (or whatever) stuff, >> but rather has concluded that if we can only find a way to package the >> solution set (which in turn consists of a number of very specific, low >cost, >> trend-busting "sustainability triggers"), it is something that we should >be >> able to sell to the politicians (that is those who are not yet in jail or >> under investigation) and the public. >> >> I am going to ask him to put some of this in our forum here (for which I >am >> ever grateful to good Paul) for your information and consideration. And >> hopefully your ideas and feedback, both to Peter and to the rest of us. >> >> Eric Britton >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 22:21:23 +0800 >> From: "Heckler" >> Subject: [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on >> >> For those of you who remember the letter that the Philippine NGO >Sustainable >> Transport Network sent to Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman >> Jejomar Binay endorsing his proposal for a carfree day in Metro Manila, >> hereunder is his verbatim reply (and uncommented as well). >> >> Dear Mr. Fernan: >> >> Thank you so much for your very encouraging letter of October 18, 1999. It >> was such a welcome respite from the barrage of criticism we received, ever >> since the plan to hold car-less days in Metro Manila saw print in several >> newspapers. >> >> I do not want to dampen your enthusiasm, but lest you be led to >prematurely >> entertain expectations on the proximity of the plan's implementation, I >> would like to inform you that it is still under study. >> >> Allow me just the same to clarify that this was not primarily intended as >a >> traffic management scheme. It was born out of our concern for the >> improvemenet of Metro Manila's air shed. As you and your group may well >> know, Metro Manila, with a vehicle density of 435 vehicles per kilometer >of >> road is already the 9th most polluted metropolis among the 40 best cities >in >> Asia and 70 percent of its air pollutants is accounted to vehicular >> emissions. >> >> Admittedly, it will take sometime before the plan can be implemented as >this >> is dependent on the existence of an efficient mass transport system. And >if >> it is any positive sign, this requirement has already been started to be >put >> in place by the government. >> >> Again, thank you very much and we look forward to your continued support. >> >> Very truly yours, >> >> Jejomar C. Binay >> Chairman >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> End of sustran-discuss V1 #545 >> ****************************** >> >> > > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Sun Jan 23 10:37:24 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 09:37:24 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: sustran-discuss V1 #545 In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000122232415.007eb730@relay101.jaring.my> References: <001101bf6513$27b635e0$7032c5cb@britto> <200001201700.CAA63114@mail.jca.apc.org> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000123093724.00845b90@relay101.jaring.my> Sorry everyone. I had meant to send that last message just to Prema/Britto, not the whole list. Paul At 23:24 22/01/00 +0800, you wrote: >Dear Prema and Britto, > >You sent a message to sustran-discuss today but there was no message from >you... just a copy of the recent digest message that you had received. > >I think perhaps you meant to do something else... perhaps change your >subscription?? Is there anything I can do to help? From ganant at vsnl.com Sun Jan 23 15:22:27 2000 From: ganant at vsnl.com (Ananthakrishnan) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 11:52:27 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Re: Bus Lanes References: <20000122164900.0714746581@bom5.vsnl.net.in> Message-ID: <000701bf656a$3f89d6c0$8e86c5cb@vsnl.net.in> The writer mentions a host of problems that are found in almost all South Asian cities - unplanned for any significant level of automobile-based mobility - and it is evident that the answer to me lies in making public transport more attractive. Simply because, the buses are run with all these problems even now, and lanes are not going to make service worse, only better. Chennai's experiment with a limited stretch of bus lane has, on balance, been positive. It is the only stretch where buses can move faster in the city, a fact acknowledged by all, most importantly, by the monopoly operator, MTC. Travel times can in fact be guaranteed, except for a major obstruction. Thus, the lanes do work. What is more, the maximum number of road accident victims for motorised transport in this city are two-wheeler riders, who have adopted this mode because the buses have failed them. Therefore, more buses, more lanes, appropriate fares and greater access would in the long term have enormous social benefits by reducing fatalities and injuries. Even politically, I would presume that if bus commuters are organised by NGOs, it is bound to have an impact on policy - simply because the numbers are greater than car users. After the media and concerned individuals in Chennai made a big noise over the proposal to scrap the lane, the urban development authority beat a hasty retreat. Chennai happens to be part of the Sustainable Cities concept of UNDP and is committed to improving public transport, noise and air pollution. Activists would perhaps achieve better results, if they take up South Asian mobility issues in the perspective of the massive aid that cities receive for development from international agencies - ostensibly for sustainable development. My newspaper (The Hindu) has just frontpaged a story locally on how the urban development authority and the Governments in New Delhi and Chennai have failed to achieve integration of fares and services in this city. G.Ananthakrishnan, Chennai-based journalist can be reached at Tel: + 91 44 8413942 , Fax: + 91 44 8415395. ----- Original Message ----- From: kisansbc@bom5 To: Sustran Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2000 5:03 AM Subject: [sustran] Bus Lanes > > 21 January 2000 > > Dear Paul, > > Your email of 05.01.2000 gives representative information > on cities having bus lanes. > > It must be admitted that though citizens and authorities > are talking for bus lanes, they are not provided on > substantial scale. Compared to total kilometrage of > roads in a city, only a few have bus lanes. This is > being done to silence the opposition of nonmotor car/ > vehicle owners. It is more like a bait to citizens > demanding precedence for public road transport. > > But do bus lanes work even in a limited manner? > Cities of the developing countries have considerable > number of nonmotorised vehicles for movement of > man and goods. Hawkers and other encroachments > are rampant. They occupy firs tlane designated as > bus lane. Many cities do not have pavements > invariably for pedestrian movement. Pavements > wherever they exist are usurped by shop extensions, > hawkers and parked 2-3-4 wheelers. Implementation > is poor together very low respect for law in the > motorists. Where a single traffic lane is designated > as bus lane, large number of buses plying create chaos. > Bus stops and traffic junctions create a piling up of > buses on a single lane. Cross lanes and streets > without traffic control pose accident hazard. > > Opening of markets has resulted in increasing the > number of motor cars tremendously. For instance, > motor cars are increasing at the rate of 7-8% per annum > in Mumbai against a population incarease of 2%. India > has become the target for large international motorcar > makers. Now foreign second hand cars are making entry. > Cars have started percolating into towns and villages which > are not built for motor traffic. > > Should we in SUSTRAN ask for bus lanes and feel happy > on receiving bus lane on a few roads for a limited patch? > There are roads in Mumbai which are banned for public > transport - BEST services by municipalised bus transport > undertaking but there are no roads closed to private car. > Even 3 km length on Mount Road in Chennai is only > symbolic offering while other roads continue to create > problems. > > Kisan Mehta > President > Save Bombay Committee > > From premag at bom5.vsnl.net.in Mon Jan 24 07:52:09 2000 From: premag at bom5.vsnl.net.in (PREMA/ BRITTO) Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 17:52:09 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: transport is politics in bombay References: <200001221700.CAA94690@mail.jca.apc.org> Message-ID: <003501bf65f4$baf4e360$2330c5cb@britto> Meant to send a note on the Bombay's exciting efforts by citizens to move courts and the govt? on vehicle pollution, flyovers and hawkers TRANSPORT IS POLITICS in Bombay today. Three events have sharpened citizen awareness in Bombay. # ANTI POLLUTION DRIVE 2,00,000 vehicles ( all except pvt cars) were off Bombay's roads for 4 days.We could breathe easy.Pollution levels were down by 25 to 40 %.and public transport -trains and buses flourished. An ordinary doctor of the Smoke Free Forum had filed a public interest litigation to enforce the ban on old and polluting taxis.The govt supported this move, encouraged by a positive court verdict.But people are confused.Is it the powerful car lobby trying to get taxis off the street(55000 at that)The taxis and pvt operators blame the car lobby and the govt. for allowing adulterated fuel to be sold.They cheekily remark --why not get old cars of the road too? I would love to hear if we can feed the politicians/govt with solutions to cut down pollution levels . Is Eric from ecoplan listening? He I believe is privy to major ideas on this.And other friends? ## FLYOVERS - can make or break a govt? Inaugurating a flyover yesterday (the 44th ??) in Bombay the minister said," A flyover is like wearing 20 coats when you do not have a shirt to wear".The new govt is 100 days new.The state coffers are empty.and they are saddled with completing 55 flyovers a legacy from the previous govt. ( whose life depended on flyovers ).At least two flyovers have been stopped due to courts. And now, the new govt ( to spite the old govt) will carry out an expert study --will flyovers actually reduce pollution and ease traffic in Bombay??Again a major chance to lobby.The World Bank too has opposed flyovers as part of the urban transport planAnd the bottomline is --no money, no flyovers?? ### HAWKER ZONES--Again an ordinary citizen filed a PIL (public interest litigation) against the city govt for allowing enterprise to encroach pavements and roads.The attempt to divorce people from livelihoods has not been as successful.They keep coming back.The stick doesn't work.and there is no carrot.Hawker associations have fought this move while well heeled citizens have opposed hawker zones in their area.The battle is on.Meanwhile some activists are exploring new ways of accommodating this.Any similar battles? > Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 23:24:15 +0800 > From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre > Subject: [sustran] Re: sustran-discuss V1 #545 > > Dear Prema and Britto, > > You sent a message to sustran-discuss today but there was no message from > you... just a copy of the recent digest message that you had received. > > I think perhaps you meant to do something else... perhaps change your > subscription?? Is there anything I can do to help? THANKS FOR THE CONCERN -- PREMA > Best wishes, > > Paul. > > > > At 12:57 22/01/00 -0500, you wrote: > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: sustran-discuss > >To: > >Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 12:00 PM > >Subject: sustran-discuss V1 #545 > > > > > >> * To leave, send the message UNSUBSCRIBE sustran-discuss-digest > >> * to majordomo@mail.jca.ax.apc.org > >> > >> sustran-discuss Friday, January 21 2000 Volume 01 : Number > >545 > >> > >> > >> > >> In this issue: > >> > >> [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > >> [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > >> [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > >> [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on > >> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> > >> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 15:30:57 -0600 > >> From: "Wendell Cox" > >> Subject: [sustran] Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > >> > >> Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air > >> pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London > >Times > >> 2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas > >> over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New York > >> and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not > >> reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. > >> > >> http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif > >> > >> Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give > >a > >> url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > >> > >> Best regards, > >> Wendell Cox > >> > >> - -- > >> WENDELL COX CONSULTANCY: International Public Policy, Economics, Labor, > >> Transport & Strategic Planning > >> > >> THE PUBLIC PURPOSE: Internet Public Policy Resource: > >> http://www.publicpurpose.com > >> Transport Policy Discussion Group: > >> http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-group.htm > >> > >> DEMOGRAPHIA: http://www.demographia.com > >> Urban Policy Discussion Group: > >http://www.demographia.com/db-group.htm > >> > >> Telephone +1 618 632 8507; Fax +1 618 632 8538 - P.O. Box 841- > >Belleville, > >> Illinois 62222 USA > >> > >> "To facilitate the ideal of government as the servant of the people by > >> identifying and implementing strategies to achieve public purposes at a > >> cost that is no higher than necessary." > >> > >> ------------------------------ > >> > >> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 12:55:43 +0800 > >> From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre > >> Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > >> > >> Dear Wendell, > >> > >> I am puzzled too by the graph on air pollution in cities that you > >> mentioned. The graph gives its source as the Atmospheric Research and > >> Information Centre. Here are their contact details. I am also cc'ing this > >> message to them. > >> > >> Sue Hare / Joe Buchdahl - Coordinators > >> Atmospheric Research and Information Centre > >> Dept. of Environmental & Geographical Sciences > >> Manchester Metropolitan University > >> Chester Street > >> Manchester M1 5GD > >> Tel: 0161 247 1590/3, Fax: 0161 247 6332 > >> E-mail: aric@mmu.ac.uk > >> Internet: http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/arichome.html > >> > >> At 15:30 19/01/00 -0600, you wrote: > >> > > >> >Within the last week there has been some discussion of the level of air > >> >pollution in Delhi. The following chart is republished from the London > >Times > >> >2000-01-17, with comparative evaluations of air pollution in urban areas > >> >over 10m --- Delhi ranks fourth, with cleaner air only in Mumbai, New > >York > >> >and London, according to this source. The rankings in this chart do not > >> >reflect my experience, or what I hear. Does anyone know what is going on. > >> > > >> >http://www.publicpurpose.com/who-arip.gif > >> > > >> >Chart was in an article that I found searching the site, so I cannot give > >a > >> >url... Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > >> > > >> >Best regards, > >> >Wendell Cox > >> > >> PLEASE NOTE NEW 8 DIGIT TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER > >> > >> A. Rahman Paul BARTER > >> Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia > >> and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) > >> P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. > >> TEL/FAX: +60 3 2274 2590 > >> E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my > >> SUSTRAN: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/ > >> > >> The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises > >> people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport > >> with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. > >> > >> ------------------------------ > >> > >> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 09:37:31 +0100 > >> From: eric.britton@ecoplan.org > >> Subject: [sustran] Re: Air Pollution - Delhi, Etc. > >> > >> Headline was "Traffic Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > >> > >> That's really terrific. What a thoughtful and competent conclusion on the > >> part of the media. Just cause they see London up there as the "best > >> performer" on the world list of eco-horrors, they feel safe to conclude > >that > >> there's no problem. And so it ever goes. > >> > >> I detest conspiracy theories (as much as anything else because they put > >you > >> in such awful company), but in this case one is justified in wondering > >> if.... > >> > >> Of course there is a conspiracy. And of course it is one of banality and > >> complacency, in good part made possible because the people who should know > >> better (that's you and me my friends) simply do not seem to know how to > >grab > >> and hold the stage. By being "intellectually responsible", by being > >> "specialized", by agreeing to do yet more studies (which either implicitly > >> accept the inertial premises of an environmentally reactionary political > >> establishment or, if we don't, by not making too much of a fuss about it), > >> by conferring and incessantly talking to each other all the time about > >> matters of common professional interest .... Hey, there are only 24 hours > >in > >> the day, and if we spend all our time doing this, no wonder that "Traffic > >> Fumes do not Harm London's Health." > >> > >> Your servant is of course as guilty as the rest. One more little white > >> mouse nibbling harmlessly in his corner of the warm cage. > >> > >> > >> Here's a piece of more hopeful news. > >> > >> Peter Wiederkehr of the OECD's EST (Environmentally Sustainable > >> Transportation) program mentioned to me en passant yesterday that their > >> global analysis of pollution factors has revealed something quite > >> surprising. Namely that it would not take an awful lot of rejiggling of > >the > >> transport system, at least within the OECD region, in order to achieve > >some > >> MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS in air quality. This is great news if true. As I > >> understand it, he is not talking about Factor of Ten (or whatever) stuff, > >> but rather has concluded that if we can only find a way to package the > >> solution set (which in turn consists of a number of very specific, low > >cost, > >> trend-busting "sustainability triggers"), it is something that we should > >be > >> able to sell to the politicians (that is those who are not yet in jail or > >> under investigation) and the public. > >> > >> I am going to ask him to put some of this in our forum here (for which I > >am > >> ever grateful to good Paul) for your information and consideration. And > >> hopefully your ideas and feedback, both to Peter and to the rest of us. > >> > >> Eric Britton > >> > >> ------------------------------ > >> > >> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 22:21:23 +0800 > >> From: "Heckler" > >> Subject: [sustran] car free day in Manila? Dream on > >> > >> For those of you who remember the letter that the Philippine NGO > >Sustainable > >> Transport Network sent to Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman > >> Jejomar Binay endorsing his proposal for a carfree day in Metro Manila, > >> hereunder is his verbatim reply (and uncommented as well). > >> > >> Dear Mr. Fernan: > >> > >> Thank you so much for your very encouraging letter of October 18, 1999. It > >> was such a welcome respite from the barrage of criticism we received, ever > >> since the plan to hold car-less days in Metro Manila saw print in several > >> newspapers. > >> > >> I do not want to dampen your enthusiasm, but lest you be led to > >prematurely > >> entertain expectations on the proximity of the plan's implementation, I > >> would like to inform you that it is still under study. > >> > >> Allow me just the same to clarify that this was not primarily intended as > >a > >> traffic management scheme. It was born out of our concern for the > >> improvemenet of Metro Manila's air shed. As you and your group may well > >> know, Metro Manila, with a vehicle density of 435 vehicles per kilometer > >of > >> road is already the 9th most polluted metropolis among the 40 best cities > >in > >> Asia and 70 percent of its air pollutants is accounted to vehicular > >> emissions. > >> > >> Admittedly, it will take sometime before the plan can be implemented as > >this > >> is dependent on the existence of an efficient mass transport system. And > >if > >> it is any positive sign, this requirement has already been started to be > >put > >> in place by the government. > >> > >> Again, thank you very much and we look forward to your continued support. > >> > >> Very truly yours, > >> > >> Jejomar C. Binay > >> Chairman > >> > >> ------------------------------ > >> > >> End of sustran-discuss V1 #545 > >> ****************************** > >> > >> > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > End of sustran-discuss V1 #547 > ****************************** > > From kerry.wood at paradise.net.nz Mon Jan 24 06:05:42 2000 From: kerry.wood at paradise.net.nz (Kerry Wood) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 10:05:42 +1300 Subject: [sustran] Bus Lanes References: <20000122164900.0714746581@bom5.vsnl.net.in> Message-ID: <388B6D24.773F3ADD@paradise.net.nz> Dear Kisan Your e-mail to Paul sounds a bit discouraged: maybe some of these points will help: Cars use space much less efficiently (passengers per lane per hour) than buses, so more cars can only make congestion worse. A 7 - 8% growth rate will very quickly be a problem. Safe pedestrian space may be even more important than bus lanes, and cycles may also need priority. The objective is not bus lanes, it is minimising congestion delays to public transport. A suggested target is 95% of services within 5 minutes of time. The maximum number of buses in a bus lane is ideally about 60 per hour one-way. You can get more (up to about 30 000 passengers / hour according to Gardner--ICE Transport 8/92), but you then have to look out for two problems: - Congestion at stops. Use a second lane for the stop, long enough to hold the maximum number of buses likely to be in it at any one time, adn with space for buses to turn into and out of the stop lane. - Congestion at junctions. You need enough time in a traffic signal cycle to get both buses and other traffic through. A second streaming lane for buses is a help. If there are too many buses reallocating them onto different routes may help, or use a two lane bus lane, or articulated buses. Light rail is the next stage: it may be more affordable if you make maximum use of local resources and refurbished second hand vehicles. Suburban rail will probably be cheaper if route capacity is available and it runs in the right direction. Bus lanes don't have to be next to the left hand kerb (right kerb in most places outside the Commonwealth). They can go in the centre lanes (this needs extra space for passenger areas at stops, and care with getting passengers out to the stops), on the right lane of a one-way street (still needs extra passenger space), or in a contraflow lane in a one-way street. Of course, changing the position of a bus lane needs care too, and perfect answers are unlikely. Bicycles can share a bus lane if the minimum width is around 4.2 m (more on bends, and maybe more for pedicabs). Cars can be kept out of bus lanes. Methods include a kerb 120 mm high (low enough for emergency vehicles to bump over it when needed), a 'bus gate' at the entrance to the bus lane, or giving the drivers cameras so that they can record offences for prosecution. However, cars need to be able to access side turnings (but not neccessarily at peak hours). This comes back to the position of the bus lane. Traffic signal priority fits well with bus lanes, making them much more effective. A token 5 second phase extension if a bus is coming is useless: buses need to usually go straight through. If a short section of road is too narrow for separate bus lanes, the solution may be to use traffic signals to control entry to a flow that will minimise congestion, with a bus lane on the approach to the traffic signals. Buses can then bypass the queue and enter a reasonably free-flowing general traffic stream through the bottleneck. Parallel improvement areas are timekeeping, connections (good connections need excellent timekeeping, or very frequent services) and the buses themselves. If passenger transport is to be really effective it needs to be faster than driving, so that it is still competitive after allowing for access and transfer times, and parking time for cars. You ask Paul, 'do bus lanes work?' and they may not work if enforcement (active and passive) is bad and general traffic simply takes over. I have not been in Mumbai for 25 years, but the little I remember is not encouraging. The decision makers will inevitably want to ride around in cars, but they must be made to understand that giving priority to passenger transport (not necessarily on-road) will help the decision makers personally, and everybody else just incidentally. (unless the decision makers could be persuaded to use special buses, segregated by high fares?) A rational approach might be very high car taxes, to both control numbers and fund alternatives, but the political will for such a policy is hard to find. Certainly we have not found it in New Zealand. Best wishes with your search. > -- Kerry Wood MICE MIPENZ MCIT Transport Consultant 1 McFarlane Street, Wellington 6001, New Zealand Phone + 64 4 971 5549 From fareen at sapura.com.my Tue Jan 25 02:36:11 2000 From: fareen at sapura.com.my (Fareen Shazli bin Ali) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 09:36:11 -0800 Subject: [sustran] (no title) Message-ID: <01BF664E.741552E0@Hashim.sapura.com.my> unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 984 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/20000124/40adf847/attachment.bin From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Mon Jan 24 18:11:06 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 10:11:06 +0100 Subject: [sustran] =?Windows-1252?Q?What_is_the_=93economic_value=94_of_the_city_transport_s?= =?Windows-1252?Q?ystem=3F?= Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, Do any of you have access to a source which has tried to put credible numbers to the following? What is the ?economic value? of the city transport system, i.e., the money price that one might put on it measured in terms of what people actually pay, one way or another, for this part of their daily lives? Per day? Year? Single city? A nation as a whole? Clearly that number would vary wildly depending on what one decides to try to include and the values chosen for each input (e.g., what externalities does on try to capture? what about the value of time in transit?). I can think of a number of different ways of cutting it to make the calculation, but no sense in my trotting all that out here since most of you know far more about it than I do. Moreover, I have seen such numbers here and the in the past, but none which has stuck in my mind. My interest in doing this? Well, suppose one took a team to Boston, Prague or Lagos, sat down with the mayor or dictator of the moment, and showed her how she could reengineer the regional system to get a lot more throughput per economic unit, whether in terms of the city?s contribution or from a more global perspective (which, incidentally, should be her platform for reelection). And if these numbers already exist, how come no one is making proper use of them? Regards, eric britton -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: winmail.dat Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 4660 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/20000124/45bc4b8d/winmail.bin From wcox at publicpurpose.com Mon Jan 24 20:42:17 2000 From: wcox at publicpurpose.com (Wendell Cox) Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 05:42:17 -0600 Subject: [sustran] =?Windows-1252?Q?Re:_=5Bsustran=5D_What_is_the_=93economic_value=94_of_th?= =?Windows-1252?Q?e_city_transport_system=3F?= References: Message-ID: <000e01bf6660$11ecfa20$998b4ad1@newmicronpc> Dear Eric... An interesting theoretical point. Actually, attempts have been made to do just that (advise public transport policy makers of the benefits of reform and re-engineering), and some of the most intense efforts have been made in Boston. Result --- what drives public transport decision making in North America is special interests --- politics. The minute you tread on the special interests that control public transport, the appetite for reform goes away. In the US, this may have to do with our special interest inclined political system, but similar things go on in Canada. Wendell Cox ----- Original Message ----- From: To: ; ; Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 3:11 AM Subject: [sustran] What is the ?economic value? of the city transport system? > Dear Colleagues, > > Do any of you have access to a source which has tried to put credible > numbers to the following? > > What is the ?economic value? of the city transport system, i.e., the money > price that one might put on it measured in terms of what people actually > pay, one way or another, for this part of their daily lives? Per day? Year? > Single city? A nation as a whole? > > Clearly that number would vary wildly depending on what one decides to try > to include and the values chosen for each input (e.g., what externalities > does on try to capture? what about the value of time in transit?). I can > think of a number of different ways of cutting it to make the calculation, > but no sense in my trotting all that out here since most of you know far > more about it than I do. Moreover, I have seen such numbers here and the in > the past, but none which has stuck in my mind. > > My interest in doing this? Well, suppose one took a team to Boston, Prague > or Lagos, sat down with the mayor or dictator of the moment, and showed her > how she could reengineer the regional system to get a lot more throughput > per economic unit, whether in terms of the city?s contribution or from a > more global perspective (which, incidentally, should be her platform for > reelection). > > And if these numbers already exist, how come no one is making proper use of > them? > > Regards, > > eric britton > From Mark.Diesendorf at uts.edu.au Tue Jan 25 09:57:58 2000 From: Mark.Diesendorf at uts.edu.au (Mark Diesendorf) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 11:57:58 +1100 Subject: [sustran] [sustran] Economic value of urban transport system In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: In response to Eric Britton: My colleagues Kendall Banfield, Ria Hutabarat and I at the Institute for Sustainable Futures have been working on a related problem: the real cost of various modes of urban transportation. So far, we have built up a large database on the costs and use of cars, buses and heavy rail in Sydney, Australia. We have started with some basic economic costs-- land, infrastructure, rolling stock, operation & maintenance -- and measure costs in cents per passenger per km travelled. We find that , even with this limited set of costs, the costs of cars are highest, followed by heavy rail and then buses. The quantitative values of car and bus costs vary under a sensitivity analysis that makes a wide range of assumptions about the assignment of road costs between cars and heavy vehicles. However, the main qualitative results, that cars are the most expensive, and that all three modes of passenger transportation are heavily subsidised, do not change. The paper was published in the Proceedings of the Australasian Transport Research Forum 23: 269-285 (1999), which unfortunately is not widely available. Subject to permission from ATRF, we will put the paper onto our Web site soon. This year we plan to take into account the cost of crashes and traffic policing. This will of course increase the cost of cars relative to the cost of public transportation. We would also like to include the cost of cycling (land, infrastructure, rolling stock, O & M). We don't have the resources to tackle environmental costs at present, however we're aware of valuable work already done by Bent Soerensen and others. Collaborating with a research group in China, we hope to do a similar project in a rapidly growing Chinese city and then create a process to involve government, business and other stakeholders to reduce car use and improve public transportation and facilities for cycling and walking. However, first we have to obtain some funding for this. >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="Windows-1252" >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by >mx.jca.apc.org id SAA73759 > >Dear Colleagues, > >Do any of you have access to a source which has tried to put credible >numbers to the following? > >What is the ?economic value? of the city transport system, i.e., the money >price that one might put on it measured in terms of what people actually >pay, one way or another, for this part of their daily lives? Per day? Year? >Single city? A nation as a whole? > >Clearly that number would vary wildly depending on what one decides to try >to include and the values chosen for each input (e.g., what externalities >does on try to capture? what about the value of time in transit?). I can >think of a number of different ways of cutting it to make the calculation, >but no sense in my trotting all that out here since most of you know far >more about it than I do. Moreover, I have seen such numbers here and the in >the past, but none which has stuck in my mind. > >My interest in doing this? Well, suppose one took a team to Boston, Prague >or Lagos, sat down with the mayor or dictator of the moment, and showed her >how she could reengineer the regional system to get a lot more throughput >per economic unit, whether in terms of the city?s contribution or from a >more global perspective (which, incidentally, should be her platform for >reelection). > >And if these numbers already exist, how come no one is making proper use of >them? > >Regards, > >eric britton Mark Diesendorf, PhD Professor of Environmental Science and Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures University of Technology, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia email: Mark.Diesendorf@uts.edu.au Web: http://www.isf.uts.edu.au phone: +61 2 9209 4350 fax: +61 2 9209 4351 ISF's address via UTS internal mail is Institute for Sustainable Futures, Australian Technology Park. From sustran at po.jaring.my Tue Jan 25 14:59:38 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 13:59:38 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Singapore bicycle loan scheme Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000125135938.007dc8b0@relay101.jaring.my> The Star Monday, January 24, 2000 Dateline: Lion City Novel bike scheme gets going A SCHEME to allow residents of a Housing Board Estate to use bicycles around their neighbourhood for up to two hours for free was launched on Saturday. Called the SmartBike Scheme, it was started by advertising company Capital City Posters and the Bukit Batok Community Club at a cost of S$1mil (RM2.2mil). A total of 100 bikes at 10 docking stations are available to residents. To take part, a resident simply applies for a smart card at the community club, paying a S$10 (about RM22) registration fee. With the smart card he can release a bicycle. When he is done with the bike, he goes to the nearest docking station and parks it there, locking it into place with the same smart card. In Bukit Batok alone the scheme is expected to have about 2,000 members. Peter Kemeny, the managing director of Capital City Posters, said that the scheme helps residents who need a quick and convenient form of transport. He said his company benefits, too, from selling the advertising panels at the docking stations. The smart-card technology used for the scheme runs on the GSM communication network, which is used to track bicycle movements. The network is provided by SingTel Mobile. It helps monitor usage and traffic flow of the bicycles. A signal will also be transmitted if a bicycle is not returned after two hours. The scheme was first implemented in Rennes, France, in May 1998 by Capital City Posters' partner, the Adshel Group. ..... Copyright ? 1995-2000. Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. (Co No. 10894-D) All rights reserved. From afribike at mweb.co.za Tue Jan 25 15:47:37 2000 From: afribike at mweb.co.za (Gustav Erlank @ Afribike) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 08:47:37 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Re: fwd: Singapore bicycle loan scheme References: <3.0.6.32.20000125135938.007dc8b0@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <001501bf6700$138afd00$2800a8c0@gnotebook> Wow! this is just what we need here in South Africa. Could you please put me in contact with Capital City Posters? Regards Gustav Erlank Afribike - advancing utility cycling in Southern Africa (Incorporated Association not for gain) www.re-cycle.org/afribike ______________________________________________ 62A Fifth Ave, Melville 2092 JNB, South Africa PO Box 13244 Hatfield 0028, South Africa Tel. +27 (0) 11 482 5990 Melville Office Fax. +27 (0) 11 482 4723 Melville Office Tel. +27 (0) 11 838 4541 Newtown Workshop Tel. +27 (0) 11 726 2144 Melville Residence Mobile. +27 (0) 82 467 3628 E-mail. afribike@mweb.co.za Links: www.ride.co.za www.itdp.org www.re-cycle.org www.xtracycle.com - prepare to haul with the Xtracycle - the bike that hauls - Xtracycle energizes the world by providing affordable, soulful transportation for its people and their things...a boundary-pushing bicycle and a soul-satisfying alternative. ("Xtracycle" and "The bike that hauls" are trademarks of Xtracycle LLC.) ----- Original Message ----- From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre To: ; Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2000 7:59 AM Subject: [sustran] fwd: Singapore bicycle loan scheme The Star Monday, January 24, 2000 Dateline: Lion City Novel bike scheme gets going A SCHEME to allow residents of a Housing Board Estate to use bicycles around their neighbourhood for up to two hours for free was launched on Saturday. Called the SmartBike Scheme, it was started by advertising company Capital City Posters and the Bukit Batok Community Club at a cost of S$1mil (RM2.2mil). A total of 100 bikes at 10 docking stations are available to residents. To take part, a resident simply applies for a smart card at the community club, paying a S$10 (about RM22) registration fee. With the smart card he can release a bicycle. When he is done with the bike, he goes to the nearest docking station and parks it there, locking it into place with the same smart card. In Bukit Batok alone the scheme is expected to have about 2,000 members. Peter Kemeny, the managing director of Capital City Posters, said that the scheme helps residents who need a quick and convenient form of transport. He said his company benefits, too, from selling the advertising panels at the docking stations. The smart-card technology used for the scheme runs on the GSM communication network, which is used to track bicycle movements. The network is provided by SingTel Mobile. It helps monitor usage and traffic flow of the bicycles. A signal will also be transmitted if a bicycle is not returned after two hours. The scheme was first implemented in Rennes, France, in May 1998 by Capital City Posters' partner, the Adshel Group. ..... Copyright ? 1995-2000. Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. (Co No. 10894-D) All rights reserved. From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue Jan 25 18:17:32 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 10:17:32 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Economic value of urban transport system In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, I have received a number of interesting and helpful messages on this topic over the last days, and they, plus a little head scratching here, have led me to begin to think about something long the lines of a back of the envelope model/construct that would be 100% (or close to it) unscientific and still maybe of some use. Why am I driven to such ends? Well, cause I really think that it could be useful to have a better feel for the importance of the sector in ballpark economic terms, so that we can then begin to show the value of alternative ways of rejiggering any given city transport systems. Let me start the drill here and then go into hiding as the barbs fly: Goal: Come up with some ballpark figures for the economic value if the urban transportation system for some mythic but hopefully recognizable city. 1. Let's assume a city of one million people, all of whom enter and use the local transport system each day, incur direct and impose indirect costs, and who for the sake of argument are divided into two separate but equal classes. 2. Half of these people are car owner/drivers, the other half travel by the city's public transit system (this being one of those nice modern American cities with no sidewalks or provision for cyclist of pedestrians). The system does not permit cross-dressing (i.e., if you have a car you go by car and that's it, and v.v.) 3. Cars owners - all 500k of them - have total daily average costs of $20/each (i.e., about &7k/year per vehicle?). This means that their total direct out of pocket is on the order of $10 million/day. 4. The 500 public transit uses incur on the order of $5/day of costs, for a total of $2.5 million there. 5. Meaning that the out of pocket cost to the individual citizens for our fictive city's (SimCity?) movement system is on the order of $12 million a day, 4/5ths of which paid by the auto folks (hmmm.) 6. Now let's take a stab at the indirect costs, starting with an easy one (easy because all it takes is one whooping assumption), namely the cost of their time in transit. Following the old and pretty dodgy practices of the profession, we can for the moment value the time of the transit uses at something on the order of the minimum wage (call it $6/hour), with the value of the car people at twice that. This gives us a total travel time bill on the order of another $10 million. 7. (Does this seem as if we are in any sort of ballpark at all on this one?) 8. Now externalities, and here I am gong to ask for a bit of help from the group. In this first stab, I am going to assume that the external costs of the driver group (and here by the way and in time I want to include their not so efficient use of valuable urban real estate) is 5x that of the public transit users - but for today and lacking better, I am going to set the first-cut bill at exactly the same as their out of pocket in each case. Where has this got us with our first awful cut? * Direct out of pocket daily cost to city's million citizens - ca. $12 million * Value of their time in transit - ca. $10 million * External costs - ca. $12 million For a total on order of $35 million dollars each day for the city and its citizens... which if we push out for an annual figure has us on the order of $10 billion dollars a year. That for a single medium sized city. Three questions for those of you who have worked your way through this mess: 1. Is the basic question with which we started a valid and eventually useful one? 2. Can the above be patched up to have some usefulness? 3. Do you have any ideas as to what we might do next if we had some reasonable estimates along these lines? Have a nice day. eric britton From litman at vtpi.org Tue Jan 25 23:34:24 2000 From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Litman) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 06:34:24 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: Economic value of urban transport system In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000125063424.010ed100@pop.islandnet.com> Our report "Transportation Cost Analysis - Techniques, Estimates and Implications" includes estimates of all identified costs (user costs, government costs, external costs) for eleven modes (cars, rideshare passengers, transit, bicycling, walking, etc.). A summary is available at our website, and hard copies of the comprehensive 240-page report are available for $40 (OK, I'll give you a 25% discount, so make that $30). Our Transportation Cost Analyzer software automates these calculations so you can quickly estimate the full costs of various modes under different conditions and assumptions. It includes default cost values that can be adjusted as desired. This analysis does show that automobile travel tends to have far higher total costs than other modes. Although transit modes also tend to have relatively high costs per passenger-km, transit-dependent people tend to travel far less per year than motorists, so total per capita costs tend to be lower in multi-modal communities. Research described in "Automobile Dependency and Economic Development" (a paper posted at our website) also indicates that total per capita transportation costs are higher in automobile-dependent regions. 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@vtpi.org Website: http://www.vtpi.org From negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA Wed Jan 26 00:42:57 2000 From: negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA (Paula Negron Poblete) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 10:42:57 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: Economic value of urban transport system Message-ID: <01BF6721.EB07C580.negronpp@magellan.umontreal.ca> Eric, The analysis looks good, but there is a problem: you're assuming a completely homogen city, where all the habitants have the same socioeconomic status (at least a group with car and a group without) , where all of them have the same value of time. But this is not true, since the value of time depends on the social and economial characteristics of each person. Besides that, the analysis is interesting. _________________ Paula Negron Poblete Universite de Montreal Faculte d'Amenagement -----Original Message----- From: eric.britton@ecoplan.org [SMTP:eric.britton@ecoplan.org] Sent: 25 janvier, 2000 04:18 To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Subject: [sustran] Economic value of urban transport system << File: ATT00000.txt; charset = Windows-1252 >> From litman at vtpi.org Wed Jan 26 07:14:57 2000 From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Litman) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 14:14:57 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning; A Guide to Best Practices In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.20000123233415.4fefc686@193.0.0.1> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000125141457.011057e0@pop.islandnet.com> A draft version of "Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning; A Guide to Best Practices" has just been posted at the Victoria Transport Policy Institute website (http://www.vtpi.org). From the homepage, select "Pedestrian and Bicycle Issues", and you can download it as a Word 97 file. This is a comprehensive, 85-page guide intended to provide basic information and references for non-motorized transportation planning. The table of contents is copied below. Most sections have a separate list of references, many of which are available through the Internet. We envision it as a document you would give a planner who is responsible for establishing a bicycle program, a school teacher who wants to find bike safety education material, or a community activist who want to improve local pedestrian planning. We would appreciate your feedback. We hope to edit it over the next month or so in order to have a final version in March. Just send any corrections, additions or comments to me by email. ======================================== Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning; A Guide to Best Practices Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION: WHY PLAN FOR WALKING AND CYCLING 4 II. TRANSPORT PLANNING OVERVIEW 6 1. PLANNING PROCESS 6 2. SCOPING AND BACKGROUND RESEARCH 8 3. MEASURING CURRENT NON-MOTORIZED TRAVEL 9 4. PREDICTING POTENTIAL NON-MOTORIZED TRAVEL 11 4. EVALUATING EXISTING CONDITIONS AND FACILITIES 13 5. IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES 14 6. PRIORITIZE IMPROVEMENTS 15 7. BUDGETING AND EVALUATION 16 8. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IMPACTS OF NON-MOTORIZED TRANSPORT 19 III. NON-MOTORIZED TRANSPORTATION PLANNING 21 1. INTEGRATING WITH STATE OR PROVINCIAL PLANNING 21 2. PLANNING MULTI-USE TRAILS 21 3. DEALING WITH TRAIL CONFLICTS 23 4. FACILITY MAINTENANCE 23 5. SPOT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 24 6. PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE NEEDS AT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS 25 7. PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE COORDINATORS 25 8. CRIME PREVENTION THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN (CPTED) 26 IV. PLANNING FOR PEDESTRIANS 28 1. TYPES OF PEDESTRIANS 28 2. PEDESTRIAN FACILITIES AND PLANNING 29 3. PEDESTRIAN STANDARDS AND IMPROVEMENTS 30 4. UNIVERSAL DESIGN (HANDICAPPED ACCESS) 32 5. PEDESTRIAN SAFETY PROGRAMS 34 V. PLANNING FOR BICYCLISTS 35 1. TYPES OF CYCLISTS 35 1. INTEGRATING CYCLING INTO ROADWAY PLANNING 35 4. BICYCLE NETWORK PLANNING 35 3. ACCOMMODATING CYCLISTS ON RURAL ROADS 38 4. BICYCLE BOULEVARDS 39 5. BICYCLE PARKING FACILITIES 39 6. INTEGRATING CYCLING AND TRANSIT 41 5. ROADWAY MAINTENANCE FOR CYCLISTS 43 VI. SAFETY PROGRAMS 45 1. SAFETY EDUCATION 45 2. TRAFFIC LAW ENFORCEMENT 46 VII. ENCOURAGEMENT AND PROMOTION 47 VIII. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TOOLS 49 1. COMPREHENSIVE PLANS 49 2. ROAD DESIGN, RECONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS 49 3. MUNICIPAL LAWS 50 4. MAJOR PROJECTS AND SITE PLAN AGREEMENTS 50 5. WORKING WITH NEIGHBORHOOD AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS 51 6. LAND EXCHANGE, DEDICATION OF PARKLAND WITH PRIVATE DEVELOPER 51 7. RURAL AREAS, UTILITY CORRIDORS, FIRE ROADS AND RAILS-TO-TRAIL OPPORTUNITIES 51 IX. RELATED PLANNING ISSUES 52 1. SCHOOL TRIP MANAGEMENT 52 2. TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND TRAFFIC CALMING 53 3. ROADWAY ACCESS MANAGEMENT 54 4. LIVABLE COMMUNITY PLANNING 55 APPENDIX 1 MODEL PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE PLAN 57 INTRODUCTION 57 BACKGROUND TO THE PLAN 58 BICYCLING AND WALKING GOALS 58 OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES 59 The Engineering Department Will: 60 The Parks and Recreation Department Will: 61 Law Enforcement Agencies Will: 61 Public Involvement 62 APPENDIX 2 QUICK FACILITY DESIGN GUIDELINES 64 PEDESTRIAN PLANNING GUIDELINES 64 BICYCLE FACILITY DESIGN GUIDELINES 66 APPENDIX 3 EVALUATING NON-MOTORIZED TRAVEL 69 Surveys 69 Crash Data 70 Field Surveys 71 The Barrier Effect 72 Cycling Condition Evaluation Techniques 72 Pedestrian Condition Evaluation Techniques 73 Prioritizing Improvements and Selecting Preferred Options 74 APPENDIX 4 EXEMPLARY BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN PLANS 78 BICYCLE PLANS 78 PEDESTRIAN PLANS 79 APPENDIX 5 BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN PLANNING RESOURCES 81 ROADWAY DESIGN RESOURCES 81 PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE PLANNING PUBLICATIONS 81 PEDESTRIAN PLANNING PUBLICATIONS 82 BICYCLE PLANNING PUBLICATIONS 82 USEFUL ORGANIZATIONS 83 ================================================================ 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@vtpi.org Website: http://www.vtpi.org From mobility at igc.org Wed Jan 26 07:32:04 2000 From: mobility at igc.org (ITDP) Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 17:32:04 -0500 Subject: [sustran] nmt stats for asia Message-ID: <388E2463.3F598CFA@igc.org> Does anyone have bike mode share statistics for Singapore and Hong Kong and maybe Taipei, either journey to work or as a feeder trip to commuter trains or rails. John Kaehney of Transportation Alternatives was just attacked in a transport journal by someone who said bikes didnt make any sense in New York because of its high density, and they sited Hong Kong as a similar place with no bike trips. I know its ridiculous, but it would be good to quote him chapter and verse in a rebuttal. Thanks 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 sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jan 26 10:58:00 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 09:58:00 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Plan for more bus lanes in Kuala Lumpur Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000126095800.007ea7b0@relay101.jaring.my> The Star Tuesday, January 25, 2000 Plan for more bus lanes in Kuala Lumpur By Angela Rao CITY HALL is planning to introduce more bus lanes and withdraw existing ones which are under-utilised in Kuala Lumpur. Its economic planning and social infrastructure unit deputy director, Haji Salleh Yusop, said bus lanes, which came into effect on Feb 15 1997, had come under close scruntiny as some of the lanes in Jalan Semantan (near Jalan Damansara) and Jalan Syed Putra were found to be redundant. "Very few buses and taxis plying this route," he said. He added that roads such as Jalan Raja Laut, where the project proved to be highly successful, would be upgraded and better bus shelters built. "We will continue to upgrade the roads in these areas," Salleh said. He said RM1mil had been allocated under the 2000 budget for the creation of bus lanes. Salleh said the project would be implemented in stages after a careful study of the traffic pattern at the major roads in the city. He said there were still buses which strayed into other lanes and motorists who used bus lanes. Salleh said new bus lanes would be implemented in areas with high commuter density. The lanes were introduced to allow exclusive access for buses and taxis for speedier public transportation. The bus lanes are located in Jalan Raja Laut, part of Jalan Ipoh, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Raja, Jalan Pahang, Jalan Syed Putra, Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Travers, Jalan Damansara, Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, Jalan Pudu, Jalan Pantai Baru and Jalan Dang Wangi. The others are contra flow bus lanes in Jalan P. Ramlee, Jalan Raja Chulan and Jalan Ampang. The lanes were gazetted in Oct 9 1997 under the Road Transport Act 1987. Motorists who stray into bus lanes face a RM300 fine or RM1,000 if the case is brought to court. The bus lane ruling is enforced between 6am and 8pm daily expect weekends and public holidays. Copyright 1995-2000, Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad. 10894-D From sustran at po.jaring.my Wed Jan 26 11:27:58 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 10:27:58 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: car free day in Manila? Dream on In-Reply-To: <000d01bf6351$ff8a0780$aec2e2d8@heckler> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000126102758.00823c20@relay101.jaring.my> At 22:21 20/01/00 +0800, Ramon Fernan III wrote: >For those of you who remember the letter that the Philippine NGO Sustainable >Transport Network sent to Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman >Jejomar Binay endorsing his proposal for a carfree day in Metro Manila, >hereunder is his verbatim reply (and uncommented as well). There is a very interesting development on this topic. Bogot? in South America is to hold a Car Free Day on February 24, which is a Thursday! A number of European Cities have sponsored car-free days in recent years but this seems to be the FIRST time that a major city in the "South" has given this sustainable transport idea a try. Bogot? has about 7 million people. A huge amount of information on this is at the Car Free Day Network page at http://www.ecoplan.org/carfreeday/ - which is appropriate, since this site was instrumental in helping to inspire the Bogot? authorities to do this! BOGOTA NEEDS YOUR HELP AND WISDOM! The time remaining for preparation is now very short and a Car Free Day is something that is not easy to get right. Your ideas, counsel, cautions, etc are inviteed via the guestbook at the web site or via the Car Free Day mailbox at carfreeday@egroups.com or through the car free day discussion forum (via the web site). Personally I believe that Bogot? is potentially well-suited to pull this off. My reasoning is that I believe that the public transport system already carries a high percentage of the passenger transport task. So eliminating a large fraction of the cars from part or all of the city for a day is not as drastic in Bogot? as it would be in cities where cars dominate. Manila is similar to Bogot? in this respect - public transport (buses, jitneys and urban rail) carries many more passengers than private vehicles. So let's help Bogot? make its event a success. We can then tell the Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman, Jejomar Binay, all about it and ask him, "why not in Manila too?" Thanks to Eric Britton for alerting me to this upcoming event. Paul A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. TEL/FAX: +(60 3) 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran (under construction) The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From ajain at kcrc.com Wed Jan 26 13:04:32 2000 From: ajain at kcrc.com (Jain Alok) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 12:04:32 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: nmt stats for asia Message-ID: Walter, We conducted a mode of access survey of passengers in 1996 for East Rail in Hong Kong. Bicycle recorded a mode share of only about 1% and that too for sub-urban stations. I personally think that does not represent bicycle usage as such because bicycle are quite popular in Hong Kong specially in New Towns, where there are good bicycle paths. One of the reason for low mode of access share for bicycle may be the lack of formalised bicycle parking facility close to the existing stations. For future railway lines, good bicycle parking facilities are being planned at the stations and that is expected to drive this share up. Alok Jain Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation -----Original Message----- From: ITDP [mailto:mobility@igc.org] Sent: January 26, 2000 6:32 AM To: SUSTRAN Discuss List Subject: [sustran] nmt stats for asia Does anyone have bike mode share statistics for Singapore and Hong Kong and maybe Taipei, either journey to work or as a feeder trip to commuter trains or rails. John Kaehney of Transportation Alternatives was just attacked in a transport journal by someone who said bikes didnt make any sense in New York because of its high density, and they sited Hong Kong as a similar place with no bike trips. I know its ridiculous, but it would be good to quote him chapter and verse in a rebuttal. Thanks 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 ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Thu Jan 27 07:24:35 2000 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 17:24:35 -0500 (EST) Subject: [sustran] Re: Economic value of urban transport system In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000125063424.010ed100@pop.islandnet.com> Message-ID: To elaborate on Todd's point below, using a per kilometer cost is not really the right analysis when computing total costs. The big savings from a transit-oriented region is the shorter average trip lengths for a give population size and the ability for people to travel using non-motorized modes. Also, it is important to distinguish between public and private expenditures. In the US, the focus is almost always on how much transit is costing instead of how much autos are costing. Puget Sound Regional Council (website I believe is www.psrc.org) did a computation of total expenditures for both freight and passenger transportation in the greater Seattle region, including some "externalities" like pollution costs. It might be worth looking at. It found that about 90 percent of all passenger transportation costs are private. (Transit service is being slashed in this region by 40 percent due to an antitax initiative that cuts excise taxes off car users. Supposedly, this is because they were being unfairly taxed in order to waste too much money on transit. There was no mention how small a portion of the total cost of car ownership this tax really was and that many households actually save money by not having to own as many cars. That is why the public/private distinction is important.) Eric Bruun On Tue, 25 Jan 2000, Todd Litman wrote: > > Our report "Transportation Cost Analysis - Techniques, Estimates and > Implications" includes estimates of all identified costs (user costs, > government costs, external costs) for eleven modes (cars, rideshare > passengers, transit, bicycling, walking, etc.). A summary is available at > our website, and hard copies of the comprehensive 240-page report are > available for $40 (OK, I'll give you a 25% discount, so make that $30). > > Our Transportation Cost Analyzer software automates these calculations so > you can quickly estimate the full costs of various modes under different > conditions and assumptions. It includes default cost values that can be > adjusted as desired. > > This analysis does show that automobile travel tends to have far higher > total costs than other modes. Although transit modes also tend to have > relatively high costs per passenger-km, transit-dependent people tend to > travel far less per year than motorists, so total per capita costs tend to > be lower in multi-modal communities. Research described in "Automobile > Dependency and Economic Development" (a paper posted at our website) also > indicates that total per capita transportation costs are higher in > automobile-dependent regions. > > 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@vtpi.org > Website: http://www.vtpi.org > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu Jan 27 10:27:00 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Network Secretariat) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 09:27:00 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: fwd: Singapore bicycle loan scheme In-Reply-To: <001501bf6700$138afd00$2800a8c0@gnotebook> References: <3.0.6.32.20000125135938.007dc8b0@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000127092700.007e5ea0@relay101.jaring.my> At 08:47 25/01/00 +0200, you wrote: >Wow! this is just what we need here in South Africa. > >Could you please put me in contact with Capital City Posters? The partner company is Adshel - see http://www.adshel.com There may be a problem for anyone wanting to do this in lower-income cities. The Smartbike schemes by Adshel are funded entirely by advertising on the bikes and on the docking stations. So I imagine that they may require a certain level of income of the people in the area in order for the space to be attractive enough to advertisers. I hope this helps. Paul. A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. TEL/FAX: +(60 3) 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran (under construction) The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu Jan 27 12:05:56 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Network Secretariat) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 11:05:56 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: nmt stats for asia In-Reply-To: <388E2463.3F598CFA@igc.org> Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000127110556.00879540@relay101.jaring.my> At 17:32 25/01/00 -0500, Walter Hook wrote: >Does anyone have bike mode share statistics for Singapore and Hong Kong >and maybe Taipei, either journey to work or as a feeder trip to commuter >trains or rails. John Kaehney of Transportation Alternatives was just >attacked in a transport journal by someone who said bikes didnt make any >sense in New York because of its high density, and they sited Hong Kong >as a similar place with no bike trips. I know its ridiculous, but it >would be good to quote him chapter and verse in a rebuttal. An interesting argument that cycling is not suited to high-density cities!! . Someone should tell all those Chinese cities (with densities universally higher than New York City . It is true that cycling in Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore is not very popular (although increasing quickly in Singapore as more people now cycle to MRT stations). But it is difficult to argue that high density is the reason - in fact both Singapore and Taipei had high bicycle use in the past. Taipei has around 200 people per hectare and in the 1950s and 1960s bicycles were the main mode of transport - now replaced largely by motor scooters (and cars). Perhaps a more useful comparison is to compare Tokyo with New York. Most of this data is from Kenworthy and Laube et al. (1999) An International Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities, 1960-1990. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. Tokyo is denser than New York (except in the central business district). It is also larger in population (people sometimes say big cities are not compatible with bicycle use). But Tokyo has very high use of bicycles. 1990 use of walking + cycling to get to work: Tokyo metro area (Tokyo-to + 3 other "to"): 21.7% New York metro area (tri-state RPA): 6.7% Tokyo INNER area (23 wards): ? (probably >22%) New York INNER area (= New York City): 11.3% Over the last 3 decades, bicycle use has risen dramatically in Tokyo and other Japanese cities even as car ownership has risen (Yamakawa, 1994). In 1968, bicycles accounted for almost 8.1 percent of all Tokyo Metropolitan Area trips, in 1978 it was 15.1 and by 1988 it had risen to 17.6 percent (City Bureau and Building Research Institute, 1990: 17). Tokyo is a very rich city that is both larger in population and higher in density than New York (with the exception ONLY of the central business districts - where NY has higher population density than Tokyo). 1990 POPULATIONS: Tokyo Metro area: 31.7 million New York Metro area: 18.4 million Tokyo inner area: 8.1 million New York inner area: 7.3 million 1990 URBAN DENSITIES (persons per hectare): Tokyo Metro area: 71.0 New York Metro area: 19.2 Tokyo inner area: 132.1 New York inner area: 91.5 I hope this helps. Paul. A. Rahman Paul BARTER Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) P.O. Box 11501, Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia. TEL/FAX: +(60 3) 2274 2590 E-mail: sustran@po.jaring.my URL: http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran (under construction) The SUSTRAN Network promotes and popularises people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. From Mark.Diesendorf at uts.edu.au Fri Jan 28 16:40:30 2000 From: Mark.Diesendorf at uts.edu.au (Mark Diesendorf) Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 18:40:30 +1100 Subject: [sustran] Re: Economic value of urban transport system In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Re comments by Eric Britton and Eric Bruun: Eric Britton's model does not distinguish between the costs to society of different transportation modes and the costs paid by users. This distinction is important, because ISF's study of passenger transportation in Sydney finds that users of cars, buses and trains each pay only half of the operating costs of their respective modes. These user charges are roughly equal to each other when expressed in cents per passenger per km travelled. (Pace, Eric Bruun, I agree that using these units biases the results towards cars.) Then we have to add in the capital/asset costs, part of which is paid privately and part publicly. In particular, we find that the land costs of cars are substantial and are mostly not paid for by motorists. Mark Diesendorf >Dear Colleagues, > >I have received a number of interesting and helpful messages on this topic >over the last days, and they, plus a little head scratching here, have led >me to begin to think about something long the lines of a back of the >envelope model/construct that would be 100% (or close to it) unscientific >and still maybe of some use. Why am I driven to such ends? Well, cause I >really think that it could be useful to have a better feel for the >importance of the sector in ballpark economic terms, so that we can then >begin to show the value of alternative ways of rejiggering any given city >transport systems. > >Let me start the drill here and then go into hiding as the barbs fly: > >Goal: Come up with some ballpark figures for the economic value if the urban >transportation system for some mythic but hopefully recognizable city. > >1. Let's assume a city of one million people, all of whom enter and use the >local transport system each day, incur direct and impose indirect costs, and >who for the sake of argument are divided into two separate but equal >classes. >2. Half of these people are car owner/drivers, the other half travel by the >city's public transit system (this being one of those nice modern American >cities with no sidewalks or provision for cyclist of pedestrians). The >system does not permit cross-dressing (i.e., if you have a car you go by car >and that's it, and v.v.) >3. Cars owners - all 500k of them - have total daily average costs of >$20/each (i.e., about &7k/year per vehicle?). This means that their total >direct out of pocket is on the order of $10 million/day. >4. The 500 public transit uses incur on the order of $5/day of costs, for a >total of $2.5 million there. >5. Meaning that the out of pocket cost to the individual citizens for our >fictive city's (SimCity?) movement system is on the order of $12 million a >day, 4/5ths of which paid by the auto folks (hmmm.) >6. Now let's take a stab at the indirect costs, starting with an easy one >(easy because all it takes is one whooping assumption), namely the cost of >their time in transit. Following the old and pretty dodgy practices of the >profession, we can for the moment value the time of the transit uses at >something on the order of the minimum wage (call it $6/hour), with the value >of the car people at twice that. This gives us a total travel time bill on >the order of another $10 million. >7. (Does this seem as if we are in any sort of ballpark at all on this one?) >8. Now externalities, and here I am gong to ask for a bit of help from the >group. In this first stab, I am going to assume that the external costs of >the driver group (and here by the way and in time I want to include their >not so efficient use of valuable urban real estate) is 5x that of the public >transit users - but for today and lacking better, I am going to set the >first-cut bill at exactly the same as their out of pocket in each case. > >Where has this got us with our first awful cut? > >* Direct out of pocket daily cost to city's million citizens - ca. $12 >million >* Value of their time in transit - ca. $10 million >* External costs - ca. $12 million > >For a total on order of $35 million dollars each day for the city and its >citizens... which if we push out for an annual figure has us on the order of >$10 billion dollars a year. That for a single medium sized city. > >Three questions for those of you who have worked your way through this mess: > >1. Is the basic question with which we started a valid and eventually useful >one? >2. Can the above be patched up to have some usefulness? >3. Do you have any ideas as to what we might do next if we had some >reasonable estimates along these lines? > >Have a nice day. > >eric britton >Also, it is important to distinguish between public and private >expenditures. In the US, the focus is almost always on how much >transit is costing instead of how much autos are costing. Puget >Sound Regional Council (website I believe is www.psrc.org) did >a computation of total expenditures for both freight and >passenger transportation in the greater Seattle region, including >some "externalities" like pollution costs. It might be worth >looking at. It found that about 90 percent of all passenger >transportation costs are private. (Transit service is being >slashed in this region by 40 percent due to an antitax initiative that >cuts excise taxes off car users. Supposedly, this is because they were >being unfairly taxed in order to waste too much money on transit. There >was no mention how small a portion of the total cost of car ownership >this tax really was and that many households actually save money by not >having to own as many cars. That is why the public/private distinction is important.) Eric Bruun Mark Diesendorf, PhD Professor of Environmental Science and Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures University of Technology, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia email: Mark.Diesendorf@uts.edu.au Web: http://www.isf.uts.edu.au phone: +61 2 9209 4350 fax: +61 2 9209 4351 ISF's address via UTS internal mail is Institute for Sustainable Futures, Australian Technology Park. From townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au Sun Jan 30 05:46:00 2000 From: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au (Craig Townsend) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 12:46:00 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Vietnam PM Approves Trans HCM City Highway Project Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000129124600.0079f7f0@central.murdoch.edu.au> Vietnam PM Approves Trans HCM City Highway Project HANOI, Jan 28 Asia Pulse - Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has cleared the way for preliminary work to begin on the country's largest-ever Official Development Assistance (ODA) project. The Trans-Ho Chi Minh City Highway project, worth more than VND8,000 billion, is expected to ease traffic snarl-ups in Viet Nam's biggest metropolis. The January 14th decision approved the launch of a pre-feasibility study for the 21.4km east-west thoroughfare, known to HCM City residents as the East-West Transport Axis project. The highway will consist of three sections, the 13.6km Canal Side Road running from the west point on National Highway No.1 (in Binh Chanh District) to Calmette Bridge (in District 1), the 1.9km Sai Gon River Tunnel and the 5.9km Thu Thiem Road running from the tunnel to the beginning point on Ha Noi Highway in District 2. Construction of the project is expected to begin in August of 2001. According to a report by the Special Assistance for Project Formation (SAPROF) team set up by the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC), the highway will be the main route to the city centre from outlying areas including the Sai Gon Port to the northeast as well as southwest regions of the Mekong Delta. The highway will help reduce traffic congestion on Sai Gon Bridge and related major roads in the city centre thanks to a tunnel bypass system. - The alignment of the 13.05-km Canal Side Road, or Package 1, starts from the end point on the Highway No.1 and runs eastward to cross Communal Road No.5, An Duong Vuong Street, the proposed Inner Ring Road and Lo Gom Canal and joins the west end of Tran Van Kieu Street. It continues eastward to run from Tran Van Kieu Street, Ham Tu Street and Ben Chuong Duong Street, along the Ben Nghe Canal, Tau Hu Canal and Ben Nghe Rivulet, and then reaches Calmette Bridge at the end of Package 1. - The alignment of Package 2 starts from Calmette Bridge and underpasses Sai Gon River by immersed and cut and cover tunnel. It runs continuously eastward, connects with Highway No.25 and then bends to the north to merge into Ha Noi Highway at the beginning point near Rach Chiec Bridge in District 2. According to the SAPROF report, the immersed tunnel could be constructed using prefabricated sections floated to the crossing site and lowered into place in a pre-excavated trench. The tunnel profile will depend on the river depth together with vertical clearance and grade requirements for traffic. The 31m-wide tunnel, from which pedestrians and bicycles will be banned, will be six lanes wide. Construction of the tunnel alone requires investment of over VND3,000 billion. Implementation of the project will include reconstruction and improvement of five existing bridges of Cha Va, Chu Y, Calmette, Mong and Khanh Hoi. Five interchanges are proposed under this project, including a clover leaf with National Highway No. 1 and flyovers to the Cha Va and Chu Y bridges. Other road facilities included in the project are retaining walls, river bank slope protection along the canal, pedestrian and bicycle bridges, traffic signals, new lighting and public utilities, and a geographic information system (GIS). The project requires about 130ha of land for Right-of-Way (ROW), consisting of existing roads, residential land, small shops, markets, small workshops, private and State-owned factories, warehouses and agricultural land. Land acquisition for ROW affects 5,214 houses. Some 5,000 will be demolished and the rest will be partly demolished and then repaired. The total number of residents affected was estimated at 25,000 in the SAPROF report. To relocate the people affected by the project, 15 resettlement sites with a housing capacity of 5,600 houses have been designed. Land acquisition, compensation, and resettlement site development costs are estimated at VND1,467 billion (US$105.2 million). Works on relocation of these affected houses and compensation for site clearance is already underway, according to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Tan Man. Construction costs for the project are estimated to reach $457.79 million. The JBIC is expected to provide loans of JPY67,055 (approximately $644.8 million) to the project, and according to officials from the Ministry of Transport agreements are expected to be signed before March 31. JBIC's ODA loan will make up 85 per cent of the project's investment, with the remaining 15 per cent coming from the Government's counter capital. "The feasibility study for the project is expected to be considered and approved by the Prime Minister in two months," Dr. Le Qua of Viet Nam's Counterpart Team for SAPROF told Viet Nam News Agency earlier this week. HCM City People's Committee, the agency responsible for the implementation of the project, is also expected to announce the Project Management Unit (PMU) soon. Implementation of the project is estimated to take 12 months for the detailed design, 30 months for construction of the Canal Side Road and 40 months for the Sai Gon River Crossing Tunnel and Thu Thiem Road. Deputy Minister Man said that construction of the entire Trans-HCM City Highway should be completed in mid-2005. (VNA) ________________________________________________ Craig Townsend Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy Murdoch University South Street, Murdoch Perth, Western Australia 6150 tel: (61 8) 9360 6293 fax: (61 8) 9360 6421 email: townsend@central.murdoch.edu.au From townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au Sun Jan 30 05:55:49 2000 From: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au (Craig Townsend) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 12:55:49 -0800 Subject: [sustran] Takeover of debt-ridden bus service Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000129125549.007a1530@central.murdoch.edu.au> >From the Nation (Thailand) on line edition, 29 Jan.2000 Takeover of debt-ridden bus service THE city's administration could take over Bangkok's bus service in the next three-to-five months following a decision by the government to nationalise the state enterprises' huge debt. The move is regarded as fair to taxpayers outside Bangkok in the long term, but raises questions about the service's employees and whether the millions of city residents who use the system will see any actual benefits. The long delayed plan was finally given the green light after the national government agreed to assume the Bt20 billion debt of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA). ''The Ministry of Finance has agreed in principal to take the BMTA's debt onto the state account,'' said Transport and Communication Minister Suthep Thaugsuban. His ministry is responsible for the transit authority. ''The plan can be completed within the next 3-5 months,'' Suthep added. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) had balked at taking over the transit authority and its Bt20 billion debt at the same time. The Finance Ministry's agreement to nationalise the debt would mark the last time taxes paid by non-city residents would be used to support a service that benefits only Bangkok residents. However, the plan will likely face tough resistance from the bus system's 3,700 workers, because the city's modernisation plan is expected to affect them adversely. Once the city controls the bus service manpower restructuring is imminent, confirmed deputy Bangkok governor, Thirachon Manomaipibul, yesterday. ''According to a study by Thammasat University, 45 per cent of the operational costs involve salaries, some of which are redundant,'' he explained. The city's restructuring plan will include, for example, a smart card system, which could affect the job of conductor, he added. The city, which plans to set up a company to operate the bus service, wants the restructuring completed within 2-3 years, Thirachon said. However, the Thammasat University study pointed out that it would take five years to implement a smooth restructuring that minimised labour problems. But the question remains for bus users -- what difference will the transfer make? Bangkok residents have long had to endure indifferent service, poorly maintained buses as well as rude drivers and conductors, who are paid up to Bt19,000 and Bt16,000, respectively, in salaries and perks. Since the BMA will operate the bus service, there will be no problem concerning fare increases, Thirachon said. The transit authority and the city's administration have begun discussing the implementation plan for transferring the assets and employees of the public bus agency to a new entity that will be under the supervision of city administrators, Suthep said. A restructuring and privatisation plan for the loss-making State Railway of Thailand (SRT) could also succeed if the state would assume the railway's debt of Bt30 billion, Suthep said at a seminar held by Nation Multimedia Group and the National Energy Policy Office yesterday. ''If the government agrees, I would hold talks with SRT employees asking them to accept the change. The SRT incurs more debts every day since it cannot increase the ticket price,'' he said. However, Deputy Finance Minister Pisit Lee-artham who was on the same panel as Suthep, made no comment concerning nationalising the debt of either the railway or the bus system. Rather, he said the government was in no hurry to privatise its state enterprises considering the present state of its finances and liquidity. ''We would sell the shares (of state enterprises) when it is deemed appropriate and provides the most benefit,'' he added. However, Prime Minister's Office Minister Abhisit Vejjachiva reiterated that the government would adhere to its plan to sell shares of three state enterprises this year -- Thai Airways International Plc, Bangchak Petroleum Plc and Ratchaburi Power Plant. The SRT's privatisation plan looks very similar to the British model, which led to the successful privatisation of everything but the British railway agency, said Ammar Siamwala, president of Thailand Development Research Institute, at the seminar. Ammar said he did not trust the Thai private sector and was afraid that the privatisation would merely be the transfer of a monopoly from the state to the private sector. BY NAREERAT WIRIYAPONG and SUKANYA SAE-LIM The Nation ________________________________________________ Craig Townsend Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy Murdoch University South Street, Murdoch Perth, Western Australia 6150 tel: (61 8) 9360 6293 fax: (61 8) 9360 6421 email: townsend@central.murdoch.edu.au From bogus@does.not.exist.com Sun Jan 30 05:55:49 2000 From: bogus@does.not.exist.com () Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 12:55:49 -0800 Subject: ***no article*** Message-ID: ***no article*** From wcox at publicpurpose.com Mon Jan 31 11:11:48 2000 From: wcox at publicpurpose.com (Wendell Cox) Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 20:11:48 -0600 Subject: [sustran] Fw: Sprawl in Hungary Message-ID: <003501bf6b90$8899b2a0$793ce6cf@newmicronpc> > Sorry for the discordant view... but... > > I understand that a lot of people think of autos and roads as being the > equivalent of the "Great Satan," but that does not change the facts. > Contrary to the claims in the "sprawl in Hungary" article... > > The highways in Calif and Texas, not to mention across the US were paid for > by users --- through taxes assessed on fuel alone for the purpose of > building the roads. These taxes are specific to fuel, and not charged on > other commodities. A small percentage of user fees is tolls. Data for the > past five years is available at.... > > http://www.publicpurpose.com/hwy-us$93&c.htm > > There is some general taxation support of roads, but it is approximately > canceled by the diversion of user revenues to other sources, such as mass > transit. Moreover, virtually all general taxation support of roads is for > LOCAL roadways, not for the motorways that are the backbone of the national > system. > > It is an inventive argument to connect sprawl to the S&L crisis. While some > weak connection might be made, the fact is that suburban expansion was at > its weakest in the 1980s, and much of the development would have occured > without the S&L crisis. The problem was that the national insurance program > was poorly administered... it was one of our most unfortunate government > failures, and we have had a few. A couple of larger ones have been the > abysmal failure of central city education and explosion of central city > crime rates from 1960 to 1990, which in and of themselves were of sufficient > concern to drive millions of people out of the central cities into the > suburbs. One would hope that the same will not occur in Hungary, and that as > a result, the inevitable movement to suburbs that is attendant to increased > affluence will simply reflect preferences in the market, rather than the > "bleeding" that has resulted from government failure in US central cities > (FYI, the city of St. Louis will show a population of 325k in 2000, down > from 857k in 1950 --- virtually all US inner cities have declined in > population, though the trend has been masked by annexation in some). > > Best regards, > Wendell Cox > -- > WENDELL COX CONSULTANCY: International Public Policy, Economics, Labor, > Transport & Strategic Planning > > THE PUBLIC PURPOSE: Internet Public Policy Resource: > http://www.publicpurpose.com > Transport Policy Discussion Group: > http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-group.htm > > DEMOGRAPHIA: http://www.demographia.com > Urban Policy Discussion Group: http://www.demographia.com/db-group.htm > > Telephone +1 618 632 8507; Fax +1 618 632 8538 - P.O. Box 841- Belleville, > Illinois 62222 USA > > "To facilitate the ideal of government as the servant of the people by > identifying and implementing strategies to achieve public purposes at a > cost that is no higher than necessary." > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: ITDP > To: > Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 10:02 PM > Subject: [sustran] ITDP's latest TransportActions > > > > boundary=3D"------------22971E89BB9B696D111CC400" > > Sender: owner-sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org > > X-Sequence: sustran-discuss 1443 > > Precedence: bulk > > Reply-To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org > > X-Unsub1: To unsubscribe, send the command UNSUBSCRIBE sustran-discuss > > X-Unsub2: in the body of an e-mail message to majordomo@jca.ax.apc.org > > > > > > --------------22971E89BB9B696D111CC400 > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=3Diso-8859-1 > > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit > > > > TransportActions > > Winter, 2000 > > > * Hungarian Sprawl: Another S & L Crisis in the Making? >