[sustran] Re: Reducing number of cars on the road

[Al Dizon]

Lest we forget: public policy demands that roads are built to facilitate the
movement of trade and commerce, and thus enable businessess, people and
communities to carry out their business activities. Highways aren't built to
solve congestion problem; congestion is solved by comprehensive urban
planning, which may or may not require the development of road systems to
keep comunities linked.

Inequalities do exist in the use of road systems. Spatially, car users have
more space than the mass transit user. But this is more than compensated for
the price the mass transit user has to pay for the same trip.

----- Original Message -----
From: Paula Negron Poblete <negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA>
To: <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 11:09 AM
Subject: [sustran] Re: Reducing number of cars on the road


> Concerning the thoughts of Mohsin Sarker about social inequality, my
> thinking is that in develonig countries these inequalities already
> exists. When autorities decide to invest in highways to solve the
> congestion problem, it's a project that affects possitively mostly the
> high clases, if you consider that more than 50% of households doesn't
> have a private car (and that represents much more than 50% of the total
> population). So, when we talk about higher prices in fuel or congestion
> prices, I really don't think we're creating social inequality. I see
> social inequality more as a matter of accessibility to employment, like
> it's the case today. For more information about this subject, I recomend
> the article of Paulo Camara and David Banister "Spatial inequalities in
> the provision of public transport in Latin American cities" (Transport
> reviews, 1993, vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 351-373).
>
> Paula Negron
> University of Montreal