From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon May 1 16:27:50 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 15:27:50 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Kathmandu Traffic Week 2000 Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000501152750.00873100@relay101.jaring.my> Forwarding bounced message, Paul. -------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 09:10:36 -0700 (PDT) From: kumar koirala Subject: Traffic Week- 2000 To: Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org Cc: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Dear Eric, Since longtime I was thinking to contact you as I came to know about you through Aryal Rajendra . As you know we are going to launch an traffic education and awareness campaign since 24 of May 2000 for a week in Kathmandu.Your safety Our concern will be the slogan of this week .Target group of this programme are the road users of Kathmandu which seems to be a vague one. However we will reach to the Padestrians , Public transport Drivers and the schoolbus drivers,students as well as parents, Motorcyclists, Bi-cyclists and the tourist sectors drivers. Altogether two hundred thousands leaflets will be distributed and classes will be conducted for different target groups.Posters , Banners will be displayed and distributed.Many other programmes will be conducted in that period. This programme will be the begining of the education programme but we will try to continue this programme for the whole year although may not be in this level. Somany organisations are voluntarily participating in this programme.In this regard I would like to request for your valuable suggestions so that we will be able to launch an effective campaign. If you have any querries please feel free to contact me through this e-mail or "traffic@mail.com.np. With warm regards Sincerely Yours Kumar Koirala Senior supt. of Police Valley Traffic Police Ramshah path , Kathmandu Nepal. Tel. 977-1-227338 Fax 977-1-227321 From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon May 1 18:01:54 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 17:01:54 +0800 Subject: [sustran] FW: [fireflybrigade] online magazine articles Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000501170154.008737c0@relay101.jaring.my> News of yesterday's bicycle event in Manila - the Tour of the Fireflies. I just checked out their web site. very nice! I especially liked the beautiful drawings on promoting cycling, public transport and pedestrians under the "about us" section. http://www.fireflybrigade.org/html/aboutus.html Paul ------------------------------------- >Reply-To: >From: "Heckler" >Subject: FW: [fireflybrigade] online magazine articles >Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 14:52:42 +0800 > >FYI. Please check out the other sites, too. The Tour went very well with the >Inquirer reporting some 2000 participants, a record for this kind of event. >Thanks to everyone who supported us. > >Ramon > >Check out these articles about the Fireflies tour. > >Also check out our site. www.fireflybrigade.org > There are news updates. >http://www.localvibe.com/sports/042000/FireFlies/ > >http://www.inquirer.net/mags/apr2000wk4/mag_7.htm > >http://www.pinoycentral.com/img/Events.nsf/EFeatureIDLookup/2000042711414 From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon May 1 18:05:10 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 17:05:10 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Delhi news from CSE India Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000501170510.008817f0@relay101.jaring.my> Some transport-relevant news from CSE India. Includes comments on the Delhi bus events of recent weeks. ---------------------------------------- From: "webadmin" Organization: Centre for Science and Environment To: Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 13:08:13 +530 Subject: What's new at CSE, India ***************************************************************** A fortnightly electronic news bulletin from CSE, India, to a network of friends and professionals interested in environmental issues. We send this to people who we believe are involved in sustainable development initiatives. You are welcome to unsubscribe yourself, if you so choose, just scroll down to the bottom of this page. ***************************************************************** What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, India A cycle rally of hundreds of school children from Delhi culminated at the Prime Minister's Residence on Earth Day, April 22nd as a part of CSE's Right to Clean Air campaign. On behalf of all the children of India, a delegation of 22 children presented the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India , Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a Children's Manifesto on Clean Air , that expressed their concerns on the growing problem of air pollution in Indian cities and their right to clean air. This manifesto was an appeal from children for a more secure and sustainable future. It drew the attention of government and the automobile manufacturers to the serious issue of deteriorating air quality in towns and cities of India. A gallery of pictures at http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/earthday/cleanair.htm ------------------------------------------------- ................. A message from the Director, Anil Agarwal: Hammer of Thor WHEN it comes to pollution control, it is only the hammer of the honourable judges of the Supreme Court (SC) that seems to push the government to do anything. Without creating a crisis, first for the auto industry last year and now for the government, it seems that no action gets taken. Almost, as if the government has abdicated its responsibilities for pollution control and public health. The manner in which both the state and Central governments wasted the long lead time of 22 months, that the SC had given them is truly a murky story of how politicians and bureaucrats consistently give in to industrial lobbies. The SC order dates back to July 1998 with a clear deadline - to convert all eight-year-old buses (both private and of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) to compressed natural gas (CNG). Forget public interest. It is also sad that the media has failed to draw public attention to the totally non-cooperative and obstructionist role that the Central government has played in this entire drama. The Court, too, unfortunately, tends to overlook the latter's role because the prime responsibility for carrying out the Court's instructions rightly lie with the state government. The diesel lobby has long been opposing the Court's order to get buses converted to CNG presumably because it means entering a new line of technology and the 'cascade effect' of SC orders for Delhi which then get endorsed by the High Courts for other metros. Both DTC officials and officials of certain companies which manufacture buses have been saying for long that the CNG conversion option is too expensive and that buses with Euro II emissions standards running on 0.05 per cent sulphur diesel should be considered clean enough for Delhi. DTC wasted away the time given to it without doing anything and then filed an affidavit a few days before the deadline asking for a five-year extension in the hope that the Court would agree the Euro II diesel option, which the DTC actually proposed in its affidavit. The collusion between the DTC and the diesel lobby could not be more self-evident. The argument in favour of moving to CNG is very simple. The biggest pollutant in Delhi's air is small particulates and diesel buses contribute to as much as 20-25 per cent of all particulate pollution from vehicles. Moving buses to CNG that has negligible particulate emissions, would mean a drastic reduction in this pollutant. The diesel lobby's influence has been so powerful with the Delhi government that it has not been able to take any decision on another SC order of July 1998 which instructs it to augment its bus fleet to 10,000 by April 1, 2001. As the court had also ordered that all buses in Delhi must run on CNG by April 1, 2001, the implication of the court orders was clear. The Delhi government had to ensure that all new buses it ordered had to be running on CNG. It would be an absolute waste of money to order diesel buses and then convert them to CNG within a year or so. But the state government could not come to grips with the matter lost in its dilemma whether it should order diesel or CNG buses. At the least, the state government could have notified private bus operators that all eight- year old buses have to run on CNG by April 1, 2000, but this much too was not done. What we see today is the result of a total disregard for court orders and amicus curiae Harish Salve rightly pointed out in court that the DTC affidavit amounts to a 'contempt of court'. Central government agencies have also tried their best to be as obstructionist as possible. Let us begin with the ministry of petroleum. It was only around this time last year that the ministry had told the SC that it is not possible for it to supply any better than diesel with 0.25 per cent sulphur content. And yet within a year the ministry has backtracked and minister Ram Naik is proudly taking out public advertisements that both petrol and diesel with 0.05 per cent sulphur content will be supplied from April 1, 2000. How does a ministry change its mind so quickly? All this has happened not just because of the growing pressure from the SC now that only Euro II cars are to be allowed from April 1, 2000 a court order in improvement in fuel quality was becoming inevitable. But the real pressure came with the entry of the private sector Reliance refineries who are waiting to capture the large Delhi market by offering the desired quality of fuel. A move which put the cat amongst the coy public sector pigeons. Improvements in both petrol and diesel quality are vital for controlling emissions. In 1996, the SC had ordered that all new petrol cars must have cat convertors and asked for the introduction of unleaded petrol. But sulphur in petrol also destroys the catalyst. A cat convertor is supposed to last for 80,000 km but no manufacturer knows whether this is true or not. This is because of the poor fuel quality supplied to Indian consumers, making a mockery of SC orders. In the case of diesel, even if particulate pollution from all buses is reduced to negligible levels by moving them to CNG, there will still be many uses of diesel. Goods vehicles are heavy polluters and here the CNG option is limited because of the large volume of inter-state traffic. Given the extremely fractured state of the country's environmental governance, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has no powers to set standards for fuel quality from the pollution point of view. In fact, even the emissions standards for vehicles are notified by the ministry of surface transport (MOST) and not by the MEF. The latter is a mere adviser. Since there were no standards for CNG buses, it was MOST that had to take the lead in this. But the ministry did nothing on its own despite the SC orders till almost a year had gone by taking the specious plea that the state government had not asked it to do so. Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Petroleum refused to certify that a converted bus was not meeting the standard because no standards had been specified nor was the certification procedure. Instead of clarifying the certification procedure fast, MOST calmly took the position that the certification of converted buses was a special matter, different from the certification process for new vehicles, even though a few CNG buses were already running in Mumbai. Why couldn't the same procedure be applied to the buses for Delhi? MOST merely set up a committee to look into the matter with no deadline totally oblivious of the SC deadline. This obviously created problems and delays for the Delhi government. It became clear a few weeks ago where the loyalties of MOST have been all the time when it publicly stated that the CNG option is too expensive and the option of improved diesel buses should not be overlooked. Sure, cost is important, but haven't auto manufacturers also invested a lot to improve their vehicles to Euro II standards? The Western experience clearly shows that a clean environment does not come together with fancy modern technology without paying a cost or else people have to be prepared to pay the cost of death and illness in the form of doctor's fees, costs of medicines and hospital charges. But protecting the environment is not MOST responsibility so why should it care and it is not under the spotlight of the SC either. In an affidavit, filed before the SC, the ministry says, that it has discussed the recommendations of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), for the National Capital Region, to ban private diesel cars in order to stop new sources of particulate pollution with MOST and the ministry of industry and disagrees with it. The EPCA is an agency of the ministry itself but set up under the orders of the SC and which regularly provides advice to the court. The reason cited for disagreement is that no vehicle that meets the specified emissions standards can be banned. For the MEF to disregard environmental concerns and hide behind a legal provision is outrageous. Does the ministry have any information to show that the public health effects of diesel and the actions being taking against its use from Tokyo to California can be disregarded? And just how valid is its argument? After all, vehicular emissions standards are secondary to and derivative of air quality standards. The ministry itself has not come up with any action plan to give us clean air by controlling particulate pollution in Delhi which is its own responsibility. The Central Pollution Control Board has started measuring respirable particles (PM10) which go deep into the lungs and are a bigger threat to public health than all particles. Both in 1998 and 1999 winter, PM10 levels reached as high as 800 microgrammes per cubic meter (?g/cum) which are levels that we have not been able to find recorded in any city of the world. Whereas the standard says that it should be below 100 ?g/cum. Let the ministry take up the challenge and tell the public how this particulate pollution can be controlled without controlling the use of diesel. Moreover, all over the world, from Zurich to California, it is recognised that local situations can demand stricter standards than the national standards. Not surprisingly, the SC is imposing stricter standards for a pollution hot spot like Delhi both through stricter emissions standards as in the case of cars and through alternative fuels in the case of buses, autos and taxis. In fact, the MEF affidavit can also be read as saying that the SC's orders are illegal. It is clear that several agencies of both the Central and Delhi government have been greatly under the influence of the diesel lobby. Even Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has contributed his little bit to this state of affairs through his total inaction on the pollution front despite evidence of serious and growing air pollution in most Indian towns and cities. Despite the fractured state of environmental governance, as described above, there have been no reports of the cabinet having discussed this issue in its entirety. The entire story stinks of money, influence and of course, lack of concern. A strong SC has definitely increased the accountability of the Delhi government for air pollution but as of yet the Central government has escaped any accountability. - 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: 608 1110, 608 1124 608 3394, 608 6399 FAX : 91-11-608 5879 VISIT US AT: http://www.cseindia.org Email: webadmin@cseindia.org **************************************************************** From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue May 2 01:25:15 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 18:25:15 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Traffic Week- 2000 In-Reply-To: <20000429161036.2082.qmail@web1605.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Kumar Koirala, I was very pleased to receive your kind letter, and even more happy to learn about "Your safety, Our concern" week which begins on the 24th of this month. I have looked at the activities that you are planning and find that they are very good. I do have two small suggestions, in the hope that they may be of some use to you and your city. First, have you considered the possibility of working with the schools to involve the school children directly in this important consciousness raising effort? We have found them to be powerful actors in the move to better and more socially just transportation. And of course when you and I are gone, they are tomorrow's leaders, so we might as well begin preparing them to be better leaders than we were. You will find more on this approach in the Children on the Move site at http://www.ecoplan.org/children. Second, I would like to see what we all might be able to do to provide you with as much support and help as we possibly can. One very good step will be for you to continue to keep us all informed by means of communications to the excellent SUSTRAN forum. You will find that they are very good friends and sources of wise counsel indeed. Also, we will send on all your information and requests to both the @ccess on the Web forum at http://www.ecoplan.org/access and the Politics of Sustainability program at http://www.ecoplan.org/politics. Both may have some ideas and feedback for you. And of course there is also the @World Car-Free Day Consortium at http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/, which we shall also notify. I am assuming that this year it is perhaps too early to consider having a World Wide Web site to support your program, but when that becomes possible we can highlight it in much the same manner that we did the very find car-free day in Bogot? on the 24th of February. My colleagues join me in sending our very best wishes for the success of your efforts. With all good wishes, Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Tue May 2 17:44:21 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 10:44:21 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Hammer of Thor In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000501170510.008817f0@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: This is an important shot in the sustainable transport wars and is one to which I would like to invite discussion. I think that we all have a lot to learn about the politics of sustainability, and what better way than to study the terrain. I can think of two possible paths to carry out these discussions, though it may be that a combination of the two might be the most creative. Path I would be simply to open the floor right here on SUSTRAN for an exchange on the basic issues that Mr. Argawal's fine piece points up. Path II might be for us somehow to integrate all this in a way in which our contributions can somehow be more accessible once we put down our pens - and that might be via the Politics of Sustainability web site at http://www.ecoplan.org/politics. I do not pretend to know that best way to do this, but what we have done is to go into the Politics site over the weekend and do what we could to make it a better and more efficient home for such discussions. If you click the Indian Cities? Link there, you will see the following by way of invitation: "The point of departure for this consideration is an article which has just appeared in the quarterly Down to Earth of the Centre for Science and Environment under the title, Hammer of Thor. The author paints a grim picture of the institutional and political setting of sustainability in his country. But suppose we take this not so much as a reason to ring our hands and write off the prospects for any real progress in the sustainability agenda in their cities, but rather as our point of departure -- warts and all (as it always is in the real world). Suppose instead we take the potion: "given this, let's try that". Well... what do we try? This we propose as the topic of discussion under this forum and in the SUSTRAN site (and perhaps others, as may emerge as the exchanges advance)." Any thoughts on this? Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From alanhowes at usaksa.com Wed May 3 02:09:49 2000 From: alanhowes at usaksa.com (Alan P Howes) Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 20:09:49 +0300 Subject: [sustran] Zonal fares on buses In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19990707204926.0084be00@relay101.jaring.my> References: <3.0.6.32.19990707204926.0084be00@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <1fstgssp1ucc2rhk7qfn7flhh814jf2eo5@4ax.com> I'm looking for help. Like in many other countries in the world, Saudi Arabia's urban buses operate on a flat fare. It's 2 Saudi Riyals - that's about US$ 0.55. That's good for a trip of up to 30 km. on some routes - perhaps more. (We operate local service in nine cities and towns). (And our typical customer may earn around SR 500 per month - which makes our fares expensive.) In Riyadh and Jeddah, we suffer heavy competition from "Coasters" - fixed-route (but otherwise fairly anarchic) minibuses charging the same fare as we do. Flat fare schemes are no good for maximising passengers at any given level of subsidy. They are too high for short-distance passengers, and lower than necessary for long-distance passengers. So I want to go Zonal - probably simply cutting fares to SR 1.00 on sections of routes competed by Coasters. But our operating guys say "Oh, our passengers and drivers will never understand that". OK, they may have a point. Neither group are particularly well educated (most of them, both groups, are non-Saudi, typically South Asian or Philippino). But no-one expects taxis to charge a flat fare. So what I want to hear of is experience elsewhere in less-developed countries (which in many ways, we still are). Particularly if a flat-fare system has been converted to Zonal. Shukran Jazeelan -- GIVE ON-LINE FOR MOZAMBIQUE - http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/f_africa.htm Alan Howes, Special Advisor (Operations) Saudi Public Transport Company, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia alanhowes@usaksa.com PLEASE DO NOT SEND LARGE MESSAGES (>100kB) WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE From negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA Wed May 3 02:49:25 2000 From: negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA (Paula Negron Poblete) Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 13:49:25 -0400 Subject: [sustran] Re: Zonal fares on buses References: <3.0.6.32.19990707204926.0084be00@relay101.jaring.my> <1fstgssp1ucc2rhk7qfn7flhh814jf2eo5@4ax.com> Message-ID: <390F1525.94B95BCD@magellan.umontreal.ca> Alan, I think one of the best examples of zonal gfares in developing countries exists in Brazil, in Sao Paulo and curitiba. The information about Sao Paulo can be found at their web site: www.sptrans.com.br Consider that mostly of the information is in portugeese. Concerning the case of Curitiba, maybe ypu can find some information at this web site: http://www.ecoplan.org/mobility/index.htm Hope the information is useful. -- Paula Negron Facult? de l'Am?nagement Univerist? de Montr?al negronpp@magellan.umontreal.ca Alan P Howes a ?crit : > > I'm looking for help. > > Like in many other countries in the world, Saudi Arabia's urban buses > operate on a flat fare. It's 2 Saudi Riyals - that's about US$ 0.55. > That's good for a trip of up to 30 km. on some routes - perhaps more. > (We operate local service in nine cities and towns). > > (And our typical customer may earn around SR 500 per month - which > makes our fares expensive.) > > In Riyadh and Jeddah, we suffer heavy competition from "Coasters" - > fixed-route (but otherwise fairly anarchic) minibuses charging the > same fare as we do. > > Flat fare schemes are no good for maximising passengers at any given > level of subsidy. They are too high for short-distance passengers, and > lower than necessary for long-distance passengers. > > So I want to go Zonal - probably simply cutting fares to SR 1.00 on > sections of routes competed by Coasters. But our operating guys say > "Oh, our passengers and drivers will never understand that". OK, they > may have a point. Neither group are particularly well educated (most > of them, both groups, are non-Saudi, typically South Asian or > Philippino). But no-one expects taxis to charge a flat fare. > > So what I want to hear of is experience elsewhere in less-developed > countries (which in many ways, we still are). Particularly if a > flat-fare system has been converted to Zonal. > > Shukran Jazeelan > -- > GIVE ON-LINE FOR MOZAMBIQUE - http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/f_africa.htm > > Alan Howes, Special Advisor (Operations) > Saudi Public Transport Company, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia > alanhowes@usaksa.com > PLEASE DO NOT SEND LARGE MESSAGES (>100kB) WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE From townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au Wed May 3 13:14:45 2000 From: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au (Craig Townsend) Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 12:14:45 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Auto Rickshaw Pollution in Dhaka Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000503121445.0079c6b0@central.murdoch.edu.au> >From Development News - The World Bank's Daily Webzine (http://www.worldbank.org/developmentnews/) Clinics Target Auto Rickshaw Pollution in Dhaka Training teaches mechanics ways to reduce emissions May 1, 2000?As part of a broader effort to reduce pollution in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, where black smoke and air-born particles are a fact of life, about 400 auto rickshaw mechanics recently took part in a training program to drastically reduce vehicle missions. The half-day clinic, the first in a series, focused on maintaining and repairing engines, and advising drivers on the proper quality and quantity of lubricant oils. The event was conducted by the Society for Urban Environmental Protection, an environmental nongovernmental organization, and Uttara Motors, with funding from the World Bank and the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program, a global technical assistance effort funded by the World Bank, UNDP, and 15 public and private donors. Smoke from auto rickshaws, also called ?baby taxis,? is harmful to health, causing burning in eyes, coughing, breathing problems, lung and heart disease, cancer, and other serious health problems. Those who spend time on the streets are the most affected by it. (See box.) ?The training of mechanics seeks to help reduce emissions from baby taxis sustainably and the burden of air pollution on the poor, who are most exposed to it,? says Jitendra Shah, senior environmental engineer in the World Bank?s South Asia Environment Unit. ?Those who suffer the most are baby taxi drivers, who spend 10-15 hours a day on the streets in open vehicles, and are literally using their lungs to clean the air.? ?The importance of having well-trained and informed baby taxi mechanics cannot be over-emphasized,? Shah says. Regular servicing and repair of vehicles are critical to curbing air pollution from vehicles, and the mechanics are the ?gurus? to whom baby taxi drivers turn for advice on how to operate and maintain their vehicles. ?The mechanics are therefore in an excellent position to convince baby taxi drivers to follow good maintenance and lube oil practice, and point out that they can be part of the solution instead of contributing to the problem.? There are an estimated 50,000 auto rickshaws in Dhaka, most of them using two-stroke engines. While these vehicles contribute to approximately 35 percent of particles and nearly half of hydrocarbons emitted by all vehicles, it is not feasible to ban two-stroke engine baby taxis overnight. ?Two-stroke engine vehicles need not cause so much pollution, as international experience shows. This is why industrialized countries have not banned two-stroke engine vehicles,? says Masami Kojima, a petrochemical expert with the World Bank. ?Japan, for example, has a large population of two-stroke engine vehicles, but they do not smoke as seen in Dhaka, because they maintain their vehicles and use proper lubricant oils.? Why are two-stroke engine vehicles in other countries so much cleaner than those in Bangladesh? There are two principal reasons: they are maintained regularly, and the drivers use the correct quantity and quality of lubricant. It is the failure to follow these two practices in Bangladesh that is responsible for unacceptably high levels of smoke emissions from baby taxis. The economic cost of health damage caused by emissions from baby taxis has been calculated to roughly Tk 60 crores (about $12 million) a year. Good inspection and maintenance practice can help address the problem by reducing emissions by up to 35 percent. Another mitigation measure which need not cost any more to drivers is the use of the correct amount of lubricant designed for two-stroke engines. Currently baby taxis typically use as much as 10 percent four-stroke engine oil with their petrol. By using only 3 percent of quality two-stroke engine oil, they could even save money and at the same time reduce emissions significantly. Mechanics and baby taxi drivers are also advised not to buy petrol from the open market. Such petrol could be adulterated by kerosene, causes more smoke, and damages engines. The next phase of the program, set for this summer, will offer training clinics to baby taxi drivers on proper maintenance and use of lubricant oil, and other ways to reduce emissions and improve safety. It will also take emission measurements and provide free tune-ups to polluting baby taxis. The Bank is also supporting the Bangladesh Department of Environment and assisting the government on policies and pilot activities to improve air quality. Helpful links: For more on the Bank?s work on the environment, visit http://www.worldbank.org/environment/. Box The Impact of Air Pollution in Bangladesh Air pollution impedes sustainable development of Bangladesh. Where data are available, air pollution levels in Dhaka are considerably higher than Bangladeshi standards or World Health Organization guidelines for residential areas. Extensive research elsewhere has shown a statistically significant association between particulate pollution, especially the smaller-sized fractions that constitute most of vehicular particulate emissions, and premature mortality and morbidity. Specifically, greater exposure to particulates has been linked to premature deaths from respiratory and cardio-vascular illnesses, and higher rates of sickness, especially bronchitis and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, as well as respiratory tract infections. It is estimated that if particulate pollution levels in the four largest cities in Bangladesh were reduced to the standards in force in developed countries, as many as 15,000 deaths, 6.5 million cases of sickness requiring medical treatment, and 850 million minor illnesses could be avoided annually. The economic cost of this avoided sickness and death is estimated to be $200-800 million per year, or 0.7 percent-3 percent of Gross Domestic Product. Other physical impacts of air pollution include damages to crops and ecosystems, degraded visibility, soiling of buildings, and damage to water quality through deposition of lead and other pollutants. These effects on the ecosystem impair people?s livelihood as well as health. ________________________________________________ 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 sustran at po.jaring.my Thu May 4 21:47:20 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 20:47:20 +0800 Subject: [sustran] information request on developing city transport patterns Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000504204720.008b4650@relay101.jaring.my> Dr Eduardo Vasconcellos of S?o Paulo has just sent me the following information request and has given me permission to relay it to sustran-discuss in the hope that some of you can also help him. I will also try to put some info together. Paul ------------------------ From: "eduardo a vasconcellos" To: Subject: opinionon the book Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 07:42:08 -0300 Dear Paul Again and again I have to thank you for sending me the news from Asia. They are always very interesting and allows us frorm Latin America to have a picture of what is going on there. I have just met Jeff Kenworthy in Mexico, during the UITP meeting and we have discussed several issues about the work his is doing for the UITP. I am writing to you to ask you a favour. I am writing a book on urban transport in developing countries to be published in the UK and some data are missing. I was wondering if you could have them with you or ask to some friends to send them. They are: * Walking characteristics in two more cities (gender, age, trip time, purpose). The only data I have comes from our household survey here in S?o Paulo and from the TRR 1441, for Beijing (Nonmotorised transportation around the world, paper from Tanaboriboon and Jing, pp 16-26; however their data on gender is not conclusive). * Bicycle use by gender in selected cities; the same aforementioned comments on the TRR 1441 paper applies; * Motorcycle ownership increase in selected Asian or African cities in the last decade or so; I need also an opinion about a specific issue, that of motorcycles in Asia. Here in Latin America we have few motorcycles and the main historical change has been the rapid increase in automobiles, supported by the government and pushed by the automotive industry through several means: there is a very strong lobbying work, very effective, that hides important economic interests. May I say the same phenomenon has happened in Asia (and Africa to a lesser extent) in respect to motorcycles, the Japanese manufacturers and local economic and political elite? Several papers mention that very briefly but I would like to now your opinion. Paul, please see if you have such data available at hand. Should it be too time - consuming for you, just select those immediately available and send them to me. I know everybody has a lot of work to do and I do not want to put further time constraints on you. I am attaching the book proposed content so you may have an idea about what I am writing. Thank you for your help. Best regards From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu May 4 22:09:40 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 21:09:40 +0800 Subject: [sustran] UN-ESCAP call for papers Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000504210940.008bf5c0@relay101.jaring.my> Here are calls for papers for the next two issues of The Transport and Communications Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific. The second one below is on the theme "Governance for sustainable development in the transport sector" and looks closer to the main themes of this list than the first one on logistics. Responses should go to John Moon at UN-ESCAP (moon.unescap@un.org) not to me or this list. Paul ------------------------------- The Transport and Communications Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific Theme for Issue No. 70: Logistics for the improvement of transport efficiency of domestic goods traffic About the Bulletin The Transport and Communications Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific is a journal published by the Transport, Communications, Tourism and Infrastructure Development Division (TCTIDD) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). It is a United Nations sales publication and is read worldwide. The main objectives of the Bulletin are to provide a medium for the sharing of knowledge, experience, ideas, policy options, and information in the development of transport infrastructure and services in the Asia Pacific region; stimulate policy oriented research; and increase awareness of transport policy issues and responses. It is also expected that the Bulletin will help to widen and deepen debate on issues of interest and concern in the transport sector. Since 1998, the Bulletin has been completely reoriented both in terms of contents and physical format to increase its benefit to ESCAP members, associate members, and to other interested organisations and persons. It is intended to emphasise the publication of empirically based policy oriented articles as well as best practices relating to various issues concerning transport infrastructure and services which can draw the attention of professionals, policy makers, academicians and researchers in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the changed policy, each volume of the Bulletin focuses on a particular theme of interest, primarily in the transport sector. The themes for the last two issues (Nos. 68 and 69) were urban transport in the Asian and Pacific region and participatory approach to transport infrastructure development. Call for papers The theme for the next issue of the Bulletin (No. 70) will be logistics for the improvement of transport efficiency of domestic goods traffic. The focus of individual articles may include, but not limited to, one or two of the following: a. Concept and net benefits of applying integrated logistics in domestic freight transport system b. A vision of domestics logistics: 2020 c. Logistics management system d. Logistics information system e. Operational analysis of logistics resources f. Improved domestic freight logistics and sustainable transport development g. Freight distribution in urban area h. Improved domestic logistics as a means of addressing issues of spatial equity, and regional distribution of output and income i. Improved domestic logistics as a means of meeting the challenges of globalization j. Improved logistics for agricultural commodities and agroprocessing as an instrument of rural poverty alleviation k. Logistics for safe transportation of dangerous goods l. Case studies and "best practices" in applying integrated logistics to domestic freight transportation The Bulletin welcomes analytical articles on these topics as well as on other topics linked to the theme and are currently at the forefront of domestic freight transport logistics and logistics resources in the region, and also on policy analysis and best practices concerning different issues in this thematic area. The articles should be based on original research and should have an analytical depth and must not have been published elsewhere. The empirically based articles should emphasise policy implications emerging from the analysis. Book reviews are also welcome. Submission dates An abstract of about 300 words prepared in English in MS Word or WordPerfect format, and a curriculum vitae not exceeding one page, should be submitted no later than 19 June 2000, to the following address: Director TCTIDD, UN ESCAP UN Building Rajadamnern Nok Avenue Bangkok 10200 Thailand Fax: +662-280 6042 e-mail: moon.unescap@un.org In the beginning of July 2000, authors whose abstracts are selected will be requested to submit their manuscript by 2 October 2000. At that time, they will also be provided with a set of guidelines to prepare their manuscripts. ========================================================= The Transport and Communications Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific Theme for Issue No. 71: Governance for sustainable development in the transport sector About the Bulletin ... see above.... Call for papers The theme for the next issue of the Bulletin (No. 71) will be governance for sustainable development in the transport sector. A working definition of governance can be found in the Box provided in the following page. The focus of individual articles may include, but not limited to, one or two of the following: m. Governance issues of the transport sector especially in the context of liberalization and globalization n. Liberalization in the transport sector and the role of public sector o. A vision of good governance in the transport sector: 2020 p. Key elements of good governance in the transport sector q. Analysis of the structure, functions and decision making process in transport ministries and agencies in the region r. Restructuring of existing agencies s. Regulatory reforms in transport sector t. Reform in the planning and management of transport infrastructure and services u. Inter-sectoral and inter-agency linkages v. Management information systems w. Strategy of capacity building for good governance x. Good governance as a means of improving efficiency in the transport sector y. Innovative transport management practice z. Role of civil society organizations including NGOs aa. Case studies and "best practices" of restructuring existing agencies, and reforms in present practices of infrastructure development and provision of services The Bulletin welcomes analytical articles on these topics as well as on other topics linked to the theme and are currently at the forefront of governance issues of the transport sector in the region, and also on policy analysis and best practices concerning different issues in this thematic area. The articles should be based on original research and should have an analytical depth and must not have been published elsewhere. The empirically based articles should emphasise policy implications emerging from the analysis. Book reviews are also welcome. Submission dates An abstract of about 300 words prepared in English in MS Word or WordPerfect format, and a curriculum vitae not exceeding one page, should be submitted no later than 18 July 2000, to the following address: Director TCTIDD, UN ESCAP UN Building Rajadamnern Nok Avenue Bangkok 10200 Thailand Fax: +662-280 6042 e-mail: moon.unescap@un.org In August 2000, authors whose abstracts are selected will be requested to submit their manuscript by 1 November 2000. At that time, they will also be provided with a set of guidelines to prepare their manuscripts. From ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Fri May 5 05:28:52 2000 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 16:28:52 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] ped/bike traffic safety (fwd) Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 13:59:11 +0000 From: John Pucher Reply-To: pucher@rci.rutgers.edu Subject: ped/bike traffic safety Dear colleagues, In case any of you are interested, here is the abstract of a brand-new article I just finished last month, which will be appearing in the SUMMER 2000 issue of TRANSPORTATION QUARTERLY, Vol. 54, No. 3, summer 2000. Topic is ped/bike safety in international comparison: differences among USA, Germany and the Netherlands, trends and public policies. If anyone is interested, I can send a PDF file with the pre-print version of the article, although it does not contain the ten photos that will appear in the actual TQ article in July 2000. Just send an email to my address and I will reply with the PDF attachment. Here's the cut-and-paste version of the abstract. Feel free to share this abstract with your members, who are welcome to email me to request the preprint, PDF version. Photos not included. Can only respond to email requests for the paper preprint. John Pucher Forthcoming article in SUMMER 2000 TRANSPORTATION QTLY, Vol. 54, No. 3: TITLE: Making Walking and Cycling Safer: Lessons from Europe AUTHORS: John Pucher and Lewis Dijkstra PUBLICATION: Transportation Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 3, summer 2000 issue, forthcoming ABSTRACT: The neglect of pedestrian and bicycling safety in the United States has made these modes dangerous ways of getting around. Pedestrian fatalities are 36 times higher than car occupant fatalities per km traveled, and bicycling fatalities are 11 times higher than car occupant fatalities per km. Walking and bicycling can be made quite safe, however, as clearly shown by the much lower fatality rates in The Netherlands and Germany. Pedestrian fatalities per billion km walked are less than a tenth as high as in the United States, and bicyclist fatalities per billion km cycled are only a fourth as high. The Netherlands and Germany have long recognized the importance of pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Over the past two decades, these countries have undertaken a wide range of measures to improve safety: better facilities for walking and bicycling; urban design sensitive to the needs of non-motorists; traffic calming of residential neighborhoods; restrictions on motor vehicle use in cities; rigorous traffic education of both motorists and non-motorists; and strict enforcement of traffic regulations protecting pedestrians and bicyclists. The United States could adopt many of the same measures to improve pedestrian and bicycling safety here. The necessary technology and methods are already available, with decades of successful experience in Europe. Anyone interested in obtaining a preprint version as a PDF file should send an email to PUCHER@RCI.RUTGERS.EDU. Otherwise, keep an eye out for the summer 2000 issue of TQ. You will probably want to see that issue anyway, since it will contain many photos not included in the PDF preprint version, and it will also benefit from better formatting. John Pucher *************************************** John Pucher Department of Urban Planning Rutgers University, Bloustein School 33 Livingston Avenue, Suite 302 New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901--1900 Fax: 732-932-2253 Phone: 732-932-3822, ext. 722 email: pucher@rci.rutgers.edu *************************************** From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon May 8 12:43:01 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 11:43:01 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Accessible Transportation Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000508114301.00844400@relay101.jaring.my> forwarded from a non-member of the list. >Date: Sat, 06 May 2000 15:28:26 -0700 >From: Topong Kulkhanchit >Subject: Accessible Transportation > >Dear Friends, >You can enjoy accessibility campaign in Japan in very much progress by >visit Shoji's homepage at (http://member.nifty.ne.jp/shojin/). > >Topong Kulkhanchit > > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon May 8 22:44:33 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 21:44:33 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: user participation in transit planning and operation Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000508214433.0080c1b0@relay101.jaring.my> A question from from Korea from another list. I thought sustran-discussers might be interested or able to help. Paul -------------------- Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 12:38:57 +0900 From: ?????? Subject: [Q] Looking for information I hope that anyone could help me with the following. I'm looking for information on citizens(the users)' participation in public transportation operation especially in subway operation. There could be many ways for the citizens(the users) to participate in opearation of subway system from planning to operation. I heard that in some cities there are citizens' committee on public transporation operation. I would like to get infomation on ways of citizens' participation in building and running subway sytem. I'd also like to know if I could adapt that participation system to Seuol's subway system. I'll be waiting for any answers from you, Kim, Chun-Kon Transport Economics Team The Korea Transport Institute (http://www.koti.re.kr) Mail: ceekay@koti.re.kr / ceekay@chollian.net phone: +82-344-910-3154 / fax: +82-344-910-3229 From premag at bom5.vsnl.net.in Wed May 10 10:25:22 2000 From: premag at bom5.vsnl.net.in (prema gopalan) Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 20:25:22 -0500 Subject: [sustran] Re: sustran-discuss V1 #634 References: <200005011700.CAA42532@mail.jca.apc.org> Message-ID: <006301bfba1f$22dca020$f930c5cb@p947cw2p0506> Dear Mr. Koirala, I am encouraged by your campaignto educate people on safety.As eric suggested that you involve school children,I would suggest you may include community/local women's groups.In what follows are methods SSP (the organisation I work with)used in the earthquake safety campaign in maharashtra to reach out to over 2,00,000 households. Target if possible --distribution of leaflets with stalls at religious fairs(where large no:s of people gather) Involve community women's groups /Mahila Mandals in safety education(they are likely to continue it) Partner with the elected members to local govt.(which I am sure you must be doing) develop street plays which can be staged at schools and street corners. Regular T>V and media clips Starting with the traffic safety week I notice that you have planned many events.It is best to have a year plan -as people take time to join in and should be given many chances to do so.And I hope that the traffic week will result in a Citizens for safety group which will support this work in the city. If you need any more info --ssp2000@vsnl.com or premag@bom5.vsnl.net.in Best wishes, Prema Gopalan ----- Original Message ----- From: sustran-discuss To: Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 12:00 PM Subject: sustran-discuss V1 #634 > * To leave, send the message UNSUBSCRIBE sustran-discuss-digest > * to majordomo@mail.jca.ax.apc.org > > sustran-discuss Tuesday, May 2 2000 Volume 01 : Number 634 > > > > In this issue: > > [sustran] fwd: Kathmandu Traffic Week 2000 > [sustran] FW: [fireflybrigade] online magazine articles > [sustran] fwd: Delhi news from CSE India > [sustran] Traffic Week- 2000 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 15:27:50 +0800 > From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre > Subject: [sustran] fwd: Kathmandu Traffic Week 2000 > > Forwarding bounced message, Paul. > - -------------------------------- > > Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 09:10:36 -0700 (PDT) > From: kumar koirala > Subject: Traffic Week- 2000 > To: Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org > Cc: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org > MIME-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > > Dear Eric, > > Since longtime I was thinking to > contact you as I came to know about you through Aryal > Rajendra . As you know we are going to launch an > traffic education and awareness campaign since 24 of > May 2000 for a week in Kathmandu.Your safety Our > concern will be the slogan of this week .Target group > of this programme are the road users of Kathmandu > which seems to be a vague one. However we will reach > to the Padestrians , Public transport Drivers and the > schoolbus drivers,students as well as parents, > Motorcyclists, Bi-cyclists and the tourist sectors > drivers. Altogether two hundred thousands leaflets > will be distributed and classes will be conducted for > different target groups.Posters , Banners will be > displayed and distributed.Many other programmes will > be conducted in that period. > > This programme will be the begining of the > education programme but we will try to continue this > programme for the whole year although may not be in > this level. > > Somany organisations are voluntarily > participating in this programme.In this regard I would > like to request for your valuable suggestions so that > we will be able to launch an effective campaign. > If you have any querries please feel free to contact > me through this e-mail or "traffic@mail.com.np. > > With warm regards > > Sincerely Yours > > Kumar Koirala > Senior supt. of Police > Valley Traffic Police > Ramshah path , Kathmandu > Nepal. > Tel. 977-1-227338 > Fax 977-1-227321 > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 17:01:54 +0800 > From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre > Subject: [sustran] FW: [fireflybrigade] online magazine articles > > News of yesterday's bicycle event in Manila - the Tour of the Fireflies. I > just checked out their web site. very nice! I especially liked the > beautiful drawings on promoting cycling, public transport and pedestrians > under the "about us" section. > http://www.fireflybrigade.org/html/aboutus.html > > Paul > - ------------------------------------- > > >Reply-To: > >From: "Heckler" > >Subject: FW: [fireflybrigade] online magazine articles > >Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 14:52:42 +0800 > > > >FYI. Please check out the other sites, too. The Tour went very well with the > >Inquirer reporting some 2000 participants, a record for this kind of event. > >Thanks to everyone who supported us. > > > >Ramon > > > >Check out these articles about the Fireflies tour. > > > >Also check out our site. www.fireflybrigade.org > > There are news updates. > >http://www.localvibe.com/sports/042000/FireFlies/ > > > >http://www.inquirer.net/mags/apr2000wk4/mag_7.htm > > > >http://www.pinoycentral.com/img/Events.nsf/EFeatureIDLookup/2000042711414 > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 17:05:10 +0800 > From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre > Subject: [sustran] fwd: Delhi news from CSE India > > Some transport-relevant news from CSE India. Includes comments on the Delhi > bus events of recent weeks. > > - ---------------------------------------- > From: "webadmin" > Organization: Centre for Science and Environment > To: > Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 13:08:13 +530 > Subject: What's new at CSE, India > > ***************************************************************** > A fortnightly electronic news bulletin from CSE, India, to a network of=20 > friends and professionals interested in environmental issues. We send this= > =20 > to people who we believe are involved in sustainable development=20 > initiatives. You are welcome to unsubscribe yourself, if you so choose,=20 > just scroll down to the bottom of this page. > ***************************************************************** > > What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi,=20 > India > > > A cycle rally of hundreds of school children from Delhi culminated at the=20 > Prime Minister's Residence on Earth Day, April 22nd as a part of CSE's=20 > Right to Clean Air campaign. > > On behalf of all the children of India, a delegation of 22 children=20 > presented the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India , Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee,= > =20 > a Children's Manifesto on Clean Air , that expressed their concerns on the= > =20 > growing problem of air pollution in Indian cities and their right to clean= > =20 > air. This manifesto was an appeal from children for a more secure and=20 > sustainable future. It drew the attention of government and the automobile= > =20 > manufacturers to the serious issue of deteriorating air quality in towns=20 > and cities of India. A gallery of pictures at=20 > > http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/earthday/cleanair.htm > - ------------------------------------------------- > > ................. > > > A message from the Director, Anil Agarwal: > > Hammer of Thor > > WHEN it comes to pollution control, it is only the hammer of the=20 > honourable judges of the Supreme Court (SC) that seems to push the=20 > government to do anything. Without creating a crisis, first for the auto=20 > industry last year and now for the government, it seems that no action=20 > gets taken. Almost, as if the government has abdicated its=20 > responsibilities for pollution control and public health. > > The manner in which both the state and Central governments wasted the long= > =20 > lead time of 22 months, that the SC had given them is truly a murky story=20 > of how politicians and bureaucrats consistently give in to industrial=20 > lobbies. The SC order dates back to July 1998 with a clear deadline - to=20 > convert all eight-year-old buses (both private and of the Delhi Transport=20 > Corporation (DTC) to compressed natural gas (CNG). Forget public interest.= > =20 > It is also sad that the media has failed to draw public attention to the=20 > totally non-cooperative and obstructionist role that the Central=20 > government has played in this entire drama. The Court, too, unfortunately,= > =20 > tends to overlook the latter's role because the prime responsibility for=20 > carrying out the Court's instructions rightly lie with the state=20 > government. > > The diesel lobby has long been opposing the Court's order to get buses=20 > converted to CNG presumably because it means entering a new line of=20 > technology and the 'cascade effect' of SC orders for Delhi which then get=20 > endorsed by the High Courts for other metros. Both DTC officials and=20 > officials of certain companies which manufacture buses have been saying=20 > for long that the CNG conversion option is too expensive and that buses=20 > with Euro II emissions standards running on 0.05 per cent sulphur diesel=20 > should be considered clean enough for Delhi. DTC wasted away the time=20 > given to it without doing anything and then filed an affidavit a few days=20 > before the deadline asking for a five-year extension in the hope that the=20 > Court would agree the Euro II diesel option, which the DTC actually=20 > proposed in its affidavit. The collusion between the DTC and the diesel=20 > lobby could not be more self-evident. The argument in favour of moving to=20 > CNG is very simple. The biggest pollutant in Delhi's air is small=20 > particulates and diesel buses contribute to as much as 20-25 per cent of=20 > all particulate pollution from vehicles. Moving buses to CNG that has=20 > negligible particulate emissions, would mean a drastic reduction in this=20 > pollutant. > > The diesel lobby's influence has been so powerful with the Delhi=20 > government that it has not been able to take any decision on another SC=20 > order of July 1998 which instructs it to augment its bus fleet to 10,000=20 > by April 1, 2001. As the court had also ordered that all buses in Delhi=20 > must run on CNG by April 1, 2001, the implication of the court orders was=20 > clear. The Delhi government had to ensure that all new buses it ordered=20 > had to be running on CNG. It would be an absolute waste of money to order=20 > diesel buses and then convert them to CNG within a year or so. But the=20 > state government could not come to grips with the matter lost in its=20 > dilemma whether it should order diesel or CNG buses. At the least, the=20 > state government could have notified private bus operators that all eight- > year old buses have to run on CNG by April 1, 2000, but this much too was=20 > not done. What we see today is the result of a total disregard for court=20 > orders and amicus curiae Harish Salve rightly pointed out in court that=20 > the DTC affidavit amounts to a 'contempt of court'. > > Central government agencies have also tried their best to be as=20 > obstructionist as possible. Let us begin with the ministry of petroleum.=20 > It was only around this time last year that the ministry had told the SC=20 > that it is not possible for it to supply any better than diesel with 0.25=20 > per cent sulphur content. And yet within a year the ministry has=20 > backtracked and minister Ram Naik is proudly taking out public=20 > advertisements that both petrol and diesel with 0.05 per cent sulphur=20 > content will be supplied from April 1, 2000. How does a ministry change=20 > its mind so quickly? All this has happened not just because of the growing= > =20 > pressure from the SC now that only Euro II cars are to be allowed from=20 > April 1, 2000 a court order in improvement in fuel quality was becoming=20 > inevitable. But the real pressure came with the entry of the private=20 > sector Reliance refineries who are waiting to capture the large Delhi=20 > market by offering the desired quality of fuel. A move which put the cat=20 > amongst the coy public sector pigeons. > > Improvements in both petrol and diesel quality are vital for controlling=20 > emissions. In 1996, the SC had ordered that all new petrol cars must have=20 > cat convertors and asked for the introduction of unleaded petrol. But=20 > sulphur in petrol also destroys the catalyst. A cat convertor is supposed=20 > to last for 80,000 km but no manufacturer knows whether this is true or=20 > not. This is because of the poor fuel quality supplied to Indian=20 > consumers, making a mockery of SC orders. In the case of diesel, even if=20 > particulate pollution from all buses is reduced to negligible levels by=20 > moving them to CNG, there will still be many uses of diesel. Goods=20 > vehicles are heavy polluters and here the CNG option is limited because of= > =20 > the large volume of inter-state traffic. > > Given the extremely fractured state of the country's environmental=20 > governance, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has no=20 > powers to set standards for fuel quality from the pollution point of view.= > =20 > In fact, even the emissions standards for vehicles are notified by the=20 > ministry of surface transport (MOST) and not by the MEF. The latter is a=20 > mere adviser. Since there were no standards for CNG buses, it was MOST=20 > that had to take the lead in this. But the ministry did nothing on its own= > =20 > despite the SC orders till almost a year had gone by taking the specious=20 > plea that the state government had not asked it to do so. Meanwhile, the=20 > Indian Institute of Petroleum refused to certify that a converted bus was=20 > not meeting the standard because no standards had been specified nor was=20 > the certification procedure. Instead of clarifying the certification=20 > procedure fast, MOST calmly took the position that the certification of=20 > converted buses was a special matter, different from the certification=20 > process for new vehicles, even though a few CNG buses were already running= > =20 > in Mumbai. Why couldn't the same procedure be applied to the buses for=20 > Delhi? MOST merely set up a committee to look into the matter with no=20 > deadline totally oblivious of the SC deadline. This obviously created=20 > problems and delays for the Delhi government. > > It became clear a few weeks ago where the loyalties of MOST have been all=20 > the time when it publicly stated that the CNG option is too expensive and=20 > the option of improved diesel buses should not be overlooked. Sure, cost=20 > is important, but haven't auto manufacturers also invested a lot to=20 > improve their vehicles to Euro II standards? The Western experience=20 > clearly shows that a clean environment does not come together with fancy=20 > modern technology without paying a cost or else people have to be prepared= > =20 > to pay the cost of death and illness in the form of doctor's fees, costs=20 > of medicines and hospital charges. But protecting the environment is not=20 > MOST responsibility so why should it care and it is not under the=20 > spotlight of the SC either. > > In an affidavit, filed before the SC, the ministry says, that it has=20 > discussed the recommendations of the Environment Pollution Control=20 > Authority (EPCA), for the National Capital Region, to ban private diesel=20 > cars in order to stop new sources of particulate pollution with MOST and=20 > the ministry of industry and disagrees with it. The EPCA is an agency of=20 > the ministry itself but set up under the orders of the SC and which=20 > regularly provides advice to the court. The reason cited for disagreement=20 > is that no vehicle that meets the specified emissions standards can be=20 > banned. For the MEF to disregard environmental concerns and hide behind a=20 > legal provision is outrageous. Does the ministry have any information to=20 > show that the public health effects of diesel and the actions being taking= > =20 > against its use from Tokyo to California can be disregarded? > > And just how valid is its argument? After all, vehicular emissions=20 > standards are secondary to and derivative of air quality standards. The=20 > ministry itself has not come up with any action plan to give us clean air=20 > by controlling particulate pollution in Delhi which is its own=20 > responsibility. The Central Pollution Control Board has started measuring=20 > respirable particles (PM10) which go deep into the lungs and are a bigger=20 > threat to public health than all particles. Both in 1998 and 1999 winter,=20 > PM10 levels reached as high as 800 microgrammes per cubic meter (=B5g/cum)= > =20 > which are levels that we have not been able to find recorded in any city=20 > of the world. Whereas the standard says that it should be below 100=20 > =B5g/cum. Let the ministry take up the challenge and tell the public how=20 > this particulate pollution can be controlled without controlling the use=20 > of diesel. > > Moreover, all over the world, from Zurich to California, it is recognised=20 > that local situations can demand stricter standards than the national=20 > standards. Not surprisingly, the SC is imposing stricter standards for a=20 > pollution hot spot like Delhi both through stricter emissions standards=20 > as in the case of cars and through alternative fuels in the case of buses,= > =20 > autos and taxis. In fact, the MEF affidavit can also be read as saying=20 > that the SC's orders are illegal. > > It is clear that several agencies of both the Central and Delhi government= > =20 > have been greatly under the influence of the diesel lobby. Even Prime=20 > Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has contributed his little bit to this state= > =20 > of affairs through his total inaction on the pollution front despite=20 > evidence of serious and growing air pollution in most Indian towns and=20 > cities. Despite the fractured state of environmental governance, as=20 > described above, there have been no reports of the cabinet having=20 > discussed this issue in its entirety. The entire story stinks of money,=20 > influence and of course, lack of concern. > > A strong SC has definitely increased the accountability of the Delhi=20 > government for air pollution but as of yet the Central government has=20 > escaped any accountability.=20 > > - - Anil Agarwal > > > Visit our website at www.cseindia.org or www.oneworld.org/cse and check=20 > out what's new. Our website carries our science and environment=20 > fortnightly Down To Earth, a weekly Feature Service of articles on=20 > environment and a daily environment news flash by subject categories. We=20 > also give regular updates on all of our campaigns on topics like vehicular= > =20 > pollution, climate change, biodiversity, water resources, wildlife,=20 > forests etc. Our online library of books, journals, images and videos is=20 > searchable through a thesaurus of environmental keywords at=20 > http://data.cseindia.org=20 > > We are also looking for reciprocal linking to other websites in this area.= > =20 > Let us know your website address and we would be happy to link to you.=20 > Please feel=20 > free to forward this message to other interested individuals.=20 > > ............. > > Usha Sekhar=20 > Website Unit=20 > Centre for Science and Environment=20 > > > > > **************************************************************** > * 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: 608 1110, 608 1124 =20 > 608 3394, 608 6399 =20 > FAX : 91-11-608 5879 =20 > VISIT US AT: http://www.cseindia.org > > Email: webadmin@cseindia.org > **************************************************************** > =20 > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 18:25:15 +0200 > From: eric.britton@ecoplan.org > Subject: [sustran] Traffic Week- 2000 > > Dear Kumar Koirala, > > I was very pleased to receive your kind letter, and even more happy to learn > about "Your safety, Our concern" week which begins on the 24th of this > month. I have looked at the activities that you are planning and find that > they are very good. I do have two small suggestions, in the hope that they > may be of some use to you and your city. > > First, have you considered the possibility of working with the schools to > involve the school children directly in this important consciousness raising > effort? We have found them to be powerful actors in the move to better and > more socially just transportation. And of course when you and I are gone, > they are tomorrow's leaders, so we might as well begin preparing them to be > better leaders than we were. You will find more on this approach in the > Children on the Move site at http://www.ecoplan.org/children. > > Second, I would like to see what we all might be able to do to provide you > with as much support and help as we possibly can. One very good step will be > for you to continue to keep us all informed by means of communications to > the excellent SUSTRAN forum. You will find that they are very good friends > and sources of wise counsel indeed. Also, we will send on all your > information and requests to both the @ccess on the Web forum at > http://www.ecoplan.org/access and the Politics of Sustainability program at > http://www.ecoplan.org/politics. Both may have some ideas and feedback for > you. And of course there is also the @World Car-Free Day Consortium at > http://ecoplan.org/carfreeday/, which we shall also notify. > > I am assuming that this year it is perhaps too early to consider having a > World Wide Web site to support your program, but when that becomes possible > we can highlight it in much the same manner that we did the very find > car-free day in Bogot? on the 24th of February. > > My colleagues join me in sending our very best wishes for the success of > your efforts. > > > With all good wishes, > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France > Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 > Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 > Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) > > ------------------------------ > > End of sustran-discuss V1 #634 > ****************************** > > From alanhowes at usaksa.com Wed May 10 03:06:26 2000 From: alanhowes at usaksa.com (Alan P Howes) Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 21:06:26 +0300 Subject: [sustran] Buses in Saudi Arabia Message-ID: <6lkghs0c9oshtrpv0jmafo98qcjvi1lgp3@4ax.com> In case anyone is interested - On Sun, 07 May 2000 17:28:01 +1200, David McLoughlin wrote to me: >I take it Saudis don't use the buses? How bizarre. In India, the urban >middle classes use the buses -- the poor can't afford them, and must walk. V. few Saudis use urban buses - though the rural ones do use the long-distance ones. In fact, the poorest workers probably find our urban services expensive, at a flat fare of S.Riyals 2.00, vs. wages of SR 500 per month or even less for South Asian labour. Which is why I reckon we should reduce our fares. (The minibus competition also runs at SR 2 - but they run 110% full, we run at about 30% - and they could not afford to drop their fares.) Have to say I don't use the buses much here. The network is wrong, the service unreliable, the buses 20 years old, ... Tomorrow, I am about to try once again to persuade our CEO that it is worth investing effort (leave aside money for now) in the Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam urban services. In Riyadh we recover 70% of marginal costs (including depreciation). I believe without too much effort we could improve that to 100%. >Are the buses where you are air-conditioned? The Indian urban ones are not! Long distance, yes. About 50% of the urban fleet (Neoplan 414s) has A/C, but it is all retro-fitted, and is a maintenance problem. Hence the A/C buses tend to be saved for contracts, and pilgrim work in Makkah (Mecca), leaving main urban service to the non-A/C ones. [And some non-transport interest ...] >No. I would like to visit Saudi Arabia but I don't see it as a tourist >destination, I would do that as a jo-rn-li-t to observe the country and >write about it. Many New Zealanders such as nurses and engineers go there >for work, to earn the huge bucks, but that's all. And of course, jo-rn-li-ts are not particularly welcome here. Despite which, my abaya-ed (but unveiled) wife was strolling with her friends near the said souq yesterday when they were pounced on and interviewed by a guy from the BBC! Seems he was here to cover Saudi-British business, and thought he would do some local colour stuff on the side. I would like to know if and where it surfaces! The lady who did the talking had better be careful! Cheers, Alan. -- GIVE ON-LINE FOR MOZAMBIQUE - http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/f_africa.htm Alan & Jacqui Howes, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Formerly Perthshire, Scotland) alanhowes@usaksa.com http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/alanhowes/ [Needs Updating!] PLEASE DO NOT SEND LARGE MESSAGES (>100kB) WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE From sustran at po.jaring.my Tue May 9 18:59:04 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 17:59:04 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Traffic Modelling and TDM Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000509175904.0080cc70@relay101.jaring.my> For the more technically minded, here is another request for information from another list - the tmip list. Paul ------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 11:08:14 +0930 From: "Holyoak, Nicholas Mark - HOLNM001" Subject: Traffic Modelling and TDM. Dear List Members, I am looking for an experts on traffic modelling and/or policy making within the US and throughout Asia to send the following message to. If anyone could help me by providing any info or contact details then this would be greatly appreciated. *************************************************************** Currently I am a post-graduate student at the University of South Australia working towards completing my PhD under Professor Michael Taylor. My research is related to urban traffic modelling and travel demand management and I am currently undertaking a review of International practices. I would like to report on the types of computer models/modelling procedures used in the strategic planning process within the US and throughout Asia and how travel demand management techniques are assessed in the urban transportation forecasting process. An example of this may be the computer simulation of a vehicle tolling strategy and the subsequent effect on the traffic patterns of a region. Are you able to assist by informing me about the types of software packages and/or procedures that you use to assist in policy making (eg. TransCAD, Paramics, TRIPS or other), and if and how travel demand management measures are included in this process? If you are able to help in any way or are able to forward this message onto someone more appropriate, then this would be greatly appreciated and shall assist the progress of my research. Kind Regards, Nick Nicholas Holyoak PhD Research Student ph +61 8 8302 1776 Transport Systems Centre fax +61 8 8302 1880 University of South Australia The City East Campus, North Terrace Adelaide, SA, 5000 Australia email: nicholas.holyoak@unisa.edu.au http://www.unisa.edu.au/tsc/HTMLPages/Postgrad.html From carbusters at ecn.cz Fri May 12 01:04:33 2000 From: carbusters at ecn.cz (Car Busters) Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 17:04:33 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: fwd: Traffic Modelling and TDM Message-ID: <01bfbb62$99069dc0$LocalHost@non.wanadoo.fr> Hallo For the next edition of carbusters we are covering an article on WB /IMF transport policy and development - if anyone has any information out there , can recommend any good book we would be very grateful for the info Can you send it to kim: at the below e-mail address Thanks very much --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -----Message d'origine----- De : SUSTRAN Resource Centre ? : sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Cc : nicholas.holyoak@unisa.edu.au Date : Wednesday, May 10, 2000 1:37 AM Objet : [sustran] fwd: Traffic Modelling and TDM >For the more technically minded, here is another request for information >from another list - the tmip list. >Paul >------------------ > >Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 11:08:14 +0930 >From: "Holyoak, Nicholas Mark - HOLNM001" >Subject: Traffic Modelling and TDM. > >Dear List Members, > >I am looking for an experts on traffic modelling and/or policy making within >the US and throughout Asia to send the following message to. If anyone could >help me by providing any info or contact details then this would be greatly >appreciated. > >*************************************************************** > >Currently I am a post-graduate student at the University of South Australia >working towards completing my PhD under Professor Michael Taylor. My research >is related to urban traffic modelling and travel demand management and I am >currently undertaking a review of International practices. > >I would like to report on the types of computer models/modelling procedures >used in the strategic planning process within the US and throughout Asia and >how travel demand management techniques are assessed in the urban >transportation forecasting process. An example of this may be the computer >simulation of a vehicle tolling strategy and the subsequent effect on the >traffic patterns of a region. > >Are you able to assist by informing me about the types of software packages >and/or procedures that you use to assist in policy making (eg. TransCAD, >Paramics, TRIPS or other), and if and how travel demand management measures >are >included in this process? If you are able to help in any way or are able to >forward this message onto someone more appropriate, then this would be greatly >appreciated and shall assist the progress of my research. > >Kind Regards, > >Nick > >Nicholas Holyoak >PhD Research Student ph +61 8 8302 1776 >Transport Systems Centre fax +61 8 8302 1880 >University of South Australia >The City East Campus, North Terrace >Adelaide, SA, 5000 >Australia > >email: nicholas.holyoak@unisa.edu.au >http://www.unisa.edu.au/tsc/HTMLPages/Postgrad.html > From sustran at po.jaring.my Sat May 13 00:39:47 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 23:39:47 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Public Transport International Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000512233947.008112b0@relay101.jaring.my> This is forwarded from the utsg list. I think it is of intertest to sustran-discussers too. Paul SUSTRAN Resource Centre, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran ------------------------------------------------------------- Public Transport International is the official publication of UITP. It is a bimonthly publication of 48 pages published in English, French, German and Russian. There is also a shortened version of PTI in Japanese and Chinese. This full colour magazine is printed in 6,000 copies per issue and distributed in more than 70 countries all around the world. Each issue is accompanied by a supplement with the texts in original language. Articles explain the latest trends in public transport and are either technically or politically oriented. Each issue presents a specific theme and is sponsored by one the UITP's international Commissions. Reader types PTI is a professionals only magazine, with a readership of highly qualified decision-makers whose activities are related to public transport: operators, industries, authorities, associations and also universities. 6 issues/year Available in English - French - German Price : 86 Euro (Europe) - 98 Euro (Rest of the world) Shipping charges included Special subscribing conditions for ACADEMICS. Moreover... UITP publishes other documents such as conference and congress reports focused on public transport. e-mail me, I will be glad to send you a the latest list. Also, visit us at http://www.uitp.com/publications. For further details, contact me at ++32 2 663 66 46 or by e-mail : publications@uitp.com I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards Doriano ANGOTZI Sales International Association of Public Transport - UITP avenue Herrmann-Debroux 17 B-1160 Bruxelles (Belgium) T. 32 2 663 66 46 F. 32 2 660 10 72 e-mails : publications@uitp.com doriano.angotzi@uitp.com website : http://www.uitp.com From igfr at igfr.org Sat May 13 12:37:39 2000 From: igfr at igfr.org (Institute for Global Futures Research (IGFR)) Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 11:37:39 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Future of bicycle transport Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000513113739.00876530@mail.mpx.com.au> Another article from Alan Parker... Regards, Geoff Holland ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Institute for Global Futures Research (IGFR). P.O. Box 263E, Earlville, QLD 4870, Australia. E-mail: . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- May I reciprocate with another bicycle paper of my ownabout the Dutch who are successfully constraining the growth in car use and ensuring that an average of 28% of all passenger transport trips are made by bicycle with that increasing to 34% of trips by 2010. They have long term plans that are light years ahead of most other countries I have studied the Dutch situation and have ridden a bicycle and used public transport in 12 Dutch cities. So the following is not yust a desk job. _____________________________________________________________________ The central GOAL of the Dutch National Environment Plan (NEPP) is DECOUPLING ECONOMIC GROWTH FROM THE GROWTH IN FUEL CONSUMPTION AND THE USE OF NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the passenger transport sector the Dutch are reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the car fleet. Current predictions of carbon dioxide emissions from cars for urban Australia and the Netherlands from 1990 to 2010 show that per capita emissions are half that of Australia in 1996 and will reduce to around one third by 2010 graph. The Dutch are making much more efficient use of their car fleet. At present only 23% of the Dutch car fleet is older than 10 years compared to 43% of the Australian car fleet and Dutch cars are on average smaller. Another factor is that 41% of passenger cars are powered by LPG which produces 14 % less GHG and significantly less air pollution (Statistics Netherlands 1997). Also, substituting around 8 billion bicycle kms for around 8 billion car kms is very effective because most short car trips are made with cold engines that are very polluting. The only accurate Australian data are for carbon dioxide emissions from the car fleet. National passenger data for all trips or school trips are not available.The price of petrol is three times higher in the Netherlands. There is no evidence in Australia to expect a change to these unsustainable transport trends especially as the introduction of the GST will reduce motoring costs and increase the cost of public transportation by increasing fares by around 10%. The average passenger vehicle fleet fuel consumption has not change significantly from 1976 to 1996 and there are now 70% more vehicles on Australian roads. Note that the passenger vehicle fleet includes cars, utes, light trucks, light vans and four wheel drives (Schipper 1996). New passenger car fuel efficiency has improved from 13 litres per 100 km to 9 litres per 100 kms in the same period but with a far increasing number of four wheel drives consuming nearly twice as much fuel it has not reduced per capita average petrol consumption at all.(Schipper 1996) In Australia the practice in recent years of subsidising large car use as part of the salary package (Lowe, I 1990) and before that company car tax allowances, has resulted and will continue to lock people into car dependency (Hawes 1999) and in turn contribute to the increase of single occupant car commuting Clearly the decrease in car occupancy for commuting will continue to the year 2006 unless there are major changes in policy. Change is not likely because no state government has an effective demand management strategy that encourages a combination of car pooling, car sharing or Dutch style shared ownership schemes (Bakker 1995 ). Even so, Dutch experience suggests that there is the potential for a shift of at least 10% of all long ?drive alone? commuter trips to multiple occupant trips. There is also the potential to use the bicycle as an access mode for long distance commuting with van and car pooling, that use computer matching techniques for the selection of pool members. A useful comparison of Amsterdam and Australian cities in 1990 is available from the The World Bank Report (WBR) ?Indicators of Transport efficiency in 37 Global Cities?. That report uses 27 economic, transport and environmental indicators to assess the performance of urban transport systems . The per capita indicators show that 11 European cities including Amsterdam were generally wealthier, had safer roads, less greenhouse gases from motor vehicles and lower levels of per capita car use compared to U.S. and Australian cities Surveys of trips to school in Australia and the 1976 to 1996 Census data for the journey to work in Australia suggest that the following trends will continue for many years: 1. The over use of the motor car generally and the decline of informal car sharing for the trip to work results in single occupant cars causing more congestion in the large cities. 2. The declining use of public transport and walking generally and in particular walking and cycling to school (ABS 1995) and cycling to stations. 3. The very small increase in commuter cycling, in most cities despite a high level of recreational cycling and bicycle ownership by children and adults. The overall planning policies that prevail in the Netherlands today are now accepted by European Commission (EC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the way to go and would in time reverse the above trends. These planning policies are applicable to South Australia and neatly summarised in the recommendations of the new ?Charter on Transport, Environment and Health? adopted by the the Ministers and representatives of the European Member States of WHO and Members of the EC responsible for transport, environment and health. (WHO 1999). See recommendations section of this review. . Compared to Auastralia The Netherlands has 14 times as many person trips by bicycle yet the overall road death rate per 100,000 population for all road users is much lower and the death rate of cyclists per million km ridden is around one third of what it is in Australia.(Parker 1999 B ) The practice since 1975 of physically separating bicycle traffic from motor vehicle traffic at speeds of 50 km/hour or more is working well. However it is not as simple as that and a lot more is involved in making cycling safe than bikeway network provision. Dutch road safety policy is based on the philosophy of ?sustainable road safety? which in practice results in fewer and fewer road users being exposed to injurious mechanical forces in collisions that produce death or crippling injuries. The philosophy of ?sustainable road safety? recognises the vulnerability of non-motorised road users and gives priority to their safety needs. Furthermore it is supported by a travel and road safety data collection process that ensures that non-motorised modes are taken seriously by decision makers. In comparison there is a data vacuum in Australia generally and many of the needs of vulnerable road users are notable by their absence in National Road Safety Strategies promoted by the Federal Office of Road Safety.(Parker 1998)(Parker 1999) Furthermore studies conducted for the Dutch Bicycle Master Plan have dispelled the myth that cycling is inherently unsafe compared to driving. For example if we compare like with like, that is car drivers and bicycle riders in the same age group, we find that young drivers of 18 to 24 years of age are more at risk than bicycle riders per million km travelled (DBMP 1999). What is even more telling is that the pedestrian death rate per million km walked was five time higher in Australia in 1986. The Dutch have monitored bicycle use since the 1950s and from 1980 there have been a lot of data gathered so they know if their bicycle planning efforts are effective and they know that their long term target for the bicycle to substitute for many more short car trips is being achieved. There is a large bicycle use database that makes research possible. The historical overview of bicycle transport in the Dutch Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) uses this database to clearly document their experiences in coping with bicycle traffic and becoming world leaders in building urban road systems that constrain the growth in unnecessary car use by providing for the safe and convenient use of bicycles and pedestrians (Parker 1998 C). THE DUTCH NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND POLICY PLAN (NEPP) As yet no country in the world has made a total commitment to achieve ESD least of all in passenger transport which in most countries including Australia has become less sustainable with increasing levels of motorisation. Indeed, the Australian National Greenhouse Strategy (NGS) bluntly states that:- "Transport was responsible for 24% of emissions produced through activities involving the use of energy in 1996?Cars were responsible for 56% of these emissions?. In the absence of further measures to limit greenhouse emissions, domestic transport emissions will increase by 42%, on 1994 levels by the year 2015?.P 55" In marked contrast to Australia the Netherlands has been moving slowly towards ESD in the transport sector as result of a commitment to a National Environment and Policy Plan (N.E.P.P 3. 1998) that drives national planning and the implementation of the BMP. The central goal of N.E.P.P 3 is decoupling economic growth from the growth in fuel consumption and use of non renewable resources which is seen as both a sound economic and environmental strategy. The transport objectives of the NEPP are that:- * Vehicles must be as clean, quiet , safe and economical as possible. * The choice of mode for passenger transport must result in the lowest possible energy consumption and least possible pollution. * The locations where people live shop,work and spend their leisure time will be coordinated in such a way that the need to travel is minimised. Without the NEPP it was expected that car kms would increase by 72% over the period 1986 to 2010. With the NEPP this increase will be lowered to 48%, a positive step towards ESD. Recent and planned investment in th NEPP has or will be providing the following: high speed passenger train routes to reduce intercity air travel between Schiphol Airport and German and French airports; high speed rail freight links to get the trucks off the roads; highly efficient multi modal freight transfer systems in Rotterdam and other ports to decrease cost and energy use. NEPP aimed to increase rail passenger traffic by 15% by 2010 through improving bicycle parking at stations and implementation is already well ahead of schedule. Netherlands Railways are well on the way to increasing rail passenger traffic from 9 billion passenger km in 1987 to 17 billion passengers in 2010 (RGI 1996). The seamless connectivity of public transport, and the special provisions made for carrying bicycles on all Dutch trains are most impressive The measures taken to implement the NEPPshow that ?green taxes?(eco-taxes) have great potential to increase the quality of life while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and oil dependence. Some of these tax measures are as follows:- 1. The greening of the tax system, whereby there is a shift from the taxation of labour to the taxation of environmentally harmful activities. Direct taxation of wages and incomes will be reduced while taxes on consumption will be increased. (Depending on the environmental implications of that consumption). 2. Increase in fuel tax rates (1995); increase the variable component of motoring costs by increasing excise duty on motor fuels (1997). Petrol costs A$1.60c per litre at the pump. 3. Value-added tax incentives for employers to provide bicycles (1996) Reimbursement of cycle commuting costs in wages and income tax (1997) 4. Increase in scope and magnitude of the tax allowance for trip to work travel costs by means of public transport and the tax free reimbursement of public transport costs in wages and income tax (1997); increased allowance (1998) 5. Freeze on car commuting tax allowance (1997) 6. Incentives for tele-working in wages and income tax (1997) increased concessions (1998) 7. Widening and simplification of wages and income tax concessions for car pooling (1998) 8. The government is studying the scope for incorporating an environmental component in the excise levied on new vehicles and the annual vehicle tax so as to provide incentives for the purchase of clean, energy-efficient cars, and to optimise the fuel mix. The most important lesson to learn from the Dutch experience is how difficult it is to change transport behaviour. The simplistic views of what is possible in Australia undermine any chance of achieving positive change. The Dutch are brutally frank about what is not being achieved and that is very necessary because bicycle planning in isolation will produce little unless planning to reduce car dependency and urban sprawl are seen as being equally important. The crucial land use planning policy is to put the ?right business in the right place?. Outer urban super markets accessed by car are no longer built. Universities are not built like they are in Australia as low rise spread out institutions conveniently accessible only by car; instead they are compact multi story campuses built alongside rail lines and if there is no local station they build one. The Dutch national car parking manual (C.R.O.W. No 11) speaks volumes for the realism of Dutch transport planning which provides for bicycle parking but seeks to constrain car use when it states unambiguously on the first page that:- ? Definition: A coordinated car parking policy is directed to restricting car use. The aim is to encourage selective car use so as to make a favourable contribution to accessibility and the living environment by reducing car mobility which reduces congestion while at the same time stimulates alternative modes of transport. It also plays a part in the sharing of scarce space?. The Dutch Coordinated National Car Parking Policy (C.R.O.W. 11 1994) has been successful and large supermarkets sited inside massive car parks are very noticeable by their absence. However NEPP 3 proposes than another "stick " to be developed in the form of new car parking policies that constrain municipalities from competing with one another by the over provision of car parking spaces. (This is also an Australian problem) The Dutch government will address this problem by:- "commissioning research into the scope for effective coordination and harmonisation of both the provision and pricing of paid car parking and controlling the provision of public and private parking facilities (NEPP 3 1998)". In marked contrast, the Australian government's $180 million program for greenhouse gas reduction is not directed to forceful mitigation measures likely to reverse increasing car use. It is in fact a wish list with very little in the way of funded programs.The car dominated transport system will stay that way and even making better use of cars by sharing them is unlikely to happen. Commonwealth agencies in Australia mostly ignore the the central goal of NEPP for uncoupling the growth of GDP from fossil fuel consumption. REFERENCES. Note Dutch materials are in English. Bakker,M.G.(1995) Car sharing initiatives in The Netherlands, internal memorandum by the Project manager, Directorate-General, Ministry of Transport , Public Works and Water Management, The Hague June 1995. Boyd, H. N. (1998) Using Taxation to Encourage Cycling, p 35 & 36, Velo Borealis.international Bicycle Conference Proceedings Trondheim - Norway, 23 -26 June 1998. C.R.O.W. (1987) Record 2. Proceeding Velocity 87 . Groningen Sept 22-26 C.R.O.W. (1991).Record 9. Cycling in the city, pedalling in the polder. Centre for Research and Contract Standardisation in Civil and Traffic Engineering. The Netherlands. C.R.O.W. (1992).Record 6. Still more bikes behind the dikes.. Centre for Research and Contract Standardisation C.R.O.W. (1993).Record 10. Sign up for the Bike: Design manual for a cycle-friendly infrastructure. Centre for Research and Contract Standardisation C.R.O.W. (1993).publication 79 Rotondes , Centre for Research and Contract Standardisation in Civil and Traffic Engineering. The Netherlands. Hawes, R. (1999) Weekend Australian article page 45, ?Good news comes in Salary Packages: once the preserve of executives,renumeration packages may soon be the norm.? NEPP 3, (1998) National Environment Policy Plan 3 English Language version (264 pages, Ministry of Housing,Spatial Planning and the Environment, The Netherlands, Available free from: Ministry of Transport and Public Works and Water Management, Directorate general for Passenger Transport P.O.box 20901, 2500EX The Hague.. Newman,N.and Kenworthy, K. (1999) Sustainability and cities: overcoming automobile dependence, Island Press , Washington, D.C. Parker, A.A. (1998 b) Pedestrian safety: a non-motorised user?s perspective, Pedestrian safety conference, Australian College of Road Safety, 29th & 30th June 1998, Melbourne.See text page197 and chart 2 Parker,A.A. May 1999 An integrated transport, health & environmental policy will make everyday walking and cycling safer, 1999 Road Safety Research Policing and Education conference, Canberra 28-29November. RGI (1996) Political wavering clouds Railned planning 426 Railway Gazette International July 1996. Statistics Netherlands (1997) Ownership and use of passenger cars. Statistics Netherlands, Voorburgh/Heerlen.From Web site www.cbs.nl./eng/kfg/hvvo472.htm Welleman, A. G. (1999) ,The Dutch Bicycle Master Plan:Description and Evalualation in a historical context, Ministry of Transport and Public Works and Water Management,Available free from: Ministry of Transport and Public Works and Water Management, Directorate general for Passenger Transport P.O.box 20901, 2500EX The Hague. World Health Organisation (1999) Charter on Transport, Environment and Health adopted by Ministers and representatives of the European Member States of W HO and members of the EC responsible for transport Environment and Health.August. ------------------------------------------- May the wind be at your back Alan. Alan A. Parker 50 Stirling Street, Footscray. Victoria, Australia, 3011 Email alanpar@ozemail.com.au Telephone 03 9689 3693 Fax 03 9687 9519 From igfr at igfr.org Sat May 13 12:37:08 2000 From: igfr at igfr.org (Institute for Global Futures Research (IGFR)) Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 11:37:08 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Power-assisted bicycles Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000513113708.00876530@mail.mpx.com.au> Dear Sustran readers, I am passing along an article from Alan Parker. Hope it is of use and has not already been disseminated. Regards, Geoff Holland ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Institute for Global Futures Research (IGFR). P.O. Box 263E, Earlville, QLD 4870, Australia. E-mail: . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 70 or so designs of power assisted bicycle (PAB) to come out of Japan and Taiwan will extremely useful in reducing polluion and greenhouse in cities. Around I million electric PABS have been produced so far and in a few years new models could use PV roof tiles to charge their batterys. PV roof tiles that are an integral part of the roof of new dwellings or put in when roofs need replacement could power domestic appliances and PABs. As the Dutch have demonstrated the humble bicycle can be used for 28% of all trips (mostly the short trips in their cities) in cities that are flat and of medium density. The PAB could do much the same for moderately hilly cities of lower density where trip lengths are longer. Below is part of a paper of mine. Note the references. Bye Alan. Parker,A.A. May 1999 "Green products to help move the world beyond oil: power assisted bicycles", Proceedings of Solar 99, 37th annual conference of the Australia and new Zealand Solar Energy Society, Deakin Univ ersity Geelong Dec 1-4 1999.12 page 5 figures. THE POWER ASSISTED BICYCLE (PAB) The PAB is basically a bicycle, weighs only a few kilograms more and provides power assistance only and can be mass produced to run on sources of renewable energy. The ?state of the art? PAB has the potential for making transport systems far more energy efficient, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing air pollution. The next generation of PABs will be powered from renewable energy resources and will be the most energy efficient form of motorised transport ever invented. For all practical purposes the PAB is destined to join the bicycle and ?Shanks pony? as the only forms of transport that emit no greenhouse gases. Both the petrol and electric powered PAB, when they are legally classed as bicycles, are very economical for consumers because there are no compulsory registration and insurance fees.The ?state of the art? PAB is basically a bicycle that needs to be pedalled, the power assist as a general rule is designed to half the effort required to get from A to B and cannot be used to wind the PAB up to higher speeds. Note that the more powerfull electric bicycles that do not need to be pedalled are referred to herein as ?electric mopeds? The PAB is not a moped. The petrol powered moped is a very light motorcycle that has to be registered and insured and does not need to be pedalled. Today?s mopeds are far too fast to use safely on shared footways with bicyclists and pedestrians in OECD countries and are very polluting in third world cities. For example mopeds, which were previously allowed to use separate bicycle tracks in the Netherlands, are now required to use the roads in some cities, but PABs are still allowed use the bike tracks. In less developed countries petrol fumes from mopeds and scooters with two stroke engines are a major health hazard because 70% of the petrol used ends up as exhaust fumes.This is why moped use is banned in Singapore (New Scientist 1998) and many Chinese cities. PABs on the world market. There is now a growing range of electric PABs on the world market with sophisticated electronic controls and there are around 90 companies producing PABs world wide. Over 125 models of electric PABs dominate the market today. In Taiwan at the end of the 1990s they they copied the best PAB ideas from Japan just as they did in the 1980s with Japanese bicycles innovations. In 1998 there were 17 Taiwanese companies producing electric bicycles designed for both the Chinese and European market. The most important innovation to this time came in 1989 when Yamaha introduced the second generation of electric bicycles for the Japanese market. The Yamaha electric ?PAS Prototype? was a major design breakthrough with torque sensors in the cranks linked to the motor controls for automatic power assistance when it is actually needed. The basic design concept was that only half the normal pedalling effort would be necessary for most trips and that hills and strong head and cross winds would be far less of a constraint. According to Yamaha designers the most difficult problem was using the new technology for designing the control system that integrated human pedal power and the power available from the motor in the safest way possible (Cycle Press 1997) One safety concern was the problem of aggressive young males using the power assist to go faster and terrorising other cyclists on shared footways and narrow side streets with lots of pedestrians walking on the road. The smart computer chip developed by Yahmaha does not allow that to happen and if young males want to wind their PAB up to more than 28 kph they have to do it on muscle power alone. Another advantage was the precision power unit connected to the chain without any wheels running on tyres to get clogged up with mud in wet weather In 1995 after six years of further development the Yamaha PAB was sold nationwide. From then on many companies in both Europe and Japan became involved in electric PAB design and production many built their own PAB designs around the imported Yamaha ?PAS power unit?. A non profit European organisation recently tested 17 electric PABs and eight electric mopeds most of which where made in Europe. This company, Extra Energy, has been around since the 1980s and exists to promote the benefits of electric/human power hybrid vehicles through publications, product testing, and raising concerns about the environmental problems of battery use and disposal. Hannnes Neupert of Extra Energy is concerned that electric PAB technology is still far from perfect and states:- ?We are very aware of the the issues of battery recycling, solar recharging and the need for ?smart or smarter chargers?, and have published considerable information on these subjects, but unfortunately, so far only in German. The full test results, and lots more general information can be found at Extra Energys web site www.extraenergy.org.?(Kerslake 1999) There is now a resurgence of electric PAB sales in Europe with 11 manufacturers already involved including five German companies. According to some reviews in the trade journals the most important of these for furthering PAB product development is likely to be Mercedes Benz (Cycle Press 1998) however that is only speculation at this stage. THE NEED FOR PABS POWERED BY RENEWABLE ENERGY World wide there is a need to slowly decouple the growth in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from the economic growth. Around 2002/3 there will be a shortfall in world oil production of several billion barrels a year that will increase year by year to tens of billions of barrels.(Fleay 1998) (Campbell &Laherrere 1998) This will probably happen even though oil is still being produced at twice the level that it was in 1960, when the price of oil greatly increases to a price that reflects its value as a scarce resource. In comparison to the PAB the electric car is not the universal oil conserving solution for passenger transport. It weighs in at around one tonne and mostly will carry only one occupant who could far more efficiently use a 25 kg PAB to make many trips of less than 10 km. The electric car would require huge amounts of electricity from coal fired power stations to make it and drive it. This will be an environmental disaster because coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, releasing 29 percent more carbon per unit of energy than oil and 80 percent more than natural gas. It accounts for 43 percent of annual global carbon emissions. Brown coal is even more greenhouse intensive and its use has been increasing every year in Australia. While environmental and economic trends show a global phase out of coal's share of world energy from a peak of 62 percent in 1910 to 23 percent in 1998 despite coal's market price being at an historic low. Hastening coal's further decline is necessary because its environmental and health costs have never been higher. and it is imperative to do so if climate change is to be slowed in the next century.The way to do that is to use less electricity or to use electricity from renewable sources such as the wind, the sun and biofuels such as ethanol and vehicles such as PABs and buses that have the potential to make good use of renewable resources. The dark side of free trade for oil is that when the crunch comes military power will ensure that petrol will still be available for the cars of the wealthiest one billion people in the world and will not be available for the essential subsistence needs of the poorest two billion. The inevitable consequence of ?oil age? globalisation will be a free trade driven mass starvation. What will happen to the other 4 billion humans beings that are neither rich or poor is not known at this time. (Parker 1998 A) After 2005 hybrid petrol/electric engines and fuel cells will both be powering hyper cars. Even so hypercars are only a partial solution to the oil depletion problem because they do not exist as tested production prototypes and will need billion dollar commitments for their mass yearly production of 20 million by the year 2000. Also there are large indirect energy costs in their manufacture and infrastructure requirements. It is more likely that the world production of cars will be cut back as a result economic depression in the wake of increasing oil prices sometime after 2002 and the PAB will replace many of the ?gas guzzlers? produced in the 1990s as they wear out. A TECHNICALLY EXCITING FUTURE FOR THE ELECTRIC PAB Hopefully by 2002 all countries with the resources to do it will be integrating their electricity from coal, gas, wind and solar sources. ?Least cost planning? as practised by a few companies in the electric power industry today could be being applied world wide. Whatever happens the key to being able to efficiently utilise Solar PV on the supply side is to greatly reduce demand for electricity on the demand side. A cautionary approach to Solar PV is necessary because while the use of solar PV can be economically justified to power a 25 kg PAB that replaces a car trip, it could never be justified for powering electric cars in countries with abundant coal supplies, because it is currently the most expensive form of renewable electricity. According to Diesendorf:- Its generation cost (solar PV) is over 30 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), that is, at least 4 times the cost of large-scale wind power at excellent sites and at least 5 times the cost of generating electricity by burning biomass (e.g.bagasse) at appropriate sites. There is no doubt that increasing the market size and hence the volume of production would bring the price of PVs down, but existing, commercial PV technology is still too inefficient and expensive to reduce the cost by a factor of four... Assuming the commercialisation of technological improvements that have already been made in the lab; an increased volume of production and a 5c per kWh carbon tax solar PV at 15 cents per kWh is possible in 5 to 8 years. This would still be too expensive to compete with coal-fired electricity in eastern Australia with a price delivered to the consumer of about 10 cents per kWh.(Diesendorf 1999) The prospect for powering electric cars from solar PV is very bad, and little better for large electric motorcycles. Indeed even with significant carbon taxes (10c per KWH) it will be at least 5 years before arrays of solar electric roof tiles fitted on offices factories and homes, will start to reduce the demand for electricity from power stations by feeding back electricity into the grid and increasing the overall efficiency of the entire grid connected electricity supply system. The electric PAB, when used to replace short car trips of less than 5 km, is so clean, greenhouse friendly and energy efficient that, at even 30c kWh, it is a sound investment. When the know how already exists in the global economy to produce over a billion solar PV roof tiles each year and and the latest wind generators can produce electricity for 8c per kWh, the use of renewables to power all manner of appliances that greatly reduce the demand for electricity is clearly justified. BIKEWAY NETWORKS FOR THE USE OF PABS AND BICYCLES IN HILLY URBAN REGIONS The economic justification for using bicycles and PABs in OECD countries is to make more economic use of car fleets. For example the Dutch car fleet is so much more efficient today than Australia?s partly because bicycle trips substitute for around 8 billion kms of short car trips. Indeed 28% of all trips made by bicycle by those over 11 years of age in the Netherlands. However that level of bicycle usage is partly because Dutch cities are flat and partly because all Dutch cities have bikeway networks that make it safe to cycle. Most of the world major cities have grown from small settlements on the coastal plains or flood plains on rivers over the last 200 years. They are no longer flat and have grown under the pressure of market forces around motorised transport corridors. First came the roads for horses and horse drawn vehicles; then tram and trains networks with main roads for bicycles, buses motorcycles; and finally freeways that have generated low density urban sprawl. Today in most cities the use of bicycles is limited by the physical effort required to get from A to B in two ways. Firstly trip lengths are longer. Secondly most cities have sprawled beyond the plains and valleys and climbed the hills. We know from the Dutch experience in providing new bicycle infrastructure to maintain high levels of bicycle use since 1975 that, to enable bicycles to be used in safety and comfort, there is a need for continuous bikeway networks. We also know that commuter trips lengths are also longer in the Netherlands and that using bicycles as feeders to rail and express bus systems will help overcome that problem too. However in hilly cities there is a need for PABs to give bicyclists a helping hand. Modern multi geared bicycles are a great in climbing hills but as recent experience in Japan , were most cities are not flat the use of PABs demonstrates that there is a clear need for them. In cities built on hills like Sydney the PAB could enable people to cycle nearly as much as the Dutch do in their flat cities, provided there was a Dutch-style bikeway network to encourage them and secure bicycle parking at rail stations. If just two million Australians used PABs instead of cars for trips of less than 8 ems then the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be enormous. (Parker 1999) >From a strategic transport planning perspective investing in bikeway networks would be nearly as cost effective in hilly cities as it is in Dutch cities if clean PABs were used for a high proportion of the total number of bicycle/PAB trips.What Dutch and Japanese experience shows is that Given a supportive infrastructure of bikeway networks that are integrated with the public transport system. PABs and ordinary bicycles can together assist in ensuring our survival in the oil scarce world of the next millennium and in greening our cities. REFERENCES Cycle Press 1997, ?All about electric power assist bicycles" Published by Interpress, Tokyo. Campbell ,C.J.and Laherrere,J.H. (1998), Cycle Press 1998, ?All about World Electric Bicycles including Japan", Published by Interpress, Tokyo. Johnstone, B 1998 ?Scooters turn green? New Scientist 1998 page 54, 28 November 1998. Parker,A.A. 1998 B, ?Designing for the Bike; The Dutch experience?. Journal of the Bicycle Federation of Australia. ?Australian Cyclist? February-March 1998 p 48 to 52. Parker,A.A. (1999) ?Power assisted bicycles flatten cities?Journal of the Bicycle Federation of Australia. ?Australian Cyclist? February March 1999, p 60 to 63 with three photographs. Tuckey, W. 1997. ?Orbital company starts to fulfil its promise?, Age page C15, 23-7-97. Wigan M.R.1975, ?Mopeds: legal and technical requirements for Australia?, ARR No. 25, Australian Road Research Board, May 1979. Kerslake, S. (1999) ?Pushing for Pedelecs?p 40 to 43, Bike Culture 18 July 1999, published by Open road, York UK. Alan A. Parker 50 Stirling Street, Footscray. Victoria, Australia, 3011 Email alanpar@ozemail.com.au Telephone 03 9689 3693 Fax 03 9687 9519 From sustran at po.jaring.my Mon May 15 11:07:46 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 10:07:46 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Pay rise for not driving to work! Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000515100746.0081b2e0@relay101.jaring.my> Some interesting American news forwarded from the alt-transp list. Apologies to anyone seeing this more than once. ----------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 14:22:48 EDT From: CarShare1@aol.com Subject: alt-transp A PAY RAISE FOR NOT DRIVING TO WORK Press release: Maryland Law Signed Today First In Nation To Offer Incentives Not To Drive (May 11, 2000, Annapolis, MD) Maryland Governor Parris Glendening today signed into law a first-in-the-nation measure that gives employers a strong positive incentive to pay their employees added income if the employee agrees to give up their parking spot at work. It is also the first law in the nation to extend tax credits to not-for-profit organizations, such as schools and medical centers, if they pay for employee transit benefits or other 'pay-me-not-to-drive' incentives. The tax credit is valued at half of whatever an employer pays towards an employee's transit or vanpool commuting costs, up to $30 per employee each month. Employers can also take the tax credit if they boost the pay of employees by the fair value or cost of a parking space that employees pledge not to use, typically $3 or more a day. The measure (SB 244), supported by both business and environmental groups, will help address traffic and air pollution problems and give a special pay boost for lower wage workers while saving employers money. "With this law, Maryland has established a new national model for smart commuter incentives. It helps level the playing field for commuter choices so we can all spend less time stuck in traffic and breathing dirty air," said Michael Replogle, transportation director of Environmental Defense. "This is a lot cheaper, faster, and more effective way to address congestion and pollution problems than building new highways." The law goes into effect January 1st 2001. There is an existing tax credit that applies only to transit and vanpools and to for profit employers which took effect January 1 2000. Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization based in New York, represents more than 300,000 members. Since 1967 we have linked science, economics, and law to create innovative, equitable, and cost-effective solutions to the most urgent environmental problems. Contact: Michael Replogle 202 387-3500 Lisa Swann 202 387-3500 ------------------------------- Distributed for the purpose of education and research. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) sustran@po.jaring.my, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran From halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id Sat May 13 16:49:41 2000 From: halubis at trans.si.itb.ac.id (Harun al-Rasyid Sorah Lubis) Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 14:49:41 +0700 Subject: [sustran] Fw: [sustran] Buses in Saudi Arabia Message-ID: <000c01bfbcaf$cc42ece0$1102cda7@harun.si.itb.ac.id> -----Original Message----- From: Harun al-Rasyid Sorah Lubis To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 9:01 AM Subject: Re: [sustran] Buses in Saudi Arabia >I just got back from Saudi, as part of hajj (pilgrim). The visit was my >second since 1995. > >What is obvious to me is that Saudi is totally under process of >Americanized, in any walk of life. >In Saudi, all cities are just car oriented cities. > >From my last hajj trip, as traffic and transport planner, I found out some >points that may be worth investigating for long term sustainability of >SAUDI. > >First, if you want to validate your pedestrian model, MECCA is best test >bed. Unfortunately, even Bill Clinton cannot enter the haram place, unless >he embraces islam, first. With 5 million people moving to reach a certain >point and do a unique activity at almost the same time. I wonder, why, this >comes to my second point, i.e. >Why Saudi donot create or provide a rail circular line between Mecca and >Arafah and Mina, which is stretching only 7 - 10 kms. Three to five hours >one direction to reach such a very short place of destination is crazy, >etiher by buses, minibuses or your luxurious cars. > >Banned all motorized around 500 -700 metres from the mosque al-haram Mecca, >established the area as the pedestrian only area. Chocking all motorized >with pedestrian, especially during the prayer time is a very unpleasant >experience. Putting a pedestrianized area will enable everybody breath a >fresher air. I wonder what level of pollutant they have during that period >of jamming and clog up. > >In any other cities within Saudi, some introduction of traffic restraint >should be exercised in the medium term. > >Harun, ITB (bandung) > >-----Original Message----- >From: Alan P Howes >To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org ; >transit-prof@icc.nwark.com >Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 1:41 AM >Subject: [sustran] Buses in Saudi Arabia > > >In case anyone is interested - > >On Sun, 07 May 2000 17:28:01 +1200, David McLoughlin > wrote to me: > >>I take it Saudis don't use the buses? How bizarre. In India, the urban >>middle classes use the buses -- the poor can't afford them, and must walk. > >V. few Saudis use urban buses - though the rural ones do use the >long-distance ones. In fact, the poorest workers probably find our >urban services expensive, at a flat fare of S.Riyals 2.00, vs. wages >of SR 500 per month or even less for South Asian labour. Which is why >I reckon we should reduce our fares. (The minibus competition also >runs at SR 2 - but they run 110% full, we run at about 30% - and they >could not afford to drop their fares.) > >Have to say I don't use the buses much here. The network is wrong, the >service unreliable, the buses 20 years old, ... Tomorrow, I am about >to try once again to persuade our CEO that it is worth investing >effort (leave aside money for now) in the Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam >urban services. In Riyadh we recover 70% of marginal costs (including >depreciation). I believe without too much effort we could improve that >to 100%. > >>Are the buses where you are air-conditioned? The Indian urban ones are not! >Long distance, yes. About 50% of the urban fleet (Neoplan 414s) has >A/C, but it is all retro-fitted, and is a maintenance problem. Hence >the A/C buses tend to be saved for contracts, and pilgrim work in >Makkah (Mecca), leaving main urban service to the non-A/C ones. > >[And some non-transport interest ...] > >>No. I would like to visit Saudi Arabia but I don't see it as a tourist >>destination, I would do that as a jo-rn-li-t to observe the country and >>write about it. Many New Zealanders such as nurses and engineers go there >>for work, to earn the huge bucks, but that's all. > >And of course, jo-rn-li-ts are not particularly welcome here. Despite >which, my abaya-ed (but unveiled) wife was strolling with her friends >near the said souq yesterday when they were pounced on and interviewed >by a guy from the BBC! Seems he was here to cover Saudi-British >business, and thought he would do some local colour stuff on the side. >I would like to know if and where it surfaces! The lady who did the >talking had better be careful! > >Cheers, Alan. >-- >GIVE ON-LINE FOR MOZAMBIQUE - http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/f_africa.htm > >Alan & Jacqui Howes, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Formerly Perthshire, Scotland) >alanhowes@usaksa.com >http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/alanhowes/ [Needs Updating!] > >PLEASE DO NOT SEND LARGE MESSAGES (>100kB) WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE > > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Tue May 16 15:03:32 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 14:03:32 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: more on vehicle air pollution from CSE India Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000516140332.00879500@relay101.jaring.my> From: "webadmin" Organization: Centre for Science and Environment Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 10:19:32 +530 Subject: What's new at CSE, India ... What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, India ... ------------------------------------------------- Fatal lure Whoops! Did you know your car can cause cancer? But before you press the panic button... wait! Chances are that if you drive a petrol car and so does everybody else in your city, you are one of the lucky ones who don't have to worry. Your chances of going down with cancer are higher if more and more people drive diesel cars in your area. We are not the only ones saying so, a lot of researchers agree with us.at..... http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte20000515/dte_analy.htm ------------------------------------------------- A message from the Director, Anil Agarwal: SIAM's small step forward VENU Srinivasan, the current head of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), needs a pat on his back for the first proactive step proposed by the auto industry to control the growing pollution. SIAM recently proposed vehicular norms for different types of vehicles going well into the first decade of the 21st century. But as our colleagues in the Centre for Science and Environment's Our Right to Clean Air Campaign put it, "This step is a bit too little and too late." Even if we forget the 'late' part, SIAM needs to understand why the proposals are too inadequate. One can ask why is SIAM only proposing European norms for vehicular emissions when there are tighter norms in the world. This is presumably because India and Europe are closely tied to each other in trade and, therefore, if Indian norms mimic Euro norms, it makes it easier for auto manufacturers. But, the Euro norms have been fairly slack, especially on particulates, and criticism of these norms has been growing. Whereas particulates are relatively low in most of Europe's urban air, they are often the worst pollutant in most of India's urban air. Influenced by its powerful diesel engine industry, the EU has allowed diesel cars to have far more lax standards, especially for particulates. Studies in Europe itself are showing that even Euro IV norms to be implemented there in 2005 are so weak that they will not even encourage auto-makers to use the emerging technology of particulate traps which could cut pollution further. Therefore, the very idea that we should implement Euro norms without understanding the environmental and industrial interests of the Europeans should be taken with a pinch of salt, regardless of SIAM's level of comfort with them. But beyond all this lies a major problem that has not been addressed by SIAM. Slowly tightening vehicular emission norms is an 'incremental strategy' for air pollution control. But SIAM needs to ask whether an incremental strategy alone will work in India? Delhi is already so polluted that such incremental strategies would never help to control its pollution especially with population and urban growth taking place simultaneously. But there are already several cities which are in a worse state than Delhi and many others are catching up fast - well within the time-frame that SIAM is talking about its emission standards. How does SIAM intend to deal with that situation? Now that it has hired a few technical experts, according to us mainly to counter the onslaught of the environmental community, why doesn't it employ them productively to come up with a package of policies that will help all Indian cities to achieve clean air by, say, 2005 or 2010? There is no doubt that the technical language of SIAM's affidavits to the Supreme Court has greatly improved in recent months even if it is to stop every 'green proposal' made. But surely this is not the only use of experts that our auto captains can make? Our biggest worry, however, is not just the weakness of our industrial captains to take adequate notice of environmental and public health concerns but even more so of our political captains. The auto industry recently had a meeting with the minister of heavy industry Manohar Joshi to discuss the possible impact of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules applicable to the auto industry from early next year. The political heavyweight, according to newspaper reports, assured the industry that he sees it as a key to India's industrial growth and will soon come out with a policy to help them deal with their problems. The big fear is that the WTO rules will allow import of second-hand cars, especially from Japan, which will adversely affect the Indian industry. The industry is apparently asking for a high customs duty on these cars. But we are sure that this wonderful minister will not consult the environmental community while framing his auto industry policy totally disregarding its existing and future public health impacts. In fact, the answer to the above problem lies in environmental norms rather than customs duties, a solution that even Taiwan, which is far more pro-capitalist than India, is exploring. WTO allows a country to impose non-tariff barriers to trade if a country wants to protect public health or the environment but with the proviso that the rules must apply equally to foreign and domestic car-makers. Therefore, if the sale of vehicles with Euro II or III standards is permitted in India, only an imported second-hand vehicle meeting these standards can enter India. Why doesn't the minister ask the auto industry to take a proactive stand and accept Euro III standards by, say, 2002? They will keep out the foreign devil as well as help to clean India's urban air faster. Taiwan is not yet a member of WTO but is likely to become one soon. In order to prevent diesel pollution, the Taiwanese have currently banned the import of diesel cars. But trust the EU to insist that it will only support Taiwan's entry to WTO if it lifts this ban. So the Taiwanese Environment Protection Authority in a meeting with its auto manufacturers, all of whom import the engines, have agreed that they will protect the local industry as well as the country's urban air quality by implementing the strictest standards in the world outside California. The trouble is our politicians and bureaucrats will only pander to the inanities of the industry. - 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 -------------------------------------------- Distributed for the purpose of education and research. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) sustran@po.jaring.my, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri May 19 14:40:43 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 13:40:43 +0800 Subject: [sustran] integration of public transport thoughts Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000519134043.0081a510@relay101.jaring.my> Dear sustran-discussers I am finalising a paper for a conference. I am keen to get some feedback on one paragraph which deals with some ideas on public transport integration that I have been mulling over (inspired in part by writings by Paul Mees, Felix Laube and Rob Cervero). Here is the paragraph: (keep in mind that the paper is about low-income and middle-income cities, not rich ones) "Improved integration of public transport, where there is coordination in the planning and scheduling of all operators' routes to maximise the potential for easy transfers and allow random destinations to be served, also offers great benefits at relatively low cost (Laube, 1995). This is especially so for cities where public transport has already withered to some extent. Integration appears to be much more important in cities where the level of public transport service is low than in cities where public transport is popular and plentiful (Mees, 2000). In cities with a very dense network of routes with high frequency services we could say that there is "automatic integration" even without formalised, regulated integration. In this situation, passengers can usually transfer from service to service without great delay (although there will be a price penalty). Such "automatic integration" has long been the situation in many low-income cities, such as in the inner areas of Metro Manila where the network of jeepney and bus routes is very dense and the frequency of service on most routes is very high. However, in cities like the Klang Valley or (to a lesser extent) Bangkok the network of services has become rather sparse with low frequencies on most bus routes. This makes transferring from one service to another very unattractive so that only "captive" riders will do so. And in middle-income Asian cities with cheap motorcycles easily available, there are very few captive riders. In this context, more formal integration of the public transport system has become vital." I am hoping to develop these ideas further into a fully-fledged paper and would appreciate feedback and suggestions of relevant references. In particular, I would like feedback on this idea of "automatic integration" and on the notion that integration was not so vital in the past but has become a pressing need in such cities as Kuala Lumpur where the public transport network has become sparse and infrequent and where there is now fierce competition from private modes. Paul A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) sustran@po.jaring.my, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran From sustran at po.jaring.my Fri May 19 16:34:01 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 15:34:01 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: [environmentaljournalists] Ho Chi Minh Highway Project should be postponed Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000519153401.00818a20@relay101.jaring.my> To: environmentaljournalists@egroups.com From: Dharman Wickremaretne Mailing-List: list environmentaljournalists@egroups.com; contact environmentaljournalists-owner@egroups.com Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 16:11:22 +0600 Subject: [environmentaljournalists] Ho Chi Minh Highway Project should be postponed. Hanoi, Vietnam - Misinformation and miscommunication characterize the current state of the planned "Ho Chi Minh Highway" and the potential impacts on Cuc Phuong National Park (NP). Since the Prime Minister lent his support and the Government of Vietnam (GOV) gave the go ahead to this project late last year, the highway has been attracting the attention of the public in general, and has elicited a particularly strong from environmentalists, conservationists and international organizations alike working in Vietnam. This show of concern was the main reason for the dialogue held on 17 May at the National Environment Agency, organized by the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists (VFEJ). The building of the Ho Chi Minh Highway is considered of high strategic importance to the Government of Vietnam (GOV). As planned, the highway will link the north and the south, facilitating the flow of traffic and goods, and reducing traffic on National Route 1, currently the only north-south highway in Vietnam. Additionally, the highway is advocated as an opportunity for 28 million people (of 34 ethnic minority groups), including 200 of 1700 poorest communes, to improve their living standards and their cultural and social conditions. Moreover, the highway is seen as a way to reduce the negative impacts of the increasingly serious flooding that is affecting the country. According to one report, the GOV plans to relocate nearly 30% of the population living in the lowland areas of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces to the highland areas which will become more attractive with the building of the road. Furthermore, the highway is seen as a way to mitigate the problem of high unemployment, particularly amongst the youth of the nation, by appointing scores of teams of "Youth Brigades" to carry out construction of the road. Despite the fact that the Ho Chi Minh Highway Project is an extremely important program for the nation, a number of relevant governmental agencies, conservationists, international organizations, and the public at large have been given little information on the Ho Chi Minh Highway's Master Plan and its environmental impacts. Although the highway has been started in some provinces, it is not clear how much forest will be lost or degraded, and what sort of impact the road will have on biodiversity in general. According to the Project Management Team, a pre-feasibility study has been implemented by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MTC). However, given that MTC is the project implementer as well, there are concerns about the credibility and objectivity of the study. Moreover, at the dialogue held at NEA, it was found that several ministries - including MTC itself, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MOSTE) - were misinformed or not given the information necessary for a full understanding of the potential impacts of the road. It was also clear that officials assigned to the project were not committed to transparency. Mr. Pham Hong Son, the Vice-director of the Ho Chi Minh Highway Project, said that Cuc Phuong NP was not mentioned in any official document issued by MOSTE or MARD. Mr. Minh, Vice-director of the Project, was quoted as saying: " I did not know about Cuc Phuong.". Mr. Than, of Cuc Phuong NP, said that the park was not informed when the survey team came to carry out its survey. However, he said that the Park Management Board found out about the plan when park staff saw the surveyors in the park. In reaction to Mr. Than's comments, Mr. Son responded by saying that there are no signs and boards showing the borders of Cuc Phuong NP. As is currently planned, the road will run through Ninh Binh Province, largely following the old provincial road 437 (a remnant of the American War), and straight through Cuc Phuong. Therefore the project designers claimed that they were under the impression that there would be almost no new road construction, and that they would just upgrade provincial road 437. Taking issue with that, Mr.Ross Douglass, Director of Fauna and Flora International's (FFI) Cuc Phuong Conservation Project, pointed out that the old road is in extremely poor condition and the majority of the traffic on it consists of buffaloes; whereas the new road will be like a dyke cutting through Cuc Phuong. "The other option would be to move the highway out of Cuc Phuong altogether. It will require more money, but we will ultimately have to pay much more if we lose Cuc Phuong's invaluable natural heritage," Douglas said. It is not clear to what extent the relevant government ministries have discussed and collaborated on this issue since the idea of the highway was raised in 1997. But it seems clear that little discussion occurred since Mr. Nguyen Ba Thu, currently the Director of the Forest Protection Department (FPD), and Cuc Phuong's director for 27 years, said that he was never informed about how the road will cross-cut the park. It became clear that the project designers and appointed implementors have little concern for environmental issues. Mr. Son said there is a consultation team helping the Project Management Team in terms of environment. However, it was pointed out that the manner in which the Project Team is currently addresseing the potentially negative environmental impacts of the highway indicates that this consultation team is too weak to provide the information necessary to decision makers and all relevant stakeholders. The team, however, believes that there is time to change some important points in the plan since only a pre-feasiblilty environmental impact assessement (EIA) has been implemented. One official from MOSTE stated that the full-scale EIA is currently being carried out. In 1962, Cuc Phuong NP became the first national park to be established in Vietnam. Its habitats represent the last stretch of lowland primary forest in the north which is under protection. The park is home to Vietnam's most threatened and critically endangered Delacour langur. Satellite maps show that Cuc Phuong is connected with Pu Luong in Thanh Hoa province, connectivity which, if realized, will create a large tract of protected primary forest. Mr. Nguyen Ba Thu said that the Ho Chi Minh Highway will destroy this ecosystem by cutting Cuc Phuong into two parts. He said that MARD and the relevant government agencies must be informed and be given the opportunity to provide comments to the planning process. Such comment is particularly necessary because the road will run along the Truong Son (or Ho Chi Minh) Trail, through the Annamite mountain range, where the greatest remaining stretches of natural forest and biodiversity in Vietnam is concentrated. Moreover, the road will either abut or cut through nine other protected areas in the country. "We have to consider this very carefully. Otherwise, new roads will turn single ecological units into fragmented pieces," Thu said. According to Mr. Frank Momberg, Director of FFI's Vietnam Programme, it is not too late to alter the highway and bypass Vietnam's protected areas. Regardless, a thorough EIA in accordance with international standards is required by Vietnam's own national laws. Therefore, such an EIA should be conducted before proceeding with construction. As part of this process, alternative routing should be considered in order to minimize negative environmental impacts. At the meeting, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Ly, Director of the Environmental Department at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Vietnam, said that the donor community are very interested in the HCM Highway Project. The issue will be raised again among the donors in coming meetings. "We should have the choice to advocate both development and conservation. This highway issue should not be an issue of timing, because we must make the correct decisions. We'd better postpone the planned construction of the highway for further consideration, and for the sake of the long-term development of the country," Ly said. VFEJ, the organizer of the dialogue, said that it hopes to have more press coverage on the issue. It will send the minutes of the dialogue to government agencies. ***Nguyen Diep Hoa Forum of Environmental Journalists (VFEJ) ... DISTRIBUTED BY THE ASIA PACIFIC FORUM OF ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS(AFEJ)HQ P.O.Box 26, 434/3-SriJayawardenapura, Sri Lanka. http://www.oneworld.org/slejf To Post a Email message-send it to; Telephone: (+94-1)829519 (4 lines) Fax:(+94-1) 826607 --------------------------------- Distributed for the purpose of education and research. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) sustran@po.jaring.my, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Fri May 19 18:17:19 2000 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric.britton@ecoplan.org) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 11:17:19 +0200 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000519134043.0081a510@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: To the best of my knowledge Bogot? is not in South-East Asia, but the current, huge rethink and redeployment program that is going on there to create what is in effect an entirely new transport model for Third World mega cities just might be food for thought for our SUSTRAN team. I have just come back from there and have written up an independent appreciation of what they are facing and trying to do. If any of you think it might be useful, let me know and I'll pipe it over. With all good wishes, Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From dmaunder at trl.co.uk Fri May 19 19:20:31 2000 From: dmaunder at trl.co.uk (Dr D A C Maunder) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 11:20:31 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts Message-ID: Eric I would be grateful for your thoughts Many thanks in advance Dr D A C Maunder via HappyMail! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Original Message - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To the best of my knowledge Bogot? is not in South-East Asia, but the current, huge rethink and redeployment program that is going on there to create what is in effect an entirely new transport model for Third World mega cities just might be food for thought for our SUSTRAN team. I have just come back from there and have written up an independent appreciation of what they are facing and trying to do. If any of you think it might be useful, let me know and I'll pipe it over. With all good wishes, Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) - - - - - - - - - - - - End of Original Message - - - - - - - - - - - - ______________________________________________________________ This communication contains information which is confidential and may also be privileged. It is for the exclusive use of the addressee. If you are not the addressee, please note that any distribution, copying or use of this communication, or the information therein, is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us by reply. From fenyk at eden.rutgers.edu Fri May 19 21:48:17 2000 From: fenyk at eden.rutgers.edu (Heather Fenyk) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 08:48:17 -0400 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts References: Message-ID: <39253810.44D8AFE1@eden.rutgers.edu> Hi Eric -- I am very interested in what you've written -- please forward your musings! Heather Fenyk eric.britton@ecoplan.org wrote: > To the best of my knowledge Bogot? is not in South-East Asia, but the > current, huge rethink and redeployment program that is going on there to > create what is in effect an entirely new transport model for Third World > mega cities just might be food for thought for our SUSTRAN team. I have > just come back from there and have written up an independent appreciation of > what they are facing and trying to do. If any of you think it might be > useful, let me know and I'll pipe it over. > > With all good wishes, > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France > Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 > Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 > Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) From ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu Fri May 19 23:10:05 2000 From: ebruun at rci.rutgers.edu (Eric Bruun) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 10:10:05 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000519134043.0081a510@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: Paul, It is well known amongst transit planners that when frequencies are high on connecting or crossing lines, little effort has to be made to coordinate services, but the term "automatic integration" is one I have not heard before. But you might be understating the importance of joint fares as to how much connecting will actually take place. For example, I suspect that the new Bangkok elevated rail line will be underutilized, as the combined fare to use it as well as additional fares on crossing routes will be unaffordable to the masses. One issue that is also important in "integration": redistributing capacity. If one can get excess capacity on some routes to be redeployed to other routes, there is no increase in total network costs, but a major improvement in service. The deregulation in the UK showed what happens when capacity is not managed -- ridership plummeted. Major routes had capacity increases as several operators vyed for the same passengers while connecting routes had service cuts. The lack of connection (and the lack of joint fares if the operators are different) caused most of the ridership losses. A related contributing factor was the lack of user information and instability due a non-integrated system. A similar thing has been seen in the US along the Northeast Corridor. As fares increased dramatically on Amtrak, additional capacity from buses was attracted, as the poor were priced off of the trains. Now we have the absurd situation where the only place in the US where there is excellent train service also has very heavy parallel bus services. Yet, connections by bus from cities not along the Northeast Corridor are almost non-existent. Wouldn't it make more sense to use the buses as connectors and find a pricing policy that allows the trains to carry the lower income people? Eric Bruun On Fri, 19 May 2000, SUSTRAN Resource Centre wrote: > Dear sustran-discussers > > I am finalising a paper for a conference. I am keen to get some feedback on > one paragraph which deals with some ideas on public transport integration > that I have been mulling over (inspired in part by writings by Paul Mees, > Felix Laube and Rob Cervero). > > Here is the paragraph: (keep in mind that the paper is about low-income and > middle-income cities, not rich ones) > > "Improved integration of public transport, where there is coordination in > the planning and scheduling of all operators' routes to maximise the > potential for easy transfers and allow random destinations to be served, > also offers great benefits at relatively low cost (Laube, 1995). This is > especially so for cities where public transport has already withered to > some extent. Integration appears to be much more important in cities where > the level of public transport service is low than in cities where public > transport is popular and plentiful (Mees, 2000). In cities with a very > dense network of routes with high frequency services we could say that > there is "automatic integration" even without formalised, regulated > integration. In this situation, passengers can usually transfer from > service to service without great delay (although there will be a price > penalty). Such "automatic integration" has long been the situation in many > low-income cities, such as in the inner areas of Metro Manila where the > network of jeepney and bus routes is very dense and the frequency of > service on most routes is very high. However, in cities like the Klang > Valley or (to a lesser extent) Bangkok the network of services has become > rather sparse with low frequencies on most bus routes. This makes > transferring from one service to another very unattractive so that only > "captive" riders will do so. And in middle-income Asian cities with cheap > motorcycles easily available, there are very few captive riders. In this > context, more formal integration of the public transport system has become > vital." > > I am hoping to develop these ideas further into a fully-fledged paper and > would appreciate feedback and suggestions of relevant references. In > particular, I would like feedback on this idea of "automatic integration" > and on the notion that integration was not so vital in the past but has > become a pressing need in such cities as Kuala Lumpur where the public > transport network has become sparse and infrequent and where there is now > fierce competition from private modes. > > Paul > > > A. Rahman Paul BARTER > SUSTRAN Resource Centre > Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network > for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) > sustran@po.jaring.my, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran > From Pguitink at worldbank.org Sat May 20 00:51:15 2000 From: Pguitink at worldbank.org (Pguitink@worldbank.org) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 11:51:15 -0400 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts Message-ID: Eric, As you will know, the World Bank is involved heavily in the Bogota Urban Transport program. While I am not the Taskmanager for our activities, I have advised on the Non Motorized Transport transport component, and previously, as a consultant to IDU, I wrote the TOR's for the Bicycle Masterplan Study. I would be very grateful if you could send me your thoughts, Best regards, Paul Guitink From arorap at u.washington.edu Sat May 20 08:34:55 2000 From: arorap at u.washington.edu (Pamela Arora) Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 16:34:55 -0700 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts References: Message-ID: <002301bfc1ea$d75a7180$04ab8e8c@v4gdt> Hi Eric, I am interested in finding out what they are intending to do in Bogot`a. Please forward me a copy of your analysis. Thank you. pam ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Cc: ; ; Sent: Friday, May 19, 2000 2:17 AM Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts > To the best of my knowledge Bogot? is not in South-East Asia, but the > current, huge rethink and redeployment program that is going on there to > create what is in effect an entirely new transport model for Third World > mega cities just might be food for thought for our SUSTRAN team. I have > just come back from there and have written up an independent appreciation of > what they are facing and trying to do. If any of you think it might be > useful, let me know and I'll pipe it over. > > > With all good wishes, > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France > Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 > Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 > Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) > > > > From dmaunder at trl.co.uk Mon May 22 18:56:26 2000 From: dmaunder at trl.co.uk (Dr D A C Maunder) Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 10:56:26 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts Message-ID: Eric I would love to receive a copy of your report . Thanks in advance Dr D A C Maunder via HappyMail! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Original Message - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To the best of my knowledge Bogot? is not in South-East Asia, but the current, huge rethink and redeployment program that is going on there to create what is in effect an entirely new transport model for Third World mega cities just might be food for thought for our SUSTRAN team. I have just come back from there and have written up an independent appreciation of what they are facing and trying to do. If any of you think it might be useful, let me know and I'll pipe it over. With all good wishes, Eric Britton ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) - - - - - - - - - - - - End of Original Message - - - - - - - - - - - - ______________________________________________________________ This communication contains information which is confidential and may also be privileged. It is for the exclusive use of the addressee. If you are not the addressee, please note that any distribution, copying or use of this communication, or the information therein, is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us by reply. From a.j.plumbe at Bradford.ac.uk Mon May 22 20:41:32 2000 From: a.j.plumbe at Bradford.ac.uk (Antony J Plumbe) Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 11:41:32 +0000 () Subject: [sustran] [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Eric, I should be very interested to read your observations on Bogota. Keep the good work up! Tony Plumbe On Fri, 19 May 2000 11:17:19 +0200 eric.britton@ecoplan.org wrote: > To the best of my knowledge Bogotá is not in South-East Asia, but the > current, huge rethink and redeployment program that is going on there to > create what is in effect an entirely new transport model for Third World > mega cities just might be food for thought for our SUSTRAN team. I have > just come back from there and have written up an independent appreciation of > what they are facing and trying to do. If any of you think it might be > useful, let me know and I'll pipe it over. > > > With all good wishes, > > Eric Britton > > ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___ > Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France > Eric.Britton@ecoplan.org URL www.ecoplan.org > Mobile: +336 80 96 78 79 > Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4) > Voicemail/Fax hotline: Europe +331 5301 2896 > Voicemail/Fax hotline: North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free) > > ---------------------- A. J. Plumbe, Director, Outside Programmes, Co-ordinator M.Sc. in Project Planning and Management, email: a.j.plumbe@bradford.ac.uk Fax: International: +44-1274-235280 Domestic : 01274-235280 Phone: International : +44-1274-235264 Domestic : 01274-235264 Mailing Address: DPPC, Bradford University, Richmond Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, U.K., BD7 1DP. From negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA Tue May 23 07:20:06 2000 From: negronpp at MAGELLAN.UMontreal.CA (Paula Negron Poblete) Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 18:20:06 -0400 Subject: [sustran] Request to Eric Britton, Re: integration References: Message-ID: <3929B296.3EC4AF6F@magellan.umontreal.ca> Hi Eric, I'm making my PhD research about integrated transport in megacities, particularly in Latin America. I understand you have some information about Bogot?'s efforts to make an integrated transport program. Can you send me a copy of the information you have about the subject? Thanks a lot. -- Paula Negron Facult? de l'Am?nagement Univerist? de Montr?al negronpp@magellan.umontreal.ca From naziaty at alambina.um.edu.my Tue May 23 16:13:31 2000 From: naziaty at alambina.um.edu.my (Naziaty Yaacob) Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:13:31 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts Message-ID: Dear Paul, Automatic integration, as I see it is the availability of having a low cost transfer to immediately go where you want to go. When I think of it, I am appalled that once when I was in Penang in the early 70s, getting around was so cheap by trishaws. The trishaw puller is respected [now, they are regarded as drug addicts..]. It was an alternative mode of transport for me to ply from my house at Island Park to Convent Green Lane. Quite some distance away. It was cheap and accessible. [As you know I am a crutch user]. There was a personalised service where trishaw was concerned. The trishaw puller had a regular clientele and he was proud of his trishaw. But now, the trishaws are only relegated to the inner city area of Georgetown. The suburbs like Island Park, Island Glades are too dangerous for trishaws to ply. Even in the Inner City, its too dangerous as recently when I ride from Armenian Street to KOMTAR, the trishaw man would rather ply against the traffic flow, rather than follow the one way system traffic. Just my 2 cents worth of thoughts. -----Original Message----- From: SUSTRAN Resource Centre [SMTP:sustran@po.jaring.my] Sent: Friday, May 19, 2000 1:41 PM To: sustran-discuss@jca.ax.apc.org Cc: p.mees@architecture.unimelb.edu.au; felix@central.murdoch.edu.au; robertc@uclink4.berkeley.edu Subject: [sustran] integration of public transport thoughts Dear sustran-discussers I am finalising a paper for a conference. I am keen to get some feedback on one paragraph which deals with some ideas on public transport integration that I have been mulling over (inspired in part by writings by Paul Mees, Felix Laube and Rob Cervero). Here is the paragraph: (keep in mind that the paper is about low-income and middle-income cities, not rich ones) "Improved integration of public transport, where there is coordination in the planning and scheduling of all operators' routes to maximise the potential for easy transfers and allow random destinations to be served, also offers great benefits at relatively low cost (Laube, 1995). This is especially so for cities where public transport has already withered to some extent. Integration appears to be much more important in cities where the level of public transport service is low than in cities where public transport is popular and plentiful (Mees, 2000). In cities with a very dense network of routes with high frequency services we could say that there is "automatic integration" even without formalised, regulated integration. In this situation, passengers can usually transfer from service to service without great delay (although there will be a price penalty). Such "automatic integration" has long been the situation in many low-income cities, such as in the inner areas of Metro Manila where the network of jeepney and bus routes is very dense and the frequency of service on most routes is very high. However, in cities like the Klang Valley or (to a lesser extent) Bangkok the network of services has become rather sparse with low frequencies on most bus routes. This makes transferring from one service to another very unattractive so that only "captive" riders will do so. And in middle-income Asian cities with cheap motorcycles easily available, there are very few captive riders. In this context, more formal integration of the public transport system has become vital." I am hoping to develop these ideas further into a fully-fledged paper and would appreciate feedback and suggestions of relevant references. In particular, I would like feedback on this idea of "automatic integration" and on the notion that integration was not so vital in the past but has become a pressing need in such cities as Kuala Lumpur where the public transport network has become sparse and infrequent and where there is now fierce competition from private modes. Paul A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) sustran@po.jaring.my, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran From bayk at quickweb.com.ph Tue May 23 22:26:23 2000 From: bayk at quickweb.com.ph (Bayk Aksyon) Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 21:26:23 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: integration of public transport thoughts In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Eric, Yes, I'd like a copy, too. We were just talking to a World Bank suit who said that the Bogot? carless day was a mixed deal, meaning I take it that it was both good and bad. He said that people who didn't ride bikes just stayed at home. It (your report) would help us think about our own transport options. The WB is granting a loan to Metro Manila to improve pedestrian facilities, access to the MRT stations and drainage facilities. Some of these might be good and others just window dressing. We've been asked to participate in this endeavor in order to "guarantee citizen participation and action and ensure success." We are now trying to define how to do that. By the way, I am planning to be in Paris (never been there) after Velo Mondiale in Amsterdam and plan to take you up on your offer. Ramon Fernan III Bayk Aksyon From litman at vtpi.org Wed May 24 21:19:50 2000 From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Litman) Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 05:19:50 -0700 Subject: [sustran] VTPI NEWS, Spring 2000 Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000524051950.00ad1cc0@pop.islandnet.com> ----------- VTPI NEWS ----------- Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" ----------------------------------- Spring 2000 Vol. 3, No. 2 --------------------------------- The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transportation problems. The VTPI website has numerous information resources addressing a wide range of transport planning and policy issues. VTPI also provides consulting services. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *NEW* VTPI ONLINE TDM ENCYCLOPEDIA *NEW* ========================================== A draft version of our "Online TDM Encyclopedia" is now posted at http://www.vtpi.org/tdm. This is a unique and comprehensive resource for Transportation Demand Management planning and analysis. It is a practical tool to help identify better ways to solve transportation problems. The Encyclopedia provides the following information on more than three dozen TDM strategies: ? A description. ? How the strategy can be implemented. ? Travel impacts. ? Benefits and costs. ? Equity impacts. ? Applications (where it is most appropriate). ? Stakeholders. ? Barriers to implementation. ? Case studies. ? References and resources for more information (many available through the Internet). Each strategy is rated in various ways, including its support for TDM objectives (congestion reduction, road safety, consumer choice, environmental protection, etc.), equity impacts, and appropriateness in various geographic and organizational conditions. These ratings can help users select the best TDM strategies to consider for a particular situation. For example, they can identify strategies that may be most appropriate for implementation by a suburban municipal government to address congestion and air pollution problems; a resort community business organization to reduce traffic problems and improve transport choices for non-drivers; or for a state/provincial government to improve the overall economic efficiency of its transportation system. The Encyclopedia also has information on transportation price elasticities, land use pattern impacts on travel behavior, TDM evaluation, equity analysis, TDM planning practices, criticism of TDM, an extensive bibliography, and other sections to be determined. You Can Help ------------ The Online TDM Encyclopedia is a work in progress. We plan to finalize it during the next few weeks, and will continually update it as new information becomes available. A future version being developed with support from Environment Canada will have automatic searching and sorting features. Our goal is to make the Encyclopedia as comprehensive, accurate and useful as possible, which is turning out to be quite a project. We had originally expected it to include about 100 pages of material, but there are already more than 350 pages in fifty files, and additional information is being incorporated regularly. We appreciate help. Please carefully review the chapter(s) on TDM strategies you know about, and send us your suggestions for improvements. We are particularly interested in identifying the best available information on travel impacts, benefits, costs and equity impacts. We want feedback on the assigned ratings. We also appreciate a short description of suitable case studies, preferably with a website reference for more information. Thanks to the many colleagues who contribute to this project! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PRESENTATION ============ Shifting Gears: Win-Win Transportation Solutions In The Georgia Basin --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, May 31, 2000, 7:00-8:30 pm. Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre, Room 1400 515 West Hasting, Vancouver, British Columbia. Admission is free but reservations are required. Call 604-291-5100 or email city@sfu.ca for reservation information. This event will include a presentation by VTPI Director Todd Litman on his study of the status of TDM efforts in the Vancouver region (i.e., who is doing what), and analysis of the value and feasibility of implementing additional "Win-Win Transportation Solutions" to address regional transportation problems. These issues will be discussed by a panel including Peter Ladner (editor of "Business in Vancouver"), Clive Rock (Manager of Strategic Planning at TransLink, the regional transportation and land use planning authority) and Cheeying Ho (Executive Director of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation - B.E.S.T., an advocacy organization). We hope that this event will help raise awareness and support for Win-Win Solutions. This program is co-sponsored by Environment Canada, the Simon Fraser University City Program, B.E.S.T., and the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation. It is part of these organizations' efforts to explore the potential economic, social and environmental benefits from innovative strategies that increase transportation system efficiency. The "Shifting Gears" report will be posted at the VTPI website by May 31. NEW REPORTS =========== The following new reports are now posted at our website: http://www.vtpi.org. * "Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning: A Guide to Best Practices" by Todd Litman, Robin Blair, Bill Demopoulos, Nils Eddy, Anne Fritzel, Danelle Laidlaw, Heath Maddox and Katherine Forster. This guide covers all aspects of pedestrian and bicycle planning. It describes general nonmotorized planning practices, how to measure and predict nonmotorized travel, how to evaluate and prioritize projects, and how to implement various programs that support nonmotorized transportation. There are also appendices that provide more detailed information on planning, design and evaluation. It is intended for policy makers, planners and advocates who want the best current information on ways to make their communities better places for walking and cycling. We believe it is the most comprehensive and current guide on this subject. * "Making Walking and Cycling Safer: Lessons from Europe" by John Pucher and Lewis Dijkstra The neglect of pedestrian and bicycling safety in the United States has made these modes relatively dangerous. Pedestrian fatalities are 36 times higher, and bicycling fatalities are 11 times higher, than car occupant fatalities per km traveled. Walking and bicycling can be made quite safe, however, as clearly shown by the much lower fatality rates in The Netherlands and Germany. Pedestrian fatalities per billion km walked are less than a tenth as high, and bicyclist fatalities are only a quarter as high, as in the United States. The Netherlands and Germany have long recognized the importance of pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Over the past two decades these countries have undertaken a wide range of measures to improve safety: better facilities for walking and bicycling; urban design sensitive to the needs of non-motorists; traffic calming of residential neighborhoods; restrictions on motor vehicle use in cities; rigorous traffic education of both motorists and non-motorists; and strict enforcement of traffic regulations protecting pedestrians and bicyclists. * "Clunker Mortgages and Transportation Redlining; How the Mortgage Banking Industry Unknowingly Drains Cities and Spreads Sprawl" by Patrick Hare This paper proposes a significant solution to two persistent planning problems: affordable housing and traffic congestion. The solution has no public cost. It would also help solve both urban decline, and suburban sprawl, and it would increase transit ridership. The solution relies on correcting a significant flaw in the mortgage approval system. Current mortgage approval practices ignore basic land economics. Specifically, they ignore the fact that the household transportation expenses usually increases as land costs decline in suburban locations. Ignoring these extra transportation costs makes suburban housing look substantially more affordable than urban housing to banks reviewing mortgage qualifications. This practice helps drain cities of middle class families and transit systems of riders, and fills highways with cars and open land with houses. It encourages sprawl. As described in this paper, Near Transit Mortgages (also called "Location Efficient Mortgages") help correct this distortion. A mortgage approval procedure that reflects basic land economics means larger mortgages for households that buy homes where they can reduce their cars expenses, and thus have more money available for mortgage payments. * "Sustainable Transport Systems: Linkages Between Environmental Issues, Public Transport, Non-Motorised Transport and Safety" by Dinesh Mohan and Geetam Tiwari, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India This paper examines sustainable transportation from a developing country perspective. A sustainable transport system must provide mobility and accessibility to all residents in a safe and environment friendly mode of transport. This can be difficult when the needs of people in different income groups are considered. For example, if a large proportion of the population cannot afford to use motorised transport - private vehicles or public buses - then they must walk or cycle. Accommodating this travel requires consideration of cyclist and pedestrian needs in transport planning. * "Estimation Of Generated Traffic By New Developments: Current Practice And Possible Improvements Based On Bangkok Experience" by Shihana Sulaiha Mohamed and Kazunori Hokao This paper reviews current methods used to estimate generated traffic caused by new developments such as housing, shopping centres, conventional centres, hospitals, etc. It describes three case studies based on experience in Bangkok. It critiques current traffic generation prediction models based on ITE methods and data, and recommends better approaches that take into account additional demographic, economic and geographic factors. It indicates that this additional information is particularly important for use in developing countries. * "Transportation Market Reforms for Sustainability" by Todd Litman. A condensed version of this paper is forthcoming in Transportation Research Record. This paper evaluates potential transportation market reforms for achieving economic, social and environmental objectives. It identifies transport market distortions, considers their justifications, and describes strategies that could reduce these distortions. Three state-level reform packages are assessed in terms of their impacts on vehicle travel, emissions, congestion, consumer expenses, tax revenue and equity. This analysis indicates that such reforms can help solve a variety of problems. The incremental benefits of these reforms are estimated to be far greater than their incremental costs. Please let us know if you have transport policy papers that you would like to have posted at our website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WEB LINKS ========= We continue to add links to other useful websites. Please add a link to us from your organization's website and we will reciprocate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please let us know if you have comments or questions about any information in this newsletter, or if you would like to be removed from our mailing list. And please pass this newsletter on to others who may find it useful. 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 May 25 10:36:24 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 09:36:24 +0800 Subject: [sustran] (Fwd) 9th wctr in seoul Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000525093624.008fc620@relay101.jaring.my> Apologies if you have already seen this. WCTR = World Conference on Transportation Research. >------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- >Date sent: Wed, 24 May 2000 17:46:24 +0900 >From: ???????? > >Subject: 9th wctr in seoul > >Dear Sir or Madam, > > Please be advised that the deadline for abstracts submission > - initially 15 April - has been postponed until the end of May. > > If you have already submitted your abstract, please ignore this >message. > > Otherwise, to submit: please send your abstract via e-mail to the >following address: wctr@koti.re.kr or via the Web page of the 9thWCTR: >http://www.koti.re.kr/~wctr > > It would be appreciated if you could circulate this e-mail to your >friends and colleagues. > > We look forward to seeing you at the Conference in Seoul. > >Sincerely Yours >9TH WCTR Secretariat From J.Wu at soton.ac.uk Thu May 25 16:56:32 2000 From: J.Wu at soton.ac.uk (Jianping Wu) Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 08:56:32 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: (Fwd) 9th wctr in seoul References: <3.0.6.32.20000525093624.008fc620@relay101.jaring.my> Message-ID: <000501bfc61e$be00b860$8a604e98@civil.soton.ac.uk> ----- Original Message ----- From: "SUSTRAN Resource Centre" To: Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 2:36 AM Subject: [sustran] (Fwd) 9th wctr in seoul > Apologies if you have already seen this. WCTR = World Conference on > Transportation Research. > > >------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- > >Date sent: Wed, 24 May 2000 17:46:24 +0900 > >From: ???????? > > > >Subject: 9th wctr in seoul > > > >Dear Sir or Madam, > > > > Please be advised that the deadline for abstracts submission > > - initially 15 April - has been postponed until the end of May. > > > > If you have already submitted your abstract, please ignore this > >message. > > > > Otherwise, to submit: please send your abstract via e-mail to the > >following address: wctr@koti.re.kr or via the Web page of the 9thWCTR: > >http://www.koti.re.kr/~wctr > > > > It would be appreciated if you could circulate this e-mail to your > >friends and colleagues. > > > > We look forward to seeing you at the Conference in Seoul. > > > >Sincerely Yours > >9TH WCTR Secretariat > > From sustran at po.jaring.my Thu May 25 17:45:05 2000 From: sustran at po.jaring.my (SUSTRAN Resource Centre) Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 16:45:05 +0800 Subject: [sustran] fwd: Faring Badly: The Gender Aspects of Travelling Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000525164505.0085e3c0@relay101.jaring.my> Dear sustran-discussers An interesting article on gender and urban transport issues with a focus on Bangkok. The full version of this article can be found at: http://www.oneworld.org/panos/news/35nov99.htm PANOS-RESEARCH/1 Faring Badly: The Gender Aspects of Travelling By Teena Gill BANGKOK (PANOS) - Every evening as housemaid Jue Petchwong gets off the bus that drops her home from work she thanks her lucky stars - for surviving the trip. While the Thai capital, notorious for its nerve-wracking traffic jams, is not exactly kind to any of the city’s millions of commuters it is particularly harsh on low-income women, who make up the bulk of the city’s teeming migrant workforce. Among daily hazards Jue has to brave are an inefficient and crowded public transport service, expensive and often unsafe private transport and physical insecurity while travelling both during the day and at night. "I have little choice," says Jue - she cannot afford taxis, and cheap transport other than buses, such as ferries and motorcycle-taxis are too unsafe and, in any case, do not cover the areas where she works. Transportation is a major issue: over 70 percent of the labour force in factories around Bangkok is made up of women, who also account for a large portion of the city’s over-one-million workforce in the informal sector. "The main problems with Bangkok’s public transport system are inadequate services and relatively high tariffs for quality services," says Dr Nimitchai Snitbhan, who works on transport issues at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), a Bangkok-based policy think-tank. This is not a problem unique to Bangkok or developing countries. ...... See http://www.oneworld.org/panos/news/35nov99.htm for the full article. =================================================== Distributed for the purpose of education and research. A. Rahman Paul BARTER SUSTRAN Resource Centre Information services for the Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (the SUSTRAN Network) sustran@po.jaring.my, http://www.malaysiakini.com/sustran From ganant at vsnl.com Tue May 30 13:44:59 2000 From: ganant at vsnl.com (Ananthakrishnan) Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 10:14:59 +0530 Subject: [sustran] cng buses for Delhi Message-ID: <003701bfc9f1$effd00e0$e786c5cb@vsnl.net.in> Two items of interest from India: The Government of the National Capital, New Delhi, has placed an order for 1000 CNG buses to be supplied by Ashok Leyland, by next year. The Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms.Shiela Dikshit spoke to the press after launching the first CNG autorickshaws (three wheeled public service vehicles). The second major heavy vehicle manufacturer in India, TELCO (Tata group) had "almost opted out of the race", Ms.Dikshit said. The State Government wanted to replace 10,000 Delhi Transport Corporation buses with CNG buses by 2001, but one manufacturer would not be able to meet the demand. A global tender had therefore been floated for CNG engines for buses. In another development, Bajaj auto, manufacturing the three wheeled autorickshaws, announced that it would stop production of its two-stroke model, as it had developed a less polluting four stroke engine. Company chairman Mr.Rahul Bajaj released a four stroke CNG autorickshaw in Delhi. The vehicle is claimed to deliver 50 km per kg of CNG. A three litre standby petrol tank is also included, for emergencies. Bajaj hopes to produce the vehicle at the rate of 1000 a month by July at its Pune plant. (condensed from Press Trust of India stories). G.Ananthakrishnan, Chennai-based journalist can be reached at Tel: + 91 44 8413942 , Fax: + 91 44 8415395.