tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52132122861814765412024-03-17T02:52:26.748+08:00Reinventing TransportMaking urban transport more of the answer and less of the problem. Pathways to more sustainable transport and better cities. Improving mobility, cities and public space. Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-54027109644645403282020-07-27T16:52:00.003+08:002020-07-27T16:55:46.957+08:00Help improve this map of global sustainable transport advocates<div>I am working to map global "sustainable transport" advocates (for want of a better phrase). </div><div><div><br /></div><div>You can help! Submit suggestions or corrections via <b><a href="https://forms.gle/e8FXHctvBzsMbatP6" target="_blank">this google form</a></b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the map so far. Please explore it and help me improve it.</div><iframe height="480" src="https://www.google.com.sg/maps/d/embed?mid=1t4uFYnmaYwoKSfSuNUfKBtLWmdhNMLtZ" width="640"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wA-JlxNhXOmcFWBWcqkD_DBevR2jNdUe-A5xLXEVn1AYNXVaKEsj4VkCx5MRbS0zB2xyuyHZ5VGie6PNcw-gQR4w8r_KvQYC7GLq18qpSp9CfbqNiSEuDgtJ2nPLT0vnEdjqcFUrBDk/s1774/Screenshot+2020-07-27+16.53.59.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="1774" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wA-JlxNhXOmcFWBWcqkD_DBevR2jNdUe-A5xLXEVn1AYNXVaKEsj4VkCx5MRbS0zB2xyuyHZ5VGie6PNcw-gQR4w8r_KvQYC7GLq18qpSp9CfbqNiSEuDgtJ2nPLT0vnEdjqcFUrBDk/s320/Screenshot+2020-07-27+16.53.59.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /><br /></div>Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-28403690988591960592020-05-07T17:45:00.000+08:002020-05-07T17:45:04.576+08:00Save Manila's (mostly informal) public transport!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Metro Manila depends on informal, lightly-regulated public transport which now faces a catastrophe as a result of this pandemic.<br />
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The Mobility Coalition, an alliance of eight Metro Manila transport advocacy groups, has ideas on what to do.<br />
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<b>I spoke with Robie Siy who is active in the Mobility Coalition and who writes the weekly Mobility Matters column for the Manila Times.</b> <i>[Scroll to the end for more details on Robie, Mobility Matters and the Mobility Alliance.]</i><br />
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<i>Scroll down for highlights of our conversation or listen with the player below.</i><br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<a name='more'></a>Here are highlights and key points from our discussion</h3>
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We discussed the current pandemic-induced crisis and the Mobility Coalition's ambitious ideas on how to rescue the situation in the Philippines' megacity.<br />
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We focused especially on their proposals to shake-up on-road public transport, which is central to the plan.<br />
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But digressions along the way will also help you understand Metro Manila and its urban transport. It is a fascinating place.<br />
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[2:24] Metro Manila and its region are under a severe version of lock-down, known as "enhanced community quarantine". Most public transport has been halted except for a tiny fleet of buses to ferry essential workers. Normally, Metro Manila has about 40,000 jeepneys (local informal-sector minibuses), 5,000 to 6,000 buses and four rail lines.<br />
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In the absence of the usual public transport, many essential workers must take long walks or turn to bicycles to reach their jobs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WTMP_Oh,_Shoot!_IMG_4623.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="KC Sacramento (Wikipedia Takes Manila participant) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)"><img alt="WTMP Oh, Shoot! IMG 4623" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/WTMP_Oh%2C_Shoot%21_IMG_4623.JPG/512px-WTMP_Oh%2C_Shoot%21_IMG_4623.JPG" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manila Jeepneys</td></tr>
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But it is far from a bicycle-friendly city. Action will be needed if the recent upsurge is not to be a temporary blip.<br />
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[6:01] In normal circumstances, around 70% of motorised trips are by public transport (of which less than 10% is on the four urban rail lines) and around 30% by private motor vehicles.<br />
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Despite cars' modest role, congestion is awful. Cars dominate most road space. This fits with the idea that Metro Manila is a <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2018/10/city-transport-types.html">traffic saturated city</a>. Traffic congestion undermines everyone's mobility but this is not yet an automobile dependent metropolis.<br />
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[7:35] The bus lanes on EDSA, the large middle ring road, are a 'prison', says Robie. They do not in fact provide any bus priority. Buses are forbidden from straying outside of those bus lanes but they are constantly hindered by other vehicles invading the bus lanes.<br />
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The EDSA bus lanes are an example of a wider pattern of neglect. In this unequal society, the transport priorities are dominated by car-owners.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heavy_traffic_sa_EDSA-Tramo_(Pasay)(2017-08-04).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Patrickroque01 at English Wikipedia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)"><img alt="Heavy traffic sa EDSA-Tramo (Pasay)(2017-08-04)" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Heavy_traffic_sa_EDSA-Tramo_%28Pasay%29%282017-08-04%29.jpg/512px-Heavy_traffic_sa_EDSA-Tramo_%28Pasay%29%282017-08-04%29.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EDSA, Metro Manila's huge middle ring road. </td></tr>
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[10:00] This brought us to the public transport industry and its troubles in the crisis.<br />
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Manila's jeepneys and most of the buses are under a lightly regulated model in which each business is tiny. As discussed in previous episodes, <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2019/07/shaping-public-transport.html">here</a> and <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2019/11/better-bus-champions.html">here</a>, this has certain strengths but also many drawbacks.<br />
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It results in low-quality vehicles and unreliable service, with too much service on the busiest corridors at the busiest times but poor service at other times and elsewhere. For passengers, every connection means a new fare.<br />
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It also means that the on-road public transport in Metro Manila is 100% reliant on fares, which is disastrous at the moment.<br />
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It means it will also be financially impossible for jeepneys and buses to be viable after they are allowed to run again but with safe distancing rules.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ktRB2jBtupnD7rUSFN87SqUQwq59Qee6w2iyBlMAU-Cg-mr8buenvfsv7aXbxzVKRyTR8FE2dV5i4ys4q14R4L2zEU9wCbBiMC-WGCMgAXHnxZ8p2xRV_DAQNgbAD6nXKm3H7otKEtk/s1600/CIMG2457.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ktRB2jBtupnD7rUSFN87SqUQwq59Qee6w2iyBlMAU-Cg-mr8buenvfsv7aXbxzVKRyTR8FE2dV5i4ys4q14R4L2zEU9wCbBiMC-WGCMgAXHnxZ8p2xRV_DAQNgbAD6nXKm3H7otKEtk/s640/CIMG2457.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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[14:49] <b>So the Mobility Coalition is calling for a drastic shake-up of on-road public transport. </b><br />
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Their audacious plan would transform the business model of the whole on-road public transport industry.<br />
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Essentially, they want a rapid shift to a model in which the government contracts with consolidated operators to run bus service on key trunk routes.<br />
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We spent some time looking at several implications and options.<br />
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This would be a major change but the crisis demands bold action. Something along these lines may be essential but it won't be easy.<br />
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[By the way, <a href="https://medium.com/@benjiedlp/prescription-buy-out-the-jeepneys-solve-social-distancing-and-reform-the-transportation-system-7e0b45eea3a7">Benjie de la Peña</a> (author of the Makeshift Mobility newsletter) is thinking along the same lines. A few days ago, he suggested a plan with a similar long-term outcome but with a simpler short-term stage of simply paying jeepney operators to run their existing routes and to make them free for passengers during the crisis.]<br />
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These issues resonate with those in the <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2019/11/better-bus-champions.html">previous episode about improving bus services</a> with Colin Brader.<br />
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[24:32] We also discussed the humanitarian crisis in the public transport industry and the differences between jeepney owners who rent out their vehicles, owner-drivers, and the majority of jeepney drivers who rent their jeepney for a daily fee.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKJzvvfQ8lLfTjv0hqnk5-rC_uJr8dxHAbNLEVHACZfU6VBbn0Yp4iDOxnLWj2Hq3sNKGv0FI1oAhYxU4n8pJeccbjmVBI9FCjkFBP2t5MCW43-Y9LwxsfM3RuJzJtaHhWO4NiB536Wo/s1600/CIMG2458.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsKJzvvfQ8lLfTjv0hqnk5-rC_uJr8dxHAbNLEVHACZfU6VBbn0Yp4iDOxnLWj2Hq3sNKGv0FI1oAhYxU4n8pJeccbjmVBI9FCjkFBP2t5MCW43-Y9LwxsfM3RuJzJtaHhWO4NiB536Wo/s640/CIMG2458.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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[27:27] We finished our discussion with a short chat about the prospects for bicycles. Pop-up bicycle infrastructure is another element of the Mobility Coalition proposal.<br />
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According to Robie, the market for bicycles in the Philippines has grown quickly in the crisis. <br />
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He is confident that the authorities can be persuaded to act. With public transport functioning way below usual capacity, promoting bicycle use offers a path forward. The alternative is traffic disaster.<br />
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Robie sees local level decision-makers in the municipalities that make up Metro Manila as the hope here.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQzpkzETW72EVAOqKtGf3KzQyqUQC2S-kUvbRfAGxpLwBqglmXQArLzlfgqVn3lDABp70TupzXUZy2v9ny0DOQqY9OwLn4i_evDycDGSTMBKUTHeCFhHGwgKBRk-Rd4QzPUayLr9Mvbg/s1600/Robie+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="382" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQzpkzETW72EVAOqKtGf3KzQyqUQC2S-kUvbRfAGxpLwBqglmXQArLzlfgqVn3lDABp70TupzXUZy2v9ny0DOQqY9OwLn4i_evDycDGSTMBKUTHeCFhHGwgKBRk-Rd4QzPUayLr9Mvbg/s200/Robie+pic.jpg" width="153" /></a>About Robie Siy</h3>
Robert Y. Siy is a sustainable mobility advocate in Metro Manila and a writes a weekly column, <a href="https://www.manilatimes.net/tag/mobility-matters/">Mobility Matters, for the Manila Times</a>.<br />
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He is also active in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/movemetromanila/posts/2842772072443226">Mobility Coalition</a> advocacy network of transport planning professionals and commuter welfare advocates.<br />
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Between 2013 and 2017 Robie was an advisor at the Philippines Department of Transportation. Before that he spent 24 years with the Asian Development Bank<br />
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He holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University.<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-80782167761982683712019-11-05T15:14:00.000+08:002019-11-06T09:12:19.948+08:00Heavyweight champions for better buses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Many cities strive for better public transport. But too few do enough to improve their BUS systems.<br />
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<b>For Reinventing Transport this time around I discussed bus improvements with </b><strong>public transport planning veteran,</strong><b> Colin Brader of ITP. </b><br />
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Colin has worked on numerous public transport projects around the world and is one of the authors of the 2019 EBRD report, "<u><a href="http://mobiliseyourcity.net/2019/04/03/driving-change-reforming-urban-bus-services/">Driving change: reforming urban bus services</a></u>".<br />
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A key point in our discussion: Cities need bus reform champions. We will see that one even has a bus improvement "heavyweight".<br />
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<i>Scroll down for highlights of our conversation or listen with the player below.</i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHwl49n0XsxDo_WLDwaWGyMJfKX1FMh_UqPimu1haOdXLIFlTvkNO0HpgSPii-KFVLUKoE1YQvZ0dWBY4Hn1W7s9PeJxn46v-eAMcNkeBBY6zynloJfHdKe_PYOomb4Qw3yp7HkfhORc/s1600/IMG_8424+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="873" data-original-width="1600" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHwl49n0XsxDo_WLDwaWGyMJfKX1FMh_UqPimu1haOdXLIFlTvkNO0HpgSPii-KFVLUKoE1YQvZ0dWBY4Hn1W7s9PeJxn46v-eAMcNkeBBY6zynloJfHdKe_PYOomb4Qw3yp7HkfhORc/s640/IMG_8424+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yangon bus stuck in traffic. Yangon has made drastic bus reforms recently.</td></tr>
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<b>Colin Brader</b> is the founder of the <a href="https://www.itpworld.net/">UK-based international transport consulting firm, ITP</a>, and is currently ITP’s Chairman. For more than 2 decades he has worked through ITP on projects that have transformed public transport systems in many countries and brought mass transit to mega-cities across the world. Just one prominent example for which he gained recognition was his role in the development of the Lagos BRT Lite system.<br />
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I was prompted to interview Colin by finding his "Driving change: reforming urban bus services", an excellent policy paper from of the Sustainable Infrastructure group of EBRD (the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). <a href="http://mobiliseyourcity.net/2019/04/03/driving-change-reforming-urban-bus-services/">You can download it for free</a>. Despite the European source, it aims to help a global audience. It was produced in partnership with UITP and GIZ as a contribution to the <a href="http://mobiliseyourcity.net/?lang=en_us">MobiliseYourCity Partnership</a> for sustainable urban mobility. The authors were Colin Brader of <a href="https://www.itpworld.net/news-and-views/2019/new-entry">ITP consultants</a>, Ian Jennings who is EBRD Senior Urban Transport Specialist and Kjetil Tvedt, EBRD Principal Economist.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<a name='more'></a>Here are highlights and key points from my discussion with Colin Brader </h3>
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It was a wide-ranging discussion but here are some selected highlights.<br />
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If you want better cities and better urban mobility, bus system improvement should be on your agenda, as it has been in Turkey, Georgia, Cairo, Chittagong, the Philippines, Jordan, Johannesburg, Delhi, Colombia, Yangon, Moscow and many other countries and cities.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBDm8-kmtDNXesAsp5bdivZiEOMoLOKa07nD3bM7bS4jHNcjJfu_Hde3flUFQHDqHwLVDicSFGNJNrIFR7fUO5k4RI30zsxMIIh5fzkIJlwdFKSccZ76qOdrmnh1rWnldknhcHJym5tA/s1600/IMG_7950.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBDm8-kmtDNXesAsp5bdivZiEOMoLOKa07nD3bM7bS4jHNcjJfu_Hde3flUFQHDqHwLVDicSFGNJNrIFR7fUO5k4RI30zsxMIIh5fzkIJlwdFKSccZ76qOdrmnh1rWnldknhcHJym5tA/s320/IMG_7950.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Minibus 'taxis' in Johannesburg.</td></tr>
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Buses are enormously important and do especially well when they are part of an integrated network, with all bus lines as well as all other public transport lines working together. This works for the user and for the city. [2:07]</div>
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The main focus of the report is bus systems outside the richest countries but there is much there for cities all over the world. [2:52]<br />
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Buses and minibuses really are VERY important.<br />
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They are especially vital across Latin America, Africa and Asia where they carry the majority of all motorised trips in many cities. Even in famously rail-rich cities like London, Hong Kong or Singapore, buses still carry more trips than rail.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Pay attention to governance and institutions</h3>
As a young transport planner, Colin knew little about governance and institutional arrangements. He quickly learned, from bitter experience, that a plan that is strong from an operations or engineering point of view will often fail. What actually determines success are often issues of governance, institutional structure and political power. [4:50]<br />
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Colin recommended a useful document at this point: <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17630">Institutional Labyrinth: Designing a Way Out for Improving Urban Transport Services--Lessons from Current Practice</a>. It is a resource published by the World Bank and it sets out the principles of reform to quality public transport based upon years experience of senior people in the World Bank. [5:57]<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
"Low Regulation" Bus Systems have big problems and some strengths</h3>
The report covers many kinds of bus sector reform.<br />
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But our discussion returned several times to "low regulation" bus or minibus systems that have "competition in the route". This is what I called 'deregulation' in a <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2019/07/shaping-public-transport.html">previous Reinventing Transport edition</a>. Examples include Jeepneys in the Philippines or minibus taxis in South Africa or Colectivos in Mexico City or Matatus in Kenya.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KrnW7G4vJ28MeNwDn50Min1neYJV5MqIoib41Q44W7GzqUj_D_ydPmkjXxSo7fjbD7EiLQ5zSAogHEc8hp2hvCg-_qg0uOkq2Vk1WmmA2GU_X4opRp0X5Brm3N02nAZPbKhGuyMgWXM/s1600/Screenshot+2019-11-04+20.44.21.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1600" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KrnW7G4vJ28MeNwDn50Min1neYJV5MqIoib41Q44W7GzqUj_D_ydPmkjXxSo7fjbD7EiLQ5zSAogHEc8hp2hvCg-_qg0uOkq2Vk1WmmA2GU_X4opRp0X5Brm3N02nAZPbKhGuyMgWXM/s640/Screenshot+2019-11-04+20.44.21.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: EBRD (2019) Driving change: reforming urban bus services, p.6</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Such services often collectively carry huge numbers of people. They can be a key part of the local economy. They enable people need to move around, fulfilling an important function. [7:47]<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
On the other hand, they are often a large source of pollution. They often fail to offer the kinds of service that people increasingly expect.<br />
<br />
They often cause congestion due to behaviour such as waiting in swarms at busy places such as shopping malls or interchanges with mass transit. [12:26]<br />
<br />
Such behaviour is rational for each individual driver but harmful more widely. In this kind of system, income of the driver or crew is typically dependent on the getting as many passengers as possible their vehicle. Their livelihoods are precarious, since they need to earn the daily rental for the vehicle before they get anything for themselves. Fierce competition for passengers is understandable.<br />
<br />
But the results on the roads often conflict with the city's goals. They often conflict with passengers' wishes for a more reliable and less stressful experience.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Low Regulation Bus and Minibus Systems are a Kind of "Trap"</h3>
Change to low-regulation bus systems can be a huge and complex challenge. So much so that Colin is sympathetic when the authorities in many cities take a look and decide to wait. Sometimes the changes required are just too much too soon. [9:17]<br />
<br />
Change always needs strong champions who needs to be secure and committed to change to see the process through when things get tough. Before such a huge effort, any prospective bus reform champion needs to ask themselves, is it worth it? Sometimes, waiting is the wise choice. [9:44]<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Changing how thousands of people (such as the Jeepney drivers of Cebu) run their businesses is very difficult. Changing the institutions to govern those businesses is always difficult. It is a big task to reform all of this and to find many people new employment.<br />
<br />
In some ways, the sheer complexity and number of actors makes this kind of system a trap that is difficult to escape.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4H2gMhHHr5gwTAjJpe2dvqwTFvD34eyPLhI9w01Wl6Ida1BfnAiNk8M_AMFnt-Rgk7wZf_684sACKMrNli4tB5oByMmlawAWPYqF9_JnlDYg7Jd-TAtqnGFfR2wNLXyz8wISWHgoNzs/s1600/Screenshot+2019-11-05+12.57.24.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="339" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4H2gMhHHr5gwTAjJpe2dvqwTFvD34eyPLhI9w01Wl6Ida1BfnAiNk8M_AMFnt-Rgk7wZf_684sACKMrNli4tB5oByMmlawAWPYqF9_JnlDYg7Jd-TAtqnGFfR2wNLXyz8wISWHgoNzs/s640/Screenshot+2019-11-05+12.57.24.png" width="281" /></a>Colin cited the example of Jeepneys in the Philippines. A Jeepney owner might be a Filipino working overseas who has invested in a few Jeepneys back home. Each will likely be operated by a family member who then rents to a driver who may also get other family members or friends involved as 'barkers' to attract people into the vehicles. There is also a network of maintenance businesses. There's a whole interleaved structure of support to this informal system. It is a huge number of actors to engage in any reform process. [13:57]<br />
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<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Threats and Opportunities for Transport-sector Jobs</h3>
Another challenge is to avoid harming vulnerable people in the process of reform. A huge barrier to reforms to escape the low-regulation situation is fears over livelihoods. We hear this, for example, in various cities across Africa at the moment. Many jobs are on the line and these are people with little margin for error. [17:32]<br />
<br />
On the other hand, Colin mentioned that the poor working conditions for transport workers can also be an opportunity that can make change attractive! Bus improvement scenarios can sometimes improve the lives of many of the actors involved.<br />
<br />
"When you talk to drivers, their insecure employment environment is something which they're not happy with, in that, you know, they have to go out every single day to earn their money to feed their children to keep their house. They can't afford a sick day. They can't afford a holiday or whatever. So the ability to migrate towards a system of proper employment legislation where they're guaranteed a regular income, where they're guaranteed holidays, where they get sickness pay. That's something which is quite attractive."<br />
<br />
But every case is different and there are no easy general answers unfortunately.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Lagos BRT Lite - where listening and engagement paid off</h3>
Lagos has had a very informal system including both buses and minibuses (known as <i>danfo)</i>.<br />
<br />
Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA), the newly formed strategic transport authority for Lagos, had plans for BRT on a key corridor. But, as Colin explained, the existing buses were "regulated" more by transport unions than by the Government. This arrangement did not serve users' interests well and certainly conflicted with changing city goals.<br />
<br />
Despite this daunting and low-trust situation, LAMATA embarked on a successful effort to transform public transport in the pilot corridor. Crucial to success was a <a href="http://colabradio.mit.edu/catalyzing-mobility-in-lagos-brt-and-other-public-transit-developments/">commitment to public engagement and negotiations</a> with those unions. And crucial to this, according to Colin, was the effective championing of the process from Dr Dayo Mobereola, who was Managing Director of LAMATA at the time.<br />
<br />
A key result is that the BRT lite is now a joint venture including a cooperative formed by the union members who had been operating on the corridor before.<br />
<br />
Colin explained that five years later, the evaluation survey showed that, with more service and better maintenance, more people were actually employed in transport on the corridor after the BRT lite than before. [19:56]<br />
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Lagos BRT Lite is not perfect. Colin says it is certainly "a bit ragged around the edges" but it did achieve most of the key goals that were intended.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
A Bus Reform "Heavyweight" in Kiev</h3>
Kiev is another city mentioned in the report, where bus reforms have achieved a great deal despite being based on a series of relatively small changes, rather than any dramatic transformations.<br />
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The city had a large and comprehensive public transport network, but the system had not been adapted to a changing city and was suffering from neglect, declining usage and low morale.<br />
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Proposals for a series of small but important changes found a champion in Mayor Vitali Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxer. The Mayor fast-tracked several quick-win changes that successfully changed attitudes and built support and momentum for further improvements. [27:04]<br />
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The changes were 'tweaks'. Much was achieved by re-crafting the network a little and by tightening up the process of service procurement. The changes took buses from a medium level of regulation to a slightly tighter level of regulation.<br />
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Results included 13% lower energy consumption and 14% cost reductions per passenger. Interchanges were reduced by 20% by eliminating unnecessary transfers.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
There was more</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This article is getting a little long. It was an interesting conversation and we covered several more topics but I won't summarise them here. If you are interested, have a listen! </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Here are some of the other topics we discussed: </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The UK's Bus Deregulation Saga and how bus services have changed over the decades in Birmingham, where Colin is based. [32:24]</li>
<li>A Checklist or 101 Guide for Bus Improvements Champions around the world? [36:06]</li>
<li>Incremental versus all-at-once changes to bus systems [39:00]</li>
<li>Many politicians and public transport users in middle-income and low-income cities are thirsty for bus system change. They can see the suffering and the lack of 'dignity of travel' everyday. [41:49]</li>
<li>Motorcycles are fierce competition for public transport. But a study Colin worked on in Vietnam revealed that people at several stages of the life-cycle were open to shifting to public transport if it could be improved. For people in the more risk averse stages with dependents and responsibilities, the motorcycle is actually a reluctant choice even in 'motorcycle kingdom', Vietnam. [43:29]</li>
</ul>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-74128299493860691292019-09-10T22:41:00.001+08:002019-09-11T07:40:03.801+08:00Upward and outward urban growth and why transport folks should care<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Where in the world is urban growth fastest? How much can we expect by 2030? Where is the growth mainly outward onto new land? Where is it mostly upward in the form of taller buildings?<br />
<br />
These questions (and others) are tackled in a unique way by the important World Resources Institute (WRI) working paper, <i>“<a href="https://www.wri.org/wri-citiesforall/publication/upward-and-outward-growth-managing-urban-expansion-more-equitable">Upward and Outward Growth: Managing Urban Expansion for More Equitable Cities in the Global South</a>”</i>.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>I spoke with co-author, Anjali </b><b>Mahendra, </b><b>about the paper and why transport folks like you and me should pay attention. </b>The result of our conversation is Reinventing Transport episode #17.<b> </b>You can read some detailed highlights below or listen to the interview in full.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9IHTMMulBZ9L1LbYdNPIXe5HDwfRYceOK13mUTlLN1BAebXX1AYBJ_gm2qIGLzHJMQcJ-8AxIxQvbCe1n6YU32lnwT5LCTOuChSfukl_GRBntrBYAhS-lqL2arsH4geJQ02Ov7lAla8/s1600/Screenshot+2019-09-10+18.01.38.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1338" data-original-width="1424" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9IHTMMulBZ9L1LbYdNPIXe5HDwfRYceOK13mUTlLN1BAebXX1AYBJ_gm2qIGLzHJMQcJ-8AxIxQvbCe1n6YU32lnwT5LCTOuChSfukl_GRBntrBYAhS-lqL2arsH4geJQ02Ov7lAla8/s640/Screenshot+2019-09-10+18.01.38.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The report was prepared as part of the (mammoth!) effort towards the next edition of WRI's flagship World Resources Report, entitled "<b><a href="https://www.wri.org/wri-citiesforall/cities-all">Towards a More Equal City</a></b>" and was co-authored by <b>Anjali Mahendra </b>(Director of Research, from the World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities) and <b>Karen Seto</b>, the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/profile/public/anjali-mahendra.jpg?itok=sxZjutP0&c=2faea530474bde3c3b3f4c120e39b5ab" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="180" src="https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/profile/public/anjali-mahendra.jpg?itok=sxZjutP0&c=2faea530474bde3c3b3f4c120e39b5ab" /></a>
<a name='more'></a>Here are highlights of my interview with Anjali Mahendra: </h3>
<div>
<a href="https://www.wri.org/profile/anjali-mahendra">Learn more about Anjali here</a>.</div>
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[1:10] A key takeaway: urban land issues are central to almost everything we do in metropolitan areas, whether it's transport, water and sanitation, housing or energy services. Urban land is the fulcrum of almost all urban sustainability issues. It is also subject to enormous political influence and power with huge implications for cities' economic and environmental futures.<br />
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[2:33] The urban growth challenges are daunting. For example, between 2015 and 2030, the total urbanised land in the world is projected to grow by 80% and much of that growth will be in Africa, South Asia and some in Southeast Asia. Much of the urban growth will be in cities in the 1 to 5 million population range, which tend to get little attention.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUZjN8axmHHvjtJrUwyDxbgNc140TbeSCkNKIo39T529bXiqp6GU1w-Vy59OSEd9gFfUlSSF3QkW3C4KkWlvtXMI9FiYbjJhKDW6e8APIUGRFCH2B4wMyHqQ0AaQXToEuPCPMw5xpnAc/s1600/Screenshot+2019-09-10+17.35.07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1361" data-original-width="1503" height="577" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUZjN8axmHHvjtJrUwyDxbgNc140TbeSCkNKIo39T529bXiqp6GU1w-Vy59OSEd9gFfUlSSF3QkW3C4KkWlvtXMI9FiYbjJhKDW6e8APIUGRFCH2B4wMyHqQ0AaQXToEuPCPMw5xpnAc/s640/Screenshot+2019-09-10+17.35.07.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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[4:27] The paper's database has 499 cities! </div>
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Yet, the paper is also rich in case studies. It is far from being all data and abstract theorising. </div>
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[5:10] The starting point was to ask if (and how) solving inequities in access to core urban services housing, land, transport, water, sanitation, energy can create a more economically productive and a more environmentally sustainable city for everybody. </div>
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<div>
A first step was city-level demographic and economic data from Oxford Economics and the generation of four clusters of cities based on whether urban economic growth will keep pace with urban population growth (see the image below). </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVKu47CE9wvWgQqUe2XQbPTNmQDCp-z29zxyBdaqQEwlmGzzDvR7dkn2I04Dvxog0rnbJicF0Sr-M4zN7CL43hPJ5T1xDymdkkHo4cVUkONR8fg3HpMrYXgQjJN-D_SdqdTKEfwtcJ3k/s1600/Screenshot+2019-09-10+20.14.20.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="1393" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVKu47CE9wvWgQqUe2XQbPTNmQDCp-z29zxyBdaqQEwlmGzzDvR7dkn2I04Dvxog0rnbJicF0Sr-M4zN7CL43hPJ5T1xDymdkkHo4cVUkONR8fg3HpMrYXgQjJN-D_SdqdTKEfwtcJ3k/s640/Screenshot+2019-09-10+20.14.20.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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[8:27] A breakthrough came in discussions that led to the collaboration with co-author, Karen Seto. There has been much recent use of satellite remote sensing to understand the outward growth of urban areas. But collaboration with Seto's laboratory led to analysis of microwave radar data from a NASA scatterometer that generated data on cities' upward growth, albeit at relatively low resolution. </div>
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<div>
The report brings together insights from the economic and demographic data, the urban expansion data (both outward and upward) with analysis of the economic, political, regulatory and policy forces that are driving the trends. </div>
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[17:39] There were striking geographical patterns in the remote sensing results on outward versus upward growth indices (see the map at the top of this post). Almost all of the upward growth was in East Asia. </div>
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<div>
Struggling cities had predominantly outward growth. Key reasons for this include that vertical development requires financial resources and mature financial institutions. It also requires supporting infrastructure development. </div>
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<div>
Emerging cities were more varied but also had mainly outward growth, except in China (which has a mix of Emerging and Thriving cities). </div>
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<div>
Upward growth was common in the Thriving cities cluster. And Stabilising cities were diverse in their growth patters. </div>
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[21:05] The <a href="https://resourcewatch.org/data/explore/cit037-Upward-and-Outward-Expansion-Index">City Expansion Index dataset on upward and outward urban growth</a> used in the paper is available for viewing, download and analysis. </div>
<div>
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[21:59] It would be a mistake to assume all outward growth is low-density. In Struggling and Emerging clusters especially, much of the peripheral growth is in low-rise but crowded settlement patterns, with buildings tightly packed together, little space for public facilities and high occupancy rates per unit of floor space. As a result, low-income outward growing cities like Lagos typically have high population densities. Kinshasa has almost the same population density as Bogota, Colombia, but has overcrowding that is four times higher than in Columbia's capital. Population density and built form density can be very different.</div>
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<div>
[11:04] 'Informality', both of land tenure and in relevant industries such as public transport, has huge implications and is an important theme in the report, especially for many cities in the Struggling and Emerging clusters. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For example, informal-sector settlements tend to emerge long before high-quality public transport and this complicates hopes for Transit-Oriented Development. In fact, conventional approaches to TOD can be a challenge even on formal-sector land, which tends to be expensive because it is often relatively scarce and is often therefore occupied by development that serves high-income groups with a low propensity to ride any new transit. </div>
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[14:44] Many peripheral informal settlements are served by some mix of motorcycles, minivan-based unregulated public transport and various taxi-like modes of transport (like auto-rickshaws in South Asia). This enables affordable housing but often results in long commutes, especially if they involve changes from one vehicle to another. Another paper in the WRI series tackles this accessibility issue head on. Both papers discuss the potential for doing better via better-integrated ecosystems of services of various kinds. </div>
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<div>
[25:41] We touched on some of the paper's key policy suggestions but, if you are interested in these please go to the paper itself. Strategies that came up here included: </div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>the complex challenge of bringing more land into the formal land market. </li>
<li>efforts to enable partnerships with infrastructure services providers. </li>
<li>making serviced land available in accessible and appropriate locations. </li>
<li>improving land regulation systems</li>
<li>enabling governments, rather than land speculators, to capture land value increases as infrastructure and urban development expand is a huge challenge. </li>
<li>connecting and integrating existing informal settlements with their wider cities. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[28:36] The vicinity of Bengaluru (Bangalore) airport is an example of many of the difficulties with rapid but uncoordinated private and informal development in an area with low availability of water and low transportation connectivity that falls beyond the boundaries reached by key agencies. In some cases, multiple agencies have overlapping responsibility. </div>
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<div>
In a more positive example, Mexico City has been learning from its earlier experience of building how low-cost housing in inaccessible locations on the periphery. It now instead seeks to direct development to zones within the city boundaries where core services can be provided. </div>
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<div>
Similarly, Johannesburg has been seeking to guide development into transit-oriented urban development zones served by BRT or rail. </div>
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<div>
[33:12] The next paper in the series, "<a href="https://www.wri.org/wri-citiesforall/publication/mobility-access-all-expanding-urban-transportation-choices-global-south">From Mobility to Access for All: Expanding Urban Transportation Choices in the Global South</a>" (by Christo Venter, Anjali Mahendra and Dario Hidalgo) focuses on accessibility challenges for different segments of the population. Johannesburg and Mexico City are two key case studies in that paper. </div>
<div>
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<div>
Johannesburg is also the focus of a cross-sector case study on how to improve equity and equitable access, and see broader citywide benefits, economic benefits and monumental benefits over a lasting period of time.</div>
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[35:33] It is difficult to get people interested in such a wonkish topic. Land policy seems to confuse and bore people. But it is incredibly important. A seasoned transport professional told Anjali that the best solution to most transportation challenges is dealing with land use policy and land regulations in the right way. </div>
<div>
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[37:40] Given the daunting challenges and trends, does she have hope that the paper's suggestions can make a difference? Without minimising the difficulties, Anjali does see progress happening in many ways in many places and a surprising level of determination to do better among many of the key people in the right positions to make a difference.<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-16287075798530616752019-07-30T21:15:00.001+08:002019-07-30T21:15:38.638+08:00Shaping public transport<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>If you care about promoting public transport, you need to understand the key choices about organising and regulating it. These choices shape the industry and they really matter.</b><br />
<br />
This is NOT just about privatisation versus government operation. It is more interesting than that.<br />
<br />
This edition of Reinventing Transport shares the key alternatives and gives a sense of what's at stake. The focus is buses but most of the ideas also apply more widely.<br />
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You can either read the article below or listen to the podcast episode <i>(use a podcast app or the player at the beginning of this article or click <a href="https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/10707899">HERE</a>)</i>.<br />
<br />
This is just the basics, not a deep dive. If you want more gory details, then follow the links right at the end of the article.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
It may seem dull but bus regulation is important!<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [1:29]</span></h3>
The regulatory framework sets how decisions get made and who makes those choices.<br />
<br />
It makes a huge difference for things you care about - things like coordination, service levels, how the goals are set, what goals are decided upon and how ambitious the bus system is going to be about serving excellent public transport in your city.<br />
<br />
It is an amazing fact about bus systems that so many different industry structure/regulatory options are possible, ranging from public monopoly to complete deregulation and everything in between.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_JvE0D8EJ_VFNR0EkXk5rmD62WF4jhvr0FoJ7qie95K9Kcw5ZV0Kb9TNs-n8ytWqUpC75BZNykB9FfRh3yH6DzJau62jYEhE0bJHqRSXbTXQGo2Hbz4hodoB7IrILfnkiNMD4uivf57SK/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_JvE0D8EJ_VFNR0EkXk5rmD62WF4jhvr0FoJ7qie95K9Kcw5ZV0Kb9TNs-n8ytWqUpC75BZNykB9FfRh3yH6DzJau62jYEhE0bJHqRSXbTXQGo2Hbz4hodoB7IrILfnkiNMD4uivf57SK/s640/Slide1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Public monopolies<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [2:08]</span></h3>
Let's start with an easy one: bus service run by some kind of state-owned entity, such as a state-owned enterprise or municipal bus operator.<br />
<br />
This is common in the United States, in India, China and various other countries. It used to be more common in Western Europe and Australia than it is now.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8G3j04loud4UePZJnqA_oqnt0Ap0OITk9o5FLMa-HFc2x0esJSbr23Qb-Pc75bCg-CosyzaoxQDq_KdFeJEs2HvZH1JM3MTXjP9jEDKyVh7J7FCzBFSWBgEN2LclmrwhozwtMbto2QJR/s1600/Slide2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8G3j04loud4UePZJnqA_oqnt0Ap0OITk9o5FLMa-HFc2x0esJSbr23Qb-Pc75bCg-CosyzaoxQDq_KdFeJEs2HvZH1JM3MTXjP9jEDKyVh7J7FCzBFSWBgEN2LclmrwhozwtMbto2QJR/s640/Slide2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
"Privatisation" is so vague it is meaningless<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [2:52]</span></h3>
When people are proposing an alternative to public monopoly, they'll often talk in terms of privatisation. But you need to ask, what do they mean by that?<br />
<br />
In fact, there are <u>many</u> ways to organise a bus system that involve private sector operators. We will see four below.<br />
<br />
So you need to ask which one they are proposing. It really matters. They're very different.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Deregulation [3:23]</h3>
Now let's look at the opposite extreme from public monopoly: deregulation.<br />
<br />
In simple terms, the idea here is open entry in the urban bus services industry. There is competition on the road. This is competition "in the market" not "for the market".<br />
<br />
But there are variations. Some kinds of deregulation result in an extremely fragmented bus industry while others lead to less fragmentation.<br />
<br />
Less fragmented versions are found in the UK outside London, New Zealand until a few years ago and some cities in Japan. In these cases, only established corporate bus operators entered the market in practice as a result of certain rules, such as a requirement to publish a timetable and how the licensing works.<br />
<br />
The more fragmented versions of deregulation, seen in many other parts of the world (and in the western world in the past) are closer to complete open entry. The licencing regime is on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis rather than for companies. Even a one-vehicle business can join the industry. In many cases, the bus/minibus system has never been heavily regulated, so 'deregulation' is not quite the right word.<br />
<br />
Metro Manila has thousands of tiny businesses, each running one or several 'jeepneys', with extremely light regulation. Several central Asian countries also have this kind of bus or minibus service as do many cities across Africa and parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia. There are different names all over the world. In Kenya, they're known as Matatus. In South Africa, they're known as Minibus Taxis.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxko3mGOhNKHyuHOmSm3Bh9p4u8E1d6d6GnN88daGz3VnziDM04l3zJlmLzcddkTNB6eU7JWl22l6BN9rkP9Rtfp_FIkc4gI6ocUD7k53l8UYtR2q83w58FQThb8USkYyCYm5zlMO0ge6P/s1600/Slide3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxko3mGOhNKHyuHOmSm3Bh9p4u8E1d6d6GnN88daGz3VnziDM04l3zJlmLzcddkTNB6eU7JWl22l6BN9rkP9Rtfp_FIkc4gI6ocUD7k53l8UYtR2q83w58FQThb8USkYyCYm5zlMO0ge6P/s640/Slide3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
In the early 20th century, unregulated minibuses were also common in countries that are now rich. Singapore's 'mosquito buses' were an example that operated between about 1910 and 1935. 'Jitneys' (unregulated minibus operations) were found in the same era in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Melbourne and many other western world cities. Dollar vans in the New York area are a modern example in a high-income context.<br />
<br />
An unregulated public transport system is certainly better than nothing but there are also well-known drawbacks. Service tends to crowd into the most lucrative most high-demand areas and the high-demand times and tends to neglect other times. There's often bad behaviour like racing.<br />
<br />
Evaluations of the UK's bus deregulation tend to show lower costs per kilometre (compared with the previous public monopoly operations) but a deterioration of coordination and of total ridership.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Franchises<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [6:38]</span> </h3>
The idea of franchises is to have a regulated monopoly in which the operator has some autonomy on planning the service. This can be on a route-by-route basis but is more commonly on a corridor-by-corridor basis or for whole areas or even whole cities (usually small cities in large countries).<br />
<br />
A government gives a private company a contract to run bus services. The operators are typically allowed to take some initiative. In other words, they can make changes to the lines, although usually after some permission-seeking process. The contracted operators usually have exclusive rights. But their fares are therefore regulated. Typically, the operators are taking the business risk - the revenue risk. They collect and keep the fares but if things go badly they lose money. This is called a net cost contract. Finally, there are usually service obligations. The government will say to the operators, okay, you must run a certain amount of service. That's the deal.<br />
<br />
They can provide decent but not ambitious public transport. Operators that are taking the revenue risk are usually risk averse.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPcu9eYzjSO8rd4ybQAUhig8tDvcYhZUf-RyLEjpSTZIqJAxL_teSKL_Sk5dVw1etG5uXvNog8ZUHvRO-F07cBYZfS97hbYwxin1DXmBIKdd-A0sf-a9FzRO6ikJz-yVTKZmgQLQfjEg/s1600/Slide4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPcu9eYzjSO8rd4ybQAUhig8tDvcYhZUf-RyLEjpSTZIqJAxL_teSKL_Sk5dVw1etG5uXvNog8ZUHvRO-F07cBYZfS97hbYwxin1DXmBIKdd-A0sf-a9FzRO6ikJz-yVTKZmgQLQfjEg/s640/Slide4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Franchises can work well and be a fairly stable option OR they can go badly wrong!<br />
<br />
They can be quite a good option so long as the government pays some attention and takes those service obligations seriously, and puts the contract up for tender every now and then, or at least has the threat of that if the operation is going badly.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
'Passive' franchises tend to deteriorate<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [8:51]</span></h3>
Franchises go wrong when governments don't pay much attention and don't take the service obligations very seriously. I call this the "passive franchise" situation.<br />
<br />
Singapore between 1935 and 1974 is an example. It had corridor-by-corridor bus franchises but didn't monitor the service obligations seriously. But by the 1960s, as fares fell behind costs, and as competition from cars and motorcycles increased, there was a downward spiral. Yet the government was reluctant to agree to fare increases. How could they when service was becoming horrible?<br />
<br />
There are many similar stories. A famous Harvard Kennedy School of Government case study tells the Sri Lanka version. Kenneth Gwilliam also wrote about the Jamaica case.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ttKwa6tYJ3jcpZO1pWMH9pBq9re0nWbT-w6sfWrTjJgRlvHqFRy-CZJ2SNV7MpLyvt9q5D3FkTeVy53eF6ywakV71dlOC-09enJtZ4oUhQWz3aXQieePlCbsbAwpMhJFHHYveNJEpJs/s1600/Slide5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ttKwa6tYJ3jcpZO1pWMH9pBq9re0nWbT-w6sfWrTjJgRlvHqFRy-CZJ2SNV7MpLyvt9q5D3FkTeVy53eF6ywakV71dlOC-09enJtZ4oUhQWz3aXQieePlCbsbAwpMhJFHHYveNJEpJs/s640/Slide5.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Extremely 'passive' franchises resemble deregulation!<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [11:08]</span></h3>
In extreme cases, a neglected passive franchise situation can morph into deregulation (or near enough). Bogota, before some recent reforms, had private sector buses that were under franchises - on paper. But in reality, the companies with route licences didn't actually own or run any buses. They just subcontracted to individual bus crews for a fee. The resulting service was almost the same as what you would expect with deregulation. Similar things have happened in various Latin American cities, such as in Santiago de Chile in the 1970s.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDoxTq16UxRbkGQCwF0p-wsh95_rbsl_gE3hhfmgUdssxxTI8gD_7N93-ZqZGLgicNDTBr51Puxy7BVXUDr1E_F0YAPokn0y9353tcFH8_unxUeCHzWf0RN_7Jxr9JEM6fL_ms_m8gDXs/s1600/Slide6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDoxTq16UxRbkGQCwF0p-wsh95_rbsl_gE3hhfmgUdssxxTI8gD_7N93-ZqZGLgicNDTBr51Puxy7BVXUDr1E_F0YAPokn0y9353tcFH8_unxUeCHzWf0RN_7Jxr9JEM6fL_ms_m8gDXs/s640/Slide6.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
So if you're going to have a regulated monopoly bus system, the government needs to pay attention and have serious service obligations that are monitored.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Well-regulated franchises can work well for decades<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [12:23]</span></h3>
Most descriptions of bus regulatory options lump franchises together in one category (also called 'authorisation regimes'). But I think it is important to distinguish between 'well-regulated franchises' and 'passive franchises' above. We have seen that passive franchises tend to deteriorate. But well-regulated franchises can work well for many decades.<br />
<br />
Franchises worked well in Singapore from about 1974 until recently (although Singapore never used the term, 'franchise').<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwsIs578nZ1W9zk7IXFugzwrmYr59GBYWYIy-bukHP-jQXtXEVU3Auwio5OaWwd_notGuMUKdfnuZGgGhclCwzqEui9t0MCOwidyyF7VI7Kh1ukStkAmSk-T4VF0sFfzw0fFXWA-qHD5U/s1600/Slide7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwsIs578nZ1W9zk7IXFugzwrmYr59GBYWYIy-bukHP-jQXtXEVU3Auwio5OaWwd_notGuMUKdfnuZGgGhclCwzqEui9t0MCOwidyyF7VI7Kh1ukStkAmSk-T4VF0sFfzw0fFXWA-qHD5U/s640/Slide7.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
If I understand correctly, they also work well in many medium sized and small cities in the Netherlands and in France.<br />
<br />
Hong Kong is a good example of well-regulated bus franchises. There are several companies that operate buses, and they have 10 year contracts. So there's competitive tendering at the end of those contracts. And each company serves a set of routes, but they have some autonomy to modify them. They have to submit a five year forward planning programme each year with proposals for service improvements and/or rationalisation and there's some negotiation with with government on those changes. The government strictly enforces service obligations to make sure the operators provide decent service. But the companies are taking the revenue risk. The money stays with the companies and they are the ones taking the business risk.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvAOKs5LaI63Rahyc_y-1Hme-U5RqYorlEJJDUIxgKspqYVCbE3TGewKLgy7q4QXEydmTYeDJ_Yz2HbpGg_OA0DuTZuZoSxfALZB9Dm0NPoUjp_ztiVERC58uCuq1XJSXcICw9YopgVM/s1600/Slide8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvAOKs5LaI63Rahyc_y-1Hme-U5RqYorlEJJDUIxgKspqYVCbE3TGewKLgy7q4QXEydmTYeDJ_Yz2HbpGg_OA0DuTZuZoSxfALZB9Dm0NPoUjp_ztiVERC58uCuq1XJSXcICw9YopgVM/s640/Slide8.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Many cities converged on the "proactive planning with service contracts" option<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [13:17]</span></h3>
In recent years, Singapore has followed an international trend by shifting to an option in which a transport authority does detail bus planning but with the actual running of services done by private operators under contracts.<br />
<br />
I call this arrangement 'proactive planning with service contracts'. There's a Public Transport Authority that plans all the services - sometimes even the schedules. Doing so requires some institutional capacity, of course. The services are procured from the private sector (usually through competitive tenders). The public sector authority now takes most of the revenue risk. They are gross cost contracts (or variations on them) in which bus operators are paid (mainly) for bus kilometres not passengers.<br />
<br />
In places like Scandinavia, in London, in Australia, this situation has usually been reached via 'privatisation' of formerly state-run systems. It was the addition of contracting out (usually with competitive tendering) on a publicly-planned system.<br />
<br />
Other cases have reached this point from the opposite direction. It was in increase in government responsibility for the outcomes. That was true for Singapore. Also for Bogota and several other Colombian cities that have been shifting to this kind of arrangement. The bus system in Moscow, Russia, is another example.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Seoul's famous 2004 semi-public bus reforms were also along these lines. Before that, Seoul had a passive franchise system. There were many bus operators and the government wasn't particularly paying attention to their level of service and to their quality. The bus operators was spiralling downwards as their cost structures were deteriorating - the familiar story I mentioned before. In 2004, the Seoul government took charge. It set up a transport authority to plan and manage the buses and the private-sector bus companies operated the services on a gross cost contract basis. The plan was to have competitive tendering but that hasn't happened yet.<br />
<br />
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One of the claimed benefits of this particular alternative is that you can get the best of both worlds, with government doing planning and coordination (a strength of government, at least in theory) and also competition, although it's competition for the market (or at least the threat of it). It is very much <u>not</u> competition in the market like we had with deregulation.<br />
<br />
Auckland in New Zealand is an example of a western-world city that jumped from a deregulated bus system (akin to the UK arrangement outside of London) to this kind of proactive planning by a government authority with competitive tendering with service contracts.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Contrasting levels of government responsibility and varying implications for competition and for coordination [17:44]</h3>
The options in this framework are arranged according to how much responsibility the relevant government takes for the bus system outcomes.<br />
<br />
With deregulated bus systems, the government takes little or no responsibility for the outcomes. Then with passive franchises the government took a little more responsibility, but not enough to make sure that things went well. In well-regulated franchises, government was taking even more responsibility by keeping an eye on things but the private sector operators were the ones to take the initiative on changes. In proactive planning with service contracts, government takes responsibility for the planning of the system and the scheduling of the system but private sector operates the actual services. And finally, in a public monopoly arrangement, the government is presumably taking all of the responsibility for the system.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Compatibility of these arrangements with strong coordination (or integration) varies in a similar way. Deregulation and the passive franchises are not really compatible with strong coordination. In well regulated franchises, coordination can be better. But if you really want really ambitious coordination of your public transport system, government probably has to take even more responsibility.<br />
<br />
The potential for competition varies in both degree and in kind. Deregulation has competition <u>in</u> the market, which creates some problems in many ways. Public monopoly has little or no scope for competition. The options in between have the potential for competition <u>for</u> the market.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Terminology [19:43]</h3>
I've been using some names for these options that are not universal and UITP, the International Union of Public Transport, has different names for the same things.<br />
<br />
Deregulation they call 'open entry market'. The franchise options they call 'authorization regimes', What I call proactive planning with service contracts they call 'delegated management'. And public monopoly they call 'direct management'.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Regional integration and Public Transport Authorities [20:19]</h3>
This is a slightly different but closely related issue.<br />
<br />
Even with public-sector public transport operators, we often see uncoordinated fragmented sets of operators across a region. The San Francisco Bay region is an example.<br />
<br />
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<br />
So an important trend, that started in Germany and has spread throughout Europe, is for the creation of transit authorities or public transport authorities (in Germany they are called <i>Verkehrsverbund</i> or 'Transport Association') that coordinate at a regional scale.<br />
<br />
Hamburg was a pioneer in this and Zurich is a famous case of a regional <i>Verkehrsverbund.</i> In the Zurich case it coordinates many public sector operators and treats them more or less as contracted out private sector operators would be treated in other contexts. Other Public Transport Authorities coordinate private operators and some coordinate a mix of public and private operators.<br />
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Many of the best public transport systems in the world have public transport authorities doing the planning and delegating operations through contracts. The operators can be public-sector or private-sector operators, some of which may be private sector operators.<br />
<br />
The trend towards establishing Public Transport Authorities seems to go hand-in-hand with the trend towards the 'proactive planning with service contracts' approach to public transport regulation.<br />
<br />
Both trends allow public transport planning to be ambitious, strategic and highly coordinated.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Will these be lasting and successful trends? Time will tell.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Where next for cities with unregulated/deregulated public transport? [24:11]</h3>
Another big question: what next for cities with unregulated bus or minibus systems like Manila's or those in African cities?<br />
<br />
How can they improve reliability, comprehensiveness and coordination without undermining the existing strengths of those systems and without harming the people involved? The bus crews are often in precarious socio-economic situations and are vulnerable to having their businesses disrupted.<br />
<br />
I am keen to learn more about the options available.<br />
<br />
<i>This article was prepared with the help of a transcription by https://otter.ai</i><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Extra Reading</h3>
As I said at the beginning, this was not a very deep dive. So, if you want a deeper understanding you will need to read more. Here are some pointers:<br />
<br />
My (slightly out-of-date now) paper reviewing these trends: "<a href="https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/docs/default-source/faculty-publications/paul-a-barter/barter-public-planning-with-business-delivery-of-excellent-urban-public-transport.pdf">Public planning with business delivery of excellent urban public transport</a>" (pdf)<br />
<br />
GIZ's <a href="https://www.transformative-mobility.org/assets/publications/iNUA-5-Transit-Alliances_SUTP-TUMI_engl.pdf">iNUA Implementation Guide on Transit Alliances</a> (pdf)<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://mobiliseyourcity.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/04/EBRD_bus-sector-reforms_Mar2019.pdf">Driving change: reforming urban bus services</a>" (pdf) by EBRD in partnership with UITP and GIZ.<br />
<br />
"<a href="https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/17363">The Thredbo story: A journey of competition and ownership in land passenger transport</a>" by Yale Wong and David Hensher.<br />
<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-31776730866328201922019-07-03T10:42:00.001+08:002019-07-03T10:50:02.856+08:00Ending parking minimums - why, where, who, how<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Parking minimums are under siege and it's a very good thing. </b><br />
<br />
Most buildings in most cities and towns across the globe are required by law to provide plentiful parking.<br />
<br />
<b>But parking minimums are a huge mistake.</b><br />
<br />
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<br />
These parking minimums are put in place for understandable but muddle-headed reasons.<br />
<br />
Parking minimums (also called minimum parking requirements or norms or standards) do not in fact solve the on-street parking problems they are supposed to solve.<br />
<br />
Instead, they cause immense harm by worsening car dependence, hindering infill development, undermining walkable neighborhoods, blocking transit-oriented development, and by making real-estate, including housing, less financially viable and less affordable.<br />
<br />
Abolishing parking minimums is not a panacea. By itself, it doesn't necessarily reduce the parking that developers provide in car-dependent locations.<br />
<br />
But, among its many benefits, eliminating minimums does enable low-parking or zero-parking buildings where there is a market for them. It makes small-scale infill much more possible in walkable locations. Without parking minimums, park-once-and-walk districts with "Walkable Parking" can emerge in formerly car-dominated locations, which helps foster a transition to more multimodal transport.<br />
<br />
The mindsets, assumptions and ideas that keep parking minimums in place are difficult to shake but the good news is that coalitions of parking changemakers have been challenging them in cities around the world, from Auckland to Berlin and from Mexico City to Portland.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b>So this edition of Reinventing Transport examines parking minimums and the push to abolish them. </b></h3>
<b>It does so with the help of excerpts from my other site and podcast, <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/">Reinventing Parking</a>. </b><br />
<br />
You can either listen to the podcast episode <i>(use a podcast app or the player at the beginning of this article)</i> or read the summary below.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Parking policy, and parking minimums, are important </h3>
<a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/09/colombia-carlos.html">Carlos Felipe Pardo</a> says that, although parking is nerdy and 'not a sexy topic', it is also a hugely useful and powerful policy arena. He urges everyone 'don't be a child; learn parking!' [0:58]<br />
<div>
<br />
Parking is important in part because it is expensive, said <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/08/parking-power-litman.html">Todd Litman</a>. 'Generally, a car costs less than a structured parking space... we give away parking, we don't give away cars.' [2:19]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/11/mexico-city-parking-mins.html">Andrés Sañudo</a> explained how useful it was to show the enormous scale of the parking space Mexico City was requiring. Parking was the fastest growing kind of floor space! Data on this was a huge boost to the campaign there against the parking minimums. [3:29]</div>
<div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibS6FtSxC1gzPBbxV_5tddqSmC-KmwlgcNsbQfQwNLiSaby5Em8ANgqBoXaEa185ZVrd4eivK5aYH6MN1Twf23xRMTxoI3Zianzj1ZOLHRutGaUdQMMSMpKT4eWXOBmJa6OSu6hzi431U/s1600/Parking+floor+space+percent+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibS6FtSxC1gzPBbxV_5tddqSmC-KmwlgcNsbQfQwNLiSaby5Em8ANgqBoXaEa185ZVrd4eivK5aYH6MN1Twf23xRMTxoI3Zianzj1ZOLHRutGaUdQMMSMpKT4eWXOBmJa6OSu6hzi431U/s640/Parking+floor+space+percent+image.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">You might wonder why I made this graph go all the way to 22 parking spaces per 100 m2. Does any city require that much? Sadly, yes. I learned recently from <a href="https://twitter.com/VamonosLA/status/1145381997071650816">@VamonosLA on Twitter</a> that Santa Monica in the LA region, requires bars (outside its downtown) to provide about 21.5 car parking spaces per 100 m2. So the city requires about six times as much parking space as tavern space. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
<br />
Todd Litman poked fun at parking requirements for bars, which are often the highest minimums in many cities. See the caption of the graph above, which mentions Santa Monica's parking minimums for bars. Todd also made a serious point about how such parking minimums make it impossible to build local facilities, like pubs, within walkable neighborhoods. [4:04]</div>
<div>
<br />
<a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2019/05/promise-Jakarta.html">Yoga Adiwinarto</a> explained how ITDP Indonesia found a huge, parking-minimums-fuelled, oversupply of parking in the main downtown area of Jakarta. [5:08]</div>
<div>
<br />
Todd explained how parking minimums and the cross-subsidies they create are both inefficient and unfair. [6:08]</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
If you manage on street parking properly, you don't need to promote off street parking</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Very few areas really have parking shortages. Most have parking management problems. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On-street parking problems are real. In fact, <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/08/India-on-street.html">Shreya Gadepalli</a> said India's cities have seen numerous deadly fights over parking. The parking chaos in the streets that prompts cities to enact parking minimums is a serious issue. [7:17]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But Jakarta provided an example (explained by Yoga) of an all too common phenomenon: plentiful but under-used off-street parking juxtaposed with a horrendous overload of parking in streets and even on footways. [8:14]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It's the same in Delhi, as Shreya highlighted using the vicinity of the Delhi ITDP office as an example. A new city-built parking garage replaced a popular park, yet it languishes almost empty while chaos continues in the streets surrounding it. [9:02]</div>
<div>
<br />
Todd summarized the usual situation: 'There's really no overall parking problem. The conflict is usually over the most convenient parking spaces.' [10:12]</div>
<div>
<br />
After a little more detail about on-street parking management as the true solution to on-street parking problems, I summed up the argument so far: 'If you manage on street parking properly, you don't need to promote off street parking.' [14:10]</div>
<div>
<br />
That was the central message of Prof Donald Shoup's 2006 book, "The High Cost of Free Parking". It is such a powerful book that it often causes something like a conversion experience.</div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2019/03/portlanders-for-parking-reform.html">Tony Jordan</a> described the book's impact on him ('I was blown away') and how it helped propel him into activism against parking minimums (and other parking policy foolishness) in Portland, Oregon. [14:46] </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Are real cities really abolishing parking minimums? </h3>
<div>
Yes! Numerous cities are doing so. Reinventing Parking has highlighted just a few of them over the last 12 months.</div>
<div>
<br />
Berlin was a pioneer by abolishing its minimum parking requirements in the 1990s, as we heard from <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/10/Berlin-model-or-warning.html">Jos Nino Notz</a>. [16:58]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But don't think all of Europe is so progressive on parking. Car parking minimums are still common, as <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2019/04/ECF-on-Parking.html">Fabian Küster</a> told us. [17:40]</div>
<div>
<br />
Yet, parking minimums are being abolished in some surprisingly car-dependent cities. <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2019/01/auckland-parking-champ.html">Matt Lowrie</a> explained how Auckland, New Zealand, eliminated most of its minimum parking requirements. [19:03]</div>
<div>
<br />
Then Andres Sañudo provided details on Mexico City's impressive city-wide reforms, which eliminated parking minimums and turned them into maximums instead. Furthermore, there is also a financial incentive in the form of a fee, to encourage developers to build less than the maximums allowed. The revenue from this fee is dedicated to improving alternatives to private car travel [19:38]</div>
<div>
<br />
Andres also made the important point that this financial incentive flips the usual mindset that justifies parking minimums on the grounds that on-site parking is supposed to mitigate spillover parking problems. Andres: 'Parking is not an impact mitigator. But it is exactly the opposite - a guarantee of impact.' [21:54]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Easing fears about ending parking minimums</h3>
<div>
<div>
But isn't plentiful parking necessary? Todd Litman highlighted the enormous scope typically to reduce demand for parking via relatively low-cost steps, including simple parking management efforts. [15:41]</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Todd also highlighted that a risk-averse city or developer can always do 'contingency-based planning' to reduce the chances of anything bad happening. In other words, each building can have a plan for what will be done in the event that parking problems emerge. Options include simple on-site parking management methods, shared parking deals with nearby properties, enhancements to alternatives such as car-sharing, bicycles, shuttle services and many others. [22:50]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I also provided reassurance using the concept of <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2019/02/walkable-parking-to-end-parking-minimums.html">Walkable Parking</a> in which we think of parking as something for the neighborhood, not something needed on every site. Having well-managed parking that is open to the public throughout each area helps mitigate concerns that any one building will have a 'shortage'. [24:32]</div>
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The need to organize and agitate against parking minimums</h3>
</div>
<div>
We ended with the importance of activism and of broad coalitions in the fight against parking minimums.<br />
<br />
We heard from Tony Jordan from Portand [25:48] and Andres Sañudo again from Mexico City [26:40]. I also explained that Auckland's success also came after a long struggle by a diverse coalition of groups and individuals. [27:57]<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
</ul>
<div>
Phew. As I said in the podcast, if you have stuck with me this far, then you really should check out <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/">Reinventing Parking</a>.</div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-33508472969007284552019-05-21T22:32:00.002+08:002019-05-21T22:33:33.915+08:00Jakarta's transport is daunting not hopeless<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Jakarta's urban transport problems are epic and this metropolis of 24 million people seems an unlikely place to look for lessons, except maybe cautionary ones.<br />
<br />
But Yoga Adiwinarto, ITDP’s Country Director for Indonesia, wants you to know there is progress. In fact, there are lessons for other large cities in middle-income countries to learn from.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Yoga and I discussed urban transport in Jakarta for Reinventing Transport episode #14. </b><br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Here are highlights of our conversation </h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>I asked Yoga to 'paint a picture' of Jakarta, urban transport challenges and what it feels like to move around the city. [1:45]</li>
<li>The challenges are huge but there have been improvements, to public transport for example. [6:58]</li>
<li>The TransJakarta BRT started well in 2004, faced a very rough patch about five years later (a series of buses even caught fire!). [8:30]</li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjiZ2PcpKZyPyPLP3F70YwjRQFG0uEFdDdcQQ0YYddOWdKKdoFbvnkP4_LPO7JKt_QokXbDF4TJuzhp2gOYUmGq_eYwWHEhqAm-iQk4asoiJerv0dv0A5Hilpe4s_bOc69zqJA4atw7s/s1600/Akses+baru+Transjakarta.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="872" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjiZ2PcpKZyPyPLP3F70YwjRQFG0uEFdDdcQQ0YYddOWdKKdoFbvnkP4_LPO7JKt_QokXbDF4TJuzhp2gOYUmGq_eYwWHEhqAm-iQk4asoiJerv0dv0A5Hilpe4s_bOc69zqJA4atw7s/s640/Akses+baru+Transjakarta.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Among many other things, ITDP Indonesia has been <a href="http://www.itdp-indonesia.org/aksesbarutransjakarta">helping Jakarta improve pedestrian access to its TransJakarta BRT</a> stations. </td></tr>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Several important reforms to TransJakarta this decade have resulted in huge improvements and dramatic ridership increases. For example, there was a shift to better quality buses that are properly designed for Bus Rapid Transit use. Governance was improved via corporatization. TransJakarta is no longer a city government agency and is now a city-owned company which contracts with various bus operating companies and cooperatives which operate the actual services. The BRT route philosophy also changed from a purely closed BRT approach to a 'direct service concept' in which BRT buses fan out beyond the BRT corridors. [13:04]</li>
<li>Yoga argued that a mindset change also helped. There was much more official effort to improve the system after the focus shifted to improving public transport conditions for existing users rather than worrying too much about how to entice car-users onto the system. [17:52]</li>
<li>Nevertheless, the opening this year of the first 16 km phase of the first Metro (MRT) line has made more car users open to trying public transport and, anecdotally, the positive image is rubbing off on the BRT to some extent as way to connect to the Metro, since the two systems are quite well integrated. So not closing TransJakarta Corridor 1 seems to have been a wise decision, despite the fact that it partially duplicates the MRT [20:00] </li>
<li>We discussed the issue of keeping private vehicles out of TransJakarta's dedicated bus lanes. It is an ongoing problem but, for various reasons, Yoga was optimistic that such incursions are declining. </li>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KRL_Tokyo_Metro_5817F_10-car.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Muhammad Pascal Fajrin [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="KRL Tokyo Metro 5817F 10-car" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/KRL_Tokyo_Metro_5817F_10-car.jpg/512px-KRL_Tokyo_Metro_5817F_10-car.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A train set of the KRL Commuterline (also called KRL Jabodetabek) suburban rail system. </td></tr>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>We then turned to the electrified suburban rail system (KRL Commuterline) which has been improved dramatically and is now an important part of the public transport system. A new and more effective ticketing system, a simpler set of services and higher frequencies have enabled a large jump in ridership in recent years. [23:07] </li>
<li>Yoga shared an anecdote that some in Jakarta have unrealistic expectations that the MRT will solve traffic congestion. This led to a discussion of what else needs to happen, including walkability improvements and more attention to travel demand management. [25:44]</li>
<li>The mention of walkability reminded me to ask about ITDP's recent efforts to improve conditions in Jakarta's low-income 'kampung kota' or urban village areas. This was the subject of a <a href="https://www.itdp.org/2019/04/01/webinar-jakartas-urban-villages/">recent webinar</a> [28:08]</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT42GTot61Lqe2-FOYPmqwqfsQhyl3LF8qF7feVy46Xi4jrcBFOMp_uu2652dWfrYW5fOo0LEuf5Zx983ggsjMxNHC4RKNIzN9vRYp3_wAO44wtbC53aUEdC0U_aPrKiO3_1-5EbVspGw/s1600/Jakarta-Urban-Villages-Banner2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="1600" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT42GTot61Lqe2-FOYPmqwqfsQhyl3LF8qF7feVy46Xi4jrcBFOMp_uu2652dWfrYW5fOo0LEuf5Zx983ggsjMxNHC4RKNIzN9vRYp3_wAO44wtbC53aUEdC0U_aPrKiO3_1-5EbVspGw/s400/Jakarta-Urban-Villages-Banner2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>We ended with a look at some of ITDP's current priorities and hopes for Jakarta. Yoga's emphasized the demand side. This brought us to both and road pricing and parking management <i>(by the way, Reinventing Parking this month will feature Yoga and I talking about parking in Jakarta)</i>. An Electronic Road Pricing scheme is in the works and I was not surprised to hear that it seems to be stalled for now. However, I WAS surprised to hear that procurement difficulties are the hold-up and that public opposition is not the main problem. It seems Jakarta motorists are used to paying tolls on toll roads, so congestion pricing is not too controversial. We will see if that remains the case if the proposal advances further. [32:17] </li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY6dzA7GyS4ZtoRQq91TTDZAU80byl8OqpEpgnBxo8pgullA51gB-q0Y7otsZXhR-vAQ15U1wBL0IT1dwQeFsaOU-VMf4KAkBgtDurgb1_tA6vEPJTo3dKSxb7lYCQtcpaju2BNgRDH5k/s1600/Yoga+Adiwinarto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="684" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY6dzA7GyS4ZtoRQq91TTDZAU80byl8OqpEpgnBxo8pgullA51gB-q0Y7otsZXhR-vAQ15U1wBL0IT1dwQeFsaOU-VMf4KAkBgtDurgb1_tA6vEPJTo3dKSxb7lYCQtcpaju2BNgRDH5k/s400/Yoga+Adiwinarto.jpg" width="266" /></a>More Information on Yoga Adiwinarto and ITDP Indonesia</h3>
Yoga is Southeast Asia Director and Indonesia Country Director for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).<br />
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Yoga has been with ITDP since 2009, initially as transport specialist managing the BRT improvement in Jakarta and Pekanbaru. Over the last three years he has worked on public transport planning and operational, Demand Management, Pedestrian improvement as well as some management and financial aspects of BRT operation. He was involved in planning and preparing the operation, tender and contracts for the opening of the last three BRT corridors in Jakarta, which is now the longest BRT system in the world.<br />
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Yoga holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Institute Technology Bandung, and a master’s degree in Transport Planning from Leeds University, England, where he spent three years working in transport consultancy firm after finishing his degree.<br />
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Learn more about ITDP Indonesia <a href="http://www.itdp-indonesia.org/">here</a>.<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-22396828221641837812019-04-23T21:02:00.002+08:002019-04-23T21:13:12.846+08:00Simplify and Connect: a key to better bus networks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
What if I said your city could have better public transport without more funding or higher fares? Does that sound too good to be true?<br />
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<b>Reinventing Transport this time is a basic explainer for the idea that public transport networks are often improved by being simplified. It can be a low-cost step to a better system. </b><br />
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If people in your city face long waiting times for buses, there might be too many bus lines. A simplified network may offer better service.<br />
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Does that sound intriguing? Or maybe this issue is old hat for you. Either way, I hope you will get something from listening to the episode or reading the article below.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The basic idea</h3>
Imagine a town with 100 buses. And suppose the town has 25 bus lines. There would be four buses for each line. But suppose the town simplifies its bus network down to just five lines. Now there are 20 buses per bus line.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Does the new network have higher bus frequencies? Of course it does. But the people using the new network now make 'transfers' ('connections') much more often to complete their journeys.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5OcyJjQe7uDOcqs1_9bApT3Xp-NPR5yWB_dvMxou6KctI1XbsBE04SiHdnNApttewFSIny3HGR7nuVhged5I56_iP8TPyDogd7fDr9L54CdG8wSQImWSg-C7LW999kZSP9NOfTyS7PU/s1600/RT+connective+PT+title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5OcyJjQe7uDOcqs1_9bApT3Xp-NPR5yWB_dvMxou6KctI1XbsBE04SiHdnNApttewFSIny3HGR7nuVhged5I56_iP8TPyDogd7fDr9L54CdG8wSQImWSg-C7LW999kZSP9NOfTyS7PU/s640/RT+connective+PT+title.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Which is better? People hate waiting for buses. But do they hate connections even more?<br />
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These two networks represent exaggerated illustrations of two real responses to this dilemma.<br />
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In real life, many cities do indeed try to minimize connections and end up with complicated networks with many lines, each with low-frequency service.<br />
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But some cities take a different path and simplify their bus network to get higher bus frequencies. They also work hard to try to minimize the pain of the resulting transfers.<br />
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It turns out that we usually CAN come out ahead when we simplify a bus network.<br />
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The simpler network allows higher frequencies, meaning shorter waiting times for the first bus in a journey AND shorter waits for any connecting buses along the journey. So if all goes well, most existing journeys will end up taking less time in total, even if they now require a connection.<br />
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It turns out that these simpler, connective networks are often more popular than what went before. At least, they are usually popular once they are implemented.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimqVP1gIZoUj-r9DtPrRrLXusfjMnm_cEuxvWXazKkOhNLlmKaFA8lP9dMUdyYgNM2Hsoxg2kKcwgreIygaj_eUatkRVMVGnJibiimmx2ZW4mS-RGz0d_C9DHNy8yfi2cEFlLdSNJ0aiE/s1600/How+connective+networks+can+succeed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimqVP1gIZoUj-r9DtPrRrLXusfjMnm_cEuxvWXazKkOhNLlmKaFA8lP9dMUdyYgNM2Hsoxg2kKcwgreIygaj_eUatkRVMVGnJibiimmx2ZW4mS-RGz0d_C9DHNy8yfi2cEFlLdSNJ0aiE/s640/How+connective+networks+can+succeed.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Let's take a look at Barcelona [3:27]</h3>
The transit authority in Barcelona, TMB, <a href="https://www.tmb.cat/en/about-tmb/transport-network-improvements/new-bus-network/evolution">described the old bus network</a> like this:<br />
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<i>“the Barcelona bus network was the heir to the tram network of the previous century. As the city grew, the routes were extended and superimposed until a network was created that was illogical, with repetition of lines and journeys that were slow and buses that were infrequent. Neither were connections ensured between different parts of the city and for the uninitiated user, the network was hard to understand and read on a map.”</i><br />
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Does that sound anything like bus networks where you are?<br />
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Barcelona has a significant Metro and suburban rail system but was not getting the best from its buses. Average headways on the old network were around 12 minutes. That may not sound too bad but <a href="https://chartingtransport.com/2015/11/26/comparing-the-densities-of-australian-and-european-cities/">Barcelona is has the highest urban population density in the western world</a>. Public transport trips there average only 7.2 kilometers and I would assume bus trips would typically be even shorter. Waiting 12 minutes is a lot to go only five kilometers or less.<br />
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So Barcelona came up with a plan for its <i>Nova Xarxa</i> - a new network - inspired by modeling by <a href="https://www.ce.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/daganzo">Carlos Daganzo of UC Berkeley</a>.<br />
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Now that the new network is actually fully operational, the new network has 28 high-performance lines. There are 17 'vertical' lines running from the sea to the mountains, eight so-called 'horizontal' lines and three diagonals.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsRo1vRbdbpi-WEckVSFUBzHgfC-RQA-DeheEOOiYDC3UkA6oNfh1Q19dmAv3dvzI4Khhc523nK1ZDqLbtrlYSSsml-UouJG-Fz2Fza5sA2zzWSK8ljR9p6vFIHZ0gtO50x4oLO8_b_VY/s1600/Nova+Xarxa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="900" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsRo1vRbdbpi-WEckVSFUBzHgfC-RQA-DeheEOOiYDC3UkA6oNfh1Q19dmAv3dvzI4Khhc523nK1ZDqLbtrlYSSsml-UouJG-Fz2Fza5sA2zzWSK8ljR9p6vFIHZ0gtO50x4oLO8_b_VY/s640/Nova+Xarxa.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barcelona's Nova Xarxa network of high-performance bus lines. Source: <a href="https://www.tmb.cat/en/about-tmb/transport-network-improvements/new-bus-network/evolution">TMB</a></td></tr>
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According to a <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3996t4c6">2017 paper</a> by Hugo Badia, Juan Argote-Cabanero and Carlos Daganzo, “The Nova Xarxa will eventually be served by 573 buses with an average headway of 6.18 min, similar across all lines. Contrast this with the old bus network which was served by 761 buses with an average headway of 12.30 min. Thus, the Nova Xarxa will use fewer buses but deliver nearly twice the service frequency of the old network.”<br />
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On the old network, 13 percent of bus trips involved transfers, which was actually already quite high.<br />
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According to that same paper, in 2016 26% of boardings on Nova Xarxa came from transferring passengers and they expected this to rise to 44% once the entire network was deployed.<br />
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I should mention that it looks like Barcelona may have not have been quite as ruthless in eliminating old bus routes as originally proposed. Or perhaps they have decided to phase some of them out more slowly.<br />
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But it IS clear that they have established a simple grid of high performance bus lines.<br />
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Ridership results <a href="https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2018/11/brooklyn-bus-route-redesign-mta-new-york/575716/">cited by Eric Goldwyn and Alan Levy</a> look good so far.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Other cities doing this [6:40]</h3>
Various cities around the world are doing something like this.<br />
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In fact, Canberra, Australia's capital city <a href="https://www.transport.act.gov.au/getting-around/new-network">shifts to its new network</a> next week!<br />
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Portland, Oregon in the United States was a pioneer with its <a href="https://humantransit.org/2012/08/portland-the-grid-is-30-thank-a-planner.html">simple grid of frequent bus lines adopted in 1982</a>.<br />
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Simple, connective public transport networks seem common across central Europe. Zurich is a famous example. Vienna clearly has a grid like network of trams, buses and metro lines as you can see from this map showing part of the network just to the west of the old central area.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVZxPqHKxpsWj3EXRUvti9cNKy480a8BrCQfZQfa8U-XYDYVgyPSt0BH5Cz25Ba2xlo-u0oJqQNoj7DG_RvM2hlCU3MywgOgF9Ez5fLSYla6rPzHeI7MikslaktDIChnWq7hl0WRijXkQ/s1600/Vienna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVZxPqHKxpsWj3EXRUvti9cNKy480a8BrCQfZQfa8U-XYDYVgyPSt0BH5Cz25Ba2xlo-u0oJqQNoj7DG_RvM2hlCU3MywgOgF9Ez5fLSYla6rPzHeI7MikslaktDIChnWq7hl0WRijXkQ/s640/Vienna.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Another example is San Francisco's Muni network.<br />
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Jarrett Walker and his firm have been helping various cities to redesign their bus networks along these lines. Houston is a prominent example as well as Richmond and several others. Dublin is a live case right now<br />
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And Auckland's successful new network was <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2019/01/auckland-how-to-change.html">discussed as part of Reinventing Transport Episode 10</a>. By contrast, a similar effort in Wellington seems to have gone <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/lessons-from-down-under-how-not-to-do-busconnects-1.3661640">somewhat awry</a>.<br />
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Santiago de Chile is an example with its TransSantiago reforms. A connective network was part of this but they tried to do many things all at once in a big bang change, which was initially disastrous. I want to follow up to find out how things are going there now.<br />
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Bogotá in Colombia has been reforming both the bus network and the regulatory approach to non-BRT buses <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/how-have-recent-bus-reforms-changed-accessibility-bogot">with mixed results for now apparently</a>.<br />
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A success story in Asia is Seoul with its <a href="https://urbantransportasia.blogspot.com/2006/02/success-story-seouls-2004-public.html">famous 2004 bus system shake up</a>.<br />
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I was in Yangon in Myanmar recently and was surprised to learn that Yangon has also been reforming its bus network, simplifying the routes, reducing the number of routes and trying to have a better level of service on each of those routes.<br />
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I also understand that Bangalore in India has been piloting some network changes on some of its bus corridors with the help of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.<br />
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And Jakarta seems to be trying to improve coordination between its informal minibuses and trunk services, including the TransJakarta BRT.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
What does a bus network that sorely needs simplifying look like? [9:55]</h3>
One kind of problematic bus network focuses too much on the city center.<br />
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In cities in the developing world that have unregulated minvan-based public transport for example, it is common for public transport networks to look like a set of bamboo groves with large numbers of parallel stems that then spread out towards the edge of the city.<br />
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Seoul's old bus lines also looked like a set of bamboo groves before the 2004 reforms.<br />
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A similar thing seems to have happened in a lot of relatively car-dependent Western cities (although most of these have regulated formal-sector bus systems). Their bus networks, like Barcelona's old one, are often based on historic lines from 50 or 100 years ago. They typically haven't been updated for their new situation as bigger modern cities with multiple destinations. Many have given up trying. So most of the network is focused on radial service into and out of the core area and mainly on peak hour commuting.<br />
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<b>Another kind of bus network that needs simplifying can be found in cities with more successful public transport.</b> Big multimodal cities like Barcelona or Singapore usually don't have a bus network that is too focused on the city center (although Barcelona did have a little bit of that problem with its old network). Public transport in these cities is more ambitious. In fact, the problem is they have been trying too hard to provide 'ubiquitous networks' by trying to provide too many lines to too many places from too many places. So each of those lines ends up being infrequent.<br />
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<b>The resulting bus networks end up looking like tangles of wires.</b><br />
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You can see this on the left hand side of the title image at the top of this article, which shows a small part of Singapore's bus network. And in Singapore, many bus lines have waiting times throughout the day between about 12 and 15 minutes and sometimes up to 20 minutes. Like Barcelona's old network with 12 minute headways, that may not sound bad. But it is not good enough in a dense transit-oriented city like Singapore where the average bus trip is only 5 km in length.<br />
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And if cities with this kind of 'tangle of wire' network try to get better frequencies by simply throwing money at the bus system they would risk nasty bus congestion problems because of all the overlaps in the network, where numerous different lines run on the same sections of road.<br />
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<b>So let's take stock.</b><br />
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Your city probably needs a simpler, more connective, bus network if many of your bus lines have fewer than one bus every 15 minutes. In fact, in dense cities, having a bus less than every 10 minutes or so is probably not good enough.<br />
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You probably need a more connective network if your bus network is so complicated that you can't put it on a map easily or if the map looks like a tangle of wire.<br />
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Your city probably needs a more connective bus network if the bus network looks like a series of bamboo groves sprouting from the city center, but with almost no lines in any other direction.<br />
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<i><b>[Keep reading below]</b></i></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Who are some key people on this?</h3>
I already mentioned Jarrett Walker. His <a href="https://humantransit.org/">Human Transit blog</a> and book are indispensable in highlighting that this is an opportunity that communities may want to seize (depending on local goals and priorities).<br />
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There have also been many other champions of simpler, more transfer-based public transport networks. They include numerous practical people behind the scenes in many cities. For example, in Portland, Jarrett Walker mentions Ken Zatarain and Thomas G. Matoff as especially crucial for the 1982 bus network changes.<br />
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The late <a href="https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2010/02/24/squaresville-and-the-network-effect/">Paul Mees from Melbourne</a> in Australia was influential. Paul was inspired in part by the PhD thesis of my friend <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-laube-b385924/?originalSubdomain=ch">Felix Laube</a>, who is from Zurich. That thesis included a clear explanation of Zurich's connective approach, with a frequent mesh of lines in the core and a sparser, timed-pulse approach to enable convenient connections even in outer areas with lower-frequency service.<br />
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Gustav Nielsen from Norway has been another <a href="https://thredbo-conference-series.org/downloads/thredbo10_papers/thredbo10-themeE-Nielsen-Lange.pdf">prominent proponent of this kind of network reform</a> (pdf).<br />
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And I already mentioned Carlos Daganzo.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
So what's the catch? Gaining enough support can be difficult! [17:50] </h3>
Simplifying a bus network can provide rewards for a small investment but this can be a challenging reform to enact. Implementation needs to be carried out well and sometimes goes wrong. But even before that, getting any kind of consensus to proceed is always difficult.<br />
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Some people currently using the bus network will feel they are losing the bus lines they are used to.<br />
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Many will need to make a transfer in their daily routine that they didn't previously have to make.<br />
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We can explain that most people are going to save time and expand the range of reachable destinations but many will care more about the specifics of what they are losing.<br />
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If these perceived losses are concentrated in certain neighborhoods or among clearly defined groups of people, then organized opposition becomes likely.<br />
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It doesn't help that there is usually also confusion and sometimes even a disinformation campaign from opponents.<br />
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Dublin's ongoing 'Bus Connects' efforts to remake its bus network have also seen opponents assuming that the network changes were all or nothing and that the consultation process must therefore be a sham.<br />
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Bus network simplifications are also a great example of the fact that revealed preference is more reliable than stated preference. In other words, we can trust how people actually respond in practice to a change more than what they say they will do.<br />
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So it is important to design a process that helps people see key trade offs and face up to their consequences. <a href="https://humantransit.org/dublin-area-bus-network-redesign-background">Here is an example of Jarrett Walker laying out the key trade-offs for Dublin</a> very early in the Bus Connects process so that the subsequent network design exercise would be well informed by local priorities.<br />
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Another problem is that people's current experience with making a connection between bus lines may be abysmal, with unpredictable and long waiting times. That experience can make it difficult for people to imagine making convenient bus to bus connections in a future simplified network.<br />
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So embarking on a bus network reform is not easy. It's not for the faint-hearted, but the rewards are great.<br />
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If you're interested in this issue, I really recommend visiting Jarrett Walker's <a href="https://humantransit.org/">Human Transit website</a> and looking at network redesign stories from various cities.<br />
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Despite the difficulties, this approach seems to be gathering some steam. It is also making a tangible difference in many cases. For example, in the United States bus ridership has been declining recently in most cities but those few that have redesigned and simplified their bus networks seem to be holding up much better than the others.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Let me end by restating some key points [23:48]</h3>
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If your bus network has lots of lines that overlap each other, if it has low bus frequencies throughout most of the day, then your city could probably benefit from this kind of bus network redesign. </div>
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The key things that a transfer based network or connective network needs for success are a simple and easy to understand network with easy transfers and high frequency services. </div>
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It's not easy to do this, but the rewards seem to be great and they seem to be lasting. </div>
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Cities with successful public transport around the world tend to have rather connective public transport networks. </div>
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There are variations on this that suit small towns and big cities, there seemed to be variations that suit dense transit oriented cities and car oriented low density cities.</div>
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<b>Is this something that you could be championing in your own city or town?</b><br />
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Video created with <a href="https://www.headliner.app/">Headliner</a>. Writing this article was aided by a transcript created by <a href="https://otter.ai/">otter.ai</a></div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-49955697186472468252019-03-28T16:29:00.001+08:002019-03-28T21:31:13.682+08:00Electric two-wheelers: how big will they be?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Stefan Bakker sees a big future for electric vehicles with two wheels. </b><br />
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I asked Stefan to join me for this month's Reinventing Transport, after reading his <b><a href="https://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainable-cities-authenticity-ambition-and-dream/electric-two-wheelers-sustainable-mobility-and-the-city">“Electric Two-Wheelers, Sustainable Mobility and the City”</a></b>.<br />
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<i>Learn more about Stefan Bakker via <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjabakker/">LinkedIn</a> or <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stefan_Bakker">ResearchGate.</a><span id="goog_640763312"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_640763313"></span> </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YCmAsu8KXeaZ2lbqsB1TXzXu7-8yzTtgge4XJQOnOFtr63WpZDSD5HERO0NgHme7Rn6z5D1df3Gxe3d0ulDVPN0hgkEUMjIp1mKNdTStXHm8PWnrh4tPsr_TR5BeoogUDZgO1WDmsSd-/s1600/EV+2+wheelers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YCmAsu8KXeaZ2lbqsB1TXzXu7-8yzTtgge4XJQOnOFtr63WpZDSD5HERO0NgHme7Rn6z5D1df3Gxe3d0ulDVPN0hgkEUMjIp1mKNdTStXHm8PWnrh4tPsr_TR5BeoogUDZgO1WDmsSd-/s400/EV+2+wheelers.jpg" width="400" /></a>Electric two-wheelers, such as e-bikes, get less attention than electric cars or even electric buses. But two-wheeled electric vehicles are increasing in numbers faster and are already making more of a difference to carbon emissions than their larger cousins.<br />
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Why are their numbers surging? How much potential is there? Which kinds will take off, the lighter/slower or the heavier/faster? (Do you see the double meaning in the title?) What benefits and risks/costs do they have? What policies are appropriate? Stefan and I tackled these questions and more.<br />
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<b>Here are highlights from the conversation.</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Stefan was prompted to write about electric two-wheelers</b> after several years working in Southeast Asia where he noticed the importance of motorcycles. This prompted him to wonder about the potential to replace them with less harmful electric two-wheelers.</li>
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<li>[2:55] <b>Stefan sees some role for almost all of the many different types, depending on the context.</b> We discussed how this is working in the Netherlands and in China. Vietnam and Singapore also got a mention. </li>
<li>[4:02] <b>We tried to clarify the different types and their (sometimes confusing) names.</b> Some are low-speed (up to 25 km/h), some go up to about 45 km/h, and some are basically e-motorcycles. Some lack throttles and require pedalling to get the electric assist (‘pedelecs’). Others have a throttle, which can be with or without pedals. There are ‘Speed pedelecs’ that have pedals but can reach 45 km/h! The term e-scooter is ambiguous currently, with some using the term for an electric step-through motorcycle and others using it for electric versions of kick-scooters that you stand on, like those used by Bird for example. Be careful!</li>
<li>[5:42] <b>There is an urgent need to decide which types can and should be allowed in dedicated bicycle paths and which are too fast, heavy and/or powerful to share space with bicycles.</b> Stefan explained recent decisions in Amsterdam, which has long also grappled with petrol-engine-assisted ‘mopeds’ limited to 25 km/h.</li>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E-Call_a_Bike_Pedelec.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Chrischerf [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="E-Call a Bike Pedelec" height="300" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/E-Call_a_Bike_Pedelec.jpg/512px-E-Call_a_Bike_Pedelec.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Two electric bicycles used in Deutsche Bahn's bike-share service in Berlin.</span></td></tr>
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<li>[8:10] <b>The number of electric two-wheelers is soaring.</b> But which types predominate varies from country to country. In the Netherlands, it is the low-speed pedal-assist pedelecs that are rising fastest. Their sales now rival sales of ordinary bicycles! The perception that they are “cheating” or only for frail or aged people is fading away. We noted that it seems significant that it is the light, low-speed pedal-assist e-bikes that are proliferating in the most bicycle-friendly country in the world.</li>
</ul>
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<i><b>[Keep reading below]</b></i></div>
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<li>[10:00] <b>Even several years ago, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01441647.2015.1069907?journalCode=ttrv20">Elliot Fishman and Chris Cherry noted</a> that electric two-wheelers have ‘the most rapid uptake of alternative fuelled vehicles in the history of motorisation’.</b> Uptake seems to have <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v11y2018i7p1894-d159008.html">accelerated even more</a> since they said that. <a href="http://orbit.dtu.dk/portal/en/publications/id(859fb3f7-8f32-43d1-bd51-b10af520aafd).html">China alone has more than 200 million</a> electric two-wheelers. </li>
<li>In China and certain other Asian countries, throttled types, especially those with seats but no pedals, are proliferating. See the photos from Singapore.</li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw0P9shp-WRJtlPeejiGJjXEXZcJI3upzpOrlVHAkEYjDQcmgIJ52PrZufbEiMYBMoqEda8rsFEZGawAowNiQiSLq2jelxU_TyqVdlp-RSSN0Krceu-NDTYaCRhtN4Nddqb1n5o7w1DE/s1600/Some+E+two+wheelers+in+Singapore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw0P9shp-WRJtlPeejiGJjXEXZcJI3upzpOrlVHAkEYjDQcmgIJ52PrZufbEiMYBMoqEda8rsFEZGawAowNiQiSLq2jelxU_TyqVdlp-RSSN0Krceu-NDTYaCRhtN4Nddqb1n5o7w1DE/s400/Some+E+two+wheelers+in+Singapore.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Some of the electric two-wheelers to be found in Singapore<br />
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<li>[10:50] <b>Two reasons for the surge in China.</b> 1. In the 1990s, China classified small two wheelers that have pedals as bicycles, not motorcycles, for regulatory purposes. 2. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many large cities in China banned conventional motorcycles!</li>
<li>[12:37] <b>In Shanghai, more than 15% of trips are by electric two-wheelers.</b> Many medium sized cities in China have 20 or 30% of trips on electric two-wheelers. </li>
<li>[13:32] <b>Stefan highlighted two ways to look at the question of substitution from other modes of transport to electric two-wheelers.</b> He argued that, whichever way you look at it, electric two wheelers are NOT only substituting for walking, cycling and public transport. They are ALSO replacing large numbers of trips that would otherwise have been by conventional motorcycle or car. </li>
<li>[16:55] <b>Should we worry that electric two-wheelers might be a “gateway drug” that leads towards mass car ownership? We argued that this fear is overblown, because two-wheelers don’t force cities to sprawl out at low density, with huge roads and parking space.</b> So long as metropolitan authorities refrain from fostering those things, two-wheelers in even enormous numbers should not necessarily lead on to car-dependence. Taipei’s experience is a case in point. </li>
<li><b>We have interesting precedents in certain countries for mass use of two-wheelers.</b> The Netherlands (and certain other places) shows that bicycles and low-speed e-bikes can play a huge role if they get safe networks of protected bike lanes, quiet low-speed streets or both. </li>
<li>China already has mass uptake of electric two-wheelers. </li>
<li>[20:10] <b>Electric two-wheelers in China alone accounted for 80% of the CO2 emissions saved by electric vehicles globally </b>in 2017, according to the International Energy Agency’s Electric Vehicle Outlook. </li>
<li>Vietnam and Taiwan as well as certain other cities around the world, including Ouagadougou, show mass use of small motorcycles can also happen in certain circumstances (dense cities with modest incomes, congestion, low-speed traffic, a lack of parking space and warm weather?). </li>
<li>[22:12] <b>Nevertheless, making more of a difference with electric two-wheelers will (or would) depend on mass uptake in many more countries. So Stefan mentioned a series of policy steps for promoting electric two-wheelers for governments to consider. These included:</b> </li>
<li>Subsidies. For example, France offers up to 250 euros. Buying bicycles or e-bikes attracts a tax break in the Netherlands. Nepal has reduced registration tax for electric two-wheelers. India as a recently expanded program to subsidize all kinds of electric and hybrid vehicles with much of it aimed at electric two wheelers. </li>
<li>Phase out conventional motorcycles. The Netherlands plans to do so by 2030.</li>
<li>Networks of safe routes for bicycles and e-bicycles. This can include segregated bike ways but should also involve large numbers of quiet residential streets that are traffic calmed for low traffic speeds (30 km/h or less).</li>
<li>Filtered permeability so larger motor vehicles have a higher detour factor than two-wheelers, as in Groningen in the northern Netherlands. </li>
<li>Enhancing connections between mass transit and electric two-wheelers, with parking at stations and, in some cases, bikes on trains. In the Netherlands, about 50% of train riders arrive by bicycle. </li>
</ul>
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<i>For more detail, listen to the audio (with the player below or find Reinventing Transport wherever you usually get podcasts or watch the Youtube version below).</i><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="90" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/9173372/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/286bd0/" style="border: none;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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<i>I used the Otter.ai service for the transcript that helped me prepare this post. </i></div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-823140452341011032019-02-27T16:56:00.000+08:002019-03-01T08:58:02.969+08:00An end to mass car ownership without draconian policies? (And a tribute to Chris Bradshaw)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><i>Could we end the era of mass car ownership without a huge fight ("they're coming to take our cars!") and without draconian policies? </i></b><br />
<br />
That's the focus of this article and podcast episode (Reinventing Transport #11).<br />
<br />
It is based on an essay I wrote in 2011 (but unfortunately never published). I speculated about a future dominated by "shared" modes of transport and with much less personal possession of motor vehicles. I was overly optimistic in places and likely wrong on various points. But I hope I was wrong in thought-provoking ways. I think this is still relevant 8 years later to ideas like Mobility as a Service and initiatives such as the "<a href="https://www.sharedmobilityprinciples.org/">Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities</a>" and the <a href="https://www.numo.global/">New Urban Mobility (NUMO) alliance</a>. But you be the judge.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
This edition is also a tribute to Chris Bradshaw. </h3>
Chris Bradshaw was the person who asked me to write the essay on ending mass car ownership. It was for a journal special edition he was editing which later fell through, unfortunately.<br />
<br />
The title of Chris' introductory essay gives you an idea of the focus: "Making do with fewer cars using Metered Access to Shared Cars (MASC) to avoid the coming global car population explosion". It also hints at his independent mindedness.<br />
<br />
Knowing his flair for interesting transport policy ideas, I actually emailed him in August 2018 to ask him on to this podcast! Chris replied promptly but he said that he was extremely unwell. It was a rare kind of cancer. He was hopeful surgery would help and said that being on the podcast would be a good thing to do as he recovered. So I wished him well and made a note to get back to him later. I followed up later in the year, but I got no answer.<br />
<br />
Sadly, when I searched I found that <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/obituary-chris-bradshaw-car-lite-philosophy-advocate-co-founded-vrtucar">Chris died on 3 November 2018</a> at the age of 74.<br />
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<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Images via
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Chris was a Community Relations Officer in the planning department at the regional municipality of Ottawa Carleton in Canada.<br />
<br />
But I knew him for his wider policy engagements. He was co-founder of Ottawalk, an example of that rare beast - an active pedestrian advocacy group - as well as co-founder of Pednet, North America's first pedestrian rights coalition. He was also a co-founder of Ottawa's first car-sharing business and had a long-time interest in car-lite urban transport alternatives. Chris was also an active and generous participant in various online discussions on urban transport throughout the 1990s and 2000s.<br />
<br />
I always found Chris a great inspiration. For a taste of <a href="https://hearthhealth.wordpress.com/">his idea-filled writings, see his blog</a>. Here is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJwOwdZm0ek">2014 video of Chris</a> talking about his activities in Ottawa.<br />
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<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
My essay: "Could mass car ownership melt away without draconian policies?" </h2>
<i>[I share most of the 2011 essay below. I will also make some new comments, since much has changed since I wrote it. Many of the ideas below build on a conference paper I wrote in 2008, which <a href="https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/docs/default-source/faculty-publications/paul-a-barter/barter-for-tdm-2008-car-possession-as-problematic.pdf">you can find here (pdf)</a>. Here goes.] </i><br />
<br />
In the introductory essay in this volume, Chris Bradshaw suggests that his vision of mass uptake of "metered access to shared cars" should arrive organically, since the heavy hand of government would provoke public resentment and resistance.<br />
<br />
Is such an organic transition realistic? Could a mass shift away from private motor vehicle ownership happen without draconian and unpopular impositions by policymakers?<br />
<br />
Although the scenario discussed in this volume may seem at first far fetched, I will argue that it is much more than mere wild speculation.<br />
<br />
Plausible social, economic, and business trends may indeed provide a significant push in the right direction. A policy push is almost certainly also necessary but it may not need to be heavy handed or involve the trampling of individual choice.<br />
<br />
Some of this push can come from other policy agendas pursued for reasons that have nothing to do with car ownership or metered access to shared cars. But some impetus will come from explicitly aiming to escape automobile dependence and promoting the rise of alternatives. I will argue that these do not need to be unacceptably interventionist. A policy push to help us escape the trap of car dependence would also arguably be enhancing of personal choice rather than restricting freedom.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The Shift We are Talking About</h3>
Before proceeding to discuss how it might come about, I would first like to be a little more explicit about the shift that I envisage.<br />
<br />
It is broadly in line with the vision explained by Chris Bradshaw in the introductory essay of this volume <i>[and sadly never published]</i>. It involves the emergence of an attractive alternative to the car-owning lifestyle. This alternative would be centered on an integrated package of mobility options. This package includes transit but goes far beyond it to include ubiquitous metered access to shared cars (MASC) among others.<br />
<br />
It is a shift in lifestyles and not merely a change in day-to-day mobility choices. It involves a gradual but significant shift in how excellent mobility is obtained and framed so that, eventually, most people see excellent mobility as best achieved via access to a rich integrated tapestry of services, including cars, mostly accessed on a shared and or fee for service basis rather than via mass individual ownership.<br />
<br />
<i>[Back to 2019 and clearly lots of people have been thinking along these lines since 2011 such as Robin Chase and the founders of MaaS Global (mobility as a service) among others. I was by no means the first. See below.]</i><br />
<br />
For highly motorized societies, this will mean a reduction in the number of private motor vehicles. For newly motorizing societies, it means a shift in trend lines, but may still involve some increasing car and motorcycle numbers.<br />
<br />
Privately owned cars will probably still play a role for certain groups of people and for rural dwellers. However, such cars would no longer be the majority method for achieving excellent ability. This vision will make our relationships with cars more "provisional" and less "compulsory".<br />
<br />
<i>[The word "provisional" appeals to me as a way to capture the goal of making cars seem less compulsory for people.</i><i>]</i><br />
<br />
It is not a completely new vision, and a number of other authors have discussed something like it for more than a decade. Most of them inspired by the notion of ambitious, scaled up car sharing. Examples include OECD (1997), Adams (1997), Monheim (2003), Topp (2006) and Bradshaw (2007). <i>[There is a list of references at the end of this article.]</i><br />
<br />
The next few sections focus on the central question of the essay: is an organic shift away from mass car ownership plausible without draconian government action?<br />
<br />
<i><b>[Keep reading below]</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Reasons to be skeptical</h3>
I first need to acknowledge that there are indeed formidable obstacles to the scenario. In many places, especially in North America, mass car ownership seems very deeply entrenched. Furthermore, many places that do not yet have mass car ownership seem set on a trajectory towards it. If we look at car ownership trends across many countries, a future with much lower levels of car ownership would, at first glance, seem unlikely except as a distant possibility.<br />
<br />
Mass private ownership of cars involves self reinforcing processes that tend to make car dependence become ever more entrenched. The process of accommodating large numbers of cars and facilitating their use has a path dependent character involving profound changes to transport infrastructure, the built form at several scales, streetscapes, urban regulations, the organization of relevant professions and various social norms and expectations. High use and ownership of cars can often be said to be "locked in", so that no easy reversal of these changes is possible. This situation has been labeled automobile dependence.<br />
<br />
Even in countries that don't yet have high levels of car ownership, many of the trends all seem in the wrong direction. There have been many efforts to stand up against the trend, but successes have been few.<br />
<br />
Car dependence also has a grip at the household and individual level. For many people around the world, who have voluntarily locked themselves into car oriented lifestyles, their past choices such as home location have undermined their subsequent ability to use alternatives to cars. This contributes to the political difficulty of reducing automobile dependence. Car owners often come to see their car use as almost compulsory.<br />
<br />
So, many readers may therefore be skeptical of the potential for 'metered access to shared cars' becoming a central part of an attractive alternative to car ownership for the masses. After all, car sharing now seems to serve a rather small niche. There are also formidable obstacles to having taxis play a stronger role in many cities, too many of which are trapped in a broken regulatory framework that caps taxi numbers and turns taxi licenses into a tradeable asset.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[Of course, this was before the rise of ride hailing (or ride sourcing) services such as Uber, Grab, Ola, Didi, Lyft, etc, etc. And of course, 2011 was long before people were thinking about scenarios around automated vehicles such as Robin Chase's, 'heaven' or 'hell' scenarios; the hell scenario being the privately-owned AV scenario and the heaven scenario being a scenario in which autonomous cars and autonomous transit vehicles are predominantly public or shared vehicles. This actually dovetails with some other scenarios in this essay, even though I hadn't dreamed of that possibility at that point.]</i><br />
<br />
Transit systems in many cities are also structured and regulated in ways that inhibit innovation and the ability to rise to the occasion even if car ownership were somehow to decline. Clearly, there is nothing inevitable about Bradshaw's scenario. Nevertheless, it would be hasty to dismiss the possibility.<br />
<br />
The rest of this essay offers perspectives that make change seem more plausible, perhaps even likely.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Wider forces that might push us towards car lite mobility scenarios</h3>
This section considers wider forces for radical change that originate beyond the transport system but which could open market-based pathways for change in urban mobility without public policy playing a major role. The next section will then discuss policy agendas to reduce mass car ownership, and yet still avoid being seen as draconian.<br />
<br />
Wider forces beyond the urban transport arena, which do not involve policy activism include disruptive changes in technology, in business and in the economy. For example, a decade or more of deleveraging and deflation in the rich economies might make car ownership less affordable. <i>[Well, that hasn't happened! There has been deflation and deleveraging, but there's been a boom in loans for car ownership.]</i> A period with sustained high fuel and commodity prices is another possibility. <i>[And again, that hasn't happened.]</i><br />
<br />
Simultaneously, a number of technological changes in business innovations may be poised to disrupt mobility systems and to enhance the capacity to respond to the pressures just mentioned. Continuing innovation in mobile communications and computing devices, smartphones, telematics and in social media are already threatening to disrupt numerous areas of business in inherently unpredictable directions. <i>[So this was just before the huge rise in apps and services via those apps.]</i><br />
<br />
One such wave of innovation is especially relevant. This is the trend towards collaborative consumption and the closely related idea of a shift from products to services (Prettenthaler and Steininger,1999).<br />
<br />
Numerous new and transformed urban mobility services are prominent examples of this shift. They are beginning to weaken the perceived link between car use and car possession.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[I tend to use the word 'possession' rather than ownership to take account of things like people who have a company car at home. They don't own it, but they possess it. And it for all intents and purposes, all of the behavioral issues are just like having your own car.]</i><br />
<br />
And these trends are enhancing the prospects for developing an attractive and comprehensive alternative to having one's own car. Examples include car sharing, bicycle sharing, ride sharing, integration of public transport and its marketing, and integrated mobility packages, car free housing, parking unbundling, new pricing technologies, advances in vehicle telematics and the emergence of transport information services delivered via apps on mobile devices. These latter initiatives may multiply the power of these various services by integrating them and unleashing network economies and complementarities for both users and providers.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[So you can see that there was a bit of excitement at that time. Many of us could see change coming, but we couldn't see exactly what changes were coming.]</i><br />
<br />
The theme of this volume taps into this zeitgeist by proposing the mass uptake of metered access to shared cars, which would represent a dramatic scaling up of collaborative consumption in the urban transport arena. The buzz around this collaborative consumption shift suggests to many that it may be possible to make alternatives to ownership sufficiently convenient and compelling that a massive shift away from car ownership could indeed occur organically, without government compulsion. It certainly seems possible that further innovation may make alternative mobility packages <i>[in other words, mobility-as-a-service kind of packages]</i> more and more attractive. Possible examples include the peer-to-peer, one-way and floating car-share innovations. Such improvements might further expand the range of contexts in which the car owning lifestyle faces as a serious competitor. I'll return to this topic later when I consider possible explicit government efforts to accelerate the process.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[As it turned out, the car sharing scene has been growing, but it hasn't been explosive. Much more significant has been the rise of ride hailing, for example, and more recently, micro mobility shared services like dockless bike share boom and bust and now dockless scooter share, none of which was on the horizon at that point in 2011.]</i><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Policies to melt automobile dependence without being heavy handed</h3>
Now, let's turn to policy. This section considers if policy might also assist the shift, but without being seen as too draconian.<br />
<br />
This may seem difficult as experience tells us. Car-dependent households see policies that threaten their car use and especially their car ownership as unreasonable, since they often perceive much of their car use as compulsory and without palatable alternatives. Nevertheless, this section seeks to highlight several ways in which policy might be able to help melt car dependence and reduce the attractions of mass car ownership without provoking too strong a backlash.<br />
<br />
Some of these will be pursued for reasons that have little to do with our scenario, but which may nevertheless further it. Some will make the melting of automobile dependence the explicit goal.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Policies pursued for other reasons</h4>
One possibility is that policies that gain support for other reasons might inadvertently also help erode automobile dependence. Important arenas for such policies outside of urban transport policy include climate change policy and energy policy. Plausible reforms in these areas could strongly reshape incentives in urban mobility systems. For example, by increasing the cost of fuel.<br />
<br />
Urban planning reforms aimed at various objectives, including public health, affordable housing, as well as energy and climate change, among others, may also be able to help erode the grip of automobile dependent assumptions and regulations. Some of these also appear to be gathering momentum. The relevant urban planning reforms include reform of parking requirements, reforms to rigidly-segregated low-density zoning practice, transit-oriented development efforts and suburban retrofits to intensify suburban sub-centers and strip malls.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[In retrospect, yes, various of these reforms are happening in various places, but all too slowly for many of us.]</i><br />
<br />
There are also several transport policy agendas that could assist the shift away from car ownership, even if pursued for other reasons. An enhanced environment for walking and cycling is being pursued in many places for various reasons, including public health and safety, clean air, livable streets, and enhanced accessibility for the elderly and people with disabilities. Momentum is also gathering for reform of road cost recovery policies for reasons that are unrelated to automobile dependence. These reasons include declining fuel tax receipts, local government financial strains, technological opportunities in telematics for road pricing, among others. Cost recovery reform could potentially have a profound impact.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[I think I still agree with all of that. But it still is not happening very widely just yet.]</i><br />
<br />
I have suggested that if the efforts mentioned above are pursued for the sake of goals that have widespread support, their inadvertent impact on the attractiveness of car ownership may provoke less resistance than an explicit policy effort would. However, this may not always be enough. The fact that these policies target car ownership and usage only indirectly does not necessarily save them from the resistance associated with the politics of automobile dependence and the defense of cheap motoring by people who feel they lack alternatives.<br />
<br />
Therefore, before discussing more policy positive possibilities, I would like to take a detour to argue that challenging automobile dependence more directly may be getting easier politically. Perhaps we need not shy away from further direct assaults on it.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Undermining the market credentials of automobile dependence</h4>
Many of the arguments both for and against action to erode car dependent make the assumption that these arrangements are primarily a market outcome, and the efforts against them must involve government constraints on individual freedom. This assumption is increasingly being disputed.<br />
<br />
In fact, evidence is mounting that much of the edifice of automobile dependence that supports mess car ownership was created, and is kept in place only with the support of an extremely heavy hand from government, especially at the local level. So for example, Jonathan Levine, Michael Lewyn and Ryan Avent, among others, highlight that it is zoning, not market preferences that mostly reinforces low density sprawl in North America. Donald Shoup and others have also highlighted that excessive and mostly free parking arises primarily from parking requirement regulations (and other parking regulations). Similar regulatory forces prompt oversupply of parking in many countries. Many countries also have tax incentives or exemptions that favor low density greenfield development. And of course subsidized road investments that focus on easing congestion with capacity increases tend to promote sprawling development.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[This idea that car dependency is not a market phenomenon </i><i>is perhaps more widely known now than it was in 2011. So I probably wouldn't need to labor that point so much if I was writing this essay now. Or maybe I do?]</i><br />
<br />
Furthermore, lock-in to automobile dependent patterns itself often limits choices rather than expanding them. The era in which car-centric policy expanded individual choice is long gone for most countries. Policies that lock us deeper into car dependence have the effect of stifling choice and making cars ever more compulsory. Automobile dependence at several scales restricts the housing, neighborhood and travel choices of individuals and households. This choice reduction is real, even if it initially arose voluntarily, as individual decisions or via collective political agreements by communities, especially local governments.<br />
<br />
Car ownership itself can be argued to create distortion in the market of day-to-day travel, especially with cost structures dominated by fixed costs. It inhibits subsequent travel choice-making to entrench over use. <i>[See <a href="https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/docs/default-source/faculty-publications/paul-a-barter/barter-for-tdm-2008-car-possession-as-problematic.pdf">here (PDF)</a> for more on this idea of car possession causing distortion or "rigidities" in trip choice-making.]</i><br />
<br />
This will sound odd if you think of car ownership as the normal way to achieve high mobility. But it makes more sense if we compare car ownership with the benchmark of a car-lite lifestyle with excellent comprehensive multimodal mobility and with access to car-based mobility on a fee-for-service basis. This arrangement prompts users to make many more active decisions about which mode to use for which trips.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[In other words, we can only see car ownership causes distortions in people's travel choices and behavior when we compare with an alternative in which people can also choose cars if they want, but in which they are not faced with distortions causes by ownership or possession themselves. They don't own their own car, they don't possess the car, so their traveling choices are not distorted by that particular feature.]</i><br />
<br />
Arguably, a shift away from mass car ownership could open up options that are otherwise cut off by the lock-in of automobile dependence. This perspective also suggests that lock-in to automobile dependence may not be as robust as it has seemed. If it is propped up more by regulation than by market preferences, then perhaps it is vulnerable to reforms to those regulations.<br />
<br />
This also opens the possibility that the active promotion of a shift towards mass 'metered access to shared cars' and of the melting of automobile dependence could come to be seen as a way of enhancing choices and of reducing not increasing onerous impositions by government. <i>[I guess I'm making something like a market urbanism pitch here.]</i> Making auto dependent structures face a market test is not coercion. It would allow market processes to open up richer choices and make it easier for everyone to express and realize their preferences.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Choice enhancing policy nudges to escape car dependence</h4>
So far in this essay, I have argued that major changes in the economy, the business world and the broad policy context for urban mobility services may be able to help a shift away from mass car ownership towards a "MASC" centered set of alternatives (metered access to shared cars - MASC). The choice destroying phenomenon of automobile dependence stands in the way. The grip of automobile dependent trends may not be as tight as we have assumed because it is propped up by out-of-date regulations that can be repealed, much more than by market preferences. Efforts to undermine automobile dependence should be seen as choice enhancing.<br />
<br />
This section therefore focuses on policy possibilities that aim to facilitate, although not force, a melting of car dependence and a shift to car lite lifestyles. The emphasis is on policy approaches that offer some hope of being effective, yet politically palatable and avoid being heavy handed. Many such agendas are already being pursued of course. Here are a few examples.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[You be the judge of whether I was/am realistic here.] </i><br />
<br />
Most jurisdictions could easily identify and or moderate subsidies and regulations that promote automobile dependence, yet have little clear benefit and narrow support. This would not eliminate culprits that still have widespread support such as systematic underpricing of cars and car-oriented zoning. But it would be a start. We also need a stronger push to bring telematics-based services such as pay-as-you-go insurance to the vehicle fleet as a key pathway to accelerate the shift to distance-based road charging (Grush, 2010). Bradshaw points out in this volume that such road user charging can be a key nudge towards 'metered access to shared cars' by shifting fixed to variable costs.<br />
<br />
There may also be a case to deliberately set road user charges for personal household vehicles at a slightly higher rate than for 'metered access to shared car' vehicles in order to explicitly focus attention on the distortion of traffic behavior inherent in personal possession of a vehicle. Along similar lines, we might consider directly rewarding car free households in recognition of their role in keeping alternatives to the private car viable, perhaps through a monthly lottery for which only car-free households are eligible.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[I have to say that Chris disagreed with me on that. He said that make being car-free or car-lite seem some kind of sacrifice that you have to sort of be compensated for, whereas he wanted to argue that it has inherent advantages.] </i><br />
<br />
There are many possibilities. But I would now like to focus on just two policy efforts that I believe have strong potential or a good claim to be choice enhancing.<br />
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The first is parking policy reforms that build on the proposals of Donald Shoup. Such reforms should work in a gradual choice-enabling way to make investments in parking face more of a market test. This should allow a gradual decline in the massive oversupply of parking that currently exists in many places. It would make parking more expensive in precisely the places where alternatives are richest. It would also provide a boost for 'metered access to shared cars', which are thrifty on parking space per person served.<br />
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The second promising agenda is reform of mobility-service industry structures and regulatory frameworks in order to foster "combined mobility" <i>[as it is called by UITP and called mobility as a service by various others]</i>, and thus boost the appeal, viability and integration of metered access to shared cars, transit and others. In order for an alternative package of mobility options to compete with car ownership successfully, each of its components needs to scale up and improve and, in addition, the package as a whole needs to become much more integrated so that it is attractive as a lifestyle choice.<br />
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In most places, such improvements are beyond the capacities of existing regulatory arrangements and industry structures. For example, in many cities, there are institutional barriers that inhibit cooperation between transit operators, taxi services, and car-sharing operators <i>[and today, we could add ride-hailing, bike sharing and scooter-sharing operators].</i> Furthermore, today's vertically-integrated 'metered access to shared car' services may not lend themselves to scaling up. Existing car-share, taxi and car rental companies combine customer service information and dispatch and fleet operations and compete with other similarly vertically integrated operators. For the customers of one car-share company, access to the fleets of other companies is often difficult, expensive or nonexistent. This reduces the appeal of car sharing wherever there are competing operators, especially in low density areas.<br />
<br />
So perhaps there is the case for a restructuring of MASC (metered access to shared cars) services to much more strongly encourage cross-fleet access. For example, this could be achieved with an arrangement in which customers deal with a mobility retailer which has access to a common dispatch system, possibly government mandated, to enable easy access to the fleets of all competing fleet operators. Such an arrangement creates a new layer of "mobility retailers" or "mobility brokers" in the industry structure.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[So here I was talking about what we now refer to as combined mobility or mobility-as-a-service. Many of these same issues are important even now in 2019, with the same dilemmas, perhaps in slightly different form. So it's interesting to look back to 2011 and what I was talking about here.]</i><br />
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So these mobility retailers or mobility brokers would handle the retailing, marketing and information end of your mobility needs but would leave vehicle operations to fleet operators, which would probably be separate companies. Eventually, each city might have several mobility retailers in competition with each other. However, unlike the competition by today's car-share companies, such competition would not limit your access to the whole range of mobility services.<br />
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Such data-intensive mobility retailing companies have only recently become a much more realistic possibility, for reasons that include advances in telematics and real-time urban mobility data sharing, the rise of smartphones, and the emergence of new social network-based spatial mobility services such as ride sharing, and peer-to-peer car sharing. To reach such a scenario may not happen spontaneously, however, it may require some modest government assistance or regulation to achieve the transition.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Possible tipping points and synergies in the melting away automobile dependence and mass car ownership</h3>
Possible threshold effects and synergies may provide some further hope that our scenario for change may become possible without draconian policy impositions. For example, many of the alternatives to private cars, including 'metered access to shared cars' have network economies. Their convenience and attractiveness may increase dramatically if they can become sufficiently ubiquitous. There's also a political dimension to this threshold idea. Once the various alternatives to private car ownership reach a critical mass, it becomes more difficult to claim that cars are necessary when objecting to policies that resist auto dependent. Ubiquitous 'metered access to shared cars' especially undermines such claims. Since even if you need to drive sometimes you don't necessarily need to have your own car to do so. 'Metered access to shared cars' may also help erode the value of cars as positional goods that signal high status.<br />
<br />
We can also find cause for cautious optimism about such change by noting that there are already some places where a car-lite or car-free lifestyle is chosen freely by significant numbers of affluent people who can clearly afford to own cars. Examples include the inner cities are various metropolises such as Paris, Tokyo, New York City, Hong Kong, Berlin and many others.<br />
<br />
A shift away from mass car ownership for places that are currently strongly car-dependent is much less easy to imagine. Metered access to shared cars may need to play a much more central role in the transformation of more automobile dependent places then in the inner cities. This is because these areas will still have trouble being served well by non-car modes. As mentioned earlier, peer-to-peer car sharing and other as yet untested ideas, such as Chris Bradshaw's proposal for "two-station car-sharing", with some cars having a pod in residential areas at night and a pod in an employment district during the day, may help extend the appeal of metered access to shared cars into suburban contexts. <i>[So by the way, there's an example of Chris Bradshaw's interesting, imaginative and visionary thinking he was a really was an ideas person.] </i>Nevertheless, this will be a challenge since the current niche for metered access to shared cars is in the dense mixed use areas.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[In 2019, this problem is still here. And despite the greatly enriched alternatives, it's still a problem that the alternatives to having your own car, you know, in a suburban automobile dependent area are still considered not good enough by most car owners.]</i><br />
<br />
For newly militarizing parts of the world. Mass uptake of metered access to shared cars may be able to offer governments an attractive solution to the politics of disappointment over mobility aspirations. If continued mass motorization is snatched away, even if only by circumstances, upwardly mobile, people will need to be offered a quality alternative to the cars that they had dreamed of owning.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[This is relevant to what's happening in Singapore actually. And you may have listened to my episode about the '<a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2018/08/singapore-story.html">Singapore story - warts and all</a>'.]</i><br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Conclusion</h3>
In conclusion, even if some of the arguments here are necessarily speculative, they strongly suggest that a shift away from mass car ownership should not be hastily dismissed as a fantasy. An easily-imagined set of external trends, wider policy agendas and explicitly pro 'metered access to shared car' policies may make such an apparently implausible scenario possible.<br />
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<i>[So that's where I ended. It was an optimistic and hopeful ending. The scenario I discussed hasn't happened yet. I'm still hoping! Do you think it can happen? What did I miss?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>As I said, this was also a tribute to Chris Bradshaw. We miss you Chris.]</i><br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Here are some of the references mentioned above: </h4>
Adams, J. (1997) Alternative policies for reducing dependence on the car, in R. Tolley (ed.), The Greening of Urban Transport: Planning for Walking and Cycling in Western Cities. John Wiley & Sons, London, 239-250.<br />
<br />
Avent (2011) The Gated City (Amazon Kindle Single).<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Barter, P. (2008) ‘Car Possession as Problematic for Urban Travel Markets’, in Meschik, M. and G. Sammer (eds.) Symposium Proceedings 4th International Symposium on Travel Demand Management “Visions, Concepts and Experiences of Travel Demand Management”, 16-18 July, Vienna-Semmering, Austria. pp. 41-50.<br />
<br />
Bradshaw, C. (2007). How Carsharing Can Reduce the ‘Drive to Drive’ and Improve Walkability. Presented at the Walk21 8th Annual International Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities, Toronto, Canada 1-4 October 2007.<br />
<br />
Grush, B. (2010) Creating a market for road user charging, Grush Hour blog, 28 December 2010, http://grushhour.blogspot.com/2010/12/creating-market-for-road-user-charging.html<br />
<br />
Levine, J. (2006) Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land Use (Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future).<br />
<br />
Lewyn, M.E. (2007) Five Myths About Sprawl, Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal 23 (Spring), pp. 81-106.<br />
<br />
Monheim, R. (2003). Visions for city traffic and mobility, in Tolley, R. (ed.) Sustainable Transport: Planning for walking and cycling in urban environments. Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, 84-96.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
OECD (1997). Sustainable consumption and individual travel behavior: Report of the OECD Policy Meeting. Paris, 9-10 January 1997. OCDE/GD(97)144OECD. Organization for Economic Co–Operation and Development, Paris. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prettenthaler, F. E. and K. W. Steininger (1999). From ownership to service use lifestyle: the potential of car sharing, Ecological Economics, 28, 443–453</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Shoup, D. (2005). The High Cost of Free Parking. Planners Press, Chicago. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Topp, H. H. (2006). Trends, innovative course settings and levers for mobility & transport: Seen from the year 2030, World Transport Policy & Practice, 13 (1), 18-30. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
UITP (2011) Becoming a real mobility provider (Combined Mobility: public transport in synergy with other modes like car-sharing, taxi and cycling), UITP position paper, April 2011, International Union of Public Transport (UITP), via http://www.uitp.org/mos/focus/FPComMob-en.pdf.<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-87044111099010187222019-01-22T16:23:00.000+08:002019-01-22T16:23:55.114+08:00Auckland shows car-dependent cities how to change<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This encouraging Reinventing Transport episode takes another look at Auckland in New Zealand.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>This time we focus on the city itself and how this car-dependent metropolitan area has been showing its peers how to change course.</b><br />
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This is actually the third part of my December 2018 discussion with Matt Lowrie and Patrick Reynolds, two of the bloggers on the <a href="https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/">Greater Auckland</a> blog. In the <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2018/12/greater-auckland.html">first part, which was Reinventing Transport episode #9</a>, we looked at their blog, Greater Auckland, and how it has become so influential. The <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2019/01/auckland-parking-champ.html">second part was on my other podcast, Reinventing Parking, recently</a>, where Matt and I talked about Auckland’s impressive parking reforms.<br />
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Auckland’s experience has a lot to teach other cities and Patrick and Matt are incredibly knowledgeable guides.<br />
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<br /></div>
<b>Here are highlights from the conversation.</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Auckland is still a car-dependent city but it is now rapidly becoming less car-dependent. All the key trends are in the right direction. [1:20]</li>
<li>Rapid population growth and a geography full of bottlenecks forced a re-evaluation of mobility scenarios as a roads-based strategy approached some practical limits. [2:27]</li>
<li>The 2010 amalgamation of multiple local governments into a unified Auckland Council was a game changer too. [4:00]</li>
<li>Auckland has been lucky to avoid party politics at the local level and has so far not seen transport and urban planning issues embroiled too much in urban-versus-suburban culture wars politics. [4:51]</li>
<li>A little history lesson: a tram-based city of half a million people embraced automobile-based transport planning for many decades starting in the 1950s; but from early in the 2000s an urban renaissance has been gathering momentum, with growing confidence that a quality city-centre and better public transport (among other things) are possible. Key events included hosting the America's Cup in 1999-2000, the shift of the hub of suburban rail back to the northern end of the city centre in 2003 (Britomart) and the Northern Busway in 2008 [6:06]</li>
<li>We discussed the Northern Busway and why it was significant. [10:47]</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aklbusway14.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Nankai [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="Aklbusway14" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Aklbusway14.jpg/512px-Aklbusway14.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Auckland's Northern Busway</td></tr>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Auckland (and New Zealand generally) is a great case study on the wonky subject of bus regulation. A radical deregulation in the 1990s led to significant problems. In 2008, a government-planned system with gross-cost contracting was established and survived (more-or-less) a review the following year, after a change of government. [15:40]</li>
<li>Auckland has also been revamping its bus network and has been rolling out, region by region, the New Network. Jarrett Walker was involved and the New Network is a "connective network" with a simpler but less CBD-focused set of lines, more lines with short headways, and more connections (transfers). These network changes became possible after bus regulatory reform [19:21]</li>
<li>The Congestion Free Network, devised and championed by the Greater Auckland blog, played an important role in Auckland's public transport debates. Its strengths were, a) mode-agnostic network thinking, not project-focused thinking, and b) the 'congestion-free' framing. [21:55]</li>
<li>Auckland's controversy over mass transit to its airport is a great example of the power of mode-agnostic network thinking in public transport planning. [25:17]</li>
<li>Land-use planning used to be thoroughly car-dependent but the 30-year vision and the Unitary Plan that emerged from the council amalgamation have decisively shifted towards more transit-oriented planning and intensification, especially in the core and along mass transit lines. (This included parking reform - as discussed in my Reinventing Parking episode on Auckland.) There are said to be more cranes on the Auckland skyline now than in any North American city. [27:34] </li>
<li>I asked about several recent changes that we might expect to trigger cries of "war on cars" and how did these come about. (Unfortunately, we lost some audio from Patrick in which he explained the city-centre revitalisation proposals.) Matt explained how the Council and the national Government came together to agree on a long-term mass transit plan, with Auckland Council funding via a regional fuel tax. Over the last 10 years or so, there has been no growth in traffic into the central area but major growth in arrivals by other modes. [31:38]</li>
<li>We ended with a summary of many of the good things that have been happening incrementally with continuous improvements in Auckland over the last 10 years or so: integrated ticketing, integrated fares, an improved bus network, changed the contracting of buses, electrified the trains, bought more trains, added busways and bus lanes, added bicycle tracks, improved walking conditions, and seen strong growth of apartment building in the core and along transit lines, and so on. [34:46]</li>
</ul>
<i>For even more detail (it was a rich conversation), listen to the audio (with the player above or find Reinventing Transport wherever you usually get podcasts).</i><br />
<br />
The struggle goes on of course, as you will see if you visit the Greater Auckland blog. But I found Auckland's story incredibly encouraging.<br />
<br />
I live in Singapore but I am from Adelaide in Australia and I really hope Australian cities start looking to Auckland for ideas and inspiration.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
For more information on Auckland and its ongoing transformations: </h4>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>explore the <a href="https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/">Greater Auckland</a> blog</li>
<li>check out <a href="http://unitaryplan.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/pages/plan/Book.aspx?exhibit=AucklandUnitaryPlan_Print">Auckland's Unitary Plan</a> </li>
<li>explore the <a href="https://at.govt.nz/">Auckland Transport</a> website</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
IF YOU LIKED THIS EPISODE</h3>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Please do recommend Reinventing Transport to any of your friends or colleagues who might be interested. Please share on social media too!</span><br />
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Subscribe, if you haven't already (it's free):<br />
<ul>
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<li>subscribe to the audio podcast (search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your podcast player app or click the symbol that looks like a wifi icon in one of the players at the top or bottom of this article).</li>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-79807637915645505352018-12-12T08:36:00.000+08:002018-12-13T14:59:26.768+08:00The blog that's changing Auckland and what you can learn from it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I recently interviewed Patrick Reynolds and Matt Lowrie who are two of the bloggers on the Greater Auckland blog in New Zealand’s largest city. It was a wide ranging conversation which will eventually become two Reinventing Transport episodes and one Reinventing Parking episode.<br />
<br />
Auckland is a striking example of a rather car dependent city that has actually been changing some of its key trends and taking some remarkable steps towards becoming a different kind of city in which other transport options are steadily improving. This story will be the focus of anther episode.<br />
<br />
<b>Today's episode focuses on the Greater Auckland blog itself and its role in Auckland’s transport (and planning) policy conversations and debates. </b><br />
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Greater Auckland is an influential example of a transport policy (and planning) focused blog/site with an advocacy mission. It is akin to sites like the Streetsblogs and Greater Greater Washington.<br />
<br />
Greater Auckland has been amazingly effective and influential and there are lessons for transport activists anywhere.<br />
<br />
<b>HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CONVERSATION.</b><br />
<br />
I am a slow moving creature at the moment due to illness, so I will keep this short.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Interesting local circumstances in Auckland meant it filled an important gap.</li>
<li>Cooperation with advocacy group allies, Bicycle Auckland and climate-focused youth organization Generation Zero, is important. </li>
<li>Patrick and Matt offered generous advice for aspiring advocacy bloggers everywhere. </li>
<li>Distilling the key things from already-public information and presenting them in an accessible form (both readable and with clear visuals) is extremely valuable. </li>
<li>GA's success has taken a lot of work but it is entirely voluntary. A slowly-changing team of passionately engaged volunteer writers keeps up their pace of one post every day. </li>
<li>Many of GA's writers are self-taught. Yet they have been key players through through diligence and their passionate interest in the issues and in their city.</li>
<li>Transport agency insiders are big consumers of GA's output! </li>
<li>There is also a surprisingly large public audience for GA's output, despite how wonkish it is. </li>
<li>GA's sober, data-driven, evidence-based, non-partisan and positive tone is the opposite of click bait. But it is the right tone for influence. This includes not responding to personal attacks and sticking to the issues, arguments and evidence. </li>
</ul>
For more detail, listen to the audio (with the player above or find Reinventing Transport wherever you usually get podcasts).<br />
<br />
And of course, check out and explore the <b><a href="https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/">Greater Auckland</a></b> site itself!<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
IF YOU LIKED THIS EPISODE</h3>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Please do recommend Reinventing Transport to any of your friends or colleagues who might be interested. Please share on social media too!</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<br />
Subscribe, if you haven't already (it's free):<br />
<ul>
<li>sign up to get updates by email from this site<br />OR </li>
<li>subscribe to the audio podcast (search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your podcast player app or click the symbol that looks like a wifi icon in one of the players at the top or bottom of this article).</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">You can also help me make time to continue this work by becoming a <a href="https://www.patreon.com/PaulBarter" style="background: transparent; color: #0a719c;">Patreon patron</a> of my efforts.</span></div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-5231313650341542012018-11-06T16:56:00.001+08:002018-11-06T16:57:16.558+08:00Parking: What's Wrong and How to Fix It<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b>We should stop planning parking the way we plan toilets.</b></h4>
I began with that odd (but true) statement to get your attention, obviously. But I am also serious. <br />
<br />
Many people think parking policy is boring, which is unfortunate, because boring or not, parking is important.<br />
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If you care about cities and urban mobility, you really need to pay <i>some</i> attention to parking.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBBsjVq-9RVkdrBEF7v2Z5mGeynOAoz8eaUhfIJFf2641cniNK8OkkDbpx9wkT6Q-9FDvQvSdzTAkaxb5cuS94jQctMZVk3YogEQx2u-zhifUUmp93EG-Gi4n_licMsghIUCTCcGPztBQ/s1600/Parkins+is+planned+like+restrooms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBBsjVq-9RVkdrBEF7v2Z5mGeynOAoz8eaUhfIJFf2641cniNK8OkkDbpx9wkT6Q-9FDvQvSdzTAkaxb5cuS94jQctMZVk3YogEQx2u-zhifUUmp93EG-Gi4n_licMsghIUCTCcGPztBQ/s400/Parkins+is+planned+like+restrooms.jpg" width="400" /></a>Most local governments <b>really do</b> plan parking the same way they plan toilets (using minimum parking/toilet requirements) and it is disastrous. More on that below.<br />
<br />
Municipalities do this because of another mistake - treating on-street parking as a public good (and therefore failing to manage it properly). Please take note: parking in cities is generally NOT a public good.<br />
<br />
These two mistakes cause huge problems:<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
1. on-street parking problems, which worsen many other mobility and street problems, and </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2. a slow-motion disaster of increasingly excessive (but under-used) off-street parking supply which fuels car dependence.<br />
<br />
It's sad. We deserve better. We deserve urban success. We even deserve parking-policy success. But we certainly don't need parking excess.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrylH2GTX50MW0d8LhQDeWqMTNSPOMl8RRfBUhyphenhyphenJ2WLFbJ5lelplxOubbI48D69FH5smw92uEFwEHrY_PQNR6Zemeex6DgnRtYX8QCpR0SjpN-Ri9Vk3sZnCPuepSzIKzlnFdaTU7kbdU/s1600/RESPOnD+sign+graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1006" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrylH2GTX50MW0d8LhQDeWqMTNSPOMl8RRfBUhyphenhyphenJ2WLFbJ5lelplxOubbI48D69FH5smw92uEFwEHrY_PQNR6Zemeex6DgnRtYX8QCpR0SjpN-Ri9Vk3sZnCPuepSzIKzlnFdaTU7kbdU/s400/RESPOnD+sign+graphic.jpg" width="400" /></a><b>This article and episode explains these problems and one possible path to doing better: Adaptive Parking</b>.<br />
<br />
It's a close cousin of Donald Shoup's parking ideas and it should be of interest to urbanists and advocates of sustainable transport, of cycling for all, of public transport, of walkability, housing affordability, transit-oriented infill development and of fiscally resilient cities and towns.<br />
<br />
<i>Read more below.</i><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Options for digesting this: </b></span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<li>Read more of this article below. </li>
<li>LISTEN to the 21 minute podcast audio with the player above. </li>
<li>To get a formatted full transcript of the podcast <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/22546426">click here</a>.</li>
<li>The Youtube version is at the end of the article below (turn on the captions, if you need them).</li>
<li>If you are a podcast listener, SUBSCRIBE (it is free). Search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your favourite podcast-player app or click the symbol that looks like a wifi icon in the player above.</li>
</ul>
<a name='more'></a><b>This Reinventing Transport article/episode draws on material from my other website and podcast, <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/">Reinventing Parking</a>. Take a look and consider subscribing there as well.</b><br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9H6HyHsJuKTgZNLFJq-7Km7sO5wSFQKXtg58zdKaxV4EuVfvulBE3pS-DwRKjHKGyw8T7WDRX6Q8nwA6fE-gA9HFGNlCe2YVd6Y9IOrmaLSCpvpjPCV-HIbo7JNVL3IdVW1IIo8f3BM8/s1600/Parking+takes+space.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9H6HyHsJuKTgZNLFJq-7Km7sO5wSFQKXtg58zdKaxV4EuVfvulBE3pS-DwRKjHKGyw8T7WDRX6Q8nwA6fE-gA9HFGNlCe2YVd6Y9IOrmaLSCpvpjPCV-HIbo7JNVL3IdVW1IIo8f3BM8/s400/Parking+takes+space.jpg" width="400" /></a>
Parking eats up space and is expensive</h4>
Many cities devote a huge amount of real estate for storing vehicles.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7WbF2EhXLGChWxW0YoMka1XFuppzwEQ_MSTCBE_hJUkAf0KGNZknDfHJLT_xa46RLTj8fQAwWwvtVuEgMk3ixVBF3aNOm-gkALLT4uKzqkzGQpk6fKa1raxQSqHoZo6MH6qjpBqc8-Y/s1600/Parking+is+expensive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7WbF2EhXLGChWxW0YoMka1XFuppzwEQ_MSTCBE_hJUkAf0KGNZknDfHJLT_xa46RLTj8fQAwWwvtVuEgMk3ixVBF3aNOm-gkALLT4uKzqkzGQpk6fKa1raxQSqHoZo6MH6qjpBqc8-Y/s400/Parking+is+expensive.jpg" width="400" /></a>And all that floor space is expensive. "A good rule of thumb is it costs more than the car that it's going to serve. Generally a car costs less than a structured parking space," said Todd Litman in Episode 3 of the <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/">Reinventing Parking</a> podcast.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Most cities plan parking the same way they plan toilets. And it's a bad idea.</h4>
What I mean is that most jurisdictions have minimum parking requirements, which are just like their restroom requirements.<br />
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Every development is required to provide enough parking to meet its own demands, just like every development is required to provide enough restrooms.<br />
<br />
The rationale is the same in both cases. We don't want people to do it in the streets. Ahem.<br />
<br />
But parking is NOT like restrooms in crucial ways.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ftCoTXN6kz77kccFjkH2y_U8-PvE6MflhPwjqgiR1A1fEU4H65BmozakqzqhSrAvDayhzBEOT_NrPDOwvnGdlkwkekOvED1IVAta4I0s8hytUh0tYVVLt8UncY0ckL50ZFTlEIrXs70/s1600/IMG_6825.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ftCoTXN6kz77kccFjkH2y_U8-PvE6MflhPwjqgiR1A1fEU4H65BmozakqzqhSrAvDayhzBEOT_NrPDOwvnGdlkwkekOvED1IVAta4I0s8hytUh0tYVVLt8UncY0ckL50ZFTlEIrXs70/s400/IMG_6825.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This parking is under a private building but is <br />
open to the public and priced. Pereira, Colombia. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>People are generally happy to park in the streets and do so without embarrassment. Providing off-street parking is no guarantee of preventing a parking mess in the streets.</li>
<li>Restrooms are for all but parking is for motorists. And in many cities around the world, motorists are a small and privileged minority. </li>
<li>Vehicles occupy parking for widely varying periods of time. Unlike restrooms.</li>
<li>We can predict a building's need for restrooms. It is difficult to predict how much parking is needed.</li>
<li>It is not costly to provide more than enough restrooms and we don't have to devote more floor space to restrooms than to the main purpose of the building to be confident of having enough. In car-dependent societies, most buildings have more parking space than their main use of floor space. </li>
<li>An accidental oversupply of restrooms doesn't do any harm or promote excessive use of restrooms. But an oversupply of parking does promote car use, car ownership and excessive traffic generation.</li>
<li>Finally, a toilet shortage is a serious problem but parking shortages are often self-correcting (if we allow market responses to kick in). In areas with a shortage of toilets, buildings with restrooms often try to keep outsiders from using them. By contrast, in areas with tight parking supply (such as most city centres), building owners often respond by making some of their parking open to the public and by pricing it. Temporarily vacant land often also gets used for parking. Valet parking businesses often emerge and the taxi and ride-hailing industries rise to the occasion. Cities can help too by improving walking, bicycle and public transport to the area. </li>
</ul>
So, requiring developers to provide restrooms is a good thing. Requiring them to provide on-site parking is harmful and pointless.<br />
<br />
It is much more helpful to think of off-street parking as more like restaurants or meeting rooms. Think of parking as a real estate service for each area and make parking policy accordingly.<br />
<br />
Let the real-estate industry handle most of the supply of off-street parking. They do this well enough, without being forced to, so long as free-riding on the on-street parking is kept under control.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to the next topic.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
On-street parking is an over-burdened commons NOT a public good. </h4>
Thinking of on-street parking as a public good is a trap. It is understandable but outdated.<br />
<br />
It may once have been accurate to think of parking as a public good (which, in economics, means that your use does not affect my use and that it would be too much trouble to bother rationing or excluding anybody). Describing on-street parking as a public good is only accurate in places with few motor vehicles and plenty of vacant kerbside space.<br />
<br />
But most parts of most cities are no longer like that. So thinking of parking as a public good is now a mistake. My parking usually DOES affect your use of it. Without rationing, the parking fills up, causing problems like illegal parking and double parking and parking search traffic (not to mention pleas for the city to do something about the 'shortage').<br />
<br />
It's much better to think of on-street parking as a Commons. In particular, think of it as an overused common property resource, like an over-fished river or an over-grazed pasture. And just like those examples, parking needs to be managed to avoid problems.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Urban parking problems: an acute problem and a chronic one</h4>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivq3hYOuXSFzceiUZFlZ0BG2GjjRJTkRK_jSdySdwNdlamLwdZ92J_3I_AqEMgNf2P2hSUm_8UO69uTsYj383BV_UOwUy7Sgp3_4NV73Pm7Xdk8qw0z_gS7GwtIQfM-xFk-pnPEnRjfwo/s1600/Screenshot+%25289%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivq3hYOuXSFzceiUZFlZ0BG2GjjRJTkRK_jSdySdwNdlamLwdZ92J_3I_AqEMgNf2P2hSUm_8UO69uTsYj383BV_UOwUy7Sgp3_4NV73Pm7Xdk8qw0z_gS7GwtIQfM-xFk-pnPEnRjfwo/s400/Screenshot+%25289%2529.png" width="400" /></a>Unfortunately, we often fail to manage on-street parking properly even after it ceases to be a public good and becomes an overburdened common property resource.<br />
<br />
This causes acute problems in the streets. Whenever on-street parking fills up, many resort to illegal parking or double parking. Many spend time circling around in search of parking, worsening traffic problems in the process.<br />
<br />
Just as bad, the usual 'cure' prescribed for these acute on-street parking problems is to require off street parking. It is the planning parking like we plan toilets thing again. And some cities also try to provide a lot of off street parking themselves.<br />
<br />
Trying to solve on-street parking problems by boosting off-street parking supply just doesn't work very well. The real solution to on street parking problems is, surprise surprise, managing on street parking. If you don't manage the on-street parking, much of the off street parking will remain underused. It happens time and again all around the world.<br />
<br />
I said above that parking shortages are often self-correcting. But on-street parking problems are not self-correcting. They require municipal action in the form of parking management.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Z4utd-tvz71wyW1XlxDfvqq8MfYsPGD5bDtp5xOcE7HdkfNQksm_NBmPzXH57-HLSJcIM1InBsUR4PvJ0l8FDFvSb5DPjXAB6ohX7NJGyxUoOvvCpqMheFZDk7ROK7a8yMCHNEh_obU/s1600/longtermresults.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1197" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5Z4utd-tvz71wyW1XlxDfvqq8MfYsPGD5bDtp5xOcE7HdkfNQksm_NBmPzXH57-HLSJcIM1InBsUR4PvJ0l8FDFvSb5DPjXAB6ohX7NJGyxUoOvvCpqMheFZDk7ROK7a8yMCHNEh_obU/s400/longtermresults.jpg" width="400" /></a>Although boosting off-street parking supply doesn't solve on-street problems, it can and often does massively overshoot and cause an excess of parking. This drives down the price of parking (often to zero) and fuels car-dependence. Forcing an excess of parking into real-estate developments also drives up their costs. Just as importantly, it drives down the supply of real estate, including housing. This sends prices upwards, harming housing affordability.<br />
<br />
It is a very expensive and destructive way to not really address the actual problem.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
An alternative: the Adaptive Parking agenda</h3>
So what's the alternative? I have put together <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/search?q=Adaptive+Parking">a package of municipal parking policies</a> that I think can help. They're inspired by Donald Shoup, Japanese parking policies, Todd Litman and several other people with excellent ideas about parking. I call this package "Adaptive Parking".<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBho9zWeKsBZR_H0wmPsw4led4qun2aJ5YkmsAijtacPJQq4YSH_eD1kSQgvsDDRpheMhNan14ICA1ehP0uggErDAEx9TYcm2UT7Ef3G6ouwuiW7fgcANhCMk5CZKIfBGZnl6JZsDFj3o/s1600/RESPOnD+sign+graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1006" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBho9zWeKsBZR_H0wmPsw4led4qun2aJ5YkmsAijtacPJQq4YSH_eD1kSQgvsDDRpheMhNan14ICA1ehP0uggErDAEx9TYcm2UT7Ef3G6ouwuiW7fgcANhCMk5CZKIfBGZnl6JZsDFj3o/s400/RESPOnD+sign+graphic.jpg" width="400" /></a>Adaptive Parking has six policy thrusts summarised by the memory aid: <b>RESPOnD</b>. Each is explained briefly below.<br />
<br />
I try not to be dogmatic about this and I have tried to make Aaptive Parking easy to modify to suit widely varying contexts. Feedback is welcome of course.<br />
<br />
<b>Think of Adaptive Parking as a set of useful parking policy thrusts that work together towards a more urban-compatible and multi-modal-friendly approach to parking. </b><br />
<br />
It aims for parking success without excess. It tries to make parking more responsive to local conditions. Even in the most car-dependent areas, small steps in these directions would be helpful.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Relax about parking ‘shortage’</h4>
The R in RESPOnD stands for "relax" about parking supply. In other words, stop fretting about parking supply. Stop boosting parking supply.<br />
<br />
Especially it means abolish parking minimums - abolish minimum parking requirements. This is also a central part of Donald Shoup's agenda.<br />
<br />
This is not as radical as it may sound. A <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/10/Berlin-model-or-warning.html">recent episode of Reinventing Parking</a> podcast talked about how Berlin has abolished its car parking minimums. So have London, São Paulo and Mexico City.<br />
<br />
Your city can too!<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Engage with the community</h4>
The E in RESPOnD is "engage".<br />
<br />
This involves being realistic that there are important segments of each community who feel a sense of ‘ownership’ over local parking (despite no legal basis for those feelings).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2zSXU6AEf2NL7auP5rRBT_yjfcIAk2GUwtMtguDgko-Nlz06i74CkZjyCQ1sZCMKjsrHMe7Dpzq68kNpJmiXc4i4wnzrAubjHkInycnA8DO2o25BA1QvHyU9FtaTMVVvFjIKAJrXloeM/s1600/Easing+opposition+to+new+parking+fees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2zSXU6AEf2NL7auP5rRBT_yjfcIAk2GUwtMtguDgko-Nlz06i74CkZjyCQ1sZCMKjsrHMe7Dpzq68kNpJmiXc4i4wnzrAubjHkInycnA8DO2o25BA1QvHyU9FtaTMVVvFjIKAJrXloeM/s400/Easing+opposition+to+new+parking+fees.jpg" width="400" /></a>Success with the Adaptive Parking agenda requires finding ways to ease the fears of local residents and local business owners, without undermining the rest of the agenda. We need to offer them some value.<br />
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Donald Shoup's 'Parking Benefit Districts' suggestion is one way to do this. But each context is different. We will need many locally appropriate ways to engage with the community to make change possible.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Share: make more of the existing parking open to the public or shared</h4>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj261Xt1bhlWiGVp_UsHv5esWeEbx_c-N5mbnJKQKe6CBLWrxzdq9JWWaNnNq_n8qXwikWljWbWUGb8SOVndEvsYGNE9a6KQ3HVRsVdT6OEPg4pr3IK8_kucuFB8YQor1dIl4B_jDTal68/s1600/Old+site+thinking+versus+new+Walkable+Parking+thinking.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj261Xt1bhlWiGVp_UsHv5esWeEbx_c-N5mbnJKQKe6CBLWrxzdq9JWWaNnNq_n8qXwikWljWbWUGb8SOVndEvsYGNE9a6KQ3HVRsVdT6OEPg4pr3IK8_kucuFB8YQor1dIl4B_jDTal68/s400/Old+site+thinking+versus+new+Walkable+Parking+thinking.png" width="400" /></a>The S in RESPOnD is "share". By that I mean open more of the parking that already exists in each area to the public. Make parking more of a public thing and therefore shared.<br />
<br />
On the Reinventing Parking website <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/search?q=%22Walkable+Parking%22">I talk a lot about <b>Walkable Parking</b></a>.<br />
<br />
This involves abandoning the old idea that parking has to be provided on-site with every building, with every development site. It means instead thinking of parking as something for the whole neighbourhood.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3X7c-M05YDgFU7y6KmiM2-Wf0NOYcNY3ESeITdge9QSKxNfs62L1RMtnHDDNjMQ1zc7VymxXyRIj7mDTB1mqoBKuVkPaGnDLopSPdKB_42fEHngv8LW9anpw6ZiQuALVaeH9YhHgMO1w/s1600/Screenshot+%252819%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3X7c-M05YDgFU7y6KmiM2-Wf0NOYcNY3ESeITdge9QSKxNfs62L1RMtnHDDNjMQ1zc7VymxXyRIj7mDTB1mqoBKuVkPaGnDLopSPdKB_42fEHngv8LW9anpw6ZiQuALVaeH9YhHgMO1w/s400/Screenshot+%252819%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
We need significantly less parking if parking is shared and public than if we require every single building to have enough parking for its own peak times. This works best if the neighbourhood is mixed-use because different land-uses have different peak parking times. It goes very well with walkable urbanism in mixed-use, relatively dense neighbourhoods where people can park, or come by some other method of course, and walk around.<br />
<br />
So this idea of "share", emphasizing public parking, emphasizing Walkable Parking is compatible with walkability.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Price: ration parking with the aim of always having a few vacancies</h4>
The P in RESPOnD is "price". It is about rationing.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
The general idea is simple. Let parking prices rise if the relevant parking is consistently too full. Let the prices fall if the parking is too empty. Leave prices alone if the parking occupancy is just right.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTnYEkrTbkfCBALnEi_A5zaw7KY8aNzK-m7552FTDO1fGfk0Z_Cl3Tiw3NVXGX-EWzySesHQnoBhFinTGi8FMTE7RO91gCi_0Esf1sXN-9XbMmwSu2Zd8rhFMozZRKuuRdigMSWbNP4-z/s1600/Debate+how+to+set+prices+not+each+specific+price+adjustment.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTnYEkrTbkfCBALnEi_A5zaw7KY8aNzK-m7552FTDO1fGfk0Z_Cl3Tiw3NVXGX-EWzySesHQnoBhFinTGi8FMTE7RO91gCi_0Esf1sXN-9XbMmwSu2Zd8rhFMozZRKuuRdigMSWbNP4-z/s640/Debate+how+to+set+prices+not+each+specific+price+adjustment.png" width="640" /></a>For on-street parking and city-owned off-street parking this means establishing a demand-responsive price-setting approach with regular reviews for each pricing zone (and, often, several periods in the day).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/06/every-city-with-goldilocks-parking-fees.html">Many cities</a> now do this.<br />
<br />
For private-sector parking, this agenda means refraining from controlling the prices (as unfortunately, too many planes in India, China, Indonesia, Colombia and Vietnam do).<br />
<br />
Also relevant to the 'price' agenda is encouraging employers and residential developers to give parking an explicit price instead of hiding the cost by bundling it with other things.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
On-street parking needs strong control</h4>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmsZoI4rxaMR0tpCcYe4nKlN-atcv7-P5CcuYcu-34IlMZeMofY1W4Gp_9pKT3p26BkChUtYOj1Tpq70_2QQi9LUdNPOW3444TixKTk7IYh6G9BLUIpelrX2k8wJApB9PT4Vy6c3SQ-Y/s1600/Screenshot+%252815%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmsZoI4rxaMR0tpCcYe4nKlN-atcv7-P5CcuYcu-34IlMZeMofY1W4Gp_9pKT3p26BkChUtYOj1Tpq70_2QQi9LUdNPOW3444TixKTk7IYh6G9BLUIpelrX2k8wJApB9PT4Vy6c3SQ-Y/s400/Screenshot+%252815%2529.png" width="400" /></a>The "On" in RESPOnD is about on street parking. In particular, on street parking needs strong control.<br />
<br />
Getting firm and effective on street parking management is a key foundation for the whole thing. We can't relax about parking supply unless we have on street parking under better control.<br />
<br />
The crux of it is we need to get the Design of on-street parking better. We need to improve the Enforcement of on street parking, and we need to ration on street parking more effectively - in many cases usually that means pricing.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Parking as a Demand Management Tool</h4>
And finally the D in RESPOnD is "Demand Management".<br />
<br />
Did you notice that the previous Adaptive Parking thrusts were not about restricting parking or about deliberately using it to shape travel behavior? They were merely about managing it well and refraining from boosting its supply.<br />
<br />
But this last thrust does involve parking policy as a travel demand management tool for locations that need it. This involves imposing restrictive parking maximums.<br />
<br />
This is probably only a good idea for locations with rich travel options, such as transit-oriented business districts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd39lRM6EF_fLk5yqTpGPCePLJVa8ra376_Ech1Z2Acax0M_OHJRpz2iEqBdfbqOQMvuokXiHUCSccv5l7f9J1IjL1aKElnGT7Bbaj_KTgQIQ5iv-U8PC0Pnn4OX-JrzAlAfqSFUyn5V4/s1600/Reduce+parking+in+suitable+places+for+TDM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd39lRM6EF_fLk5yqTpGPCePLJVa8ra376_Ech1Z2Acax0M_OHJRpz2iEqBdfbqOQMvuokXiHUCSccv5l7f9J1IjL1aKElnGT7Bbaj_KTgQIQ5iv-U8PC0Pnn4OX-JrzAlAfqSFUyn5V4/s640/Reduce+parking+in+suitable+places+for+TDM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This also only works well in contexts that have avoided creating excessive parking.<br />
<br />
It will be scary if the the on-street parking is not already under good control. So it is a good idea to get the Adaptive Parking basics right first.<br />
<br />
Parking supply limitation is powerful. It is also surprisingly politically feasible and has been applied in hundreds of city centres in many countries.<br />
<br />
London was a pioneer in restricting its central city parking supply and gradually driving the price of parking upwards. Seoul is another example. Its main business districts restrict the supply of parking quite intensely and allow the commercial parking prices to increase.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The Prize</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnlV6beH7vjie5PExD_aeA7boGeaIZl92L9npJlUv8ySTa7PV4n4zqzWjMLPRKbA3RyAp5aEtobNS5-aq3dijEwgTMPgFxw5mpG8AcngIfIbl9N8Xqwl0HyO1DOKKtz8PCIvyE0cBtde8/s1600/Benefits+from+even+small+steps+on+Adaptive+Parking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnlV6beH7vjie5PExD_aeA7boGeaIZl92L9npJlUv8ySTa7PV4n4zqzWjMLPRKbA3RyAp5aEtobNS5-aq3dijEwgTMPgFxw5mpG8AcngIfIbl9N8Xqwl0HyO1DOKKtz8PCIvyE0cBtde8/s400/Benefits+from+even+small+steps+on+Adaptive+Parking.jpg" width="400" /></a>The prize that Adaptive Parking is seeking is more freedom, more choices, more options. It helps ease the ways that excessive and poorly-managed parking now cuts of options for citizens and cities.<br />
<br />
If we can do better, without parking excess, we'll reduce traffic, we'll improve housing affordability, we'll unleash a land bank that's currently in parking in many places, and we'll give transit oriented development and urban infill a boost - without creating horrendous traffic.<br />
<br />
I think many places around the world could benefit from even small steps on each of these Adaptive Parking policy thrusts. Do you? Could something like this work for you? Is this relevant to your efforts?<br />
<br />
If you made it this far, I think that makes you a bona fide Parking Nerd. You should definitely check out my <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/">Reinventing Parking</a> site and podcast!<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3 style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">
If you liked this</h3>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-14788046949313847382018-10-09T23:03:00.000+08:002018-10-10T08:40:47.955+08:00Transport-based City Types and their Trajectories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<b>I want to help you get perspective on your city and its transport system with the help of simple city types based on their dominant transport modes, such as Walking Cities, Transit Cities, Bus Cities, Motorcycle Cities and Car Cities.</b><br />
<br />
This way of thinking about cities is a <i>heuristic</i> (an imperfect mental model or technique that is nevertheless good enough to be helpful). And it obviously is imperfect. For example, real cities often have various modes of transport, and modern cities are really all some kind of hybrid city type.<br />
<br />
<b>But it is still useful, especially if we add the idea of a Traffic Saturated City</b>, which is a very different beast from a Car City. It is important for change-makers in Traffic Saturated Cities to be aware they are not in automobile dependent cities yet.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Options for digesting this: </b></span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<li>Read the brief article below and study the diagrams. They complement the podcast. </li>
<li>For more depth, LISTEN to the 37 minute audio with the player above. </li>
<li>A full transcript of the podcast is also included at the end of this post.</li>
<li>The Youtube version is at the end of the article (turn on the captions, if you need them.</li>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">If you are a podcast listener, please also subscribe to the audio podcast (search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your podcast player app or click the symbol that looks like a wifi icon in the player above).</span><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Here is the story in one diagram</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lyqO7vYQwRta6PQhkRIvOQLi_3-zZgOSCk0tfudHGU6SBlgmSeROTX3VHsxo7iMcRKDZqWnjE_lgUVSjOtVZj_GajvbIyTYwcQwYKgglLy6rLIYVCMx5hcBVgE3ek_zZFPirIhLnEp-k/s1600/Slide1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lyqO7vYQwRta6PQhkRIvOQLi_3-zZgOSCk0tfudHGU6SBlgmSeROTX3VHsxo7iMcRKDZqWnjE_lgUVSjOtVZj_GajvbIyTYwcQwYKgglLy6rLIYVCMx5hcBVgE3ek_zZFPirIhLnEp-k/s640/Slide1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
There are actually two stories here:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>a set of trajectories of cities in countries that were industrialized and relatively wealthy before World War Two; and </li>
<li>trajectories of cities where incomes have risen later: newly-rich, middle-income and low-income cities. </li>
</ol>
The Blue boxes and arrows are city types and trajectories relevant only to the earlier-developed cities. The Red boxes and arrows are relevant only to the later-developing cities. And Purple boxes are relevant to both sets of cities.<br />
<br />
Later you will see two diagrams with these two stories shown separately.<br />
<br />
By the way, this is a new-and-improved version of diagrams in my thesis. Feedback welcome, of course! There is lots to nitpick here potentially.<br />
<a name='more'></a><h3 style="text-align: left;">
Transport-based City Types</h3>
But first, here are some images to clarify some of the transport-based city-types in the diagram above.<br />
<br />
These are from publications by Newman and Kenworthy. But the idea of transport-based city types has quite a long tradition, including for example, Schaeffer and Sclar's 1975 book 'Access for all: transportation and urban growth'.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh636x6h1YxATUgRSbHodtovxRINLG-PD6CfjfsuW_McuIpWB8d5oREZaEwy1zwJQwWfDGWgZkDK1bziYiYVlRNw2fB5FYN9WfmKakRihG-u7UasqicGooyrp9dQe6VXfdvmQNZNt_rVGec/s1600/Slide5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh636x6h1YxATUgRSbHodtovxRINLG-PD6CfjfsuW_McuIpWB8d5oREZaEwy1zwJQwWfDGWgZkDK1bziYiYVlRNw2fB5FYN9WfmKakRihG-u7UasqicGooyrp9dQe6VXfdvmQNZNt_rVGec/s640/Slide5.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0iIqO2vQROLYl30V6pkWkzgPJpkKhDKCOBfgZOeEG7pRcBdOafC01KMfP-VAiYXgEmD5JWzwT7zRVc_fZyNrCXT_EWTqZCWLM4kJjlQ4LXMEZmFoUmYpoC27VbnSaYDIEZxs1pP2lNZc/s1600/Slide6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0iIqO2vQROLYl30V6pkWkzgPJpkKhDKCOBfgZOeEG7pRcBdOafC01KMfP-VAiYXgEmD5JWzwT7zRVc_fZyNrCXT_EWTqZCWLM4kJjlQ4LXMEZmFoUmYpoC27VbnSaYDIEZxs1pP2lNZc/s640/Slide6.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOPzQOellZ_csrVDViaZV1btNMGCqFSFmg9rM-8GtClBcuzE2-gVgal20hpTpoBJAh4q6SxovpICSy8EgtsGC1M9lCgyYwRgXcFHvU-9WVCR5VBEpRkiZGZrXmJ6LEqubmkEfKR8J8wp2w/s1600/Slide7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOPzQOellZ_csrVDViaZV1btNMGCqFSFmg9rM-8GtClBcuzE2-gVgal20hpTpoBJAh4q6SxovpICSy8EgtsGC1M9lCgyYwRgXcFHvU-9WVCR5VBEpRkiZGZrXmJ6LEqubmkEfKR8J8wp2w/s640/Slide7.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And this one, is from my 1999 PhD thesis. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUUr1DPrHzoVzdSe8SMSRSMET8WhaShN-m_7siepN6K8UDBd5_PwxDJixlGDmOHhoKlu27nSGLQObf5wOgCLOoqBMLydrlDbuL0JUvgmu4amcKnPx5yA0UfvYIw1Go_m_RHgHkQD45Ts/s1600/Slide8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="593" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUUr1DPrHzoVzdSe8SMSRSMET8WhaShN-m_7siepN6K8UDBd5_PwxDJixlGDmOHhoKlu27nSGLQObf5wOgCLOoqBMLydrlDbuL0JUvgmu4amcKnPx5yA0UfvYIw1Go_m_RHgHkQD45Ts/s640/Slide8.jpg" width="528" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The important concept of Traffic Saturated Cities</h3>
A key argument in this episode is that many cities that become overwhelmed by traffic are NOT actually Car Cities.<br />
<br />
Many cities in middle-income countries that suffer terribly from the impacts of traffic have not (yet) remade themselves to suit cars. They are not (yet) automobile dependent.<br />
<br />
The nastiest crises from traffic tend to happen when car-ownership rises quickly in large Bus Cities, Tram Cities, Bicycle Cities or Motorcycle Cities. In other words, rapid increases in car ownership make an awful mess of these relatively low-mobility cities (more on this below).<br />
<br />
The key reasons that even relatively few cars can cause such problems in such cities are that:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>they are almost always rather high density cities. And car ownership and use can increase much more quickly than land-use patterns and road provision can adapt.</li>
<li>these city types lack enough congestion-immune Right-of-Way A public transport, such as urban rail.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlxzkbor7TICvV3s_bDccgqhRZ_Zr9zwmZLK3S_gQBJes2d-I_M40IP3bv7Tnb7wmpcoZcg6TMNLfafCA_BZcqQwTXLQrsN8hf3v9QZ0utteUtzk9mGYzw9aCYAq8PS2iTV5NH9ja_-zA/s1600/Slide10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlxzkbor7TICvV3s_bDccgqhRZ_Zr9zwmZLK3S_gQBJes2d-I_M40IP3bv7Tnb7wmpcoZcg6TMNLfafCA_BZcqQwTXLQrsN8hf3v9QZ0utteUtzk9mGYzw9aCYAq8PS2iTV5NH9ja_-zA/s640/Slide10.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The New Transit City strategy</h3>
I like to highlight a smallish set of cities that have become Traffic Saturated and then escaped this situation without becoming car-dependent. This is what I call the New Transit City strategy (another heuristic).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEhvExkyBwV-HQDWOE6vC4ghJ0Xjq3W71N2zMxHUo9w0z-dCSlMEX53HZ09yKHI5NgDFVm7oUVvKVolOsLzqZCcfgTDY5Q6lDnD3qOR6YaaZjnW4ECi1j1RGtIDfo7CW8oBiQulyhMbQcK/s1600/Slide11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEhvExkyBwV-HQDWOE6vC4ghJ0Xjq3W71N2zMxHUo9w0z-dCSlMEX53HZ09yKHI5NgDFVm7oUVvKVolOsLzqZCcfgTDY5Q6lDnD3qOR6YaaZjnW4ECi1j1RGtIDfo7CW8oBiQulyhMbQcK/s640/Slide11.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Thomson's Archetypes</h3>
J. Michael Thomson provided another take on this in his 1977 book, 'Great Cities and their Traffic'.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyrZ7zgvwGg8cA2vrxOksUU6ZbwbYMnY62kc5aHB31necUuU7H_McpzkfG1ZGj_ogS6csVaXIgbTKPV5zBY4QqajuRQuZDBHrrQGXpjrWiePOHYgs4ovmyEfJoTficccrFKGjRVG-peQM/s1600/Slide9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyrZ7zgvwGg8cA2vrxOksUU6ZbwbYMnY62kc5aHB31necUuU7H_McpzkfG1ZGj_ogS6csVaXIgbTKPV5zBY4QqajuRQuZDBHrrQGXpjrWiePOHYgs4ovmyEfJoTficccrFKGjRVG-peQM/s640/Slide9.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I think the New Transit City strategy is akin to Thomson's Traffic Limitation Strategy.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Another perspective on these city types</h3>
The next diagram (from my thesis) shows both the main city types above and Thomson's archetypes. It also shows my interpretation of how these types compare in terms of personal mobility (passenger km basically) by both public transport and private vehicles.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHGcKtYR1SrLY_pzFLWj1gZ4yIvcquaqvrxRLnOJWZBNwCM1_CPa0fUzh-Rg3usy5EmTmeVI6OYgeHGT-leIpPS7lubk8-vuxZQiLCPq2urjpFOsWxGieNhT4nRQGHh9Vr0unM7Md-rQ/s1600/Slide4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="610" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHGcKtYR1SrLY_pzFLWj1gZ4yIvcquaqvrxRLnOJWZBNwCM1_CPa0fUzh-Rg3usy5EmTmeVI6OYgeHGT-leIpPS7lubk8-vuxZQiLCPq2urjpFOsWxGieNhT4nRQGHh9Vr0unM7Md-rQ/s640/Slide4.jpg" width="542" /></a></div>
<br />
This emphasizes that the Walking Cities, Bus Cities and Motorcycle Cities are relatively low-mobility cities. Tram Cities (small and medium-sized cities in the West in the early 20th Century) were similar.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The story for cities that became richer earlier</h3>
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The city names on this diagram are there because I mentioned them in the podcast. For more detail, listen to the audio or read the transcript below.<br />
<br />
Vienna is one of several examples of Western former Tram Cities that faced Traffic Saturation problems in the post-WWII period and responded in a New Transit City style.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Why was traffic saturation generally less extreme in the rich-earlier cities? </h3>
Cities in the West did face Traffic Saturation problems as car ownership surged. Tram Cities like Vienna were mentioned above.<br />
<br />
But generally the crisis was less extreme than the later problems in developing countries.<br />
<br />
One reason is that most Tram Cities were small or medium sized. And the Western and Japanese cities that were very large were Old Transit Cities where urban and suburban rail offered an alternative as street-based public transport became mired in traffic.<br />
<br />
Public transport in these richer-earlier cities was also more extensive than in the post-war developing world, so the richer cities could afford to build more public transport. As a result, urban densities in these cities had already declined to middle-densities (roughly between 70 and 120 people per urban hectare or 7,000 to 12,000 persons per square km) before cars flooded in. Being slightly less densely populated made it easier to cope (but it also increased the risk and tendency for Western cities to become thoroughly car-dependent).<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The story for developing and newly-rich cities</h3>
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<br />
Several factors have made traffic saturation an epic problem for many developing cities since the 1960s. Many became very large (>5 million people in many cases) while still Bus Cities or Bicycle Cities or Motorcycle Cities. A large population with transport based mainly on these modes inevitably means high densities.<br />
<br />
But having an urban structure ill-suited to cars and better suited to public transport is also potentially an opportunity for cities that are able to seize it by following the New Transit City strategy.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
For more on this</h3>
A previous episode focused on <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2018/08/singapore-story.html">Singapore's story</a>, an example of the New Transit City strategy.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2016/06/seductive-but-destructive-goals.html">This Reinventing Transport article</a> covers some similar ground and links to a book chapter with more detail.<br />
<br />
A few years back, I suggested that folks in developing cities <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2013/08/attention-newly-motorizing-cities-look.html">Look to the New Transit Metropolises</a>.<br />
<br />
If you are really keen, you can even look at my <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2010/11/download-my-thesis-on-urban-transport.html">1999 PhD thesis</a>.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
If you liked this</h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
FULL TRANSCRIPT
</h3>
Welcome to the Reinventing Transport show, the international podcast that helps you push for better urban mobility and better cities.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Introduction</h4>
This episode of Reinventing Transport is about knowing your city, knowing how your metropolitan area got to be the way it is and how it compares with other cities around the world in terms of its transport and land use characteristics and, therefore, where it can go next. We can't magically transform Los Angeles into Hong Kong, for example.<br />
<br />
I'm going to draw on some of the ideas from my work a long time ago when I was doing a PhD under Jeffrey Kenworthy.<br />
<br />
And a theme of my work has been this idea of city types expressed in terms of their transport systems.<br />
<br />
One of the reasons for this episode is I hear a lot of confusion. For example, I hear people saying that Delhi for example is a car-dependent city. Eh, not exactly. Or people say that the New York City metropolitan area is a Transit City. Hmm, there's an element of truth in that but it's not quite right. Some people say that Seoul has always been a Transit City. Err.<br />
<br />
And if you're in a city in the developing world, understanding these things, and where your city sits and the potential pathways forward in the future, is really important. It's really important that you have some perspective - some international perspective even - on what kind of a city you've got and how it got where it is and where it might be going. It can help you to make some wise choices and avoid some mistakes in terms of what you're pushing for in your city.<br />
<br />
I'm going to talk a lot about city types or archetypes based on transport systems. Now this is a an idea that you might find simplistic, you know, I'll talk about things like Bus Cities or Transit Cities or Bicycle Cities or automobile dependent cities - car-dependent cities - car cities. These are all simplifications but I think they're useful simplifications. Because there's a really strong relationship between land use patterns and transport. This relationship was even stronger in the past, before urban planning was important, but it's still important.<br />
<br />
So transport policies and investments affect accessibility - how easy it is to reach a place. And that enables development in places that are more accessible. If you can't reach a place there's no point developing a building on it. Space is also consumed by transport. So different modes of transport consume space in different ways and that also affects what's possible and how densely things can be developed and in what what patterns. So transport policies and investments enable or even force certain land-use development choices.<br />
<br />
On the other side of the coin, different land-use patterns suit different modes of transport better. For example, dense concentrations of jobs and dense corridors of population suit for mass transit very well, whereas scattered jobs and scattered populations suit cars. And in fact, cars need things to be scattered to a certain extent because cars - car based transport - can't cope with high densities.<br />
<br />
The land-use patterns and these long-lived infrastructure systems are difficult to change - they change gradually. Of course, over decades the changes can be significant and we can certainly work to change the trajectories of our cities.<br />
<br />
So if you know where your city fits in terms of its transportation and land use characteristics, which are the legacies of the past, it'll be easier for you to think about what's possible in terms of pushing for change.<br />
<br />
I'll sometimes be lazy and talk about a "city" taking a decision, which is just shorthand for all of the political processes in all of the jurisdictions that added up to at a change of some kind.<br />
<br />
I'm going to talk about both cities in the developing world - what we used to call the Third World - or places where there are currently perhaps low or middle incomes and cars are not in huge numbers yet.<br />
<br />
[04:38]<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
The Story in Countries that Industrialized before WWII</h4>
But let me first tell the brief version of this story with respect to countries and cities that were industrialized and relatively rich even before World War Two. So the story is a little different for the two sets of cities.<br />
<br />
All cities, all around the world, before about 1860 were Walking Cities. The dominant mode of transport was walking and a city that became reasonably large as a walking based city had to have high density. So you'd get walk-up buildings of say up to five or six or even seven storeys. Some of the Middle East Walking Cities that are still intact - the old parts of the cities - like Sanaa in Yemen - very sadly war-torn now - but it's a beautiful example of ... its old core is a dense Walking City.<br />
<br />
By the way, before I go on to the next stage, let me just mention a few names some of the people who've talked about cities in this kind of way. Some of the first were people like Schaeffer and Sclar. Okay, so I'm drawing on a tradition here of people who've talked about cities in terms of their transport.<br />
<br />
So Walking Cities were high density if they had a large population because you just can't walk very far in a reasonable amount of time. So a large Walking City has to be very dense.<br />
<br />
And that brings us to the next stage because the Industrial Revolution increased the size of cities for various reasons. And so large cities by around 1850, 1860 in several European countries and in the United States were getting too crowded. They just needed to be able to spread out. And that prompted innovation in public transport. Initially horse-drawn trams were a key advance - horse-drawn streetcars is the name in North America - and rail transport, initially steam trains in the form of suburban steam trains, and later on slightly later on, metro-systems - subways or elevated rail but in the form of steam trains ... horrendously polluting but better than nothing, enabling these industrial cities to spread out a little bit.<br />
<br />
This created a pattern of land-uses which we can call public transport cities or Old Transit Cities. And exactly what they look like depended on how big the population was.<br />
<br />
So the smaller cities tended to be Tram Cities. They didn't need any rail based mass transit except the trams - the street cars.<br />
<br />
The huge Old Transit Cities, like say Paris London or New York City at that time, had metro systems that were rather intense throughout their main areas. They had trams as well and so they were reasonably compact dense - shaped by trams and metro systems. So intense development around metro stations and importantly a core area with a lot of jobs they often had suburban rail bringing people in from a wider hinterland as well.<br />
<br />
And the medium-sized ones had mainly trams, but maybe some suburban rail as well, but usually no metro system.<br />
<br />
Later on we'll see that the large Old Transit Cities - the ones that had big railway systems that were immune from mass transit [should have said "immune from traffic" here!] set themselves up for a slightly different future trajectory compared to the smaller Old Transit Cities.<br />
<br />
And so in North America, starting at around the 1920s, car ... mass car ownership started. This triggered a massive wave of a very different style of urban development much more spread out served by road investment. And so Transit Cities still had their Old Transit City core whether they were small Transit Cities or large Transit Cities. And all around them and interspersed between corridors there would be car-city style development.<br />
<br />
And so cities that had been small as Tram Cities before this period some of them became very very thoroughly Car Cities. So somewhere like Phoenix for example in the United States ... there's almost no trace of its Old Transit City because it was so tiny at that time.<br />
<br />
Places like Melbourne in Australia - most of the Australian cities - ended up as some kind of hybrid. Where there's the Old Transit City - there was some suburban rail and lots of trams - today we see a fairly thoroughly car based cities, but with some suburban rail left - and only in the case of Melbourne, trams. But you can still see where the Old Transit City was in the land uses and the patterns of development.<br />
<br />
But the really large Old Transit Cities like New York City and in slightly different ways places like London and Paris ... Old Transit Cities had large mass transit before cars became important. These cities vary in the extent to which they have added car based suburbs around the Old Transit City. So, even though New York City was a really big Old Transit City and the eight million people in the old core New York City City the real New York City part of the metropolitan region, it's surrounded by enormously car-dependent and lower density suburban areas.<br />
<br />
Places like London or Paris were growing slower in the car era and devoted less investment to roads compared to the North American case and so, even though they did add a lot of car based suburbia, it's not as car based and it's not as extensive as in North America.<br />
<br />
The Japanese Old Transit Cities that were large, like the Osaka metropolitan area or the Tokyo metropolitan area, added some car based areas but much much less because all of this happened much later in the case of Japan. The car era really only started in the 1970s in Japan. By then these cities were huge and growing slower than they had been.<br />
<br />
So you can see that cities today end up as some kind of hybrid. They're not necessarily completely Transit Cities anymore. There's really no pure Transit Cities anymore in the world. There are some very very thoroughly automobile oriented cities however.<br />
<br />
A few of the cities that had been small or medium-sized Tram Cities did something slightly different. They managed to resist in some way. So, just very briefly, some European cities - examples Stockholm, Munich, Vienna - didn't have much in the way of Right-of-Way A mass transit. Right-of-Way A means mass transit that is separated from traffic completely - you know nothing can get in the way if you have a Right-of-Way A. These cities had very little of that in the post-war boom years. But as they started to face traffic congestion and get saturated with traffic and car ownership rose, they decided to build subway systems or metro systems or suburban rail systems (or both).<br />
<br />
Similarly in North America, Montreal and Toronto and the San Francisco Bay Area also built metro systems in the post-war era. They are still rather car oriented metropolitan areas but they managed to become these hybrid places even though they didn't have much mass transit before the car era.<br />
<br />
There's a few cities that did have some say a significant mass transit at the time of the arrival of cars, Los Angeles for example or Detroit, and some of those cities decided to allow those mass transit systems to wither and to go fairly wholeheartedly towards the automobile city.<br />
<br />
[12:47]<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
The City-Types Story in Low-Income, Middle-Income and Recently Wealthy Cities</h4>
Let me go to the developing world now because in many ways I'm addressing myself now to people who are living in middle-income cities or low-income cities and struggling with an a surge of car ownership and motorcycle ownership and trying to think what can we do. I'm trying to help you here to know what kind of city you are. And it's not so easy.<br />
<br />
So let me give you some city types - some names that you can pin on your city or at least think about pinning on your metropolitan area - and that will help you to think about what kinds of scenarios are possible.<br />
<br />
So, here is a city type: a Bus City or a bus/jitney city. So this is in some ways similar to the Tram Cities - the streetcar cities - that I talked about earlier from the West.<br />
<br />
But in the post-World War Two era, the second half of the 20th century, there was very little in the way of trams or street cars or rail systems in developing countries.<br />
<br />
There are some exceptions. Mexico City was able to build quite a large metro. Some cities have suburban rail. Mumbai in India has suburban rail.<br />
<br />
But most developing country cities, including most large developing country cities, lacked Right-of-Way A mass transit. All of their public transport was on the roads and mixed in with traffic and very vulnerable to congestion.<br />
<br />
So numerous cities in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and even now in some parts of the world, the primary mode of transport was buses and what I call jitneys, which are mini buses.<br />
<br />
Now buses and jitneys, like trams, can't go very fast. They're not high-speed kinds of transport - certainly slower than suburban rail or Metro. And so a bus and jitney based city can't spread out very far. So if you had a big population as a bus and jitney city you'll end up with a very dense population.<br />
<br />
An example today is Lagos where there's about 200 people per hectare - 20,000 people per square kilometer. That's typical for the large Bus Cities - places like Tehran or Seoul or Jakarta. [At least when they were basically Bus Cities.]<br />
<br />
Slightly different but somewhat similar kind of city - in China we had Bicycle Cities in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s. They were dense - Beijing Shanghai became big cities as Bicycle Cities initially. They didn't have much in the way of bus systems or and or subway systems at that time. They really functioned primarily as Bicycle Cities.<br />
<br />
And again - it's somewhat similar to the Bus Cities - the speed is around 15 kilometres per hour or less, and you can only spread out so far, so you have to be a dense city if you're going to be a big city with five million or more people.<br />
<br />
Vietnam had Bicycle Cities too but as they've grown since the 1990s they've become Motorcycle Cities. And this is a new kind of city. Taiwanese cities also changed from being Bicycle Cities to Motorcycle Cities.<br />
<br />
So again Motorcycle Cities - when you've got millions of small low powered motorcycles on crowded streets, they they don't go very much faster than bicycles actually, so you get a similar kind of density and mixed-use city if you've got a big city. Like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are big cities as Motorcycle Cities. They are very very dense - twenty thousand square people per square kilometer again roughly speaking. At least they were at that kind of density when they were purely Motorcycle Cities. They're spreading out actually now as things are changing.<br />
<br />
So the story I've been telling so far about developing country cities ... They also started off as Walking Cities I should have said. So before the Bus City era of course we had Walking Cities.<br />
<br />
In the colonial era, colonial powers sometimes built a few trams and a little bit of rail but usually not much. Colonial powers were very stingy and so they built very small systems. And so, by the end of World War two most of these cities had very little in terms of public transport just a little bit of tram a little bit of bus. They were still primarily Walking Cities. But they became Bus Cities in the post-war era really.<br />
<br />
Because of the characteristics of those modes of transport - motorcycles and buses - we can still call these relatively low mobility cities.<br />
<br />
Whether it's by private transport on motorcycles or public transport on buses, you can't travel very far very fast in these cities.<br />
<br />
Whereas rich Western cities or Japanese cities with either a lot of cars or a lot of public transport, or both - these had been places that had been richer for longer - they've invested more in all kinds of public transport or private transport infrastructure. And they are much higher mobility cities. People can move further and faster. They're able to spread out more. Now, especially the car cities spread out. The Transit Cities spread out to a medium kind of a density.<br />
<br />
But in the developing world, any city that is large, if it's a Motorcycle City or a Bus City or a Bicycle City, it's going to have quite a high density.<br />
<br />
And the story as we go forward from here is, as some of these cities start to get richer ... economic success ... where do they go next? People want more mobility. They need more mobility. These crowded cities need to spread out. People want to spread out. Will they do that on mass transit or on private vehicles, whether cars or motorcycles?<br />
<br />
[18:34]<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Thomson’s City Strategy Archetypes</h4>
Before I get to that part of the story, let me just take a side track. A fellow called J Michael Thompson wrote a great book in 1977 called 'Great Cities and their Traffic'.<br />
<br />
And he had several archetypes which are very similar to the kinds of cities here. So he mentioned the "Full Motorisation" city, which is very much like the car-dependent city I've been describing.<br />
<br />
The opposite extreme within the rich world was the "Strong Center Strategy", as Thompson called it, that's more or less like the big Old Transit Cities, with large city centers served by big rail systems.<br />
<br />
And the hybrids in between of say smaller formally Transit Cities in the West that eventually ended up as some kind of hybrid between a car city and Transit City - he called that the "Weak Center Strategy". So somewhere like say Boston in the United States or Melbourne in Australia is a weak center city in Thompson's framework.<br />
<br />
And in the developing world Thompson talked about the "Low Cost Strategy" and that's very much akin to what I've been calling the Bus/Jitney City type.<br />
<br />
The final strategy from J Michael Thompson is what he calls the "Traffic Limitation Strategy". I'm going to tell the story that's related to that fairly soon and I'm going to call that the New Transit City strategy.<br />
<br />
By the way, J. Michael Thompson was an interesting fellow. He actually in some ways pioneered the pay-as-you-drive road pricing idea - I mean he didn't come up with that idea, but he helped popularize it in the United Kingdom in 1964 in a report that he was part of - he was a key part of.<br />
<br />
He was also a key figure in London's anti motorway campaigns in the late 1960s - successful campaigns that prevented the building of huge motorways through inner London.<br />
<br />
His 2010 obituary in The Guardian newspaper quotes him as saying that choosing a transport strategy is "the choice of a way of life ... a choice that may affect different sections of the population very differently... (and thus) a highly political question." So he he was well aware that transport strategies - transport choices - were far from being just technical questions. They are political questions. They're about our values - what we want our city to be in the future. And that that's the topic of this episode. What's the vision for your city?<br />
<br />
But you need to pay attention to where your city is now if you're going to know where it can go next.<br />
<br />
[21:09]<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Traffic Saturated Cities</h4>
Okay. Let's get back to those big dense Bus Cities or Motorcycle Cities.<br />
<br />
They faced an enormous danger - and they still do. Any city that still is a big dense Bus City or Motorcycle City faces enormous danger if there's a rapid influx of cars especially.<br />
<br />
The reason for this is you've got high densities in these cities. If it's a big city then that high-density core area is going to be very large - over a very large area - and you're going to end up with huge impacts of traffic. Even a relatively small number of cars coming into an urban area that is a Bus City type or a Motorcycle City type will create an enormous mess because there's just not much space in that kind of city for the cars.<br />
<br />
These cities tend not to be very rich at this point and can't invest very much in new road capacity to try to spread themselves out. With high densities it's also very very difficult to provide enough road capacity.<br />
<br />
Even if you invest in in major road systems, with high densities it's hard to change the structure of your city fast enough to cope with the influx of cars.<br />
<br />
The people are not very rich and they can't afford to spread themselves out and suburbanize very rapidly. You'll get a little bit of that. Bangkok in the 1990s, and since then, has been spreading out and suburbanizing as there was an influx of cars. But the old core Bus City area of Bangkok is still enormous and still clogged with traffic.<br />
<br />
I call this situation the Traffic Saturated City.<br />
<br />
So Bus Cities - former Bus Cities that get flooded with cars - former Motorcycle Cities that get flooded with cars - I call these Traffic Saturated Cities - a new city type - well their land uses are not fundamentally changed yet but they've got a new situation.<br />
<br />
And so we see examples of this over the last 30 or 40 years all over Southeast Asia, all over Latin America ... Most of the large Chinese cities had a period of this and maybe some of them are still in that. Many of India's cities you could call traffic saturated cities today. Jakarta is a great example of a Traffic Saturated City. Delhi is an example of a Traffic Saturated City.<br />
<br />
So all of these cities, what was it about them that made them vulnerable to being traffic saturated? They lacked mass transit that was immune from traffic so these kinds of cities get all sorts of nasty vicious cycles. As the buses slow down and get mired in traffic it becomes more and more tempting to buy cars.<br />
<br />
Some of these Bus Cities didn't have very many motorcycles in the Bus City era - they were not Motorcycle Cities. But many of them see an increasing number of motorcycles as they motorized because they then become almost the only way you can move around easily and bypass the traffic jams. So we've seen this in Indonesia, India. Manila which famously had very few motorcycles or bicycles - it was really thoroughly a Bus City and a jitney city - today has more and more motorcycles as it gets clogged up in traffic. We see this happening in Latin America as well.<br />
<br />
Almost all of them tried initially to accommodate cars. That was the initial thing. Increase road capacity ... try to plan for dispersal - many of them came up with plans that tried to reduce densities, reduce the intensity of development in the center, spread development out. They started to impose car-oriented planning norms inspired by American norms, such as wide streets, setbacks, parking requirements - minimum parking requirements or standards, etc.<br />
<br />
[24:57]<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
The New Transit City strategy</h4>
But I mentioned the New Transit City strategy or what Thompson called the Traffic Limitation strategy.<br />
<br />
Some cities that were faced with this traffic saturation problem chose to change direction.<br />
Most of them started by trying to accommodate cars but, after a little while of that not working very well, they took a change of tack. These are different from Old Transit Cities.<br />
<br />
The New Transit Cities are cities that were Traffic Saturated cities. Remember they didn't have much mass transit. They had little or no traffic-immune mass transit at the start of this pivotal era.<br />
Examples of this include Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei to some extent, Shanghai, and even to some extent some Latin American cities like Curitiba and Bogota. I'll also mention some European cities.<br />
<br />
So what happened in the following years as these cities embraced that strategy? ... which I'll explain the details of that strategy shortly.<br />
<br />
But the key thing is they managed to slow the rate at which private mobility was increasing. So car ownership ... they managed to slow the increase the increase in traffic. They managed to slow it down. Almost none of them stopped it but they slowed it down. And they diverted the increasing aspirations as people got richer ... they diverted those mobility aspirations towards public transport primarily rather than private. So public transport mobility increased in all of these cities very significantly while private mobility continued to increase but at a much slower rate generally speaking.<br />
<br />
So it was a change in trajectory.<br />
<br />
So what actions have these examples that I've chosen done and what actions could your city? Suppose you are in a city that is a Traffic Saturated City - a very large proportion of the world's population right now are in Traffic Saturated cities - what could your city do to push itself in the direction of becoming more of a New Transit City? You can't magically become a Transit City instantaneously but how can you embark on that trajectory?<br />
<br />
Well, here's a series of things. And I'll try to be quick because I don't want to get too bogged down in all the details.<br />
<br />
Of course one thing you have to do is plan for mass transit. That's not necessarily the first thing you do but you'll be aiming to make it possible to build significant mass transit. And this has to be traffic immune mass transit.<br />
<br />
So for example Singapore embarked on a new Transit City strategy starting in the early 1970s and part of the plan was always to build mass transit - the MRT system - a metro system. It didn't actually open until 1987 but it was a key part of the strategy.<br />
<br />
Hong Kong similarly started to restrict cars from around the early 1970s and embarked on a Transit City strategy. The MTR in Hong Kong didn't open till 1979 and the Kowloon Canton railway was not double tracked and electrified until 1983 but nevertheless this was always part of the plan.<br />
Taipei was thoroughly a Motorcycle City by the 1980s ... it took steps in the 1990s to improve its buses and started to build metro systems in the 1990s. So it successfully made a transition from being a Motorcycle City towards being a New Transit City. So it's an interesting example if you're a city with huge numbers of motorcycles you should study what has been done in Taipei over the last 30 years.<br />
<br />
Curitiba in Brazil is very famous of course for being the pioneer with bus rapid transit. It was a Bus City that was rapidly becoming traffic saturated in the 1960s already and so the BRT efforts and the pedestrianization of the city center were a city-level response to the threat of traffic saturation and a successful one.<br />
<br />
Bogotá in the 1990s was faced with traffic saturation in a city that had been very much a Bus City. And so the Enrique Peñalosa administration late in that decade (1998 to 2000) initiated TransMilenio BRT and this was a relatively successful effort.<br />
<br />
Vienna is famous today being a being of successful Transit City but it wasn't always like that. It was actually a medium-sized primarily tram based city, so that the flood of cars in the 1950s was a real problem. It only had a small electrified rail system but the significant Schnellbahn or S-bahn developments were only from 1962 in Vienna. And it's only since 1978 that Vienna has had an U-bahn (metro). Vienna also has given a lot of priority on the roads to its trams and buses as part of its Transit City strategy.<br />
<br />
So in the new Transit City strategy, of course, transit - mass transit - is a key part of it. But they did various other things and this is important.<br />
<br />
If you are a currently a Bus City that's becoming a Traffic Saturated City and you think that all you have to do is build mass transit then you won't be as successful as these New Transit Cities in changing your trajectory.<br />
<br />
In various different ways all of them start to treat cars as a luxury. They resist the idea that cars are a necessity.<br />
<br />
Bogotá's 20% surcharge on gasoline sales - half of that surcharge goes to the TransMilenio BRT. Seoul has also for a long time had an urban fuel surcharge. Singapore - in in an episode of Reinventing Transport a few weeks ago I talked about the Singapore story, so I don't have to repeat it now.<br />
<br />
Parking has been a part of that policy, especially in Europe but also Seoul has business districts where parking supply is restricted. Hong Kong had an interesting policy which I highlighted in a blog post on my Reinventing Parking website. It turns out that in a 1970s if you were building a residential building in Hong Kong the parking maximums were extremely low.<br />
<br />
Some of the cities, especially in Latin America and Europe but also some of the Asian New Transit Cities, have made a big effort to improve the walkability and to create lovable places and do placemaking or to rescue much-loved parts of their cities - usually the older parts of the cities - rescuing them from traffic.<br />
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So the pedestrianization of Europe's city centers, the improvements in Seoul city center, such as the Cheonggyecheon stream project and a few other projects ... Shanghai and other Chinese cities that are trying to be new Transit Cities are increasingly creating pedestrianized city center areas.<br />
<br />
The primary thing here is to make it more attractive and politically attractive ... there's a a payoff that's positive - something that people can see is a benefit from all of the negatives perhaps and the less politically palatable things of limiting cars. Making cars a luxury not a necessity is politically challenging to say the least, so making your city livable, walkable and a great place is something that people can relate to, at least, especially if you you were lucky enough as a city to have some loveable places to start with. And of course public transport is important but it's it's fairly utilitarian. People don't get very excited about it. But much-loved places are important as part of this package.<br />
<br />
The public transport efforts in all of these cities were more than just investment, by the way. They were also about institutions and the regulatory arrangements for public transport.<br />
<br />
So Seoul for example, in 2004 has drastically improved its bus organization and network and regulatory arrangements. There's a similar story in many of these cities.<br />
<br />
Most of these new Transit City strategies cities have not neglected the humble old buses and in some cases, the trams - the streetcars. And so many of them have improved them in terms of institutions and investment but also given them priority on the roads.<br />
<br />
The New Transit City strategy is not just about building Metro lines or BRT. It's about this whole package of strategies.<br />
<br />
Planning was also part of the new Transit City strategy. So Singapore is a prominent example of this but just about all of them have adopted a land-use plan for the metropolitan area that is increasingly transit oriented, shifting away from those car-oriented planning rules that came in the early stages of the traffic saturation response you remember I mentioned. So typically high densities are allowed near mass transit especially. Mixed-use is often allowed.<br />
<br />
[33:46]<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Trajectories</h4>
So in the show notes I'll share some diagrams which are from my thesis 20 years ago ... my PhD thesis under Jeff Kenworthy. They'll give you a visual picture of the story that I've been telling.<br />
<br />
They're basically the two stories: one of them for the cities that were industrialized and relatively rich before World War Two and then also a diagram portraying how Walking Cities in developing countries became non- motorized vehicle cities - Bicycle Cities - or Bus Cities ... some of them became Motorcycle Cities or some mix of motorcycle and Bus Cities and almost all of them became traffic saturated as cars flooded in. And I've just finished describing the strategy of the New Transit City strategy, which in my thesis I called the modern Transit Cities.<br />
<br />
So where does your city fit?<br />
<br />
Is your city ... very few Walking Cities today ... but is your city is still a Bus City? Is it a Motorcycle City or is it a Traffic Saturated bus and or Motorcycle City? Is your metropolitan area looking like it's moving towards becoming an automobile city.<br />
<br />
Maybe you already live in an automobile dependent city and the question is how to escape that situation? Well much of the transport and land-use policy debates in North America - if you follow North American debates or Australian debates - much of that is about how automobile cities can become somewhat less automobile dependent or how cities that we used to be Old Transit Cities and are now hybrids of automobile dependent cities and Transit Cities ... how they can shift a little bit along the spectrum to be more transit based (and to get more out of bicycles and other modes of transport). I don't want ...<br />
<br />
I didn't go into that very much because that's well-trodden ground and my special contribution perhaps is to help the lower-income and middle-income less motorized cities that are still in the Bus City, Motorcycle City or Traffic Saturated City situations - to help you to see where you might go next.<br />
<br />
And I hope I've made a case that the New Transit City strategy, or some variation on that strategy, is not such a bad bet for cities that are Traffic Saturated. If you're traffic saturated you're probably still quite high density. You haven't yet rebuilt your city around cars. You haven't yet suburbanized and become extremely low density. You are not yet an automobile dependent city.<br />
<br />
I said earlier that was a mistake to say somewhere like Delhi is a car dependent city. It really really is not. The New Transit City strategy is perfectly suited to somewhere like Delhi - if you can put all of the pieces together.<br />
<br />
So I hope that's been useful for you. Please do give me feedback. I'd really love to hear from you how I'm doing with this podcast.<br />
<br />
Don't forget, you can always go to www.reinventingtransport.org for more information, to listen to other episodes, to find out how to subscribe, or to leave a comment, suggestion, or question. Go to reinventing transport dot o-r-g. This has been the Reinventing Transport show and I'm Paul Barter.<br />
<br />
Thanks for listening. Bye for now.<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-87245017182869285272018-09-05T03:20:00.002+08:002018-10-02T09:51:56.871+08:00Reducing transport emissions: lessons from a career<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="90" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/7005702/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/286bd0/" style="border: none;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="100%"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Margarita Parra and I discussed lessons from her 8 years directing </span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.72px;">William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant-making </span></span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">aimed at reducing transportation-related air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">.</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZalQHRPntfaJRNE-a8rl4xJR1cr0TZ1ePscodZa3zY8JiMF57r2urSv-yZH9ITZDIyIZ0OulZMsbs_6ZruedSwzW8q_VOp5Kw-jx_X5vWKebNc8UX_CoUuAHckrF3rV2gOVYTHTWO_w/s1600/Margarita+Parra+RJCXVc6__400x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZalQHRPntfaJRNE-a8rl4xJR1cr0TZ1ePscodZa3zY8JiMF57r2urSv-yZH9ITZDIyIZ0OulZMsbs_6ZruedSwzW8q_VOp5Kw-jx_X5vWKebNc8UX_CoUuAHckrF3rV2gOVYTHTWO_w/s320/Margarita+Parra+RJCXVc6__400x400.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">The interview was prompted by an <a href="https://hewlett.org/a-legacy-of-innovation-and-a-blueprint-for-the-future/">article Margarita wrote</a> for the Foundation’s website to reflect on and share lessons learned from her work there</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">. </span></div>
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As I end my term as Program Officer of the <a href="https://twitter.com/Hewlett_Found?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Hewlett_Found</a> I want to share my learning and experience advocating for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lowcarbon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#lowcarbon</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/transport?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#transport</a>. Check my blog!<a href="https://t.co/Y47TKTvXMf">https://t.co/Y47TKTvXMf</a></div>
— Margarita Parra (@ciclistamaluca) <a href="https://twitter.com/ciclistamaluca/status/1019990825344745472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">The article was also picked up (and adapted slightly) by WRI’s the <a href="http://thecityfix.com/blog/8-years-watching-influencing-urban-transformation-reflections-foundation-program-officer-margarita-m-parra/">CityFix blog</a></span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Margarita is worth paying attention to on this issue given her long track record of working on it through several relevant organizations. Before Hewlett Foundation, her experience included <a href="https://ecomobility.org/">ICLEI's Ecomobility programme</a>. She is also a Member of the Board of Directors for the</span> Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><a href="http://www.slocat.net/">SLoCaT</a>). </span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><b style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Here is how you can digest my discussion with Margarita: </b></span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<li>The best way is to LISTEN to the 31 minute audio with the player above. </li>
<li>Or subscribe to the audio podcast if you are a podcast listener (search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your podcast player app or click the symbol that looks like a wifi icon in the player above).</li>
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<li>There is no long article this time. Just some very brief highlights below. So please do listen or read <a href="https://hewlett.org/a-legacy-of-innovation-and-a-blueprint-for-the-future/">Margarita's original article</a> that prompted our interview. </li>
<li>The Youtube version is at the end of this post (scroll to the bottom).</li>
<li>My <a href="https://www.patreon.com/PaulBarter" style="background: transparent; color: #0a719c;">Patreon patrons</a> will be able to download a full transcript. </li>
</ul>
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: white;">
<a name='more'></a>Some brief highlights from the conversation</span></h3>
<ul style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">
<li>Margarita described how the Hewlett Foundation's grant-making on transport emissions works. </li>
<li>Why transportation needs to be an increasingly important part of emissions reduction efforts. </li>
<li>The "two-part strategy" that Margarita applied to this issue at the Foundation: 1. decarbonize and 2. optimizing to get more mobility of people and goods with fewer vehicles. </li>
<li>Debate over which should be primary. Why both are needed. Why she (and many) are attracted to 2. But how her analysis showed that 1. offers faster results right now, especially given technology advances. </li>
<li>Some of her favorite grantees and projects. These includes projects by <a href="https://www.itdp.org/">ITDP</a> and <a href="http://wrirosscities.org/">WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities</a>, such as the <a href="http://wrirosscities.org/news/calling-all-entrepreneurs-rickshaw-rising-challenge">Rickshaw Rising Challenge</a>. </li>
<li>Rapid change and innovations, such as IT enabled phenomena such as ride-hailing and dockless bikesharing among others, and how they offer both promise and risks. </li>
<li>The state of the transition to Electric Vehicles: accelerating but still largely policy-driven not yet a market-driven process.</li>
<li>Why co-benefits of carbon emission reductions are crucial, since they address people's immediate priorities. </li>
</ul>
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IF YOU LIKED THIS </h3>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Please do share it on social media or with any of your friends or colleagues who might be interested. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">If you haven't already, subscribe (for free):</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">You can help me continue this work by becoming a </span><a href="https://www.patreon.com/PaulBarter" style="color: #0a719c; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Patreon patron</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> of my efforts.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="90" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/7005702/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/286bd0/" style="border: none;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="100%"></iframe><br /></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Finally, here is the YOUTUBE version</b></div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5lgkh2UxTBg" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">I would really welcome your feedback. Leave a comment below!</span></div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-36705476509350819102018-08-23T11:30:00.002+08:002019-06-01T21:52:33.181+08:00"Slow" is not a dirty word <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxiRRfZGx4KuEpBbpke6m4fSSYyVFC1ogbfYERX0l0lWzWXPtJgb1iwFx3LdU3JqngHyl57wGd4PEP9-ttqqt-gYYwDEayb6ibzTsJrciZtxK8jgC8zpwg8CUOIs5OnLIqefXpaT637U/s1600/CFP+suspect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1225" data-original-width="1600" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxiRRfZGx4KuEpBbpke6m4fSSYyVFC1ogbfYERX0l0lWzWXPtJgb1iwFx3LdU3JqngHyl57wGd4PEP9-ttqqt-gYYwDEayb6ibzTsJrciZtxK8jgC8zpwg8CUOIs5OnLIqefXpaT637U/s320/CFP+suspect.jpg" width="320" /></a>
Carlos Felipe Pardo and I discussed the intriguing and neglected idea of "slowness" in urban transport. </h3>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Slowness has a poor reputation but it has its place, especially in cities. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">S</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">peed offers to bring more destinations within reach. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Yet slow-but-steady is often better than a series of sprints between traffic signals or delays. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Deliberately slowing certain sensitive segments of many vehicle trips could bring huge benefits.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;">Does that sound puzzling? Read on (or listen) and all will become clearer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="90" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6959247/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/286bd0/" style="border-style: none; border-width: initial;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="100%"></iframe> <i style="background-color: white; font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i><h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Listen with the player above or subscribe to the podcast with your favorite podcast player (click on the wifi symbol) or read the detailed summary below. </span></i></b></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Digest my discussion with Carlos in several ways: </b></h3>
<ul style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<li>READ the article below. </li>
<li>LISTEN to the audio with the player above. </li>
<li>The Youtube version is at the end of this post (scroll to the bottom).</li>
<li>My <a href="https://www.patreon.com/PaulBarter" style="background: transparent; color: #0a719c; text-decoration-line: none;">Patreon patrons</a> will be able to download a full transcript. </li>
<li>Subscribe to the audio podcast if you are a podcast listener (search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your podcast player app or click the symbol that looks like a wifi icon in the player above).</li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Carlos is Executive Director of <a href="http://www.despacio.org/">Despacio.org</a>, a non-profit foundation based in Colombia. Despacio is Spanish for 'slow'! If you don't read Spanish you can try the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Despacio site </span><a href="https://translate.google.com.sg/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.despacio.org/&prev=search" style="font-family: merriweather, georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">in English google translation</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 16px;">. </span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Why the name "Despacio"?</h3>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Despite being told it was an awful idea, Carlos and his colleagues insisted on calling their transport-focused non-profit organistion, "Despacio", which is one of the two main words in Spanish for going slow (the other being lento).<br />
<br />
Carlos explains that their focus is actually appropriate speeds. But that's too long (and boring). Despacio provokes curiosity. It provokes a conversion.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Slow-but-steady wins the race</h3>
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When they hear about proposals to slow traffic, many people assume their trips will take longer. Carlos explained that this is usually a mistake. </div>
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We are talking about reducing top traffic speeds NOT average travel speeds.<br />
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Reducing the maximum allowable speed in a road or street often leaves travel times more or less unchanged. In fact, if traffic can be made less stop-start, average speeds can even increase.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, this is difficult to convey in a concise yet convincing way.<br />
<br />
"I don't understand. How come you tell me to go slower and I'm actually going faster?" is the reaction Carlos hears.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Human speed</h3>
Our evolutionary heritage makes us poorly equipped for high speeds. Our field of view narrows. Our judgments are poor.<br />
<br />
So roads designed for speeds higher than the 30 km/h or so that was top speed for our ancestors, need elaborate traffic engineering and rules to guide us and to keep vehicles separate from unprotected human bodies.<br />
<br />
Wherever we want to be able to roam the streets on foot or using small vehicles, like bicycles or scooters, we really should be keeping the traffic slow: 30 km/h or less.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Searching for the right words<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [7:15]</span></h3>
Difficulties with words and language on this issue came up several times in our conversation.<br />
<br />
For example, the word, speed, can just mean whatever the speed is. But it also implies "fast".<br />
<br />
Carlos and Despacio have struggled with this.<br />
<br />
Four "speeds":<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="es">
Mi opinión sobre las cuatro velocidades: <a href="https://t.co/gZVGJRLc9R">https://t.co/gZVGJRLc9R</a> <a href="https://t.co/5pHFKJh6Av">pic.twitter.com/5pHFKJh6Av</a></div>
— Pardo (@carlosfpardo) <a href="https://twitter.com/carlosfpardo/status/934989396771835904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Talking about "lower speeds" is not quite right and there was that average-speed confusion mentioned above.<br />
<br />
"Appropriate speed' sounds boring and wonkish<br />
<br />
"Better speeds" might be OK but many people just assume it means faster speeds.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
For certain places, people do get it</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It is not all gloom however. Despacio surveyed Bogotá residents and found high levels of support (80%) for 30 km/h zones (even with strong enforcement) in residential areas among other places. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And, of course, campaigns in many countries in Europe (for example) have led to a growing trend for 30 km/h zones and even for more radical "Play Street" or "Living Street" (Germany's "spielstrasse" and Netherlands' "Woonerf") redesigns of certain streets.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
A mismatch between public opinion and policy-makers' beliefs about public opinion</h3>
But Carlos lamented the difficulty. Slowing people down still sounds toxic to many politicians and decision-makers.<br />
<br />
Slowness can seem almost like a dirty word, with very negative connotations, despite all the benefits of slowing down traffic in appropriate places.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Streets ≠ Roads <span style="font-weight: normal;">[11:33]</span></h3>
We also discussed the idea of a street as distinct from a road or a highway.<br />
<br />
Streets have multiple purposes, including as places and for local access, while roads/highways are more primarily about movement.<br />
<br />
Many people conflate the two unfortunately. For Carlos, this confusion goes beyond the words and reflects confusion about how to design the city.<br />
<br />
Carlos shared a little example from Dar es Salaam<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="es">
Road or Street? Herein lies part of the problem...<br />
(Por lo menos en Español no está la confusión tan evidente, pero igual se diseñan mal) <a href="https://t.co/S3CBtVCGW9">pic.twitter.com/S3CBtVCGW9</a></div>
— Pardo (@carlosfpardo) <a href="https://twitter.com/carlosfpardo/status/1010497600020246529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Depart slowly, go fast, arrive slowly<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [12:58]</span></h3>
We also had a little epiphany when I suggested it might be useful to extend how we think about the departing and arriving parts of longish private vehicle trips.<br />
<br />
We usually think of departing and arriving as just a few meters and a few seconds - going to the vehicle, getting in, and maneuvering out of the parking area.<br />
<br />
But it might be better to stay in a slow "departing" or "arriving" mindset for longer and include the parts of the trip within the neighborhoods of the destination and origin. If it is a long trip, then the "line haul" part can often be fast, on appropriate roads designed for speed.<br />
<br />
Instead of thinking of the departing and arriving parts of a trip as only twenty meters or so, we should think of them as the first and last kilometer or two perhaps.<br />
<br />
In a trip of 10 or 20 km, a slow beginning and end makes only a tiny difference to the journey time but makes a huge difference to each neighborhood.<br />
<br />
Of course, public transport trips are usually like that already, since we need to get to the stop or station and that is usually done on foot or with a bicycle or such-like at a human speed. We need to extend the assumption of extended-but-slow departing and arriving to motoring too.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Getting the slowness message across ... a dramatic stunt<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [21:25]</span></h3>
We often need to talk numbers to highlight the impacts of vehicle speeds and the benefits of slowness. On the danger issue, this graphic is a start.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="es">
Y véalo aplicado a la norma colombiana <a href="https://twitter.com/nico_estupinan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nico_estupinan</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/dhidalgo65?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dhidalgo65</a> @WRIcities <a href="https://twitter.com/Paradita?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Paradita</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CadenaGaitan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CadenaGaitan</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/behrentz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@behrentz</a> <a href="https://t.co/njeSi8awL9">pic.twitter.com/njeSi8awL9</a></div>
— Pardo (@carlosfpardo) <a href="https://twitter.com/carlosfpardo/status/699225171199045632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2016</a></blockquote>
But graphs and numbers don't persuade many people.<br />
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>So Carlos and Despacio did a dramatic stunt to convey this message more forcefully (apparently causing consternation with their funders). With permission, they placed a mannequin (dressed to look like Carlos!) and put it on a sixth floor ledge.<br />
<br />
As a horrified and curious crowd gathered, the team distributed flyers explaining that a 50 km/h vehicle collision with a person on foot is like the pedestrian falling from a six storey building.<br />
<br />
By contrast, at 30 km/h, the crash is only like falling just one floor (and is less likely at this speed anyway).<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<h3>
About Carlos Felipe Pardo</h3>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">
<div style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Carlos Felipe Pardo, the executive director of Despacio.org, is a trainer, consultant, writer and nonprofit leader focusing mainly on urban transport issues in cities across Asia, Latin America and Africa. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">His background is actually as a psychologist and he also has an MSC in Contemporary Urbanism from the London School of Economics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Carlos was awarded the <a href="http://www.cycling-embassy.dk/2018/06/14/carlos-felipe-pardo-receives-ceds-leadership-award-2018/">Danish Cycling Embassy's 2018 Leadership Award</a>. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<h3>
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<div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-70484664145021176842018-08-06T16:00:00.000+08:002018-10-17T18:02:55.135+08:00Singapore Urban Transport: The Warts-and-All Story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<br />
<b>Singapore's National Day is this week (9 August). So I decided to share Singapore's urban transport story - or my slightly</b><b> unusual take on it</b><b>. </b>It is<b> </b>a unique city in various ways but its urban transport policies are well worth your attention even if you don't live in Singapore.<br />
<br />
This is a warts-and-all version of the story, and it is my own view, not any kind of official one.<br />
<br />
It's also a little wonkish in parts. [Hi all you policy wonks!]<br />
<br />
But I hope to keep your interest with some surprising twists, such as:<br />
<ul>
<li>Why was the bus-only public transport system in an awful state by the early 1970s?</li>
<li>If the buses were awful in early 1974, how was Singapore able to impose drastic increases to the cost of motoring in 1975?</li>
<li>You will have guessed that the buses must have been drastically improved in 1974/75. But how was that achieved?</li>
<li>Singapore urban transport enjoyed success through the 1980s and 1990s but its core social bargain (cars for the rich; decent but basic public transport for everyone else) came to seem too elitist in a newly prosperous city. </li>
<li>However, the first major effort to fix this backfired badly in the 2000s.</li>
<li>Did you know that Singapore's two major policy tools to limit traffic both have demand-responsive prices?</li>
<li>Finally, how a new approach, under the slogan 'car-lite Singapore', is seeking a less elitist path forward (ironically despite returning to keeping car-ownership as a luxury). </li>
</ul>
<b>Listen with the player above or SCROLL DOWN TO READ the detailed summary below.</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.patreon.com/PaulBarter">Patreon patrons</a> can download a full transcript and a <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/presentation-on-21920851">presentation (pdf) with explanations of many of the ideas in this post/episode</a>.<br />
<br />
With the <a href="https://youtu.be/c5hGv5EhaKU">Youtube version</a> below, you can also listen while watching a slide-show of photos.<br />
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c5hGv5EhaKU" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<b>I focus mostly on two periods: </b><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>The big changes of the mid-1970s and what led up to them. </li>
<li>Events since about 2002 and recent 'car-lite' initiatives. </li>
</ol>
So, if you only want to read about today's situation, scroll down a few sections.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Huge Urban Transport Problems by the Late 1960s</h3>
The transport situation by the late 1960s was grim. And similar to rapidly motorizing cities today.<br />
<br />
Singapore had been successfully industrializing during the 1960's and the new post-colonial government had been focusing on export-oriented industrialization and public housing. But the old master plan was out of date, so rapid development was causing increasing commuting distances.<br />
<br />
And rising prosperity meant rising vehicle ownership and traffic congestion. There were also serious problems with the bus system. All in all, transport was becoming a crisis.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
But why was the bus system so bad by the late 1960s?</h3>
The arrangements for the bus system dated from 1935, the year the British colonial government forced the hundreds of small unregulated 'mosquito bus' businesses to merge into 10 companies. The mosquito buses were much like the unregulated minibuses found in many other countries. They served the city fringes and rural areas beyond the core area, where there were trolley buses.<br />
<br />
Each of the 10 new companies served a corridor or two under a franchise. As regulated monopolies they had regulated fares. This arrangement worked okay for many years. But by the late 1960s, the bus fleet was aging and huge numbers of buses were off the road in need of repairs. A pirate taxi industry, running shared taxi services along bus corridors, emerged as a symptom of the disease.<br />
<br />
What had gone wrong?<br />
<br />
Most versions of this history point to labour unrest and weak management by small family-run companies.<br />
<br />
But I think it was a case of fare regulation gone wrong (a common problem for bus systems in low-income and middle-income countries). The 1950s and 1960s were tumultuous politically in Singapore, so governments were not keen to allow bus fares to keep up with costs, as demonstrated by the poor state of the fleet. The increasing traffic congestion and the pirate taxis would have made things even worse.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The 1971 Concept Plan was a Turning Point <span style="font-weight: normal;">[05:30]</span></h3>
<div>
The Singapore government realized it had neglected urban planning and transport planning in the rush to industrialize and build housing. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With help from the United Nations, a 'State and City Planning' process led to the 1971 Concept Plan (and trained a generation of Singapore planners).<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
This was a strategic plan that set the scene for urban planning and transport policy in Singapore for many decades. The plan: </div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>argued that high levels of car use was too space-inefficient for a space constrained city like Singapore</li>
<li>recommended restricting traffic demand</li>
<li>called for a future rail-based mass transit system </li>
<li>planned a transit-oriented metropolitan spatial strategy.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Time to restrict car traffic. But - problem - the buses were still awful!</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOceuzfz2SjgUbBkk-Z7tX7tW8ROiR7GFInkUD3E9VHpO6wJM2J9m-FBHJyzFir5gWEiaCuLTNXm7Lbl3It2z_EtlVbkyc4vJO4vz9PgvslzyVXUASvyXRPXMoHpJEWESJLKMVhS0KfEU/s1600/18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="792" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOceuzfz2SjgUbBkk-Z7tX7tW8ROiR7GFInkUD3E9VHpO6wJM2J9m-FBHJyzFir5gWEiaCuLTNXm7Lbl3It2z_EtlVbkyc4vJO4vz9PgvslzyVXUASvyXRPXMoHpJEWESJLKMVhS0KfEU/s320/18.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A boundary of Singapore's ALS cordon in 1994 or so. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The government quickly made plans to drastically increase vehicle taxes and to introduce the world's first Congestion Charging system (a road-pricing cordon around the city centre, called the Area License Scheme -ALS).<br />
<br />
People something think that Singapore can be tough on cars because public transport system is excellent.<br />
<br />
But in the early 1970s, Singapore's buses were terrible and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) was at least a decade away (and in fact did not open until 1987).<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>And, although political opposition and civil society had been severely weakened in the 1960s, Singapore in the 1970s was authoritarian, not totalitarian. The government faced elections and still had to worry about public opinion.<br />
<br />
So it was politically risky to act on these plans. Fixing the buses had become urgent! The whole Concept Plan strategy depended on improving them.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
How did Singapore improve the bus system by 1975? </h3>
The usual story is that more forced mergers (from ten companies into three in 1970 and then into one in 1973) didn't work.<br />
<br />
Then, in 1974, the government imposed civil servant managers on the new company, SBS - Singapore Bus Service. The idea is that better management did the trick - together with provision of bus lanes and a significant capital injection to buy new buses and to fix the old ones. This is not a bad short-term explanation.<br />
<br />
But I think the reason this worked for the long-term too is that it fixed the "fare regulation gone wrong" problem, which I mentioned earlier.<br />
<br />
With civil servants inside the company, the government could now see the real costs and revenues. They realized the need for a capital injection which achieved quick improvements. And, in the longer run, they saw the need for a more balanced approach to regulating fares. So future fare adjustments were not so harsh. This was ad hoc in 1974 but was gradually formalized in the bus regulatory system.<br />
<br />
I call the old arrangements a "passive franchises" system, with controlled fares but little attention to system sustainability or service levels. The new system I would describe as a "well-regulated franchises" arrangement, with a more balanced approach to fares and much more attention to service levels.<br />
<br />
So the bus system was indeed greatly improved by 1975 - just in time for those big vehicle tax hikes and the start of congestion pricing in 1975. AND it was put onto a much more successful institutional footing that did quite well for three decades or so.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
A tough-minded 'social bargain' that worked well <span style="font-weight: normal;">[11:37]</span></h3>
The policies adopted by 1975 involved a tough-minded social bargain. It involved preventing excessive traffic congestion using some fairly harsh methods.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>But in return, people who were willing to pay a lot for their car got a pretty good deal, since there was little congestion and gradually improving roads. </li>
<li>For everyone else, the government committed to gradually improving public transport. An effective and functional alternative to driving was created.</li>
</ul>
This generally achieved its objectives and Singapore followed this strategy until the early 2000s.<br />
<br />
The mode share for commuters entering the city centre dropped from 48 percent by car in early 1975 to 29% in late 1975 and 16% by 1983. The share of buses plus rail was about 51% in 1997 for all trips, which is pretty respectable, and taxis were carrying another 12%.<br />
<br />
Car ownership per thousand people was lower in 1980 than it had been in 1970. In 2002 car ownership was only about 35% of resident households although it rose during that decade as I'll talk about shortly.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Urban transport experts and observers from around the world were generally full of praise for Singapore's achievement during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Downsides of this social bargain</h3>
It wasn't all rosy however.<br />
<br />
This approach was never popular. It was not unacceptably unpopular either. But there was a growing unease over certain tensions in the approach.<br />
<br />
Even though the system involved progressive taxation via high costs for motorists, it still seemed elitist to be offering first-class mobility to high-income households and a functional-but-basic alternative to everyone else.<br />
<br />
And treating cars as a luxury, with high prices, had some unfortunate side-effects. For example, it inadvertently put cars on a higher pedestal as something even more desirable.<br />
<br />
It also seems to have dampened policy ambitions for the alternatives to cars. MRT became the main focus of efforts to improve alternatives, which is no bad thing. But other alternatives, such as bicycles and even the buses were relatively neglected.<br />
<br />
This social bargain also seems to have led to a sense that motorists, having paid so much, must be given excellent service. Singapore has a rather dense network of large six-lane arterials with multiple turning lanes and slip lanes at junctions, highway like designs on lots of roads, lots of multi-level junctions - flyovers, underpasses - and a reasonably extensive expressway system. Travel by car is still much faster than by public transport, even in peak hours and even on some of the corridors served by MRT.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Two traffic-limitation tools with demand-responsive prices</h3>
Let me digress briefly to mention the two main Travel Demand Management (TDM) tools in Singapore. Both have an interesting approach to setting their price levels.<br />
<br />
In 1998 the congestion pricing cordon was transformed into the electronic road pricing scheme (ERP) and expanded to more locations not just the city center.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0D4u3nAp8T_QOUyQYMR-csVi_tEdyBNW5zgz2EqLUWufZbzTBTe9vesnaGFjCkaGGGhHYZacpM3IM7cDXAI41W7NUJcmEU4_ST4wUyUIUsDWmycoI3564y-RjHUK5Vhp1qJAfOkFGHhc/s1600/CIMG1087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0D4u3nAp8T_QOUyQYMR-csVi_tEdyBNW5zgz2EqLUWufZbzTBTe9vesnaGFjCkaGGGhHYZacpM3IM7cDXAI41W7NUJcmEU4_ST4wUyUIUsDWmycoI3564y-RjHUK5Vhp1qJAfOkFGHhc/s320/CIMG1087.JPG" width="320" /></a>ERP has the goal of achieving efficient traffic flows. It targets the traffic speeds at which vehicle flows are efficient, which on expressways is about 45 km/h to about 65 km/h. You could say it aims to achieve the efficient amount of congestion!<br />
<br />
Here is how ERP prices are demand-responsive. The speeds for every 30 minute period near every ERP gantry are monitored and reviewed every three months. If they have been too low then the price at that gantry will be raised. If the speeds have been high - above the target range - then the price can be reduced at that gantry.<br />
<br />
Reportedly, the main motorist responses to changes in ERP prices are, first, to change the timing of their trips and, second, to change their route.<br />
<br />
One of the key vehicle taxes that helps keep car ownership levels under control is also demand-responsive. Before 1990, ordinary vehicle taxes set at eye-watering rates were the main approach.<br />
<br />
From 1990, Singapore introduced the Vehicle Quota System (VQS). They set a target growth rate for the vehicle fleet of 3% per year. Twice per month there is an auction of rights to register vehicles - they're called Certificates of Entitlement or COEs.<br />
<br />
So the Singapore government can control the approximate size of the vehicle fleet using something akin to a cap-and-trade approach.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
An 'experiment' with expanding car-ownership backfires politically <span style="font-weight: normal;">[20:03]</span></h3>
Concerns about keeping cars as such a luxury item, and the side-effects of this aging 1970s social bargain, seem to have led to an (unannounced) experiment, starting in about 2002.<br />
<br />
There was high-level talk of allowing more people to own cars and that it would be better to rely more on the usage-based pricing, such as ERP and parking to keep traffic under control. More people could have cars but they might have to pay more to use them.<br />
<br />
There was no official announcement of a change to the vehicle fleet growth rate (it stayed at 3%) but quite a few extra COEs were indeed released in the subsequent years.<br />
<br />
And growth in vehicle numbers was very rapid through 2004 to 2008 - about seven percent on average during those years. Car ownership went from 35% of households in 2002 to 42% by 2012.<br />
<br />
<b>It might come as a surprise to people outside Singapore, but this was NOT a political success! </b><br />
<br />
In fact, it resulted in a lot of unhappiness. As traffic levels rose, ERP prices rose too. Remember, they are demand-responsive. Private-sector parking prices also rose as demand increased. And public sector parking, lacking demand-responsive prices, became overcrowded. By bad luck, fuel prices were also rising through 2003 to 2007.<br />
<br />
So all those new car owners with modest income levels, who excitedly bought cars in the mid 2000s at prices that seemed cheap (by Singapore stadards), suddenly found it expensive and annoying to actually use their car. They were not pleased.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The new approach: Car-Lite Singapore <span style="font-weight: normal;">[22:04]</span></h3>
In 2009, Singapore reversed course on what I've called an experiment (which was never really announced as such).<br />
<br />
The vehicle quota rate growth rate was reduced drastically. First it was reduced from 3.0 to 1.5% and then, in a series of steps, it reached zero percent per year in February 2018. This got a lot of media attention. But, even before reaching zero, the allowed increase in the motor vehicle fleet had been lower than the population growth rate for several years.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RG48R4FS5q_5dBQUlHX7RtlIMiHTqTa4dPCZVBmPxNb-nPxrzRX2zn2yIgMlQ6QFD5qdoOEuxVoDALZROOverIRfFFQrvwTjSD458CLSxboP-Nmc8XvJ9WVKcZrrckM4Zta3J-BBJ1g/s1600/Singapore+cars+per+1000+1974+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="696" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RG48R4FS5q_5dBQUlHX7RtlIMiHTqTa4dPCZVBmPxNb-nPxrzRX2zn2yIgMlQ6QFD5qdoOEuxVoDALZROOverIRfFFQrvwTjSD458CLSxboP-Nmc8XvJ9WVKcZrrckM4Zta3J-BBJ1g/s400/Singapore+cars+per+1000+1974+2017.jpg" width="400" /></a>In practice, Singapore car numbers have actually been dropping for some time. The number of cars per 1000 people reached a peak of 115 in 2010 and had dropped to 97 by 2017. <i>[<b>UPDATE</b>: I should point out that this excludes rental cars, which shot up in number after 2014 for use as ride-hailing cars by Grab and (until recently) Uber drivers. Nevertheless, even if we include these in the car ownership per 1000 people, it still dropped from a peak of 118 in 2010 to 110 in 2017.]</i><br />
<br />
Clearly, the Singapore government can no longer say that in the future more Singaporeans will be able to have cars and to just be patient.<br />
<br />
COE prices leapt upwards for a few years, so that even the cheapest cars cost more than S$100K (about US$70K). Prices have eased since then but are still much higher than in the 2000s.<br />
<br />
Political pressure to improve the alternative to cars reached new heights.<br />
<br />
So the narrative has changed and, starting in 2014, a new slogan has been prominent: "car lite Singapore".<br />
<br />
It seems to represent a new determination to make it more of a first-class option to not own a car, so that those who are priced out of owning a car will no longer feel that that's a second-class and fairly functional and basic alternative to this first-class thing of owning a car. But it's a challenge to achieve that.<br />
<br />
It is trying to chart a less elitist path forward. Ironically, it is doing so while at the same time making car-ownership very much a luxury again.<br />
<br />
The key imperative here is to try to de-link car ownership from excellent mobility.<br />
<br />
And this should put Singapore on the front lines of efforts to promote car-free living, Mobility as a Service, and so on.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Signs and Examples of Singapore's Car-Lite Efforts<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [24:21]</span></h3>
In the podcast, I discuss a number of examples. Here is a brief list:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9IXj05VtG-vd6_zargkUHr_WRfZYJ7nO-hksyFioAIl2qznE8U56m5TRpNmURTWdjdrSxeassxoDjnlMcUlj77wYa2ndsLdJQjl-Y_2HCmXnfxYP3Iphabvz6O-GVy3_RQg7_y7IERfI/s1600/IMG_7698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9IXj05VtG-vd6_zargkUHr_WRfZYJ7nO-hksyFioAIl2qznE8U56m5TRpNmURTWdjdrSxeassxoDjnlMcUlj77wYa2ndsLdJQjl-Y_2HCmXnfxYP3Iphabvz6O-GVy3_RQg7_y7IERfI/s320/IMG_7698.JPG" width="320" /></a>
<li>A laid-back regulatory reaction to the arrival of ride-hailing industry (Uber and Grab initially, although Uber has now departed) and, more recently, dockless bike share. These are in line with the Car-Lite thrust. However, new regulation of dockless bike share has apparently led to two companies departing, so we will need to watch this space. </li>
<li>Ambitious expansion of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is ongoing. Rail reliability problems haven't helped but a major effort is underway to address these.</li>
<li>There is still a surprising amount of road investment and expansion but there may also be signs of change. For example, the North-South Expressway, which was announced in the 2000s, will now become the North-South Corridor, with fewer mixed traffic lanes and with bus lanes and bicycle paths. </li>
<li>Singapore's government is enthusiastic about automated vehicles with an emphasis on public transport and "robo-cabs" or "taxi-bots" as applications. If anywhere can achieve a 'shared mobility' AV scenario it is Singapore, since it already has robust tools of transport demand management, like ERP. </li>
<li>Relevant here is that ERP in Singapore will soon be turned into a positioning-based congestion pricing system where potentially any kilometer of driving could have a (demand-responsive) price.</li>
<li>A newly positive attitude towards bicycles as a serious mode of transport, after decades of neglect. Singapore has not been building world-class bicycle infrastructure but it is trying hard to improve. The Land Transport Authority now has a significant Active Mobility Unit. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRln5Q1zfRfKUfehublFPu4aKsR-2AmQ36G5s3gZSrIjQyBXFjcyGTKf1F1rDlhxB3g7mqdJMr3GreV6oxNHwIvIO0mMB0KsXJ7z7XIDX8akDZt3zT_FfEHQLEryyQ8xy15UWjWNwGktg/s1600/IMG_7708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRln5Q1zfRfKUfehublFPu4aKsR-2AmQ36G5s3gZSrIjQyBXFjcyGTKf1F1rDlhxB3g7mqdJMr3GreV6oxNHwIvIO0mMB0KsXJ7z7XIDX8akDZt3zT_FfEHQLEryyQ8xy15UWjWNwGktg/s320/IMG_7708.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
</li>
<li>The regulatory approach to buses has been changed again, to an approach similar to London or Stockholm with government planning of routes that are then contracted out. This gives the government more power than before to improve the bus system. However, it has not yet used this power to reorganize the bus routes. I think it should, since Singapore has a rather tangled web of bus routes with much duplication and mostly lower frequencies than needed in a wealthy and transit-oriented metropolis.</li>
<li>There are several new experiments with car-lite urban planning - both in the public housing and in private sector. </li>
<li>Parking policy is under review. The Land Transport Authority also now has the power to impose parking maximums rather than just minimums. It also has the discretion to try new approaches to parking provision in the new car lite areas, such as planning parking as a district level rather than for each building.</li>
</ul>
I hope you've enjoyed this rapid retelling of the Singapore Land Transport story. And I hope it was of use to you somehow.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Listen</u> with the player above or <u>subscribe</u> to the podcast with your favorite podcast player (click on the wifi symbol) or <u>read</u> the detailed summary below.</span></i><br />
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I decided not to provide citations in this post. The narrative here is based in part on my previous writings on Singapore (search this site for examples) and also on parts of a new book chapter I am writing for an edited collection. The chapter (and my earlier writings) have references of course. I will update this post with a link to the new book when it is published in 2019.</div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-56836669284343985432018-07-23T17:00:00.000+08:002019-06-01T21:53:30.830+08:00Multimodal urban transport: Todd Litman explains how and why<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I interviewed the energetic Todd Litman, founder and Executive Director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI). I am a great admirer of his work, most of which he generously shares on the <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/">VTPI website</a>.<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
If you want less car-focused and more multi-modal transport planning, you'll benefit from Todd's clear explanations of the key problems with conventional urban transport planning, why we need multi-modal urban transport planning and how to get it.<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Scroll down to read a summary </i>(including links to relevant articles and reports by Todd).<i> </i><i>Or listen to the interview (Episode 3 of the Reinventing Transport podcast) with this player. </i><i>If you can't see the player, </i><i><a href="http://reinventingtransport.libsyn.com/multimodal-transport-todd-litman-explains-how-and-why">click HERE</a> to listen. </i></span><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you like podcasts, please do subscribe using your favorite podcast app. </span> </i><br />
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<b>The conversation covered these main topics</b> (more details are below but the audio interview provides an even deeper dive into these issues):<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1vYe1bpGbwyVfOfAvDM1CiqV2Wk0jkCkaY70E3qQZd8Ja4_dbPmbg-PlvCPNDskCWewN45v6AQIbThp5PFJIA3FxJYHMgzeXeRYibAQc7OSS1WP6XP6cjswHwaxtoWdkIj3r3qHF5zxY/s1600/Screenshot+2018-07-19+20.58.29.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1vYe1bpGbwyVfOfAvDM1CiqV2Wk0jkCkaY70E3qQZd8Ja4_dbPmbg-PlvCPNDskCWewN45v6AQIbThp5PFJIA3FxJYHMgzeXeRYibAQc7OSS1WP6XP6cjswHwaxtoWdkIj3r3qHF5zxY/s320/Screenshot+2018-07-19+20.58.29.png" width="240" /></a>
<li>Multimodal versus conventional transport planning</li>
<li>Comprehensive transportation analysis</li>
<li>Congestion costs get exaggerated </li>
<li>Is multi-modal urban transport only for urban cores?</li>
<li>One car-dependent city that is working hard to change</li>
</ol>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Multimodal versus biased conventional transport planning <span style="font-weight: normal;">[1:40]</span>
</h3>
<a href="http://www.vtpi.org/multimodal_planning.pdf">Multimodal planning</a> (pdf) aims to redress a systematic bias in current transport planning, particularly in North America, in favor car-based transportation over other modes, that are more resource-efficient, more affordable, healthier and safer.<br />
<br />
Examples from Todd:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Funding allocation tends to favor roadway improvement over spending to improve walking, bicycling or public transport.</li>
<li>Urban planning and urban development policies also often favor car dependent sprawl over more compact and infill development.</li>
<li>The usual ways of <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/measure.pdf">measuring the transportation system</a> (pdf) are deeply misleading with their focus on vehicle traffic speeds and flow and motorist convenience, via the idea of roadway Level of Service (LOS). Such data often gives policymakers (especially in America) the impression that there's little need to invest resources in walking and bicycling. They create communities where it's difficult to get around without a car.</li>
<li>The high fixed costs of cars, compared with low marginal costs of driving each kilometer, prompt car owners to make economically inefficient decisions about how to make each trip. It seems foolish to leave your car at home when taking the bus feels more expensive (compared with the marginal cars costs - fuel costs and parking - that we notice at that moment). Shifting some costs from the fixed category to the variable one is one, limited, answer. More promising are policies to make it easier for households to choose lower car ownership.</li>
</ul>
Todd is enthusiastic about better ways of measuring transport, such as multimodal level-of-service indicator systems. In the past, cars facing LOS C on a stretch of roadway might prompt road expansion. But if, on the same roadway, walking has LOS D and bicycling LOS E, it is easier to see that improving walking and cycling conditions might be a higher priority.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Comprehensive transportation analysis <span style="font-weight: normal;">[11:05]</span></h3>
We discussed Todd's insistence that transport planning should consider all costs and benefits <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/comprehensive.pdf">in a comprehensive way</a> (pdf).<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Todd argues that conventional evaluation of, say, which is cheaper, building and operating a train line versus expanding a highway, tends to miss important issues.<br />
<br />
It is not only external costs like pollution that are often missed. Various private costs are also neglected, such as the costs of owning and using cars and of providing parking. These are simply assumed as a given, so the potential to reduce or avoid them is often ignored.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Systematic exaggeration of congestion costs<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [16:04]</span></h3>
This comprehensive view also helps Todd make the point that traffic congestion is almost always exaggerated as a problem (for example by the annual Texas Transportation Institute s' Urban Mobility Report, which he <a href="https://www.planetizen.com/node/51680/faulty-assumptions-tti-urban-mobility-report">critiques regularly</a>):<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Most alarmism over congestion ignores negative feedback in the system. Congestion tends to reach equilibrium. If it gets bad enough, it discourages some peak period car trips. So traffic congestion can get bad but it then levels off. But, if you do expand the road you will get a significant amount of generated traffic additional peak period vehicle trips that would not otherwise occur. </li>
<li>The travel time index (and variations of it), often used to measure congestion intensity, is biased. It measures how much slower you would go in peak periods compared with the same trip during off-peak periods. This obviously looks worst for large dense cities. But if you measure congestion based on per-capita congestion costs - taking into account both the intensity of congestion and also the number of peak-period car trips per person, it's the sprawled car dependent cities that have the highest congestion costs per person. And it is congestion costs not congestion intensity that matters most!</li>
<li>The baseline for measuring delay in the travel time index is free-flowing traffic, which is unrealistic anyway. Even worse, says Todd, in many cases the baseline they use is higher than the speed limit! </li>
<li>Conventional studies also typically exaggerate congestion costs by using an excessive value of travel time, higher than the the 25-35% of average wages from by empirical studies. They're making congestion seem much more costly than what consumers would actually be willing to pay to avoid the delay.</li>
<li>Such studies typically also assume that congestion causes large increases in fuel consumption and pollution emissions. In fact, a moderate degree of congestion, such as reducing expressway speed from say 100 km/h to 60, actually reduces pollution emissions and fuel consumption!</li>
</ul>
Todd emphasizes that he is not saying roadways should never be expanded. But in many many<br />
cases we are being misled by erroneous evaluations. There are often much more cost-effective solutions that are better for everyone.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Is a multi-modal urban transport vision only for downtowns and urban core areas? What about other places?<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [24:32]</span></h3>
Is multimodal transport planning relevant even for people who are currently happy living a car-dependent life? What's in it for them?<br />
<br />
Todd is adamant that car-dependent residents of suburban and rural areas have every reason to<br />
support more multimodal planning and more comprehensive analysis. He offers several examples: <br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Bumper stickers saying "Mom and Dad's taxi service" are cute but this is a serious issue. The <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/chauffeuring.pdf">burden of chauffering children or seniors</a> (pdf) is as significant (in terms of time) as traffic congestion in automobile dependent areas. Children's independent mobility has plummeted in North America. Todd mentions that the proportion of children walking or cycling to school has dropped from 80% when he was a kid to about 20% now. </li>
<li>Even if you can afford to own a personal car and you are physically able to drive right now, there's a chance that things will change sometime in the future. In five or ten or twenty years, you or a loved one may be dependent on wheelchairs or on walking or on public transportation. </li>
<li>So it is partly self-interest that should prompt motorists to support better options, both to reduce their chauffeuring burdens and in preparation for their own possible future. </li>
<li>Affordability is another reason. For many households, particularly low-income households, being able to get around without a car is a great increase in their economic freedom and in reducing financial stress. Reduced dependence on cars can also open greater options even for middle-income income household, for example by opening the choice for one parent to become a full-time stay-at-home parent.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Can you point to a relatively car-dependent city that is turning things around?<span style="font-weight: normal;"> [32:14]</span></h3>
Todd points to <a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/12/18/seattle-adds-people-without-adding-traffic/">Seattle as a somewhat surprising leader</a>.<br />
<br />
Seattle has invested in rail transit but, equally importantly, it has made numerous incremental improvements to the bus system, to the point that bus travel is often attractive to middle-income people. This is quite a breakthrough for North American cities. As a result, total transit ridership has increased significantly in the last decade.<br />
<br />
Traffic accident rates have declined too. Todd sees this as a validation of his <a href="https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/96324-new-traffic-safety-paradigm">research on safety</a>, which argues that safety benefits enormously from improving travel options and reducing dependence on cars, particularly for the high-risk travelers.<br />
<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-73973431709007569402018-07-06T22:40:00.000+08:002018-10-02T09:54:27.510+08:00Streets for people in India: Shreya Gadepalli<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>‘Complete Streets’ are spreading rapidly in India, according to Shreya Gadepalli of <a href="https://www.itdp.in/">ITDP India</a>, who I interviewed for Episode 2 of the Reinventing Transport podcast. </b>Chennai and Pune, in particular, are improving conditions for people on foot, on bicycles and in buses. We spoke about India but her comments are relevant internationally.<br />
<br />
<b>Highlights from our conversation are below</b>, followed by links to relevant documents and more detail about Shreya herself. Right at the end you can read a <b>full transcript</b>.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b>The need for complete street improvements in India is enormous and urgent.</b></h3>
“Less than one percent of streets in urban India actually have footpaths. There is almost no infrastructure for cycling and the majority of space is hogged by personal motor vehicles even though they account for less than a quarter of all trips made”, said Shreya.<br />
<br />
The space inefficiency of cars makes them seem more important than they really are. When Shreya asks people in India what proportion of city-dwellers have access to cars, many guess 50%. The real answer is more like 5%.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
ITDP's Guidance on Street Design</h3>
We will see below that changes have been coming to the streets of several Indian cities.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>One key to current progress was the information and guidance in ITDP's <a href="https://www.itdp.in/resource/better-streets-better-cities-a-guide-to-street-design-in-urban-india/">Better Streets Better Cities guide</a> for street design in Indian cities, published in 2011.<br />
<br />
It was a big step and helped spark interest across India in more equitable street designs and led to ITDP India street design efforts in about 20 cities.<br />
<br />
Shreya pointed to Chennai and Pune especially.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Chennai's streets changes</h3>
Shreya reports that Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, has became the first Indian city to adopt a policy for streets that makes non-motorized transportation its top priority, including in funding.<br />
<br />
Chennai also now has ambitious goals to make the city's roads much safer. They are now very dangerous.<br />
<br />
Nearly 60 kilometers of streets have already been retrofitted with better walking and cycling environments and better footpaths. Another 100 kilometers are currently being redesigned. The goal is to eventually redesign about 500 kilometers of "bus-route roads" so that all streets with a bus service will have a better walking environment.<br />
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<br />
Chennai is also developing a detailed plan for a Bus Rapid Transit system to complement its existing rail and Metro.<br />
<br />
I asked how such ambitious plans had been politically possible, given the bad experience of some Indian cities with reallocating space on the roads (Delhi's BRT comes to mind).<br />
<br />
Shreya said that there has certainly been opposition. But both leadership and broad coalition building made the difference:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>leadership from both previous and current Commissioners of the city</li>
<li>cooperation with the local university, whose academics conducted in-depth training for about 90 city engineers on how to plan, design, and implement streets for all</li>
<li>support from local urban designers and architects</li>
<li>engagement with resident associations and other community groups, </li>
<li>an effort to educated and engage with the media.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Pune streets</h3>
Coalition building has also been crucial in Pune, Maharashtra, reports Shreya.<br />
<br />
ITDP made common cause various other local civil society organizations, with local media groups, and supportive people in the Municipal Corporation, which was also fortunate to have had progressive leadership.<br />
<br />
As a result, Pune is the first Indian city to have street design guidelines of its own.<br />
<br />
Like Chennai, Pune has also made pedestrians and cyclists a high policy priority and even has a new dedicated municipal cell for bicycle and street design planning.<br />
<br />
Pune is currently retrofitting about 125 kilometers of streets. Some of the early pilots are now the best quality walking and cycling environments in India so far.<br />
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<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Drawing some lessons</h3>
What can we learn from such momentum, which is spreading further to other cities in Tamil Nadu, and to Bangalore and to other cities?<br />
<br />
I asked Shreya to elaborate on the interesting combination of technical advice and political organizing seen in Chennai and Pune.<br />
<br />
On the technical side, she emphasized data. On mustering the evidence on what best to do and why. Data helps reveal the importance of the pedestrians, cyclists bus users who are strangely invisible to many policy makers (somehow hidden in plain view).<br />
<br />
Then join forces, she urged, in a community effort so that urban designers, advocates, neighborhood associations, everybody, come together and demand streets which are for people rather than just for cars. <br />
<br />
Tactical Urbanism style pilots have been an important tactic in this effort too. Shreya highlighted that temporary tactical urbanism helped make a case for wider footpaths in Pune and for a transformation in Chennai of busy high street into one devoted entirely to bus right-of-way and space for walking, cycling and for public space.<br />
<br />
Some of these ideas are in a new ITDP India publication, the <a href="https://go.itdp.org/download/attachments/36570663/180331_Footpath%20Fix_Final%20%28Digital%29.pdf?api=v2">Footpath Fix</a>.<br />
<br />
The Smart Cities Mission from the Government of India has also been a force assisting local complete streets agendas.<br />
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<br />
<br />
I asked how cities can institutionalize their progress, so that better street design and ongoing maintenance of those streets can become just standard practice.<br />
<br />
Shreya responded that she often talks about four Cs:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Clarity </b>on what needs to be done.</li>
<li>then <b>Capital</b>, since you need money for any action.</li>
<li><b>Capacity</b> is needed for implement effectively.</li>
<li>finally, <b>Coordination</b> is needed between various relevant institutions.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Chennai's Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority provides an example.<br />
<br />
We ended our conversation on an optimistic note.<br />
<br />
I commented that, given so much still to be done and so much momentum in the wrong direction in so many cities, I was surprised to hear that Shreya was so upbeat and positive.<br />
<br />
She is indeed optimistic that, despite the huge scale of the challenge ahead, Indian cities are now finally realizing the importance of Complete Streets. The lengthening list of good examples seems set to inspire yet others to follow.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<b><i>Keep scrolling down if you are looking for the full transcript.</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
More information on ITDP India's Complete Streets work</h2>
Here are links to items mentioned in the episode (and more).<br />
<br />
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: inherit;"><i style="color: #222222; font-weight: 400;"><b>Publications</b></i> </span></b></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://go.itdp.org/download/attachments/36570663/180331_Footpath%2520Fix_Final%2520%2528Digital%2529.pdf?api%3Dv2&source=gmail&ust=1530949441065000&usg=AFQjCNHMaGj0ma1jgclhlXz9N_xxTcqhKg" href="https://go.itdp.org/download/attachments/36570663/180331_Footpath%20Fix_Final%20%28Digital%29.pdf?api=v2" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Footpath Fix</a> - A step by step implementation guide for footpath projects in Indian cities. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.itdp.in/resource/footpath-design-a-guide-to-creating-footpaths/&source=gmail&ust=1530949441065000&usg=AFQjCNFAtMV-11mfpEY1myEPzHKZ3f3sNg" href="https://www.itdp.in/resource/footpath-design-a-guide-to-creating-footpaths/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Footpath Design </a>- An introduction to creating safe, comfortable, and accessible footpaths in Indian cities. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.itdp.in/resource/better-streets-better-cities-a-guide-to-street-design-in-urban-india/&source=gmail&ust=1530949441065000&usg=AFQjCNEXhtSLbi3Nr1T2JZ2qlFBJG2B2ZQ" href="https://www.itdp.in/resource/better-streets-better-cities-a-guide-to-street-design-in-urban-india/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Better Streets, Better Cities</a> - A guide to street design in urban India. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Articles about Indian cities that are planning or have implemented complete streets projects </b></i></span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.itdp.in/tamil-nadu-to-plan-a-clean-green-and-healthy-way-of-moving-its-people-10-cities-take-the-lead/&source=gmail&ust=1530949441065000&usg=AFQjCNFqTTHe6xybG0X9GZuQKxvtBl5whQ" href="https://www.itdp.in/tamil-nadu-to-plan-a-clean-green-and-healthy-way-of-moving-its-people-10-cities-take-the-lead/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Tamil Nadu to plan a clean, green, and healthy way of moving its people</a>: 10 cities take the lead (2018)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.itdp.in/chennais-journey-to-reclaim-city-streets-for-its-people/&source=gmail&ust=1530949441065000&usg=AFQjCNGKfPJxhsTWcXEERE80EriBfPXfGA" href="https://www.itdp.in/chennais-journey-to-reclaim-city-streets-for-its-people/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Chennai's journey to reclaim city streets for its people</a> (Video - 2018)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.itdp.in/vibrant-pune-citys-streets-transform-into-vital-public-spaces/&source=gmail&ust=1530949441065000&usg=AFQjCNEQrCMrnvk6kah9iVM4FhkT1NSpQA" href="https://www.itdp.in/vibrant-pune-citys-streets-transform-into-vital-public-spaces/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Vibrant Pune: City's streets transform into vital public space</a> (2017)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.itdp.in/pune-soon-to-become-a-cycling-haven-bicycle-plan-approved/&source=gmail&ust=1530949441065000&usg=AFQjCNFRsleEIWrE4yTOYOCEl-6G7T2bUw" href="https://www.itdp.in/pune-soon-to-become-a-cycling-haven-bicycle-plan-approved/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Pune soon to become a cycling haven: Bicycle Plan approved</a> (2017)</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
More information about Shreya Gadepalli</h2>
Shreya is Director for South Asia for the <a href="https://www.itdp.org/">Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)</a>, an international non-profit that promotes sustainable and equitable transport worldwide.<br />
<br />
She has been with ITDP since the late 1990s when she played a central role in ITDP’s extremely successful India Cycle Rickshaw Improvement Project which created an improved and modernised design for India’s cycle rickshaws. The design took off to become the standard design across northern India, with huge benefits for millions of people.<br />
<br />
More recently Shreya has been guiding ITDP India’s work on BRT planning, parking reform, Transit-Oriented Development, and our topic today: complete streets and street space redesigns.<br />
<br />
She is also an avid photographer and you can see some of her beautiful photographs in this post.<br />
<br />
Shreya is based in Chennai, the city formerly known as Madras, but travels frequently all over India.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
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<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Here is the YOUTUBE VIDEO Version</h3>
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f94GmgYKPEE" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
FULL TRANSCRIPT</h3>
[Paul Barter] Welcome to the Reinventing Transport show, the international podcast that helps you push for better urban mobility and better cities.<br />
<br />
Today I'm talking with Shreya Gadepalli about street space reallocation and complete streets. Shreya is Director for South Asia for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, the International non-profit on sustainable transport. Shreya has been with ITDP since the late 1990s. Lately she's been guiding their work on various issues including our topic today, street space redesigns. There is more about Shreya in the show notes at www.reinventingtransport.org where you can also see some of her striking photographs from the streets of India. I think you'll find Shreya's insights useful even if you're not in India. Enjoy the interview! <br />
0:01:00<br />
<br />
Shreya, a warm welcome to the Reinventing Transport podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today we'll be talking about street redesigns, sometimes called Complete Street plans or street space reallocations, focusing on the context of India. My first question about that is why should people care about reallocating street space in the Indian context? <br />
<br />
[Shreya Gadepalli] That's a very good question. Let me start with some basic statistics here. More than the seven out of ten trips made in Indian cities as of today are either on foot or on a bicycle or some form of public transportation and when I say public transportation I'm also including here various forms of informal transit like shared autorickshaws or minibuses. When it comes to women that number goes up to as much as nine out of ten trips. So nine out of ten trips by women are on foot or on public<br />
0:02:01<br />
transportation.<br />
<br />
Now these are some very large numbers and if that's the case is our infrastructure reflective of that and the answer is clearly no. Our infrastructure is far from fair, where less than one percent of streets in urban India actually have footpaths. There is practically no infrastructure for cycling and the majority of space is hogged by personal motor vehicles, that's cars motorcycles, even though they account for less than a quarter of all trips made. And especially when it comes to cars that number is less than 10% of all trips made. Therefore it's important that we make sure that our streets are equitable they're safe and they efficiently serve the needs of people. <br />
<br />
[Paul] So I guess when people are looking at the streets in a city like Delhi or even Mumbai they gain the impression of the importance of the modes of transport from the space that they are taking even if they're moving very very few people.<br />
0:02:59 <br />
<br />
[Shreya] That's right and therefore when you ask the question as to how many people actually use cars, oftentimes people are confused and they think about 50% of people actually have access to cars and that numbers more like 5 percent not 50. <br />
<br />
[Paul] When we're redesigning these streets a lot of these street reallocations have been taking space from mixed traffic which motorists feel as though is taking space from them and giving it to dedicated space - whether it's to buses, footpaths, bicycle space. Realistically if we were godlike in our wisdom we would say the most efficient thing would be to give most of it to the more space efficient modes but that's not politically realistic. So what in fact is happening in the street designs that ITDP has been suggesting?<br />
<br />
[Shreya] So ITDP really started this whole idea if you will complete streets in Indian cities with the Better Streets Better Cities guide for street<br />
0:04:01<br />
design in Indian cities. This was way back in 2010, 2011 when we published this document which is seminal in nature because until then there was no document that actually spoke about how to design streets especially in the Indian context. Since then we've been working with multiple cities and, as of now, we work with close to about 20 cities across India and how to design complete streets, essentially streets for all, streets that are safe, that are equitable and they're efficient in how they service the needs of people.<br />
<br />
Multiple cities have come forward but I would really want to take the examples of Chennai and Pune, which in my opinion are really at the top. Chennai became the first Indian city to adopt a policy for streets which says that non-motorized transportation, that is walking and cycling, are the priority of the city and that's where they will allocate most of their funds. So the policy actually explicitly says that over 60% of the money that the city<br />
0:05:02<br />
will spend on transportation will go towards improving walking and cycling infrastructure, that the city would actually have zero deaths of pedestrians and cyclists in the city and these happen to be one of the largest numbers. Chennai happens to be a fairly unsafe city. I will talk about the safety numbers in a bit.<br />
<br />
But safety is a big issue in Indian cities and Chennai said, we want to make sure that our city becomes safer and much much safer than it is right now and also have very clear metrics as to how many streets would have safer walking and cycling infrastructure. They officially said that practically all streets which are larger than 12 meters in width would have safer walking and cycling environments. So the city really has been following up with this policy.<br />
<br />
[Paul] There's obviously a lot of momentum in the wrong direction in many cities and and I imagine Chennai has big road projects and others but<br />
0:06:02<br />
this is a remarkable change in their goals and so you're saying that it really is being followed through. That's very encouraging.<br />
<br />
[Shreya] That's right, so since it has adopted the policy nearly 60 kilometers of streets have been retrofitted with better walking and cycling environments, better footpaths and the city as we speak is also redesigning and implementing close to 100 kilometers. Its goal is to eventually redesign gross about 500 kilometers of what are called bus-route roads - that's essentially any street on which is the bus should have a better walking environment because there is a strong connection between public transportation and walking. <br />
<br />
[Paul] Is bus priority part of the story in Chennai too?<br />
<br />
[Shreya] Yes it is. The city is actually now developing a detailed plan for a Bus Rapid Transit system which will have priority for buses on dedicated central lanes along with a host of other features that would make the possibility of having a metro, if you will - the bus as<br />
0:07:03<br />
a Metro bus in some senses, as cities like Mexico City have, or Bogota. <br />
<br />
[Paul] Some listeners may be aware that some of India's experience with BRT has been rather unhappy for example the Delhi BRT which was you know derailed so to speak by opposition from certain groups. How is it that Chennai has been able to set these very ambitious goals for non motorized transport and actually reallocate quite significant funding and road space to the space-efficient and majority modes of transport? <br />
<br />
[Shreya] I must give a lot of credit to the leadership of the city the previous Commissioner of the city and the present Commissioner of the city have been strong proponents of this approach of making streets for all and that has also been followed through by the team which is there at the Municipal Corporation. ITDP incidentally, along with the local university,<br />
0:08:02<br />
conducted in-depth training for close to about 90 engineers on how to plan design and implement streets for all or complete streets and we've also had a fair amount of support coming in from various other stakeholders like local urban designers and architects as well as resident associations and others. And even the media has been a fairly strong supporter of these activities,. Which is not to say that there hasn't been opposition. There has certainly been opposition from with different quarters, especially those who use cars who've been unhappy with the fact that they think that space has been taken away from them. But the truth is that the streets have only reallocated to make it slightly more equitable than what they were earlier. <br />
<br />
[Paul] Ah, so you're saying that there was a lot of effort that went into coalition building in Chennai. <br />
<br />
[Shreya] Absolutely! And Chennai is not the only case. Even Pune, another<br />
0:09:01<br />
city that ITDP has that long history with ... we've been there with Pune for now eight years and we essentially did the same thing. We created a coalition along with various other local civil society organizations with the local media groups, and with the support of the Municipal Corporation which has had fairly progressive leadership over this period, the city became the first to have street design guidelines of its own, adopted a policy which makes pedestrians and cyclists its priority and has now even created a dedicated cell for bicycle and street design planning within the Municipal Corporation.<br />
<br />
And the city has also been following this through. As we speak, the city is retrofitting about 125 kilometers of streets some of the pilots that have already been done have one of the best quality pieces of infrastructure of walking and cycling<br />
0:10:00<br />
anywhere in the country so far.<br />
<br />
And these have inspired many other cities. ITDP also does a lot of cross connection peer-to-peer learning exercises. We've brought officers from various cities of Tamil Nadu and other states down to Pune to show how good quality infrastructure could be created. And now ten cities of Tamil Nadu under the aegis of the state government with technical support from ITDP are preparing their city-wide Complete Streets plans. <br />
<br />
[Paul] So this is fascinating because for an outsider they may gain the impression that it was the technical sort of advice in your guide that was crucial but in fact it's an interesting combination of the technical information and politics right? Street space seems to be a matter where power, politics, vested interests are really important and there's just no choice but to actually get active, get organized, form coalitions to make things happen even against some opposition.<br />
0:11:04<br />
<br />
[Shreya] Absolutely. And you know the truth is that people who walk often come from the lowest strata of the society and often were voiceless same goes for cyclists as well. But the good news is that there have been very strong proponents in the civil society who have become their voice. And the media also have been lately very supportive of this initiative to make streets safer and fairer. <br />
<br />
[Paul] When it comes to replicating the success in in places where these things are happening, I mean ITDP can't be everywhere, so I wonder what would be your advice to local advocates or people within government who want to make this happen? <br />
<br />
[Shreya] I would say that data is a very important point. Often times people don't see. Pedestrians or cyclists or even bus<br />
0:12:01<br />
users are invisible because of the fact that when you just see a street, and in the typical Indian Street you always see more or less it is cars and motorcycles and therefore one is in an illusion that these modes are the primary, the main modes of transportation. when actually it's buses and walking which are a much larger mode of transportation along with informal transit. So it's to first get data. Make data a weapon if you will, and use this data to make a case as to why streets should be designed the way they should be designed. The second thing, join forces! Let this not be just an individual effort but a community effort where people like urban designers where advocates and neighborhood associations - everybody - comes together and demands for streets which are for people rather than for cars. <br />
<br />
[Paul] That's very encouraging<br />
0:13:06<br />
in some ways and in other ways it's sobering because there's a lot of hard work involved in this organizing effort, isn't there. <br />
<br />
[Shreya] Absolutely, it's not easy and it's always hard to come together. But what we've seen in multiple cities happening does make me feel positive about this. And it is not just cities that ITDP has been working in. Even other cities, like Bangalore I always think is a good example, where multiple streets have been redesigned to a fairly high quality that's focused on pedestrians. And the city really seems to be going forward in the right direction. It's supported by the state government as well. <br />
<br />
[Paul] Anyone who's been following this issue internationally would have come across the term, tactical urbanism. Have you come across that set of tactics in India? For example, the idea of using temporary pilots with temporary materials to demonstrate what something will look like and help to persuade people that this is something that would work for them.<br />
0:14:07<br />
<br />
[Shreya] Tactical urbanism has been a strong component of our work in multiple cities, whether it be Chennai, Pune or Coimbatore. And even other cities like Ranchi and Nashik, actually you know we use tactical urbanism to make a case for why streets should have wider footpaths in Pune and in Chennai which has now led to an entire street, a high street in the middle of Chennai which is being pedestrianized. so this street, which is close to 24 to 30 meters in width, would only have lanes for buses amongst motorized vehicles and the remaining right-of-way will be entirely for pedestrians and cyclists and people who just want to enjoy public space. <br />
<br />
[Paul] Sometimes I think about places that have moved in the right direction to encourage space efficient<br />
0:15:00<br />
and majority kinds of transport and very often the story seems to be that the difference between success and failure was getting to the point of having places that people loved that they wanted to protect from traffic do you think Indian cities have enough places that people really love within their cities that they would then be willing to make these efforts to protect them from traffic? <br />
<br />
[Shreya] I think it's getting there. It's definitely not the norm but it's getting there. And what is heartening to see is that there are lots of individual efforts in multiple cities, where a local architect or an urban designer has joined forces with the local municipal authority to pilot what a better street would look like, either improving the quality of footpaths or in some cases pedestrianizing the entire area and this is this is a fairly positive sign of the direction in which city's are going.<br />
0:16:01<br />
<br />
I must also point out here that the smart cities mission of the Government of India has been a strong support for this agenda for complete streets, if you will, because practically every single city in the country has some component of complete streets under the Smart Cities mission. Now, one get always debate whether they have gotten it entirely right or not, and there's definitely a lot of efforts to be made to make cities more aware about all the components of complete street and ensure that it gets implemented properly because it's not just about coalition building. There's a lot of technical work as well. When for example utilities underground utilities are not taken care of when redesigning a street the street very quickly falls into disrepair because of some half-baked maintenance activity which he leaves it dug-up and therefore all the effort that's put goes to waste and in<br />
0:17:01<br />
some senses goes down the drain, which does not exist. <br />
<br />
[Paul] That's a very nice segue into my next question which relates to institutionalizing this progress because I guess like in many other countries so far the positive projects were probably oasis in a desert of bad streets or poorly designed streets so progress would depend on institutionalizing some of the the best practice and all the better practice which includes making sure that the various actors that dig up streets and change streets have this as part of their DNA going forward. Can you see a hope to get to that point, so that it becomes just standard practice to always follow your guide for example? <br />
<br />
[Shreya] I think it's getting there I often tell people that there are four C's that are involved. The first one is Clarity. Clarity as to what needs to be done. But then that has to be followed up with Capital. If you<br />
0:18:00<br />
don't have money then all that good idea goes for nothing. And even if you have the capital then you need to have the Capacity to be able to do it. And lastly you have to have Coordination between various institutions which are there, to ensure that work happens properly but also whatever gets created is managed and kept in a high level of workability, if you will, in the future.<br />
<br />
So there are a few examples, where Pune I think is very promising where the city now has a bicycle department it also has created a street design cell under its roads department. It has hired fresh talent into the Municipal Corporation to help the city with implementing these projects. But there's also been a process of empanelment(?). You know a very key component is to get the right designers on board and ITDP has been helping training cities on what we call the eight steps to complete streets and how exactly you get these<br />
0:19:04<br />
things done. You know, getting the right terms of reference, hiring the right designers, having the internal capacity to monitor, engaging public in ensuring that there is support that's built. Getting the utilities right etc etc. There's a very interesting new publication that we have come out with. It's called the Footpath Fix. You can find it on the ITDP India website. Go check it out. So there are resources out there and there are practices which now are emerging from multiple cities.<br />
<br />
Chennai also similarly has an agency which has just been created, called the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, under which a lot of the work is being done under the aegis of which a lot of this work is being done, which allows the municipal corporation for example to bring the electricity board or the underground utilities or the police department to come together to ensure that whatever gets created is coordinated and done well. <br />
<br />
[Paul] This is really fascinating. I think many many listeners who have maybe seen reports from Indian<br />
0:20:11<br />
cities in the international media would have the impression of very traffic clogged and polluted places and not be aware that there are some encouraging, maybe small so far but very encouraging, trends and initiatives being taken. Even though I do know quite a bit about what's going on in India, I'm surprised to hear that you are so upbeat and positive.<br />
<br />
[Shreya] Yeah! We also have to be upbeat and positive because there is no other way!<br />
<br />
[Paul] Maybe I'll just end with one final question. You've tackled some really important big themes. Is there any final point that you want to make that you want to make sure that listener remembers about this topic. <br />
<br />
[Shreya] I would just say that you know Indian cities are now finally realizing the importance of Complete Streets. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done and issues with capital coordination and capacity. We need to get<br />
0:21:04<br />
a lot of these things fixed. But there's positive momentum, there's some good examples which can inspire others. And we need to use data for our case to ensure that cities listen, that other people understand the importance of creating complete streets. There are good signs at the national level as well. ITDP along with other people are working with the Indian force Congress to improve national guidelines. The guidelines include things like Bus Rapid Transit, parking management, street re-design, street network planning and so on and and so forth. So I think a lot of the foundational activities are happening now and I see a lot of positive momentum for the next decade. <br />
<br />
[Paul] Well Shreya, it's been wonderful talking to you. I hope to have you on the show again in the future because there is much more to talk about. Thank you again Shreya.<br />
<br />
[Shreya] Pleasure.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-91335138144059383502018-05-15T11:56:00.000+08:002018-10-02T09:55:18.960+08:00Trailer for the new Reinventing Transport podcast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here is the Trailer for the new Reinventing Transport show, an international podcast to help you work locally for better urban mobility and better cities.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="90" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6589496/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/286bd0/" style="border: none;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="100%"></iframe><br />
<br />
<i>Can't see the player? Try <a href="http://reinventingtransport.libsyn.com/trailer-episode">clicking here</a>. </i><br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE: Scroll down for a video version. </b><br />
<br />
Regular Reinventing Transport episodes will start in <strike>June</strike> July 2018. After that, they will go out once every two weeks.<br />
<br />
<b>Are you already a podcast listener? You can subscribe now!</b> <i>[It is free.]</i> Here are three ways:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>in the player above, click the symbol that looks like a wifi signal strength icon. There are links to subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and GooglePlay Music.</li>
<li>copy the RSS Feed address (http://reinventingtransport.libsyn.com/rss) into your favourite podcast player app. (You can also get this adddress by rightclicking or clicking 'RSS Feed' after you clicked the wifi icon in the player above.)</li>
<li>search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your podcast player app. If it doesn't show up yet, it should be there within the next day or two. </li>
</ol>
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" encrypted-media="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k_GLRoAMv0c" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Here are some highlights from the Trailer. </h3>
The aim of this episode is simply to let you know what to expect from the regular episodes later.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
What will the Reinventing Transport show be like?</h4>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWuopqMtSv-X-SJ7p7PT-Jap9c3XuIro0FMjsiK007FJ1NBuj5A39I5kRRkkwVhBgeHI8Xum5HgkTsFwNxxs1iyL0Oersh-2Y_fGkenIQXNBcBfClga3FNuYXuepa3Zs6gxUDHpPs3mb4/s1600/Image073+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWuopqMtSv-X-SJ7p7PT-Jap9c3XuIro0FMjsiK007FJ1NBuj5A39I5kRRkkwVhBgeHI8Xum5HgkTsFwNxxs1iyL0Oersh-2Y_fGkenIQXNBcBfClga3FNuYXuepa3Zs6gxUDHpPs3mb4/s400/Image073+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a>Basically, the Reinventing Transport show aims to give you practical help and encouragement on urban mobility issues no matter where you are in the world. It is for anyone, in any country, pushing for local changes to urban transport and public space, especially if you want your city to be more socially just, sustainable, safe, productive and full of great places.<br />
<br />
Most episodes will be about 20 to 30 minutes long. And most will be based on interviews.<br />
<br />
Most episodes to be about a specific problem or solution or innovation to help you decide what you think and what you could do about that issue.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Who I am? </h4>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>You can find out a bit more about me <a href="https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/our-people/faculty/paul-a-barter">here</a> or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-barter-6911b2a/">here</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/paulabarter?lang=en">here</a>.<br />
<br />
I am an Australian but I live in Singapore. I’ve been working on urban transport issues since just before I moved from Australia. In the last 10 years or so, a lot of my work has been on urban parking policy.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
A sister podcast, Reinventing Parking, is also coming soon</h4>
By the way, if parking is your MAIN interest then you should head to <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/">ReinventingParking.org</a> to find out much more. In fact, I am planning for this podcast to have a sister one that focuses on parking policy. It will be called Reinventing Parking, of course.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Let’s talk about you!</h4>
As a listener to Reinventing Transport you could be ANYWHERE at all in the world.<br />
<br />
You care about your city or town. You want urban transport there to do more good and less harm.<br />
<br />
Urban transport issues may or may not be part of your job. But you want to know more and you want to make a difference. You could use some encouragement and good suggestions.<br />
<br />
I hope you will benefit from the show and that you will enjoy it!<br />
<br />
<b>Please do share this post or episode with anyone you think might like the Reinventing Transport podcast. </b><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="90" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6589496/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/286bd0/" style="border: none;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="100%"></iframe>
</div>
Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-48515057268978915762018-04-21T15:48:00.000+08:002020-04-21T10:05:54.787+08:00Podcasts on urban mobility and urban issues: a LONG list<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Here is my list of podcasts on urban mobility and urban issues. </b><br />
<br />
Please use the comments to send tips or corrections.<br />
<br />
<i>If you are not yet a regular podcast listener, you need to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/oct/07/how-to-listen-to-podcasts-everything-you-need-to-know">download a podcast-listening app to your phone, tablet or desktop and subscribe to the podcasts that interest you</a> (it's free).</i><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>UPDATE 1: This list has many podcasts but obviously I hope you will try mine! </b></span><b>They are <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/p/podcast.html">Reinventing Transport</a> and <a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/07/new-podcast-option.html">Reinventing Parking</a></b><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span><br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 2: </b>I have added <u>FOURTY THREE</u> more since this was first published.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Podcast-icon.svg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Podcast-icon.svg/128px-Podcast-icon.svg.png" width="200" /></a><a name='more'></a>Urban Transport Podcasts with a Broad Scope</h3>
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<a href="http://www.autonocast.com/"><b>Autonocast</b></a>: "A weekly show discussing the future of transportation technology" with hosts Alex Roy, Kirsten Korosec and E.W. Niedermeyer.</div>
<div>
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.lacomotion.com/comotion-podcast">CoMotion Podcast</a></b>: "Your regular glimpse into the future of urban mobility". Associated with <a href="https://www.lacomotion.com/">LA CoMotion</a>, an annual Expo and Festival that brings together the brave new world of the urban mobility revolution. Usually hosted by Greg Lindsay. An initiative of <a href="https://newcities.org/">NewCities</a>. USA.<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="http://www.ite.org/learninghub/podcast.asp"><b>ITE Talks</b></a>: Collaboration between the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and Bernie Wagenblast (see also Transportation Radio). Monthly interviews with thought leaders in transportation. USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.mobilitypodcast.com/"><b>The Mobility Podcast</b></a>: "A wonky podcast about transportation, technology, and policy" by Greg Rogers, Gregory Rodriguez and Pete Gould. Started in 2017. Mostly USA-focused.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://go.transloc.com/the-movement-podcast"><b>The Movement Podcast</b></a>: Aims to talk to 'industry leaders, elected officials, private sector influencers, and relentless advocates who are doing the hard work to make our future green, accessible, and equitable.' From TransLoc and hosted by National Policy Director, Josh Cohen. USA.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/">Reinventing Transport</a></b>: by me! Urban transport change-making help and encouragement. Produced by an Australian living in Singapore but aimed at an International audience. <i>[Why not <a href="https://reinventingtransport.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=6ce60ad1ed3e024f617c16f29&id=57f8584ced">sign up for email updates</a> now?]</i><br />
<div>
<i><br /></i>
<a href="https://www.sustrans.org.uk/streettalks/podcast#"><b>StreetTalks Podcast</b></a>: Brand new show from the UK non-profit (charity), Sustrans, which is devoted to making it easier for people to walk and cycle. Just one episode so far: an interview with Jon Orcutt on Transforming New York's Streets. Content will likely be mostly UK but the first episode is on NYC!<br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/category/special-features/podcast/"><b>Talking Headways</b></a>: I always listen to this excellent long-running weekly show about "sustainable transportation and urban design" hosted by Jeff Wood. Despite the name, it's mostly about mobility issues and urban design issues that are closely connected with mobility. Mostly USA but with some international content too now and then. The same feed now also includes a second show, Talking Headways on Mondays.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://transportationradio.wordpress.com/"><b>Transportation Radio</b></a>: by Bernie Wagenblast with interviews on a variety of transportation topics. Mostly USA.<br />
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<br />
<b><a href="http://www.tsu.ox.ac.uk/podcasts/">University of Oxford</a> <a href="http://www.tsu.ox.ac.uk/podcasts/">Transport Studies Unit podcast</a></b>: Recordings of selected guest lectures and special lectures at the Transport Studies Unit since 2009. Various eminent transport researchers are represented here. Mostly UK and Europe.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://thewaroncars.org/">The War on Cars</a></b>: Entertaining and hard-hitting new podcast about cities and transport from Sarah Goodyear (writer), Doug Gordon (Brooklyn Spoke), and Aaron Naparstek (founder of Streetsblog). Has a USA focus, especially New York City, but will be of wider interest.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Urban Planning, Design or Policy Podcasts with a Broad Scope</h3>
Most of these sometimes also tackle urban transport issues and the various urban issues that are very closely linked with urban transport.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.planning.org/multimedia/podcasts/"><b>American Planning Association (APA) podcast</b></a>: This show has a recent series on 'Planning the Autonomous Future' and also featured Jarrett Walker (Human Transit) in a recent episode. USA.<br />
<br />
<div>
<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episodes/"><b>99% Invisible</b></a>: a highly popular and professional podcast focused on design. Three of the eight categories are "cities", "architecture" and "infrastructure" so many episodes have an urban focus. "99% Invisible about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world."<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.sydney.org.au/news-events/podcasts/">Cityscapes</a></b>: podcasts with guest speakers at events organized by the Committee for Sydney. Featured Todd Litman of VTPI in September 2017 for example.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://infiniteearthradio.com/">Infinite Earth Radio</a></b>: Interviews with people "working to build smarter, more equitable, sustainable, and prosperous communities through social and economic inclusion that values the contribution of all citizens and seeks meaningful lives for everyone." Especially noteworthy is their <a href="https://islandpress.org/tags/podcasts">series of episodes on urban resilience</a> in collaboration with Island Press. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<a href="http://www.invisiblecitypodcast.com/"><b>Invisible City</b></a>: <strike>excellent while it lasted!</strike> <i>[This excellent podcast is back with a new series, so I have promoted it back here from the dormant list below.]</i> A podcast about city design with Jennifer Keesmaat (Toronto's former chief planner). North America.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/9/12/introducing-a-new-podcast-its-the-little-things">It's the Litttle Things</a></b>: a new podcast from Strong Towns that aims to give you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger. <i>It’s the Little Things</i> will feature Strong Towns Community Builder Jacob Moses in conversation with various guests who have taken action in their own places and in their own ways. USA.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://lifesizedcity.com/podcast">The Life-Sized City</a></b>: By Mikael Colville-Andersen (formerly of Copenhagenize). A spin-off from his urbanism TV series of the same name. The podcast features interviews with people met while making those shows. International.<br />
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<b>A new <a href="https://marketurbanismreport.com/podcast/">Market Urbanism podcast</a></b>: From the people behind the Market Urbanism Report. <i>[The original Market Urbanism podcast has been dormant for more than a year. This new one will start in Sept. 2018. It is from a different team and will have a new rss feed.] </i><br />
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<br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/plannersundertheinfluence"><b>Planners Under the Influence Podcast</b></a>: A podcast about becoming urban planners. Jan Gehl said it best: “A good city is like a good party”. Out of Melbourne, Australia.<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-795897165/"><b>Planning Ideas that Matter</b></a>: the podcast of dusp@MIT (Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., United States).<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.citymetric.com/content/skylines-podcast">The Skylines Podcast</a></b>: from CityMetric. "Every two weeks, Jonn Elledge, colleagues and guests talk about the politics and workings of cities, and test the contention that maps are a great topic for radio." UK based but often with international content.<br />
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<b><a href="https://mysmart.community/">The Smart Community Podcast</a>:</b> About 'Smart Communities and Smart Regions ... that use technology as an enabler to make the places we live more accessible liveable and sustainable for all.' From Australia but with an international scope.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/podcast/"><b>The Strong Towns Podcast</b></a>: A strong show ... from the Strong Towns movement which is "challenging every American to fundamentally rethink how our cities are built." Usually hosted by Rachel Quednau or Chuck Marohn. USA.<br />
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</div>
<br />
<b><a href="https://kresge.org/content/talking-about-cities-podcast-0">Talking About Cities podcast</a></b>: Kresge's Carol Coletta unearths innovative ideas for making cities successful and interviews the people behind them. USA.<br />
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<a href="http://360degree.city/"><b>360 degree city</b></a>: 360° City is a podcast that explores the city from every angle. By the folks at Intelligent Futures, a team of planners, designers and urbanists in Calgary, Canada.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/9/14/introducing-upzoned"><b>Upzoned</b></a>: another new podcast from Strong Towns (see above). In Upzoned, Kea Wilson, Chuck Marohn, and occasional surprise guests, talk in depth about just one big story from the week in the Strong Towns conversation. USA.<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-669027099"><b>Urban Broadcast Collective</b></a>: a a curated network of podcast and radio shows on everything urban (currently all the member podcasts are by academics in Australia). Includes for example the <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-283789701">City Road Podcast</a>, the <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-954459790">(Sub)Urbanista Podcast</a> and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/david-nichols-738987609">This Must Be the Place</a> (by Dr Elizabeth Taylor and often featuring parking policy content). Australia.<br />
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<a href="https://www.griffith.edu.au/cities-research-institute/news-and-events/urban-squeeze"><b>Urban Squeeze</b></a>: Podcast of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) radio show from Griffith University planning experts Jason Byrne and Tony Matthews. Tackles diverse land-use, strategic, environmental, energy and transport planning issues. Australia.<br />
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<a href="https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-urbanist/"><b>The Urbanist</b></a>: from UK media and magazine company Monacle. "Monocle’s guide to making better cities, be it new technology, state-of-the-art subways or compact apartments." A UK source but the content is thoroughly international.<br />
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<a href="https://www.wri.org/podcasts"><b>The WRI podcast</b></a>: Conversations with World Resources Institute experts and other guests on 'the world’s most pressing problems at the nexus of environment, economic growth and human well-being.' Often focuses on cities and the work of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Other Transport Podcasts</h3>
Falling under this heading is no judgement on quality or value. It just means these shows are not as broad in focus or geography. By the way, I have omitted a long list of cycling podcasts that seem to focus mostly on sport or recreational cycling and various motor-vehicle fan podcasts (there are at least two podcasts devoted to Teslas alone).<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.aitpm.com.au/search-results?web-search=podcast">AITPM podcast</a></b>: from the Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM), the organization for practitioners in traffic and transport planning and management in Australia.<br />
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<b><a href="http://5by5.tv/asymcar">Asymcar: by 5by5</a></b>. Horace Dediu and Jim Zellmer discuss the politics, processes and possibilities of cars in light of a long list of recent trends, including the rise of the "App Economy".<br />
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<a href="http://www.theoamnetwork.com/thebikenerds/"><b>The Bike Nerds podcast</b></a>: "Conversations with community leaders and how bicycling is making cities better." USA.<br />
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<a href="http://thebikeshow.net/"><b>The Bike Show</b></a>: A weekly radio show about cycling, which has been broadcast in central London on radio art station Resonance 104.4fm since 2004. Often features ‘rolling interviews’ (a bike ride combined with a live interview)! UK.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ciht.org.uk/en/media-centre/webinars/index.cfm"><b>CIHT Podcast</b></a>: from the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT). Mostly UK.<br />
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<a href="https://www.familypedals.com/category/podcast/"><b>Family Pedals</b></a>: an interview based podcast featuring families living car-free or car-lite. USA.<br />
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<a href="https://omny.fm/shows/kgo-810/playlists/the-flying-car"><b>The Flying Car Show</b></a>: Radio show on the San Francisco Bay Area's KGO 810. Transportation futures, innovation and developments with a focus on the Bay Area.<br />
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<a href="http://www.fullychargedshow.co.uk/"><b>Fully Charged</b></a>: vodcast featuring electric vehicle reviews (and some renewable energy discussion) with Robert Llewellyn. UK.<br />
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<a href="https://www.heretotherepodcast.org/"><b>Here to There podcast</b></a>: "Stories about what commuting in the Twin Cities is and what it could be."<br />
Series one, with ten episodes, is now complete. Each episode had a distinct theme (accessibility, affordability, sustainability, equity, etc.) and an interesting format. Twin Cities, Minnesota. USA<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://theinfrastructureshow.com/">The Infrastructure Show</a></b>: A monthly podcast about USA infrastructure but often includes urban transport issues. For example, the March 2018 edition focused on Bus Rapid Transit. Topics include: roads, bridges, rail, dams, transit, energy, inland waterways, wastes, and more. USA.<br />
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<b><a href="http://5by5.tv/micromobility">Micromobility podcast</a></b>: Explores the disruption to urban transport that comes from new electric, lightweight utility vehicles. Using the history of computing as a framework, we unpack how e-bikes, scooters and more will change how people get around cities.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.londonreconnections.com/category/podcast/">On Our Line podcast</a>: </b>by London Reconnections and mostly on London public transport but also sometimes other cities, such as New York City in a recent series. Intermittent. UK.<br />
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<a href="https://parker-x.com/"><b>Parker-X</b></a>: A Parking Industry Podcast. USA mainly.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.parkingcast.com/">The Parking Podcast</a>:</b> A podcast about the $100 billion parking industry and the people that make it go. By Isaiah Mouw. Mainly USA.<br />
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<a href="https://www.reinventingparking.org/2018/07/new-podcast-option.html"><b>Reinventing Parking</b></a>: another podcast by me, Paul Barter. Sister podcast to the Reinventing Transport podcasts. The two will go out in alternating weeks. Reinventing Parking is about parking policy but for anyone who wants a better city and better urban transport.<br />
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<a href="http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/home-creative/podcast/"><b>Researching Transit</b></a>: Join Professor Graham Currie and Laura Aston as they speak to world leading public transport researchers. Produced by the Public Transport Research Group at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.<br />
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<a href="https://www.blubrry.com/seattletransitblog/"><b>Seattle Transit Blog podcast</b></a>: an occasional podcast from the Seattle Transit Blog, Seattle region, Washington, USA.<br />
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<a href="http://www.the-spokesmen.com/"><b>The Spokesmen Cycling podcast</b></a>: Podcasting on cycling since 2006, featuring cycling media personalities, manufacturers, journalists observers, and others. Urban bicycle policy is a frequent topic.<br />
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<a href="https://streets.mn/category/podcast/"><b>Streets.MN podcast</b></a>. Streets.mn is dedicated to expanding the conversation about land use and transportation issues in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota. USA.<br />
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<a href="http://transitinsight.podbean.com/"><b>TransitInsight</b></a>: A discussion of all things mass transit by three transit industry professionals, Paul Ballard, Edward Johnson and Jim McAteer. USA.<br />
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<a href="http://www.trapezegroup.com/podcast"><b>Transit Unplugged</b></a>: Interviews with senior public transport (transit) leaders from across the USA.<br />
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<a href="http://transitmatters.org/podcast/" style="font-weight: bold;">TransitMatters</a><b>:</b> this podcast is now just a once-per-month segment diving into transit issues on CommonWealth Magazine's weekly podcast series on Massachusetts politics and policy (Codcast). Boston, Mass., USA.<br />
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<a href="https://transportevolved.com/"><b>Transport Evolved</b></a>: Vodcast focusing on Electric Vehicles. UK.<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/tim-quereng-sser"><b>Walkcast</b></a>: Tim Querengesser "talks walkability in cities by walking it". Each episode takes experts and people passionate about cities out on a walk to talk about what's working as they do so, what isn't, and what needs to change. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.<br />
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<a href="http://www.yarrabug.org/radio/"><b>YarraBUG show</b></a>: Explores all the best things about being on a bike! An initiative of the YarraBUG (Bicycle User Group) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.<br />
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<h3>
Other Urban Planning, Design or Policy Podcasts</h3>
<div>
<a href="http://blackkidsinouterspace.podomatic.com/"><b>Black Kids in Outer Space</b></a>: A show about "urban planning, walking, bicycling, public transit, afrofuturism, in our space." USA.</div>
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<a href="http://theblackurbanist.com/category/podcast/"><b>The Black Urbanist Radio Show</b></a>: Kristen Jeffers on "design, urban planning, transportation, architecture and life as black woman in the modern world, plus people, places and spaces from throughout the African Diaspora." USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://cityverve.org.uk/citycast-the-smart-cities-podcast-from-cityverve/"><b>CityCast</b></a>: the smart cities podcast from CityVerve Manchester’s smart city demonstrator. Manchester, UK.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://cityofthefuture.libsyn.com/"><b>City of the Future</b></a>: an (ahem) future podcast from Sidewalk Labs that will explore the innovations, ideas, and technologies that are set to transform our cities. "Coming soon" in 2018. North America mainly.<br />
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<a href="https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/design-and-architecture"><b>DnA: Design and Architecture</b></a>: "reports on the design and urbanism trends that shape our lives, in Los Angeles and beyond. Hosted by Frances Anderton and produced by Avishay Artsy, the show is global in outlook, but local in focus: Los Angeles, a laboratory for intense creativity as well as friction over what direction the region should take. Los Angeles, USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://toronto.uli.org/programs/electriccitiespodcast/"><b>Electric Cities</b></a>: Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto presents Electric Cities, a podcast about land development and planning across the Toronto region.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://calmatters.org/articles/category/podcasts/gimme-shelter/">Gimme Shelter</a></b>: CALmatters’ data reporter Matt Levin and Los Angeles Times housing reporter Liam Dillon chat about the latest developments in California housing policy and interview a key housing newsmaker each episode. California, USA.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indigenousurbanism.net/">Indigenous Urbanism</a></b>: Indigenous Urbanism is a place-based storytelling podcast about the spaces we inhabit, and the community drivers and practitioners who are shaping those environments and decolonising through design. Aotearoa/New Zealand.<br />
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<a href="https://player.fm/series/infill-1401824"><b>Infill</b></a>: by the Yimby Party in San Francisco (or is it now from Yimby Action?). Pro-Housing-Construction activism. YIMBY=Yes In My Back Yard. Mostly San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA.<br />
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<a href="http://www.theintersection.fm/"><b>The Intersection</b></a>: "Series of audio documentaries explores the contours of change in the Bay Area and in cities in general. One corner, one person and one story at a time." San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA.<br />
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<a href="https://isntthatspatial.net/"><b>Isn't That Spatial</b></a>: "A podcast dedicated to casual geography and the spatial component of whatever." Many episodes focus on urban spatial issues. USA.<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/movingblock"><b>Moving Block</b></a>: Interview show about urban planning, transportation, politics, and more. New York City, USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://openduringconstruction.libsyn.com/podcast"><b>Open During Construction</b></a>: Conversations about City-building at the intersection of planning and engineering. Michelle Berquist, Rob Muir and Muneef Ahmad reflect on stories behind-the-scenes of "Plangineering" projects. Looks like it is mostly focused on the Toronto region, Ontario, Canada.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.planningxchange.org/podcastxchange/"><b>PlanningXChange</b></a>: An interview podcast promoting a better understanding of urban affairs and city design. Produced in Victoria, Australia with mainly but not only Melbourne and Victoria-focused content.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://pricetags.ca/podcast/">Price Talks</a></b>: Podcast from Vancouver, BC's Price Tags blog featuring Gordon Price (and other Price Tags editors and contributors) talking to leaders in urbanism, politics and transportation from the Metro Vancouver region, and beyond.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/srikanth-peddibhotla/introducing-project-happicities-building-new-india-brick-by-brick"><b>Project Happicities</b></a>: Just one episode so far. Aimed at achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the New Urban Agenda, with a focus on urban India.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thepromise.wpln.org/"><b>The Promise</b></a>: a limited-run series from Nashville Public Radio about life in public housing, smack in the middle of a city on the rise.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://reinventing%20parking%20is%20the%20podcast%20about%20parking%20policy%20for%20anyone%20who%20wants%20a%20better%20city%20and%20better%20urban%20transport./"><b>Reinventing Parking</b></a>: see above. Parking straddles urban planning and transport.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://blog.colinmarshall.org/?cat=78">Seoul Urbanism on TBS eFM’s Koreascape</a></b>: Each month Colin Marshall (a Seoul-based essayist, broadcaster, and public speaker on cities, language, and culture) joins Kurt Achin, host of Koreascape on Seoul’s English-language radio station TBS eFM, for an exploration of one of Seoul’s urban spaces.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://builtblocks.com/"><b>Small Scale City podcast</b></a>: The podcast, formerly known as Built Blocks, about cities, architecture, nature, and the built environment. Includes developer interviews, project profiles, preservation news, urban farming, and stories about how to make neighborhoods and our Main Streets a better place. USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.smartcitiesweek.com/2018-Silicon-Valley/podcast/"><b>Smart Cities Week podcast</b></a>: Each episode of the Smart Cities Week Podcast features smart city experts talking about the latest trends and what to expect at this year’s Smart Cities Weeks which take place in several cities around the world.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://anchor.fm/patrickm02l"><b>Sound Waves</b></a>: by Patrick McDonnell. Stories about Urbanism, Design, Government, and Tech. Daily happenings, things I looking into, deconstructions, and life in Anchorage. Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://spacing.ca/toronto/podcast/">Spacing Radio</a></b>: the podcast of Canadian urban issues magazine, Spacing.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://cjsw.com/program/sprawlcast/"><b>Sprawlcast</b></a>: A collaboration between the Sprawl (online journalism site) and CJSW. Goes deep on local stories and conversations. Frequent urbanism focus. Hosted by Jeremy Klaszus. Calgary, Canada.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/neighborhood">There Goes the Neighborhood</a></b>: An in-depth look at gentrification in L.A. (Season 2) and Brooklyn (Season 1) from WNYC Studios. USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.urban.com.au/podcasts"><b>Urban.com.au podcast</b></a>: Insights on property development issues in Australian cities.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://soundcloud.com/urbantalk">Urban Talk</a></b>: Focused discussion with urbanists from diverse backgrounds as research, academia, media and governance, mostly focusing on Pakistan. Hosted by Dr. Adeel Muhammad, LSE Cities. Based in the UK but focused on Pakistan.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://whyisntanyone.com/"><b>Why Isn't Anyone Talking About This?</b></a>: A podcast/exploration of justice and the built environment. USA - especially but not only Oregon.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Dormant or 'Podfaded' Transport and Urbanist Shows</h3>
It is not easy to keep a regular podcast going. Life intervenes. The podcasts below seem to have faded for now. But you can still check out their old episodes.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bikeportland.org/podcast/">BikePortland Podcast</a>: (currently in hiatus). BikePortland.org is an independent daily news source that covers the Portland bike scene. Portland, Oregon, USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://cleantransportationpodcast.org/">Clean Transportation Podcast</a>: Occasional interviews, presentations, and general discussion on clean transportation policy issues worldwide. From the International Council on Clean Transportation. International.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.podcasts.com/congress-for-the-new-urbanism">CNU Podcast</a>: from the Congress for the New Urbanism. USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.criticaltransit.com/podcast/">Critical Transit</a>: for critical analysis of transportation topics and interviews with planners and advocates working for high quality transit all over the USA. Was replaced by the TransitMatters Podcast. USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.knightcitiespodcast.org/"><b>Knight Cities Podcast</b></a>: Carol Coletta of Knight Foundation unearthed innovative ideas for making cities successful and interviewed the people behind them.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://kunstler.com/writings/podcast/">The KunstlerCast</a>: Strictly speaking, this is not really a podfaded show since James Howard Kunstler still podcasts under this title. But, with <a href="http://kunstler.com/podcast/kunstlercast-288-chatting-urbanist-transit-expert-taras-grescoe/">occasional exceptions</a>, it now only rarely focuses on urbanism or urban planning issues. The older, more urban-focused series of this show is <a href="http://kunstlercast.com/">archived here</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://marketurbanism.com/podcast/">Market Urbanism podcast</a>: [<i>Note: this Market Urbanism podcast has been dormant for more than a year but ANOTHER Market Urbanism podcast is about to appear from September 2018 with a different rss feed and team.]</i> From the writers at the website of the same name, which refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). USA and beyond sometimes.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/metropoliscast">Metropolis podcast</a>: A podcast about life in Canadian cities. Produced by Metro News and co-hosted by Matt Elliott and Luke Simcoe. Canada.<br />
<div>
</div>
<br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/parksify">Parksify podcast</a>: "The Parksify Podcast interviews planners, urbanists, and authors about our cities' public spaces and their impacts on the communities we live in." USA.<br />
<div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.slate.com/podcasts/placemakers.html#all-episodes">Placemakers podcast</a>: a season of shows from Slate magazine. USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://zoningnews.tumblr.com/">Planning and Zoning News Podcast</a>: News related to Urban Planning and Zoning. USA.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.smartcityradio.com/">Smart City Radio</a></b>: Smart City was a weekly, hour-long public radio talk show that took an in-depth look at urban life, the people, places, ideas and trends shaping cities. Host Carol Coletta talked with national and international public policy experts, elected officials, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others for a penetrating discussion of urban issues.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://medium.com/third-wave-urbanism">Third Wave Urbanism</a>: A podcast highlighting the new normal of urbanism in our globalized cities, as told by two female urbanists Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman and Kristen Jeffers (see the Black Urbanist Radio Show above). USA.<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoxChL5S0m0XppgUUp_NRlrOf_4O57tGP">Transit Trends</a> (vodcast): by Moovel US moovel's online show that covers all topics trending in the world of transportation. USA mostly.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://kinder.rice.edu/search/node/podcast">Urban Edge</a> from the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research in Houston, Texas, USA.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/">Urbanism Speakeasy</a>: by <a href="https://www.speakeasymedia.tv/">Andy Boenau</a> about human-scale planning + design. USA.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Phew! Have I got anything wrong here or missed any urban transport or urbanism podcasts? If so, tell me in a comment. </i><br />
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<b>UPDATE:</b> I have just noticed that <a href="https://www.lvblcity.com/blog/2015/10/the-best-urbanism-podcasts-and-podcast-episodes">LVBLCITY has an older list of urbanism podcasts</a> that also points to various specific episodes that have an urban focus within podcasts that have a wider scope.<br />
<br />
<b>Finally, another reminder: <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2018/04/new-international-podcast-on-urban.html">please consider the Reinventing Transport show</a>. <strike>Coming Soon.</strike></b><br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-42557639932593561132018-04-02T15:46:00.000+08:002018-10-02T09:56:42.295+08:00New international podcast on urban mobility: Reinventing Transport<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaqjlfAZPJHxQ2EBW-Zzmf6qIn5jEIqUhyil8oYX59vMRiajVj2OeKg0mRKI7GYqfkGtIML6Echu3xSndgQ6XU8Ks8KmTJp6gE8fhzLgrSIFr1j7ET-MCpQ8NpCtA2bD16RuBEK69-d4/s1600/RT+relaunch+as+podcast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1595" data-original-width="1600" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaqjlfAZPJHxQ2EBW-Zzmf6qIn5jEIqUhyil8oYX59vMRiajVj2OeKg0mRKI7GYqfkGtIML6Echu3xSndgQ6XU8Ks8KmTJp6gE8fhzLgrSIFr1j7ET-MCpQ8NpCtA2bD16RuBEK69-d4/s200/RT+relaunch+as+podcast.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I will be starting the Reinventing Transport podcast soon. I am making my preparations, scheduling the early interviews and summoning my courage.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE: the <a href="https://www.reinventingtransport.org/2018/05/trailer-for-new-reinventing-transport.html">TRAILER Episode is now live</a>. </b><br />
<h3>
If a Reinventing Transport podcast sounds good to you, please <a href="https://reinventingtransport.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=6ce60ad1ed3e024f617c16f29&id=57f8584ced">subscribe to Reinventing Transport email updates</a> so you will get an alert when the first shows appear. </h3>
So what will the Reinventing Transport show be like?<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Initially, it will be a <strike>weekly</strike> once-in-two-weeks show of 20-25 minutes (or so) per episode.<br />
<br />
<b>The Reinventing Transport show is for anyone pushing for changes to urban transport and public space, especially if you want cities to be more socially just, sustainable, safe, productive, adaptable, full of great places and much better at helping us all to flourish. </b><br />
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<b>I plan to cover a wide range of urban transport-related topics.</b> You will hear about new and exciting revolutions of course. But I want to help you get to grips with various 'boring but important' basics too. I (and my guests) will try hard to make them interesting and relevant to your needs.<br />
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<b>I want this podcast to be practical</b> and to help you deal with real challenges you face when pushing for urban transport change. I hope it can become an extremely useful source of information, practical advice and, most importantly perhaps, encouragement.<br />
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<b>The podcast will be international.</b> I plan to interview people from all over the world. We all have something to learn from each other. The podcast should have something for you no matter which continent you live in and no matter how rich or poor your city.<br />
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If you like the <a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/category/special-features/podcast/">Talking Headways podcast</a> or <a href="https://www.mobilitypodcast.com/">the Mobility Podcast</a> you will probably also like the Reinventing Transport show, although those shows are mostly focused on the USA. Reinventing Transport will be much more international (although still with some US-focused material).<br />
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<b>Detailed show notes will be posted here</b> on the Reinventing Transport site. So this site should be useful to you even if you are not a podcast listener. </div>
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<b>By the way, you may know me as 'that parking guy'.</b> There will be SOME parking episodes and parking will often get a mention in Reinventing Transport. But I will not bombard you with too much parking stuff. For those of you who ARE especially interested in parking, please visit and subscribe to the <a href="http://www.reinventingparking.org/">Reinventing Parking</a> site too. I will be making good use of any parking insights that emerge on the Reinventing Transport show to enrich the material over at Reinventing Parking. </div>
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The Reinventing Transport show will probably be for you if you like what I share on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/paulabarter?lang=en">@PaulABarter</a>). The show will certainly be for you if you like the work or writings of any of these people, organizations or sites:<br />
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<li><a href="https://www.itdp.org/">ITDP</a></li>
<li>GIZ’s Sustainable Urban Transport Project (<a href="http://www.sutp.org/en/">SUTP</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.uitp.org/">UITP</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wrirosscities.org/">WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities</a> (and <a href="http://thecityfix.com/">TheCityFix</a> blogs)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.iclei.org/activities/agendas/ecomobilecity/ecomobility.html">ICLEI's Ecomobility</a> efforts</li>
<li><a href="http://www.slocat.net/">SLoCaT</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.itf-oecd.org/">International Transport Forum</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cleanairasia.org/">Clean Air Asia</a></li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.fiafoundation.org/">FIA Foundation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/">World Streets</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/">Strong Towns</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.codatu.org/?lang=en_us">CODATU</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.streetfilms.org/">Streetfilms</a></li>
<li>The <a href="https://www.dutchcycling.nl/">Dutch Cycling Embassy</a> (and similar cycling embassies)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/372478079538925/">Parking Reform International</a></li>
<li><a href="https://pedestrianobservations.com/">Alon Levy</a></li>
<li>Jarrett Walker (<a href="http://humantransit.org/">Human Transit</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vtpi.org/">Todd Litman</a></li>
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The list above also gives you an idea of the issues I will tackle and the wide range of places I aim to cover. </div>
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<b>Please use the share button below to SPREAD THE WORD about the forthcoming Reinventing Transport podcast.</b></div>
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-12194386161456657032016-06-20T12:16:00.000+08:002018-10-02T09:57:18.076+08:00Seductive but destructive goals: congestion-free and affordable driving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Urban transport decision-makers face huge pressures to keep driving uncongested and to keep it cheap.<br />
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But take a look at cities that have worked long and hard to get free-flowing traffic and affordable driving. I doubt you will like what you see.<br />
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This point was a central theme of my chapter "Achieving Sustainable Mobility" which appears in <a href="http://www.unescap.org/resources/state-asian-and-pacific-cities-2015-urban-transformations-shifting-quantity-quality">The State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015</a> jointly published late last year by UN-ESCAP and UN-HABITAT.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The twin desires for congestion-free and affordable driving are understandable. They are politically seductive and play to motorists’ desires and the interests of car industries. But these desires are sending too many cities and their mobility systems down inequitable, costly and environmentally destructive development paths.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMpRWx6LYdeFVWVMFy7nyOvd6SRP_XLIv8GJD-Chx9ZTLcUwakBH63XPYfJ-12VcrJoNoL4wB9iHRRl4Jp3DHlszQmC4lOadGrrnsZ1L1VYYBBhQVUkNhNrddm6tEJF5B7l085Z5MgsA/s1600/Barter+Trajectories+diagram+in+SAPC2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMpRWx6LYdeFVWVMFy7nyOvd6SRP_XLIv8GJD-Chx9ZTLcUwakBH63XPYfJ-12VcrJoNoL4wB9iHRRl4Jp3DHlszQmC4lOadGrrnsZ1L1VYYBBhQVUkNhNrddm6tEJF5B7l085Z5MgsA/s640/Barter+Trajectories+diagram+in+SAPC2015.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
The results of preventing congestion and of keeping driving cheap</h4>
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<a name='more'></a>If private vehicle numbers rise quickly in a city with few cars, it is tempting to focus first on boosting road capacity. And, since such cities are not rich, it is also tempting to try to keep driving cheap.<br />
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The result, before long, is a <b>"Traffic Saturated" city</b> (increasingly filled with traffic but not yet well-adapted to cars). Such cities, such as Cairo, Delhi, Jakarta, Manila, and Tehran, have escalating problems:<br />
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<li>street-based public transport mired in congestion; </li>
<li>slow goods movement; </li>
<li>increasing road crash casualties; </li>
<li>health impacts of air pollution; </li>
<li>blighted public places; </li>
<li>shrinking space for walking or cycling; </li>
<li>worsening exclusion of the poor, people with disabilities, the frail and the elderly; and</li>
<li>burdensome transport costs for municipal budgets.</li>
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Furthermore, if governments continue to work over decades to expand traffic capacity and to avoid cost burdens on motorists, they risk creating an increasingly <b>"automobile dependent" city</b> (thoroughly adapted to cars), such as Atlanta in the USA or Perth in Australia with: <br />
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<li>Very high levels of car ownership and use.</li>
<li>Dispersed jobs and very low population densities, with long trip distances, making any rise in driving costs or any drop in speeds a serious problem, especially for low-income households living in car-dependent locations. </li>
<li>People without a car are seriously disadvantaged because public transport has low service levels outside key corridors and outside peak times. </li>
<li>High per capita negative impacts of traffic such as high-energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. However, air pollution is often quite dispersed in these low-density cities and less of a problem than in traffic saturated cities. </li>
<li>High total costs per capita, requiring large investments by households (in vehicles and running them) and by governments (in roads and in loss-making public transport) and by developers (in required parking for example). </li>
<li>It is difficult to shift away from such deeply entrenched car dependence, since high car use is profoundly embedded in technical systems, planning regulations, industries and institutions, parking space, life-styles and habits, as well as personal investments. </li>
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So, focusing on easing traffic congestion and on keeping driving cheap will not help you get more sustainable urban transport. What will?</div>
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The alternative? Strive to become more of a "New Transit City"!</h4>
Bogotá, Curitiba, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Taipei are examples of cities that have increasingly become <b>New Transit Cities</b>. Each was suffering as a Traffic Saturated city but took decisive steps to change direction, using efforts to:<br />
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<li><b>Keep cars optional rather than a necessity.</b> Politically, these cities often resist the cries of motorists that "I need my car". Instead they constantly improve the alternatives.</li>
<li><b>Face up to space and financial constraints</b> as key reasons to avoid space-consuming car-dominated mobility priorities and to resist motorists' pleas to keep driving cheap. </li>
<li><b>Make enhancing ease of access a central goal rather than enabling fast driving.</b> Focus on space-efficient modes of transport and foster compact development so people can easily reach a wide range of destinations with few long journeys. </li>
<li><b>Enable liveability gains and great urban places by avoiding car-dominated mobility.</b> Preserving much-loved places or rescuing them from traffic impacts is a key benefit of transit-city policies. building much-needed public support. </li>
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Which strategy do you think is best for newly motorizing cities or traffic saturated cities across Asia, Africa and Latin America?<br />
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If you are interested, <a href="http://www.reinventingtransport.org/2013/08/attention-newly-motorizing-cities-look.html">this previous post has more on the "New Transit City" strategy</a>.<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-9182514576097956902014-03-04T10:47:00.000+08:002014-03-04T10:50:56.303+08:00Some carsharing optimismI have <a href="http://www.reinventingtransport.org/search/label/carsharing">often been a carsharing optimist</a>.<br />
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But I am also often frustrated at the seemingly slow rise of the industry. In Singapore (where I live) for example, carsharing faced decline over several years, although it may now be reviving.<br />
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<b>So it has been nice to see a spurt of carsharing good news recently.</b><br />
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First, news from Germany's <a href="http://carsharing.de/">Bundesverband CarSharing</a> via Dave Brook <a href="https://twitter.com/CarSharing_US/status/439918183378472960/photo/1/large">on twitter</a> that carsharing continues to boom in Germany. Most strikingly, there is spectacular growth in one-way carsharing (the dark blue columns). Dave writes the <a href="http://carsharingus.blogspot.sg/">Carsharing.US blog</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJn1s9EBxmg8WByNnWziW44qdCcyhie6cYc_UUSYgB62EplvJdWnFue_-IQ-tkUye_TDnGYVNU-ibZJl3tRbZTNHfOqWciWRQ9H1LGu56OfNRZckKBZlVoFU_Yn0GBmKqYT-Ph66UV2Y/s1600/Growth+in+german+carsharing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJn1s9EBxmg8WByNnWziW44qdCcyhie6cYc_UUSYgB62EplvJdWnFue_-IQ-tkUye_TDnGYVNU-ibZJl3tRbZTNHfOqWciWRQ9H1LGu56OfNRZckKBZlVoFU_Yn0GBmKqYT-Ph66UV2Y/s1600/Growth+in+german+carsharing.jpg" height="315" width="400" /></a></div>
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And today I see that <a href="http://www.alixpartners.com/en/MediaCenter/PressReleases/tabid/821/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/950/AlixPartners-Study-Indicates-Greater-Negative-Effect-of-Car-Sharing-on-Vehicle-Purchases.aspx#sthash.bAnBmzsW.6ok9Dsmx.dpbs">a recent report by business advisory firm AlixPartners</a> suggests a much larger than expected effect of carsharing on car purchases, at least in the leading USA cities for carsharing.<br />
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According to the study, which surveyed 1,000 licensed drivers in 10 developed metropolitan car-sharing markets in the U.S. and 1,000 drivers nationally as a control sample, car sharing in the 10 key markets appears to be displacing vehicle purchases at a rate of 32 to 1 (one car-sharing fleet vehicle displacing 32 vehicles that would have otherwise been purchased). That’s more than double the rate of many studies that have focused only on national averages. To date, according to the AlixPartners study, approximately 500,000 vehicle purchases nationally have been avoided due to car sharing. In addition, the study suggests that as car sharing grows in popularity, it could account for approximately 1.2 million more purchases avoided through 2020.</blockquote>
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Finally, here is a <a href="http://t.co/t3HUEpSACX">slideshow</a> offering great clarity on the various 'shared-use mobility options' and how they might come together as a coherent alternative to owning a car (something I have <a href="http://www.reinventingtransport.org/2011/11/mo-combined-mobility-is-happening.html">enthused about before</a>). <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/31739180" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="427"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/AlanWoodland/shareduse-mobility-summit-highlights" target="_blank" title="Shared-Use Mobility Summit Highlights">Shared-Use Mobility Summit Highlights</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/AlanWoodland" target="_blank">CarSharing Association</a></strong> </div>
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<br />Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5213212286181476541.post-79935868971183983252013-11-29T08:39:00.000+08:002018-01-30T16:06:44.179+08:00Singapore public transport - historical perspective on current issues<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This post is to share a presentation on Singapore's Public Transport policies which I gave in Seoul in September.<br />
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This is my own take on the story, not any kind of official narrative. I took a rather long-term perspective, going back to the 1930s and emphasizing important changes in the 1970s. It is also a 'big picture' view. But some of the current debates are also there.<br />
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If you have any interest in Singapore's public transport story, then take a peek and let me know what you think.<br />
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<iframe src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/oh1m7o7piG3OL0" width="595" height="485" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;" allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="//www.slideshare.net/PaulBarter/barter-for-ipt-forum-3-sept-2013" title="Public Transport Policy in Singapore (a long view)" target="_blank">Public Transport Policy in Singapore (a long view)</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/PaulBarter" target="_blank">Paul Barter</a></strong>
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If you can't see the embedded slideshow above, then try clicking <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/PaulBarter/barter-for-ipt-forum-3-sept-2013" target="_blank" title="Public Transport Policy in Singapore (a long view)">Public Transport Policy in Singapore (a long view)</a>. <b> </b></div>
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By the way, Singapore has had a busy year of transport and urban planning announcements.<br />
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Early in the year, there was the controversial <a href="http://population.sg/">Population White Paper</a>. That was followed closely by the <a href="http://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/publications/research-resources/plans-reports/Concept%20Plan%202011/land_use_plan_2013.aspx">Land Use Plan</a> (basically the latest Concept Plan, Singapore's strategic plan that comes out roughly every ten years).<br />
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Later in the year came the <a href="http://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/about-lta/what-we-do/ltmp2013.html">Land Transport Master Plan 2013</a> (an update of the 2008 plan). Now the <a href="http://www.ura.gov.sg/MS/DMP2013/introduction/master-plan-2013.aspx">Draft Master Plan 2013</a> is out. The Master Plans make concrete the visions in the Concept Plans.<br />
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The Seoul event was the <a href="http://www.iptforum.com/eng/program/speaker.html">3rd International Public Transportation Forum</a> organized by the <a href="http://english.koti.re.kr/">Korea Transport Insitute (KOTI)</a>.<br />
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I should also acknowledge the LTA as the source of some of the images in the presentation.<br />
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Paul Barterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05442704054375929398noreply@blogger.com0