Reinventing Transport

Stefan Bakker sees a big future for electric vehicles with two wheels.  I asked Stefan to join me for this month's Reinventing Transport, after reading his  “Electric Two-Wheelers, Sustainable Mobility and the City” . Learn more about Stefan Bakker via LinkedIn or ResearchGate.   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. 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. Here are highlights from the conversation. Stefan was prompted to write about electric two-wheelers after several years working i...

Many countries control the price of motor fuels. This got their budgets into deep trouble in the first half of 2008. The high price of oil caused massive budget blowouts. Malaysia, Indonesia, China and India among various others faced the politically painful necessity of raising gasoline and diesel prices or face deep budget cuts. Yes, the parking lot is Giant too! Cheap fuel, cheap cars and cheap parking have helped create a remarkably car-dependent landscape in Malaysia's urban areas. But what should these countries do now that the price of oil is way down near US$50 per barrel? Unfortunately some are cutting fuel prices again. The Indonesian Government will cut the price of gasoline from Rp6000 to Rp5500 per litre on Monday. India probably will in late December. Malaysia has already cut the price four times since its big June price rise. Isn't this a bit short-sighted? We all know how hard it will be to raise prices again if (or when) oil prices rise again. Would it n...

[Update: Looking for more parking policy information?   Try Reinventing Parking. ] A Hangzhou boulevard (almost 10 years ago now) The article below from the China Daily online suggests that the beautiful city of Hangzhou is planning to reduce the price of car parking "to ease congestion". Oh dear ... I hope this is a case of 'lost in translation' but I cannot understand the logic of this proposal. There may be some (twisted) logic here. The free parking proposal might indeed reduce the total number of cars that can visit the area each day. This is because making parking free will reduce the turnover of vehicles in parking spaces. Workers will take most parking lots early in the day, leaving few spaces for business traffic and shoppers arriving later. This would be very bad for shop-keepers in central Hangzhou. I doubt this is what is intended by the plan. And would this mean less traffic? Unfortunately no. If public parking is made free, there will be a lo...

The regular e-newsletter from the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) highlights the development of BRT in China in its March 2008 edition. ITDP China has also set up a China BRT website with all the latest developments. BRT in China. This example is in Changzhou. More photos of BRT systems in Dalian, Changzhou, Chongqing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Kunming and elsewhere are available at the urban transport photo library at www.itdp-china.org

Cheap motorised two-wheelers have long been ubiquitous in various Asian countries. Now their numbers are surging in Africa too. Taiwan was apparently the pioneer of mass motor scooter ownership and use in the 1970s. Scooters lined every footway in 1996 when I visited Taipei. Today Vietnam's cities are the undisputed motorcycle capitals of the world. The volume of motorcycle traffic in Vietnamese cities is astounding! Ho Chi Minh City = Motorcycle City Motorcycles are also significant in (among others) Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, parts of China, and increasingly India. We have seen in Asia that motorcycles can be both highly problematic and a boon for people who sorely need better mobility. The dilemmas often create ambivalence, which is reflected in the diverse policies seen in Asian cities. Some welcome and accommodate motorcycles (as in Malaysia) while some seek to limit or even ban them (as in some Chinese cities). Vietnam's large cities have recently been tryin...

[Update: Looking for more parking policy information? Try Reinventing Parking. ] Urban Transport News links to some troubling parking news from Guangzhou in southern China. Guangzhou • 50,000 new parking spaces for Guangzhou • 2/19/2008 • China Daily • Parking Wang Dong, director of the Guangzhou urban planning bureau, said the local government plans to build large-scale parking lots at key stations to give motorists better access to the metro service and downtown destinations. "We will increase the total number of parking spaces in the city by 150,000 between now and 2010, with 50,000 coming this year," Wang said. In addition, Wang said the urban planning authority has introduced a new ruling that stipulates all new property developments must provide one car parking space for every 200 sq m of residential accommodation. The first part is about 'park and ride' at urban rail stations. More on that ano...