01020406

Component

The authors describe a collaborative effort with leaders of three middle-sized cities in Asia to build indicators of sustainable transport. These indicators should demonstrate the present state and direction of the transport system, the key driving forces (economic activity), important characteristics of the system that affect its sustainability, including provision of access to economic and personal activities, safety, and air quality affected by transportation activities. The indicators also measure the economic health of the transport industry and infrastructure itself. The partner cities were Pune (India), Hanoi (Viet Nam) and Xi’an (China). The objective was not to get a complete set of data and indicators, many of which would be costly to obtain. The goals instead were to identify key problems in transportation, to see what authorities did or did not know about problems with transportation, map this gap of information required to address the problems in a cost-effective way, bridge the gaps of information required for indicators, and cross the bridge with good policies. Fortunately, some important quantitative indicators did emerge. Many of these painted a grim picture of unsustainable transport. The authors give some quantitative examples illustrating some of the results from the three cities, and put forward their key recommendations for filling the gaps. They conclude that by their indicators, access is getting worse, clean air is getting scarcer, and safety is not improving very rapidly in the PSUTA cities. Measures could change these indicators and make transport more sustainable, which they hope their engagement will have stimulated.

01020180

06-1282

English

21p

2006

Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting

CD-ROM

Figures (15) ; References (16) ; Tables (4)

Access; Air quality; Cost effectiveness; Economic conditions; Economic development; Economic indicators; Information dissemination; Infrastructure; Medium sized cities; Policy; Recommendations; Sustainable transportation; Transportation safety; Urban transit; Urban transportation

Problems

Hanoi (Vietnam); Pune (India); Xi'an (China)

Data and Information Technology; Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Public Transportation; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I10: Economics and Administration; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2006 Paper #06-1282

TRIS, TRB

Mar 3 2006 10:38AM