Michael Replogle

Sustainable Transportation Strategies for Third World Development

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Alternative Policies for Bike Congested Cities

The safety and congestion problems associated with automobiles and pedal-powered modes have much in common when comparing situations where one or the other of these has clear local dominance in traffic. Different problems occur when there is a more even mixture of automobiles and non-motorized traffic.

In more progressive American communities the response to automobile-induced traffic congestion has been to control land development staging, to institute better traffic management, and to program additional infrastructure and transit services. Bicycle traffic congestion should similarly be addressed through better traffic management, land use planning, and provision of additional infrastructure and transit services.

In the United States, the response to safety problems caused by the automobile has been research and investment related to safety improvements of vehicles and infrastructure. Similarly, more resources should be committed to increasing the safety of non-motorized modes through better traffic management, infrastructure provision, higher quality vehicle design, the encouragement of bicycle helmet use, and safety education.

Modest investments in the design of cycle rickshaws, for example, could yield substantial increases in their safety and efficiency in traffic. Most cycle rickshaws have only one gear, making them very hard to start in motion, particularly at the base of an incline. Most also have only a single, often poor quality brake on the front wheel of the vehicle. A development group working in India has demonstrated that by retrofitting existing rickshaws with three-speed gearing and a three-wheel braking system, vehicle safety, efficiency in traffic, and driver working conditions can all be greatly improved with less than a 20% increase in vehicle cost (15).

Restraints on bicycle or trishaw use may make sense for specific streets in some dense urban centers where these modes are a predominant element of congestion and hinder pedestrian and public transport travel. However, these restraints should be imposed no differently than selected restraint on automobile use in specific portions of some dense urban centers where autos are predominant sources of congestion that hinder pedestrian or public transport flows. The relative affluence and greater political power of those owning automobiles, however, has led to policies banning bicycles and trishaws from whole cities while auto use remains unrestricted.

The World Bank should promote the transfer of low-cost human-powered transportation technologies from the countries where they are successful to those in need of low-cost mobility, rather than seeking ways to curtail bicycle and tricycle use in Asia. It should promote better management and planning for these low-cost nonpolluting modes where poor traffic discipline, inadequate infrastructure, and other factors lead to inefficient use of these modes in crowded Asian cities. Spot improvements and traffic management measures, such as improved traffic signal systems, creation of one-way modally segregated streets, construction of underpasses for bicycle traffic at congested intersections, and creation of streets reserved for public transport vehicles are far more sensible strategies than wholesale assaults on these low-cost transport modes.

Instead of destroying slow, non-motorized modes, more attention should be paid to the integration of motorized and non-motorized modes, such as encouraging bicycle access to express transit services for longer distance trips. As city size increases, average trip lengths tend to increase, diminishing the viability of bicycles and walking in urban areas. In Western Europe and Japan today the fastest growing and predominant access mode to suburban railways is the bicycle, accounting for one-fourth to one-half of access trips to stations even while overall bicycle use declines (18). In India, bicycles play a major role in access to commuter railways (19). Adequate supporting infrastructure, including secure parking at station entrances, is needed to enhance such intermodal integration.

Urban rail passenger transportation has an important role to play in the development of large cities. Modal diversity, as argued above, is essential to the creation of healthy cities. However, the same forces that have promoted motorization and marginalized low-cost non-motorized modes of transport have been hostile to-new investment in rail transportation systems.

The World Bank has been resistant to most proposals for highly capital-intensive metrorail system development in Third World cities, arguing that these are not cost-effective and benefit mostly the middle class. However, many capital-intensive road projects funded by the Bank appear to be vulnerable to the same arguments. The Bank's aggressive promotion of urban bus alternatives to the exclusion of all forms of rail has failed to address basic needs.

Especially in larger cities, light rail or commuter rail systems, combined with bicycle access and egress systems in moderate to high density suburban areas, as in much of Europe and Japan, offer cost-effective investment opportunities. Surface rail infrastructure on its own right-of-way offers far more reasonable costs than tunneled track, which can likely be justified only in extremely dense central areas.

Investments in rail infrastructure, however, should be accompanied by programs to recapture for the public sector most infrastructure and operating costs. Special real estate assessment districts, public-private joint development of land adjacent to stations, and other techniques are needed to ensure that these major investments do not simply profit a handful of already affluent land owners.

The World Bank has come under sharp criticism from environmentalists for the effect of its projects on our planet's ecological system. As a result, the Bank has initiated new efforts for environmental review.

Other groups are now calling for the World Bank to increase its focus on the needs of the poor, as evidenced by a recent letter to the Bank's Director from 556 legislators in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and Canada.

The Bank's reorganization in 1987 has led to potentially important shifts in personnel, some decentralization, and possibilities for greater flexibility in project development. A more open-door policy has been adopted by some staff in the urban transportation section of the Bank. Some World Bank staff members admit shortcomings in the Bank's policies towards non-motorized transport. However, it remains to be seen whether these changes will result in serious funding for and policies supportive of non-motorized and sustainable transport strategies.