Urban Transport Strategy. Management in Developing Countries John A Cracknell, страница 70

Conclusions on Traffic Management and Poverty

General Case

§  Transport assists in reducing poverty mainly by increasing economic efficiency – by lowering costs and prices and enhancing employment and social opportunities; traffic management can contribute

§  In most developing cities, travel by the poor is by bus, para-transit, walking and bicycling.  Traffic management measures can assist policy of poverty reduction by adhering to the objective of r “people” and not necessarily “vehicles"; thus measures aimed at "bus-bicycle-walk" modes are consistent with poverty reduction policies Reallocation of road space to buses

§  Issues – the general lack of bus priority, outside Latin America, arises from a combination of reasons:

§  the absence of conventional bus systems and the reliance on para –transit makes bus priority very difficult to implement due to the high volumes of, largely undisciplined, relatively small vehicles

§  bus services are embryonic in some cities - buses are few in number, bus service is of poor quality, buses are regarded as a second class mode and bus priority is not considered justified

§  the problems of enforcement of “complex” bus lane schemes which require selective treatment for vehicle categories (buses versus other vehicles) are viewed as too great to overcome

§  there is a lack of understanding of the objectives of bus priority and politicians are unwilling to commit to measures which adversely affect the (rich) private cars users;

§  lack of trained-experienced professional staff with sufficient vision to appreciate the benefits of road space reallocation to buses

§  Good design can address some of these issues but more is needed - better information to decision makers, better enforcement, better image for buses, better dissemination of information on the benefits of bus priority and so on.  In developed cities, the acceptance that full and unrestrained car use cannot be accommodated has lead to traffic management strategies which positively promote “people” and not “vehicles” and thus places measures for buses, pedestrians and bicycles at the top of the hierarchy of actions.  Developing cities are likely to have to adopt the same policy as traffic congestion worsens. Pedestrian facilities

§  Issues – commonly faced include:

§  Footways are not always provided, particularly in outer areas of cities

§  Pedestrians are subjugated to vehicle needs with (i) lack of safe facilities to cross roads (ii) footway reduction to make way for increased vehicular capacity etc

§  Capacities of footways do not meet pedestrian volumes-demands

§  Footways often encumbered by street traders and (in some countries) pavement dwellers and thus are unusable by pedestrians

§  Footways lack continuity with frequent breaks for accesses to frontage premises and businesses

§  Public utilities (water, drainage, phones etc) often located under footways and excavation for repairs and replacements to utilities are carried out with little regard for pedestrians or with unsatisfactory reinstatement

§  Pedestrian grade separation often badly sited (away from pedestrian desire lines), badly maintained and cleaned and thus pedestrian use minimal

A new, much more positive and proactive approach to pedestrian measures is needed.  This includes:

§  better pedestrian planning and design guidelines and standards for dissemination to potential transport project participants;

§  establishment of guideline procedures for dealing with street traders and street dwellers in an equitable manner

§  increased dialogue with cities which wish to subjugate pedestrians to vehicles;

§  powers and institutional mechanisms to ensure that utility companies reinstate footways after works.  The traffic authority should have powers to impose financial penalties on utility companies if footways (or indeed roads) are (i) excavated without permission, (ii) remain in an excavated state longer than the period granted by the permission and (iii) reinstated badly Bicycles

§  Issues  commonly faced include:

§  increasing motorization (including increased motor cycle-ization) and thus increasing safety problems for bicycles particularly in mixed traffic at heavily used intersections

§  Reduction in street space for bicycles as pressures for road space increase from motorised