SUSTAINABLETRANSPORTNumber 8 Winter 1998

ITDP Institute for Transportation & Development Policy

Upward Mobility in South Africa

South Africa’s Workbike Projectp. 8

Central Europe: Notes from

the Undergroundp. 4

GEF’s Transport Project in Tehran

p. 10

While bicycling through ProspectPark, Brooklyn on a Saturday morningthis past July, my path was blocked by theyellow police tape of a crime scene.Behind it, flecks of blood on a dented van,long skid marks, a detective surveying thescene. The following Monday I learnedthat the driver of the van, who was takinga “short cut” through the park on a car-free road at 65 kilometers per hour with acracked windshield, was given a $45 ticketfor his negligence. I also learned thatRachel Fruchter, the bicyclist he hit, died.

Dr. Rachel Fruchter was an eminentphysician and AIDS researcher.Transportation Alternatives, our localpartners who are campaigning for car-freeparks, organized a vigil at City Hall, notonly for Dr. Fruchter, but also for the over180 less well-known pedestrians andcyclists killed by motorists on the streetsof New York each year.

In New York, as in most major cities,there are some crazy bicyclists and somecrazy drivers. But while heedless bicyclistsprimarily endanger themselves, driversare operating a potential murder weapon.On a residential street in Brooklyn, I sawan old man thrown into the air and killedby a motorist going nearly 100 kph. Lastweek I saw a small child dart into the roadafter a rubber ball, only narrowly avertingdeath. Arcane state laws make trafficcalming illegal in New York City, as roadshave to be designed to accommodate minimum speed limits. The punishmentfor manslaughter by car is a minor traffic citation.

The problem is not only America’s.Affordable transport is threatened inSouth Africa by terror perpetrated by aparatransit industry which sees the bicy-cle, correctly, as a threat to their monop-oly. Worldwide, women cyclists arethreatened with physical violence fromtheir male partners fearful of the greaterautonomy a bicycle affords. In Managua,

most bicyclists fear for their lives and thusrefuse to operate them on most majorroads. Being struck by a motor vehicle islikely to be the second leading cause ofdeath in developing countries by the year2020, according to the World HealthOrganization.

Transportation is not a free market.Private motor vehicles dominate becausethey make the streets too polluted anddangerous for non-motorized alternatives,

and because they pay nothing for the extraroad space they consume. The fear andanger that we pedestrians and cyclists feelevery day at being treated as second classcitizens, when one of our friends is killed,or after we’ve languished in bed withasthma or bronchitis, occasionally boilsover— as it did at the Critical Mass ride inSan Francisco this year. This anger can bedestructive, or it can be channeled into theincreasingly popular citizens’ movementsfor sustainable and safe transport.

ITDP promotes safer and more

livable cities by providing technical assis-tance to sustainable transport campaignsin developing countries and in Centraland Eastern Europe, redirecting the fund-ing of major development institutionstowards more sustainable transport pro-jects, and sponsoring demonstration pro-jects which show how scarce developmentdollars could be better spent.

Demonstration ProjectsIn India, ITDP’s USAID-funded cycle

rickshaw improvement project is under-way, teaming American human-poweredvehicle designers with veteran engineersfrom the Asian Institute for TransportDevelopment. In Delhi we have contactswith the operators, owners, and manufac-turers of cycle rickshaws and are prepar-ing a modernized yet low-cost vehiclebased on their input. In Agra, we aredesigning a high-end vehicle to the speci-fications of the Tourist Promotion Boardthat will protect the Taj Mahal area fromsmoke-belching vehicles, and will demon-strate the technical and commercial poten-tial of human-powered technologies.ITDP’s team will arrive in Delhi and Agrain January.

In South Africa, ITDP’s demonstra-tion project in cooperation with MondiRecycling, funded by the InternationalFoundation and the Tucker Foundation,gave workbikes to the collectors of recy-cled materials. The workbikes increasedthe income of their workers by two tothree times, and convinced Mondi toexpand their fleet of workbikes to threeother sites. The project also helped to con-vince several other small businesses inJohannesburg and Soweto to use work-bikes for various service sector jobs, andCoca-Cola is considering setting up a bev-erage distribution facility using work-bikes. Also, a container of recycled USbikes is en-route to the African CulturalCenter in Soweto, where we will be

SUSTAINABLETRANSPORT

2

Organizing Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Bus PassengersIt’s a Matter of Life and Breath

Letter from the Executive Director

Lightening the load of the poor in IndiaM

atte

o M

artig

noni

is a publication of:The Institute for

Transportation and Development Policy115 W.30th St., Suite 1205

New York, NY 10001Tel. (212)629-8001•Fax (212)629-8033

email: Mobility@igc.apc.orgEditors: Walter Hook, Paul S.White Art Direction: Cliff Harris

Board of Directors: Keith Oberg, PresidentInter-American FoundationMatteo Martignoni, Vice PresidentInternational Human Powered Vehicle AssociationWalter Hook, SecretaryExecutive Director, ITDPJon Orcutt, TreasurerTri-State Transportation CampaignMichael ReplogleEnvironmental Defense FundJohn HoweProfessor, IHE DelftSetty PendakurChairman, NMT CommitteeTransportation Research Board,Professor, Univ. of British ColumbiaAriadne Delon-ScottSpecializedElliott SclarProfessor, Columbia UniversityDavid GurinActing Commissioner of Planning, City of Toronto

All views expressed in the articles in this publi-cation are the views of the authors and notnecessarily the views of ITDP. SustainableTransport welcomes submissions of articlesabout non-motorized transportation and infor-mation about sustainable transportation activi-ties worldwide.

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3

establishing a repair and storage facilityin early 1998.

In early 1998, ITDP and theAssociation of Mozambican Women(AMRU) will also implement the WorldBank’s first Mozambican non-motorizedtransport promotion project. The projectincludes low interest loans for purchasingbicycles, training in importing and assem-bly, and training for city traffic officials inbicycle planning, safety, and promotion.

Technical Assistance to SustainableTransport Campaigns

In Central and Eastern Europe,thanks to support from the RockefellerBrothers Fund, ITDP’s work with theHungarian Clean Air Action Group hassubstantially delayed the construction of amajor unneeded highway betweenBudapest and the Ukrainian border wherethe highway threatens a parallel rail corri-dor— thus freeing up funds for rail, pub-lic transport, and debt relief. It also initiat-ed a major public debate in the newspa-pers over the Municipality of Budapest’sexpensive plans to build a fourth line ofthe Metro (See article).

ITDP also worked closely with thePolish Ecological Transport Campaign,

which published a major article on thecover of a major Warsaw daily paperpointing out that the privatization of thehighways in Poland allows privateinvestors to profit at taxpayers’ expense.The Campaign is making enormous gainsin empowering people threatened withrelocation from highway projects, forcingPoland’s motorway development policyto be much more democratic.

In Southeast Asia, thanks to supportfrom Changing Horizons of the TidesFoundation and the New LandFoundation, ITDP is providing technicalassistance to the national chapters of theSustainable Transport Action Coalition forAsia and the Pacific Rim. We’re alsoworking with the Philippines SustainableTransport Forum to organize key partici-pants into a national campaign. InIndonesia, we developed relations withthe Indonesian Transport Society whichwill hold a forum on non-motorized trans-port, and laid the groundwork for aSustainable Transport Coalition there. InKuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ITDP and SUS-TRAN made television appearances andaddressed ISIS, a major think tank, on theeconomic disadvantages of auto-depen-

Sustainable TRANSPORTNumber 8 Winter 1998

C o n t e n t sArticles:

Budapest Metro: Trojan Horse from European Union 4Prague Threatened by Auto Mania 5Managua Plans to Bike Around Transport Pitfalls 6Making Bikes Work for South Africa 8Tehran Clears the Air 10Jakarta: A City in Crisis 14The Trans-Israel Highway: An Update 19

Features:Letter from ITDP's Executive Director 2News Briefs 12New Titles 22Bulletin Board 23

continued on p.16 Printed on recycled paper

Cover photos: Paul S. White

ITDP is a non-profit research, dissemination, andproject-implementing agency which seeks to pro-mote the use of non-motorized vehicles (NMVs)and the broader implementation of sustainabletransportation policies worldwide. ITDP is regis-tered in the United States as a charitableagency eligible for tax-deductible contributionsunder the Internal Revenue Service code.Members include bicycle activists, transportationplanners, economic development specialists,small businesspeople, environmentalists, andother professionals, primarily but not exclusivelyU.S. citizens.

SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

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SUSTAINABLETRANSPORT

Environmentalists and citizensgroups opposing the Budapest Metroplans? You read it correctly. After a care-ful look, Hungary’s Clean Air ActionGroup (CAAG) came out in opposition toambitious plans to build a 4th Metro Linewith funds from the European InvestmentBank (EIB) and other European Union(EU) funds.

The line is estimated to cost some$700 million, or around $100 million ayear. The national government signed anagreement with Budapest to fund 60% ofthe estimated cost, but it is unclear whowill pick up the additional bill in the caseof almost certain cost overruns. The fundsfrom the Municipality would come fromrevenues owed to Budapest from theNational government for the privatizationof land in the capital. The Ministry ofTransport, recently informed by theMinistry of Finance that its share of thefunds would come directly out of theirbudget, has cut their development fundsfor this year in a sign of growing concernabout the costs.

CAAG activists question why boththe Municipality of Budapest and theNational Government are able to find$100 million a year to improve transportservice for the only 5% of the public tran-sit riders that will be served by the newmetro, while they don’t seem to have themoney to cover the $64 million a year thatthe Budapest Transit Authority (BKV)needs to bring the existing system intogood working order, or to slow the dra-matic increase in fares, which were raisedanother 16% above the inflation rate thisyear alone. Unlike in Prague where metroconstruction was not done at the expenseof the surface system, Budapest passen-gers board buses that are 9% more crowd-

ed than last year due to a 5% reduction inthe vehicle fleet and a 7% reduction of thenetwork. The fleet has continued to age,

with buses now nearly 10 years old onaverage, compared to 5 in Prague. Withservice declining and prices rising dra-matically, its no wonder that riders areleaving the system in droves; ridership isdown 5% in the last year alone.

BKV admits that the project willbring no new revenue to the systemdespite its enormous cost. Not only doesthe metro project spell financial disasterfor BKV, but the passengers are likely topick up most of the price tag in the formof higher fares. While the Municipalityhas set up a separate company to buildthe metro line, as a wholly owned sub-sidiary, the depreciation of the new capi-tal stock alone will add an additional $100

million to BKVs annual costs. BKV has aloan agreement with the World Bank thatit will raise fare revenues sufficiently tocover 50% of its costs by the year 2000,and to maintain the system in good work-ing order. For BKV to meet both the costrecovery target and the maintenancerequirements implied by the World Bankloan, fares will have to be increasedanother some 87% by the year 2000. Thiswould certainly further hurt ridership, butat least would bring the system into goodworking order. If the metro project goes

forward, however, fares would have to beincreased by another 71% even if theMunicipality and the NationalGovernment picked up the entirety of theconstruction costs, just to cover theincrease in depreciation costs within the50% cost recovery ratio. These conditionsare a recipe for disaster for Budapest pub-lic transit.

One possibility mentioned by BKV isthat it will simply cancel the balance of itsloan from the World Bank, freeing it fromthe burdensome cost recovery targets.This would be unfortunate, however, asthe World Bank funds have been usedresponsibly for upgrading of the rollingstock and tram tracks, and also leveraged

NOTES from the UNDERGROUND

Budapest Metro Expansion:Trojan Horse from the European Unionby Walter Hook

“Waiting for Metro?”: Tram improvements delayed for decades

Har

ris G

rum

an

For a while, it looked as though theCzech Republic might escape the worstaspects of Cenral Europe’s rapidembrace of the automobile. Auto owner-ship rose by 28% from 1988 to 1992, butin contrast to other countries, publictransit use continued to grow by 8%.Unfortunately, since 1992, car owner-ship increased another 30% nationally,and in Prague it doubled. Total distancetravelled by car increased even fasterthan car ownership, almost doublingnationally from 1990 to 1996, greatlyexacerbating congestion on Prague’sstreets. During morning and afternoonrush hours, traffic on key arteries oftencomes to a standstill.When they are mov-ing, however, Prague’scars have become verydangerous indeed,killing 123 people in1995, 31% more thanin 1990.

While car owner-ship and use have bur-geoned, virtuallyevery kind of publictransport has been los-ing riders since 1992 throughout theCzech Republic. Urban public transportlost 28% of its passengers in Czech citiesoverall, and 29% in the capital city ofPrague between 1992 and 1996, its shareof total trips tumbling from 75% to 60%.Long-distance railroad travel declinedby 24% in the same period, and ruraland intercity bus travel fell by 37%.

There are, however, some hopefulsigns. Czech cities are not built to han-dle such high volumes of car traffic. Thecapacity of their roadway networks islimited, and the high density of urbandevelopment makes roadway expansiondifficult. For example, construction of amajor arterial in Prague was blocked bycitizens groups and the Health

Department because of the adversehealth effects of the projected increase inpollution. The old towns of many Czechcities are also protected by historicpreservation laws, which may provide abulwark against significant expansion ofthe urban road network. In Prague, forexample, 8.6 sq.km of the city center hasbeen a legally protected historic districtsince 1971.

Lack of parking may also provide atraffic constraint. In addition to limitedstreet space, off-street parking garagesare absent in Prague and every otherCzech city. This could become a futurebattleground between motoring and

pro-city interests. Fornow, most cars aresimply parked in anyway possible, legal orillegal, on sidewalks,on streets, in vacantlots, in squares, inroadway medians, inparks, and even ontram tracks, blockingtransit and pedestriansand diminishing theunique charm of

Prague. Prague’s most beautiful square(Malostranske Namesti) has been appro-priated as a large parking lot for mem-bers of the National Parliament.

The Role of Public PolicyUnder the communist government,

large central government subsidiesmade public transport service ubiqui-tous and inexpensive.

Moreover, both the socialist centralgovernment and the Prague municipalgovernment undertook a range of mea-sures to limit car use in the city center.Between 1971 to 1985, Prague becamethe first European city to establish trafficcalming in its entire center. That

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the enormous improvement in the down-town pedestrian environment as a resultof a new parking control system. If theloan were canceled, it is likely that all sur-plus capital funds would be redirectedtowards the metro project, and rollingstock and track work on the rest of thesystem would stop.

There is some chance that the elec-tions next year will change the NationalGovernment’s attitude about the metro.While plans to spread contracts for metroconstruction around the country bolsternational support for the project, and whilethe Budapest City Council voted nearlyunanimously (all but one) in favor of themetro plans, as a promised 60% nationalgovernment contribution made the planquite attractive, residents from outsideBudapest may wonder why so much oftheir tax revenues are being spent entirelyin Budapest. The enormous national sub-sidies to the Prague metro were one of themajor contentions of the Slovaks’ decisionto split from the Czech republic.

The CAAG has fought back with awell-orchestrated media campaign. Theyreleased to the press a letter from theWorld Bank to Mayor Demsky whichcalled the project marginal and indicatedthat it represented a probable violation ofthe World Bank loan. The loan agreementalso stipulated that no new capital pro-jects with an economic rate of return(ERR) of less than 10% would be under-taken, and the ERR on this project wasalmost assuredly not this high if done cor-rectly. The Mayor’s office respondedangrily to the release of the letter, claim-ing that it was unofficial. Meanwhile, itplaced enormous political pressure on theWorld Bank to retract the letter. The Bankagreed to retract the letter, pending theresults of the evaluation team. The evalua-tion team again found the project margin-al and likely to violate the terms of theloan, but the release of the letter to thepublic was blocked at the VicePresidential level of the World Bankunder pressure from the MunicipalGovernment.

CAAG, with ITDP technical support,then initiated a media campaign to linkthe highly unpopular fare increases withthe metro plans. In interviews which ranin the major newspapers, the groupspointed out the likely impact on the fareof going forward with the metro project.

Once again, the nearly totally unac-

Prague Threatened by Auto-Maniaby John Pucher

countable European Investment Bank islikely to agree to fund the project, despiteits clear pitfalls and its violation of theWorld Bank loan agreement. While sup-

port from the EIB for public transit systems is a welcome evolution in their lending, this project would be an unfortu-nate place to start. ♦

Prague’s historicalsquares are turning

into parking lots

continued on p.17

6

SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT SUSTAINABLETRANSPORT

In Nicaragua, with severepoverty and formal unemploy-ment rates at 70% of the eco-nomically active population,affordable access and mobilityare key to stimulating economicrecovery. Natural disasters, eco-nomic crisis, and decades ofpolitical turmoil have inhibitedmotorization, giving Nicaraguaa historic opportunity to devel-op a more sustainable transportsystem. These circumstances promptedthe Central American University, severalenvironmental organizations, and theCaritas Foundation, to invite ITDP to pre-pare a bike plan for Managua and orga-nize a conference to discuss the plan.

ITDP’s feasibility study found that,while current traffic realities are not con-ducive to cycling, sufficient potentialexists for bike use in the capital to developa bike network, and the political climate isfavorable. At the Managua conference,“Sustainable Transport in Nicaragua,”which ITDP co-hosted in late September,the Mayor’s special technical advisor ontransport infrastructure supported thebikeway plans, and the Ministry ofConstruction and Transport affirmed theiropenness to the plans as well. Japan’sInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA),which in cooperation with Nicaraguanofficials is currently preparing a US$2 mil-lion 25-year integrated transport develop-ment plan for Managua, also attended theconference, praised ITDP’s initiative, andaffirmed that the conclusions and recom-mendations of the feasibility study werecompletely consistent with JICA’s goalsand objectives for Managua’s future trans-port development. Representatives ofenvironmental organizations and studentunion leaders attending the conference

spontaneously formed a “SustainableTransport Group” to push forward theplans, and they have met several timessince. The Central American University(UCA), one of the Co-Hosts of ITDP’s con-ference, is also hoping to develop a plan toimprove bike accessibility for studentsaround their campus.

Support for bicycling in Nicaragua isnot new. In the late eighties, facing a US-led Contra war, an oil embargo, and arapidly deteriorating public transit fleet,the Nicaraguan government decided topromote bicycles as an efficient, non-fueldependent and affordable means of trans-portation. Cycles were introduced into themarket on a large scale at subsidizedprices, and are now widely used in vari-ous forms and fashions all acrossNicaragua.

Throughout the eighties, the size ofNicaragua’s motor vehicle fleet was rela-tively stable at about 30,000 vehicles. After1990, however, when Chamorro’s neo-lib-eral government opened the country toWestern imports again, Nicaragua’s vehi-cle fleet more than doubled in only twoyears, from 31,162 in 1990 to 67,486 in1992. Today, there are about 170,000motorized vehicles in Nicaragua.Motorization growth rates are currently at10% a year. Nevertheless, with a total

population of 4 million,Nicaragua still only hasabout 40 vehicles for every1000 inhabitants, which iscomparatively low. The UShas almost 600 vehicles per1000 inhabitants.

The vast majority ofNicaragua’s 170,000 vehi-cles are imported second-hand vehicles from the US,

or old Soviet models. Thehigh average age of the vehicle fleet isresponsible for high levels of road-basedair pollution. Buses and trucks are espe-cially loud and smoke-belching. Even at afraction of the motorization levels of theUS, the city of Managua has equal or evenhigher contamination levels along itsmajor arteries. For example, a survey donein late 1996 showed that 13 of 15 locationsaround Managua continuously exceededthe acceptable levels of carbon monoxideaccording to US EPA and Pan-AmericanHealth Organization standards. Noise pol-lution is particularly penetrating inManagua, where houses are built in anopen style for the warm climate.

Biking is Presently UnsafeAlthough widely used in the rest of

the country, cycles are unfortunately not avery common sight in Managua. A surveyin 1997 asking people why they didn’tcycle in Managua revealed that the twomain deterrents to bicycle use are fear ofaccidents and fear of being robbed or hav-ing their bicycle stolen. Motorist behavioris a major problem for cyclists, with dri-vers frequently switching into the oncom-ing lane to pass other vehicles, driving onthe shoulder, or skimming the right curb.Apart from these safety concerns, howev-er, attitudes towards bicycling are very

Nicaragua:

Managua Plans to Bike AroundTransport Pitfallsby Deike Peters

Public transit overcrowding in Managua

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Dei

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positive in Managua, as they are inNicaragua in general. Almost every per-son interviewed said that their reserva-tions about cycling were mostly restrictedto Managua, and most were aware thatbicycles are a major mode of transport insmaller Nicaraguan cities. Contrary tomany other Latin American countries, thebicycle does not have a big image problemin Nicaragua, although cars definitelyremain major status symbols. There areanywhere between 75,000 to 100,000 bicy-cles in Managua, although only a smallfraction of them are currently used on adaily basis. Most bicycles are only occa-sionally used as recreational vehicles onweekends.

When bikes first hit the streets ofNicaragua in the eighties, most modelswere Indian or Chinese bicycles, whicharrived completely knocked-down andwere assembled in-country. There are alsoa good number of second-hand importedten-speeds, but most of the newer modelsare mountain bikes. The two major bicyclefactories in the Managua area, Tierra andShannon y Candy, both import parts,mainly from Taiwan, and are equipped toquickly respond to consumer preferences.Shannon y Candy, which grew out ofITDP’s Bikes Not Bombs project of the1980s, is now a successful commercialenterprise which mostly produces moun-tain bikes, while the Tierra factory inJinotepe also produces various cargobikes, which are popular all overNicaragua.

Animal drawn carts and cargo cyclescontinue to be used, and play an impor-tant role in the informal economy, for car-rying, delivering and selling anythingfrom newspapers to bread. They face,however, serious risks traveling onManagua’s streets.

Unlike cycles, pedestrians are a majorpresence in all areas of Managua. Manypeople, especially women, can be seenwalking alongside major roads headload-ing food products for sale. A smaller num-ber of people have access to small, two-wheeled handcarts. Since few streets inManagua have sidewalks, most pedestri-ans are constantly forced to walk at theedge of the streets, thus exposing them-selves to the fast moving, frequentlyswerving motor vehicles.

Given the positive image of the bicy-cle, its affordability, and reasonably highlevels of bike ownership, biking could

potentially capture a significant share ofpassenger trips in Managua if safe andattractive cycling infrastructure were to bebuilt. Especially for teenagers and univer-sity students, the bicycle has considerableappeal. Sidewalks, traffic calming, andpedestrian zones could also improve thepedestrian environment.

Chaotic, Overcrowded Bus System isUnable to Meet Demand

Making biking viable would also help

address the pitfalls of the transit system.Since 95 percent of Managuans do notown a private vehicle, they depend onpublic transportation, but the present pub-lic transport system is unable to meet thistravel need. A 1994 municipal survey putthe city’s urban public transport fleet at954 vehicles, 58 of which were illegaloperators. Even many of the authorized,legal vehicles do not meet the minimumhealth and safety standard. In 1994, 20percent of the public transport vehicleswere in serious need of improvement oreven replacement, and another 65 percentwere in need of serious repair. Together,the system still managed to satisfy thedemand of 680,275 daily transport users;54 per cent of the total population.

Managua’s public transport fleet,which consists of buses, microbuses,camiones and camionetas (various truckswith passenger benches in the back), isnotoriously overcrowded, making thesqueezed passengers prime targets forpickpocketing. Passengers hold on to theirbags tightly, and any larger bills are besthidden in socks, as pockets in clothing aresure to be cleaned out. In a recent survey,

about half of all public transport users inManagua reported having been attackedand/or pickpocketed during the last year.

The fare system of the public trans-port fleet in Managua is a single unifiedfare (currently about 13 cents) for eachseparate trip taken on a bus, no matterhow long or short the person stays on thebus. Especially women are likely to haveto pay even more than four fares in orderto satisfy their travel demand, becausethey generally have additional householdresponsibilities like going to markets, oraccompanying children and elderly rela-tives to health and educational facilities.Distances between stops on most routesare also too far apart. Ideally, peopleshould not have to walk more than 350mto the nearest stop in their neighborhood.In Managua, the distance between manystops exceeds 500m.

Overall, the service area ofManagua’s public transport system isinadequate and poorly coordinated, itsvehicles dilapidated, unsafe, and over-crowded. Nevertheless this ailing publictransport fleet still forms the backbone ofthe transport system. As no special lanesexist for buses, the 90 per cent of passen-gers which are sitting in buses, camiones,and minivans are stuck in traffic jamslargely produced by the richest 5 per centof the population driving in private vehi-cles and taxis. Taxis, at ten times the priceof bus fare, are not a viable option formore than 5% of Managua’s commuters.This means that some thirty percent ofManagua’s total population is entirelydependent on walking. Increasing theviability of bicycling is critical to improv-ing their mobility.

Managua Transport Planning and PoliticsUnfortunately, few of Managua’s

political decision makers and transportplanning experts are aware of the vastpotential which the promotion of non-motorized transport could have on thecity’s environmental, social and economicwell-being. None of the current officialurban development plans mention non-motorized transport, and no office of gov-ernment has responsibility for non-motor-ized travel.

The fate of plans in general is notencouraging. Managua’s official develop-ment plan, from 1992, is already obsolete,

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continued on p.21

A cyclist pushed off of a Managua street

Gabriel Notweta reaches into the metal bin that’s weld-ed to the back of his tricycle, grabs the last handfulwhite waste paper, and piles it on the scale. Hands

on hips, he squints at the reading and grins. It’s a been a goodmorning: in one trip he collected 80kg. His haul nets him 39 Rand(US$8.21), ample funds to replace his threadbare front tire. Heinspects his tire carefully, deems it worthy for now, then pedalsaway for another sortie.

Gabriel, one of the thousands of black South Africans unableto find formal employment, ekes out a living collecting recy-clables. Gabriel collects his paper in and around Midrand, per-haps the most rapidly growing community in the Johannesburg-

Pretoria conurbation. Paper “hawkers” through-out South Africa collect all kinds of paper andcardboard, but prefer white office paper, “HL1”,because it yields the most money per kilogram.Hawkers collect their paper from myriadsources—offices, homes, dumpsters—and typical-ly transport their loads on their heads or in shop-ping trolleys borrowed from local supermarkets.Some hawkers, however, have recently discovereda more efficient method.

Gabriel is one of ten participants in theWorkbike Pilot Project, the product of an experi-mental partnership between ITDP and MondiRecycling, a branch of the largest paper producerin South Africa. The main goal of the project is toexplore the viability of using non-motorized load-carrying technologies to fulfill the transportationneeds of paper hawkers and other South Africansengaged in small-scale economic activities. Theneeds are vital: thousands of black South Africansare presently forced to transport their loads onfoot—the inefficiency of which ensures that theirendeavors will fail to bring their families out ofpoverty.

Equipped with workbikes, hawkers were able to triple theircollecting radius, almost triple their speed, and double their haul-ing capacity over walking. More importantly, they doubled andin some cases tripled their income. “The bike is better than thetrolley” boasts Gabriel, “and people in the street ask me: ‘wheredid you get this bicycle and how did you get this bicycle?’”

Paper hawking and other informal sector enterprises were

SUSTAINABLETRANSPORT

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Making Bikes Work for South Africaby Paul S. White

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Paul S. White, ITDP’s new Projects Director, recentlyreturned from his first assignment: to evaluate the Workbike PilotProject in Johannesburg, South Africa.

anathema to pre-revolution policy makers. Now, in the ‘new’South Africa, they are encouraged for their employment-generat-ing potential. Indeed, in an effort to breathe life into a saggingeconomy rife with unemployed, Mandela’s government eliminat-ed many apartheid era policies that curtailed the informal sector.Black South Africans are now free to hawk anywhere they want,with virtually no restrictions. Unfortunately, not all vestiges ofthe apartheid era are so easily redressed: fragmented and sprawl-ing race-dictated urban geography persists, and continues toplace an enormous transport burden on black South Africans—98% of whom cannot afford motorized transport.

Gabriel, his wife and their three children live in Ivory Park,an informal settlement of 250,000, located 8km east of the areawhere Gabriel collects his paper. A spry 39, Gabriel is known forhis far-reaching collection trips and is recognized by his peers asa strong cyclist and an accomplished mechanic. His enduringgood humor and multi-lingual mediation skills (English,Afrikaans, Sutu, Zulu, Stronka) make him the go-to-guy in work-related disputes. When asked what he thinks about his newworkbike, he responds: “I’m making more Rands, I’m not astired at the end of the day, and my shoes last longer.” But hewould still rather be doing something else. The hours are long,and digging through rubbish is, understandably, not his idea offulfilling work. Still, he says, he is much better off than before.With his workbike, he now makes about 190 Rand per week($40.86)—almost three times as much as he used to earn.

Peter Hunter of Mondi Recycling is happy with the project,and is eager to replicate it at other Mondi Paper Buy-In Centresthroughout the country. Says Peter: “After we work out the bugs,like replacing 8-gauge spokes with heartier 16-gauge, we’llexport the workbike concept to our other centers in Cape Townand Durban.” The Project’s novel finance program will accompa-ny the workbike concept at the new locations. Though the collec-tors were initially unable to take full ownership of their bicycles,increased earnings and an ITDP subsidy have made the bikesaffordable. Some collectors are currently making monthly pay-ments on their bikes, and will soon own them outright. Peterlikes what the workbikes havedone for the collectors, but also hasa more prosaic reason to relish the success of the project: ahealthier bottom line. Mondi’s profits are commensurate withthe amount of paper the hawkers collect, thus rendering the rela-tionship between Mondi and the collectors mutually beneficial.The project has shown that bikes are good for business.

As South Africa’s sole manufacturer of load-carrying bicy-cles, Kim Johnson has sold his workbikes to a panoply of buyers:South African Airways uses scores of his stout rigs to ferry itemsaround the tarmac at Johannesburg International Airport; icecream vendors use them to chase customers at Zoo Lake; uni-formed pie sellers pedal meat-filled pastries to white-collar work-ers “too lazy to leave their offices for lunch.” Fruit sellers, carwashers— and paper collectors— all use Johnson’s workbikes.Johnson talks like a businessman, and is “bullish” on what hecalls “mobile vending systems”:

“If you are in a stationary position, you can only get as muchbusiness as the people who walk in your front door, or frequentyour street corner. But if you’re mobile, you can literally chasethe business. [workbikes]bridge the white and blackeconomies…There is a lot of business out there, just waiting to betaken, business that would benefit all of us.”

Johnson continues:These people [black enterprisers] have been trading in their

backyards for years, and we [whites] weren’t exposed to it. Welived on this side of the railway, and they on the other. But now,we are realizing that there is a helluva lot that these guys aredoing that Johnson Cycles could help them with… bikes givethem cheap access to white markets”

Insofar as the the Workbike Pilot Project sought to alleviatepoverty and increase incomes, it was a success. Here’s the break-down: The average hawker equipped with a workbike earnsUS$88 more per month than a hawker without one. Subtract themonthly maintenance costs, which amount to US$15 per month.That leaves US$73 per month that a biking hawker makes overand above what he used to earn walking. If a hawker borrowsthe US$630 required to purchase a bike at 10% annual interest,and makes his monthly payments using only the extra incomethat the workbike affords, he will have paid the bike off in 9months.

The project also aspired to demonstrate the utility of work-bikes to other potential users. The project’s success has alreadyproven contagious: car washers, inspired by the new prosperityof the collectors, have just recently started using workbikes toservice customers they used to reach on foot. The average work-bike-equipped car-washer washes 6.5 cars per day, and is mak-ing, on average, 220 Rand per week ($46.30)—double what theyused to earn walking.

Additionally, it is worth noting that the increased incomethat the workbike equipped-collectors earn is not to the detrimentof the other collectors using more primitive means. The workbikecollectors have a larger collection radius, and are thus able tooccupy a different niche than the walking collectors who concen-trate their efforts at a closer proximity to the Buy-In Centre.

At the outset, ITDP and Mondi Recycling agreed that at leastfour of the participants should be women. Yet no women partici-pated in the Workbike Pilot Project. The fact that South African

9

WINTER 1998

continued on p.21

So far, getting workbikes to women has failed.

The Alborz mountains, looming in the near dis-tance over the Iranian capital, have traditionallyprovided both visual and recreational relief tocity residents. But the view is no longer a clearpicture. To view the Alborz, one must peer

through the layers of smog and haze that shroud Tehran, one ofthe world’s most polluted cities.

The absolute center of Iran politically, economically andculturally, Tehran leads and the rest of the nation follows. In theyears following the 1979 Islamic revolution, the quality of life inTehran continued to deteriorate. Explosive population growth,economic hardship and brutal traffic congestion made the city adifficult place to live and work. Without a healthy and well-functioning Tehran, the nation suffers.

While altitude and topography are partially to blame, apoorly managed transportation system is the immediate humancause of the problem. With the city’s population tripling to near-ly eight million residents in less than three decades, the over-taxed mass transit system and rapid increases in the number ofvehicles burning low-grade fuels have pushed vehicle emissionsto a crisis point.

But the situation is not entirely bleak. Tehran was the sightof the only transport-related Global Environmental Facility project, which provided at least a basis on which policy makerscan deal with the pollution problem. Over the past five years,data and reporting on pollution and its health impacts has beengathered and analyzed on an unprecedented scale. Significant

transportation and land-use solutions are being considered byIran’s leaders, but as of yet, progress has been modest.

Smog Patrol Worsening air pollution and traffic congestion have long

been apparent, but prior to 1990 little was done about it. A traf-fic-restricted zone in the center of Tehran, limiting the numberof vehicles that could enter, dates from 1979, and planning for asubway system began in the early 1970s, but its construction hadlong been delayed by political instability.

Real progress, though, coincides with the rule of Tehran’scurrent Mayor, Gholam Hussein Karbaschi. In office since 1990,Mr. Karbaschi came to Tehran with a reputation for gettingthings done. While the position is an appointed one, and thoughhe is often accused of ruling by fiat, he remains popular withmost Tehranis and is credited with improving the quality of life.

While knowing there was an air pollution problem onlyrequired looking out the window, policy makers wouldn’t makea move until they had the hard data detailing the smog problem.So beginning in 1992, the national Ministry of Health commis-sioned the National Institute for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseaseto undertake the most comprehensive study ever of the healthimpact of air pollution in Tehran. Additionally, the Air QualityControl Company, a subsidiary of the Municipality of Tehran,was created in 1993, which made ongoing pollution monitoring,policy formulation and program implementation a part Tehran’spublic mission.

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ClearsGEF’s Only Transport Project:

Tehran Clears the AirBy Matt J. Ulterino

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Ten pollution monitoring stations were established to mea-sure the level of suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrousoxide and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. Additionally, 200men and women were chosen and studied to measure the levelof lead in their blood. Data was also collected on the number ofemergency room admissions for acute respiratory ailmentsamong Tehran’s population.

The research revealed that the biggest source of pollutants inTehran is auto emissions. Lead levels are dangerously high, andsuspended particulates were found to be seven times higher thanWorld Health Organization stan-dards. The problem grew evenworse in the autumn and winter asair inversion traps more of the pollu-tants in the city. The Institute esti-mates that roughly 4,000 deaths peryear can be attributed to Tehran’sparticulate matter alone, while ele-vated lead levels were shown toadversely impact school perfor-mance in children. The researcherswere also able to make a conclusivelink between bad air pollution daysand increased hospital admittancesfor respiratory ailments.

Reducing Auto Emissions Pollution from traffic congestion

is made worse because most of the cars on the road burn dirty,leaded fuel. While unleaded is available at the same price, fewcars use it. The majority are too old, and owners of newer carschoose leaded mainly out of habit or concern for performance.While three-quarters of the city’s official orange taxis haveswitched to cleaner-burning liquid petroleum gas (LPG), a mix-ture of propane and butane, an equal number of informal taxisburn low quality, leaded fuel. And buses are poorly-maintained,aging diesel models known for heavy particulate emissions. Theresult is grey, heavy air which permeates the city.

Thorough research on Tehran’s pollution proved to be theneeded catalyst for further action on the problem. As a result, theTehran Transport Emissions Reduction Project, or TERP, waslaunched in 1994 with the financial support of the World Bank-managed GEF. The GEF-sponsored project was to be used todemonstrate effective anti-pollution interventions that could betransferred and utilized elsewhere.

An international panel of experts was chosen by the AirQuality Control Company to collaborate on policy formulationand to coordinate the activities of the numerous governmentagencies involved in smog reduction activities. The startingpoint for a group of four international consultants (twoAmericans, an Iranian-American and one Greek) was to meetwith the various government and industry groups to gain a bet-ter understanding of the planning process in Iran and the capac-ity for action. The team developed baseline projections on pollu-tion levels based on population growth, growth and make-up ofthe vehicle fleet, travel times and patterns, fuel make-up, pro-jected fuel consumption, and likely changes in land-use patterns,which projected significantly worsening air quality due to thegrowth in motor vehicle use.

The TERP also supported plans by Tehran’s government todecentralize it’s government and commercial functions to helpalleviate the city’s overcrowding and congestion. It is estimatedthat the daytime population rises by about two million people -most heading to the same area - because of the extreme centraliza-tion of activity. Multiple activity nodes are seen as part of thesolution.

TERP was followed by a project identification phase pre-pared by SWECO, a Swedish organization chosen by theIranians. Their proposals included:

•switching to higher quality fuelsand conversion of busses to com-pressed natural gas (CNG);

•better inspection and monitor-ing of cars and air pollution levels;

• traffic mitigation measures,including traffic demand manage-ment, HOV lanes and improved traf-fic signaling;

•increases in public transporta-tion capacity, such as bus prioritylanes, adding additional bus routesand advocating for an expansion ofthe subway system from the currentbuilding of two lines to four;

•a better coordinated parkingsystem with metering; and

• pricing policies that more accu-rately reflect the cost of auto transport.

SWECO modelled the business as usual situation versus thelikely impact of implementing the TERP measures to develop dif-ferent forecasts for the year 2015. According to SWECO, the busi-ness as usual transportation situation would increase greenhousegas emissions by 30 percent, push the total number of vehicles upby 20 percent and deaths from suspended particulates would riseby 650 per year. In comparison, the TERP measures wouldreduce the number of greenhouse gasses released into the atmos-phere by 40 percent, reduce particulate emissions by 10 times,and the number of particulate-related deaths from 4,000 to 2,300.It also predicted that the modal split would shift from 41/59 per-cent between car and public transportation under business asusual to 32/68 percent.

Moving Forward Despite this research, implementation and ultimate success

has been slow in coming. While cost may be a factor, (SWECOestimates that the proposed measures will cost $2.5 billion U.S.dollars over the next 17 years) most of the costs are related to themetro projects, which have gone forward, and in any case are notthe most important from the point of view of air quality improve-ment. Lack of political will, overlapping bureaucratic responsibil-ity for the projects, and lack of technical capacity to implementthe projects have all slowed progress. Nearly a dozen and a halfmunicipal and national ministries and departments have beeninvolved in the project, and the chain of command for implemen-tation is a bit unclear. It will take some sorting out and coopera-tion amongst often territorial government partners for the pro-posals to be put in place.

continued on p.23

Pollution monitor, Tehran

12

20,000 Bikes Over the Sea

Osaka, Japan is littered with aban-doned bikes. In South Africa, however,many of the poor cannot afford a bike.The municipality of Osaka launched“Cycle Aid for Africa”, a program thatsends Osaka’s unwanted bicycles toEducation Africa, a nonprofit SouthAfrican organization which will distrib-ute the bikes to South African schoolchildren who often have no reliablemeans to get to school. 3,000 bikes areslated to arrive before the end of theyear, and 17,000 more will follow.Donations of bicycles and cash havepoured in from Japanese individualsand district governments; the eight dis-tricts participating in the program havealready sent 1,000 bikes. Mitsuyo Hara,an Osaka official involved with the pro-ject, is confident that they can meet theirgoal of sending 20,000 bikes. “Sakai cityhas already donated about 400 bicycles,”he said.

Source: The Japan Times

Motorists vs. Cyclists in S.F.Critical Mass Meltdown

For years, U.S. cyclists have staged“Critical Mass” rides as a means of pro-moting bike culture and cyclists’ rights.The 5,000-rider strong San FranciscoCritical Mass ride in July resulted insome fisticuffs with motorists andpolice, 250 arrests and unprecedentedgridlock.

Poor judgement by city officials anda handful of cycling trouble-makers ledto chaos as cyclists, by their sheer num-ber, effectively blocked expresswayramps, main thoroughfares and intersec-tions. The media clips highlighted inci-dents of “road-rage” on both sides (nowa bonified psychological disorder, by theway). Some stories, however, hit thecrux: cyclists’ concerns are legitimate,immediate and worthy of attention.

Cycle Rickshaw PersecutionPersists

The cycle rickshaw business inEurope continues to spread, but notwithout a fight. Frankfurt’s fifty cyclerickshaws, introduced last May, are hap-

pily rolling with blessingsfrom local officials. But rick-shaw reactionaries in Berlinand Hamburg will not allowthem to operate in their citycenters, citing traffic prob-lems. Nasser Nouri, thevisionary behind Germany’swould-be rickshaw explosion,is confident that those opposing thisplan will eventually wake-up to themyriad benefits of rickshaws and changecurrent policy. In an expression of hisenduring optimism, Nasser recentlyordered the latest and most luxuriousrickshaws in production from Beijing,that are, according to Nasser, “as com-fortable as a big Mercedes.”

In England, Erika Steinhauer recent-ly introduced a British-Indian hybrid toOxford, where she has founded theOxford Rickshaw Company. Erika tri-umphed over cranky cab drivers andornery bureaucrats, and now has per-mission to operate her fleet— but onlyon fixed routes.

While cycle rickshaws gain beach-heads in the West, persecution persistsin Asia. 36,000 cycle rickshaw operatorsin Ho Chi Minh City are subject toincreasingly restrictive regulation.Vietnam’s cars-first policy is also evidentin plans now underway to construct amassive 1,125 mile expressway on theerstwhile Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Source:Frankfurter Rundschau,Vietnam Investment Review, New YorkTimes

Taipei City Pursues ExpresswayProject

The second phase of Taipei’sExpressway Construction Plan, a projectof Taipei’s municipal government, isunderway. The first phase, completedover the last decade, built numerouslarge expressways, many of them multi-layered. One particularly unsightly pro-ject, the East-West Expressway, whichbegan in 1990, now nears completion.The double-decker structure features atotal of eight lanes, and an additionalmulti-purpose underground layer thatwill provide about 2700 parking units.Only six access ramps are planned overa length of 6.4 km, meaning the city will

effectively be sliced in half. The city’sPublic Works Department admits thatbecause of the high degree of land uti-lization, “land reclamation for theExpressway project often encounteredresistance,” and laments that “in spite of

over twenty years of hard work, theExpressway system has not yet [had] anideal effect.”

Copenhagen: Clinton RefusesCitybike One

When President Clinton came toDenmark last July, Copenhagen had aspecial present waiting for him: themayor of Copenhagen, Jens Kramer

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Education Africa provides South African

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Mikkelsen, presented the President witha specially decorated version of theCopenhagen White Bicycle, completewith the official presidential seals on thetwo wheels. Copenhagen has about1,800 of these free bicycles, which were

introduced three years ago and areheavily used by tourists, businesspeopleor anyone else in need of a quick ride.The bikes can be obtained by inserting a20 Dkr coin (about US$ 3) into one of themany official citybike-stands in the innercity of Copenhagen. The money isreturned if the bike is re-parked at one ofthe stands, otherwise the next user maysimply pick it up from the street for freeand earn the extra money by returning

the bike to a stand. Brokenbikes are repaired by prison-ers in the Copenhagen jails.Unfortunately, PresidentClinton missed his opportu-nity to ride “Citybike One” ashe hurried off to the airportin a heavily armored limou-sine right after the speech,

escorted by a dozen other black vehiclesrushing through the streets ofCopenhagen at 100 km/h. Probably itwould have made little difference toClinton to know that there are excellentbike paths to the airport, which is lessthan 10 km from downtownCopenhagen.

Kuala Lumpur: Bike-Friendly by 2000

The ubiquitous parallel-to-the-roadiron grate deathtraps that snag countlesscyclists every year will disappear thanksto a new plan by authorities in KualaLumpur, Malaysia to make their streetsbicycle-friendly by the year 2000. Theplan is partly the result of a champi-oning by Tun Abdul Razak, the bike-commuting ex- Prime Minister.

Recently underway, the plan hasalready given rise to the country’s firstdedicated bicycle lane in the suburbanhousing area of Wagsa Maju. TheUS$320,000 project will feature shelteredbike parking at certain bus stops, androws of shade trees running parallel tothe lane. Additionally, Mayor Tan SriKamaruzzman Shariff recently allocatedUS$1.6 million to build bikewaysthrough out Kuala Lumpur. Developerswill also be required to provide bike-ways in new housing estates.

Source: SUSTRAN

Putting Public Transport First:New Exclusive Bus Lanes inKorea and Malaysia

Korea’s Ministry of Constructionand Transport plans to double thelength of exclusive bus lanes in Korea’scities from currently 408 km to 916 km in1998. The capital Seoul currently has 170km of lanes, which is to grow to 341 in1998. Extensions of bus lanes are also

planned in Pusan, Taegu, Kwangju andthe Kyonggy province suburbs aroundSeoul. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, recentlyinstalled ten bus lanes along congestedstretches of major roads. Taxis are alsoallowed in these lanes. Most motoristsseem to respect the new lanes, especiallysince the maximum penalty for privatecars and motorcycles entering theselanes is RM 1,000 — US$400.

Source: SUSTRAN

Russia’s High-Speed RailUnderway

Russia is building a new $5.5 billionhigh-speed train link between Moscowand St. Petersburg. The new link, whilepotentially reducing highly polluting airtravel, will cut though several sensitivenature conservation areas. And to makeroom for the new station in St.Petersburg, the project will demolishmany historical buildings.

Source: T&E

High-Speed Bikeway Plannedin The Netherlands

Three Dutch cities are planning tobuild a 13 km high-speed bike link,which would connect the cities ofHelmond, Eindhoven and Nuenen. Thenew bikeway would consist of twowide, asphalted lanes which wouldhave their own on- and off ramps, excel-lent lighting, as well as side walls whichwould protect riders against the wind.The bike industry is to develop new rac-ing bikes which would more easilyreach speeds of 30 km/h. “If this works,the bicycle will be able to compete withthe car along this stretch in the longrun” says local planner J. van derZanden. A similar, yet even more futur-istic proposal for urban bicycle express-ways is being promoted by JosephAdler in Toronto, Canada, who envi-sions a network of covered, elevatedstructures 15 feet above the street. Mr.Adler claims that the cost of the systemincluding operation and maintenancewould be very low, and that the returnperiod of the required investment isvery short.

Source: Westfälische Rundschaucontinued on p.19

Transportation

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WINTER 1998

oolchildren with bikes from Osaka, Japan.

Even before the smoke from count-less peat-fires in Sumatra cloaked this cityin a permanent fog, Jakarta was projectedto become the world’s most polluted cityby the year 2000. Upper respiratory tractdeaths caused by motor vehicle pollutionhave doubled in less than a decade, andchildren and the elderly are the most vul-nerable. Before the smoke, road vehiclesaccounted for 44% of suspended particu-late matter, 89% of hydrocarbons, 100% oflead and 73% of NOX, all of which are inviolation of World Health Organizationstandards most days, and the World Bankpredicts that these emission levels willincrease by five times by the year 2010.

These environmental problems aremirrored by economic problems; thevalue of the Indonesian rupiah has fallen30% since July, dramatically increasingtheir debt problems, and leading 16 majorbanks to the brink of collapse. Economiccollapse was staved off only by a $40 bil-lion dollar rescue package from the IMF,the World Bank, and Western govern-ments.

Jakarta’s transportation nightmare isboth a cause and a reflection of this eco-nomic crisis. Subsidies tooil prices and a dramaticincrease in road construc-tion have cost Indonesiaover $1 billion a yearbetween 1988 and 1994.Furthermore, Indonesia hasborrowed $6 billion fromthe World Bank, the AsianDevelopment Bank, and Japan’s OECF forroad projects over the last two decades, topay for a tripling of Indonesia’s urbanroad network that has done nothing tocurb the country’s growing congestionand pollution. Despite just spending $4.5billion to bail out the Indonesian debt cri-sis, a recent World Bank staff appraisalreport claimed that its own economicanalysis could justify expanding thenational road system by another 43%. But

the explosion of motorvehicle consumption inJakarta, primarily ofJapanese motorcycles andcars, is only further wors-ening Indonesia’s foreignexchange and debt crisis.Now that the IMF andWorld Bank have agreed topick up the bill, a littleanalysis of the impact of allthis road lending onIndonesia’s debt problemsmight be in order, beforestructural adjustment isonce again carried out onthe backs of the poor.

Indonesia’s road-dom-inated transport system isparticularly ill suited giventhat Java is the most dense-ly populated settlement inthe world. High densitycities like New York andTokyo are served by highcapacity commuter rail,subway, and bus, whileJakarta, five times as dense-

ly popu-lated insome areas, is servedprimarily by bus andparatransit vehicleswhich are trapped in thecongestion created bymotorcycles, taxis, andcars. Unlike Japan,

where 35% of inter-urban travel as well isprovided by rail, only 6% of Java’s inter-urban travel is served by rail, and 81% ofthis rail system is of a sub-standard gradebuilt over three decades ago. Prior to1996, the World Bank had not made a sig-nificant investment into Indonesian railsince 1974. Despite this neglect, rail pas-senger ridership has increased by 16%since 1988, commuter rail by 21%, andlines are operating at 100% capacity. And

the rail sector, unlike the road sector, hasbeen able to completely cover its operat-ing costs out of fare revenues since 1993.

The growing use of motor vehicles isstimulating an uncontrolled sprawlingurban development which is puttingenormous pressure on Indonesia’s scarceland resources, with serious ramificationsfor housing, food supply, and environ-mental protection. Every year over250km2 of agricultural land, forest, or wet-land is converted to roads or urbanusages. Furthermore, Java’s enormouspopulation density means that if the roadnetwork is expanded to the degree thatthe World Bank claims is justified, over

SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

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Up in Smoke

Jakarta: A City in Crisisby Walter Hook

Wal

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Hoo

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Indonesia has borrowed over$6 billion for road projects.Today it faces “structural

adjustment” from the IMF.

Jakarta’s three-in-one policy: too little too late

continued on p.20

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SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT SUSTAINABLETRANSPORT

dence, which aided Kuala Lumpur’smajor bicycling promotion initiative. ITDPand SUSTRAN also joined with the NGOcoalition monitoring the AsianDevelopment Bank, and met with theDeputy US Executive Director to theAsian Development Bank (ADB) to pressthem to develop a sustainable transportpolicy. In the coming months, ITDP andSUSTRAN will develop a case study of amajor ADB highway project to show howthe projects are ignoring public participa-tion, facilitating motorization, and ignor-ing the needs of pedestrians and othernon-motorized road users.

In Managua, Nicaragua, ITDP, thanksto the KaritasFoundation and theRockwood Foundation,was able to respond to arequest from theNational University ofEngineering, and theCentral AmericanUniversity, to develop abike plan for the City of Managua and tohold a major conference on bike planningto develop public participation and sup-port for the project. The plan and the con-ference successfully won support for thebike plan from both city and national offi-cials and international donor agencies.

Rerouting the MultinationalDevelopment Institutions

In the spring, the European Bank forTransport and Environment (EBRD) triedto pass a new transport policy whichended all lending to public transit on thegrounds that it was not ‘consistent withsound banking principles’ because theywere subsidized. Out of the other side ofthe same mouth, we learned that becausetoll roads the EBRD had bankrolled inCentral Europe were turning out to be afinancial boondoggle, they were onlygoing to support highway projects fullysubsidized by governments. We pointedout the hypocrisy of their position to theUS Executive Director, who raised thispoint during the Board’s evaluation of thepolicy. The Central European BankwatchNetwork and Euronature in Germany alsoobjected on similar grounds. Thanks toour collective efforts, the EBRD’s transport

policy was amended to be more publictransport-friendly.

At events surrounding Rio + 5, thefive year follow up to the Rio EarthSummit, in both Sao Paulo and in NewYork, ITDP gave papers on how wellcountries and the UN Institutions haveachieved the transport and climate changeobjectives of Agenda 21 and theFramework Convention on ClimateChange. Most countries are nowhere neartheir promised CO2 targets, and the inabil-ity of most countries to address rampantmotorization is largely to blame. At thebehest of Sao Paulo Minister ofEnvironment Fabio Feldmann, we pro-moted better facilities for bikes, pedestrians, and buses via local mediaappearances.

This summer, ITDP completed a draft

of a new Transport Policy for the UNDevelopment Programme, which is nowunder review. Now that language sup-porting more sustainable transport poli-cies has been included in several UN doc-uments thanks to the efforts of the UNTransport Caucus jointly chaired by ITDPand the UITP in Brussels, the UNAgencies are developing plans to imple-ment their sustainable transport andpoverty reduction goals. ITDP presentedthe outlines of this new direction at theUN Center for Human Settlements’Conference “Practical Approaches toUrban Poverty Reduction” in Florence.

On the Home FrontHere in the US, the critical battle over

ISTEA, the omnibus national transporta-tion legislation, continues. Several of ourBoard members, particularly Jon Orcutt ofthe Tri-State Transportation Campaign,and Michael Replogle of theEnvironmental Defense Fund, have beenactively involved in making sure thatmore money is available for bikeways andother environmental ‘enhancements,’ andensuring that the coordinated regionalplanning that ISTEA initiated are not gut-ted by highway interests. Their success or

failure in this fight will make an enormousstatement to the world: if the most auto-dependent place in the world, the US, ischanging direction, then its time that therest of the world to do the same.

ITDP has also taken on domestic con-tracts where we felt our particular exper-tise could broker agreements betweenorganized labor and the environmentalmovement. We helped the New YorkAmalgamated Transit Union’s (ATU)campaign to get exclusive bus lanes on themajor highways and bridges leading toManhattan from the South, quantifyingthe enormous economic benefits thatwould result. We helped ATU’s Baltimorechapter discredit a misconceived privati-zation effort that would have increasedthe cost and hurt the quality of transit ser-vice in that city. We have also been work-

ing with ColumbiaUniversity to resolve thepublic transit equityquestions raised by the1995 lawsuit by the‘ S t r a p h a n g e r sCampaign,’ to stop theNew York MetropolitanT r a n s p o r t a t i o n

Authority’s (MTA) discriminatory farehikes. ITDP’s role is to develop some gen-eral criteria for assessing the equity ofpublic transit financing that can employedsimilar situations from Budapest to SaoPaulo.

We couldn’t do any of our work with-out the support and encouragement of ourmembers and the dedication of our staffand Board who have volunteered longand hard hours for the cause and rarelyget sufficient thanks. There have been afew changes in the Board and staff. JonOrcutt of the Tri-State TransportationCampaign was made Treasurer, replacinglong time Board Member Robin Stallingswho moved to Texas. Our heartfelt thanksto Robin’s years of hard work and supportfor the Institute and best wishes to hisnew endeavors. Paul S. White, previouslywith the Adventure Cycling Association,has come on board full time to run ourdemonstration projects as KarenOverton’s time will be taken up with theWorld Bank Project in Mozambique andher new responsibilities as head of thenewly-independent Recycle a BicycleProgram. Vice President Matteo

Lettercontinued from p.3

Most countries are nowhere near theirCO2 targets. Unsustainable motorization

is a major reason why.

continued on p.18

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WINTER 1998

involved extensive pedestrian zones, 24streets closed to private cars, and mostother streets restricted to local traffic only.With through-traffic routed around thecity center, the volume of car traffic fell by59% in spite of increased car ownership.At the same time, the City of Praguesharply restricted park-ing in the center, givingpriority to local resi-dents and businesses,but requiring them topay fees for the neces-sary annual permits.

As is still the casein Warsaw andBudapest, most of thenational governmentsubsidy went to metroconstruction in Pragueuntil 1995. However,the national govern-ment also provided a10% matching subsidyfor bus replacementand a 30% subsidy fortrain and tram re-place-ment. Since then, how-ever, the national gov-ernment sharply curtailedmetro subsidies. The City of Prague nowhas the incentive to invest less in metroexpansion and more in tram and bus ser-vices. The result, in fact, is that new metroconstruction has slowed. The last expan-sion was in 1994 (from 44 to 50 km) andfuture expansions are being delayed dueto lack of funds. By contrast, Prague hasalready opened up one entirely new lightrail line in the south of Prague, and sever-al others are either under construction orplanned. Moreover, several existing tramlines have been extended, and most ofPrague's 136 km of tram tracks have beenreconstructed, greatly improving servicecomfort, speed, and safety. In addition,150 new tram vehicles have been pur-chased to replace the old trams now inuse. Most of the bus fleet has already beenreplaced, with average bus age now lessthan five years. Finally, the City of Praguehas established a new regional publictransport agency (ROPID) to coordinatesuburban bus and rail services, wheresimilar efforts in Budapest until now have

been a failure. Since 1993, ROPID has ten-dered service contracts with various oper-ators to provide 38 new bus lines in thesuburbs. It has also improved suburbanrail by introducing more regular trainschedules (e.g. every 30 minutes) and per-mitting local commuters to use certainlong-distance trains.

Such improvements were possiblebecause of booming municipal revenuesduring the early 90’s growth spike, much

of it from tourism, and the sale of munici-pal bonds in international capital markets,but it is unclear that such heavy supportcan be sustained. And like elsewhere inCentral Europe, public transport fareshave increased by 900% since 1990. Overthe same period, gasoline prices haverisen only 152%, less than the overall175% rate of inflation between 1990 and1996, while the purchase price for a newstandard car rose by 176%, roughly thesame as inflation.

Prospects for the FutureFortunately, the City of Prague has

been able to maintain some of the car-restrictive measures introduced undersocialism, at least in the historic old town.In addition, it has been adopting somecar-restrictive measures already used inWestern Europe for many years, but vir-tually unknown in Central Europe untilrecently. For example, at 31 intersectionstrams now have automated priority intraffic signals, with lights turning green

for trams as they approach. Moreover,after five years of extremely lax enforce-ment of parking regulations between 1989and 1994 (described by one Prague offi-cial as “parking chaos”), the City ofPrague instituted a zonal parking systemin the city center. Not only are most park-ing spaces reserved for local residentsand businesses, they must pay substantialfees for the annual permits required.Residents pay 500 Czech crowns for the

first car and 4,800crowns for a secondcar. Businesses pay50,000 crowns per vehi-cle. To help deal withthe severe parkingproblems in Prague, aprivate company(Euro-park) has beencommissioned toadminister the sales ofparking permits andoperate on-street park-ing meters. The newparking control systemonly came into fulleffect in May 1996, andit is not yet clear howeffective it will be, butat least it is a step in theright direction.

With the Czecheconomy still growing

and incomes rising faster than inflation,the private car will become even moreaffordable in the coming years, and itseems quite likely that car ownership anduse will continue to rise rapidly. That isespecially problematic in Prague, whereincomes and car ownership are the high-est. With so much traffic congestion, noise,air pollution, and accidents, there is con-siderable risk that irreparable damage willbe done to the historic town center.

At the very least, it would be possibleto strengthen transport policies thatreduce car use in the historic core ofPrague, as such policies have already beenin effect for two decades. Since they areprimarily under the control of municipalauthorities, the central government wouldhave difficulty blocking them. Extendingcar-free zones, reducing parking supplyand making it more expensive, prohibit-ing non-resident traffic, and improvingpublic transport services would all helpthe situation.

Praguecontinued from p.5

A recently modernized tram line in Prague

continued on p.18Har

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SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

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That would save the old town, butwhat about the rest of Prague, where mostresidents of Prague actually live? Is itenough just to save the charmingmedieval core for tourists to enjoy? CanPrague ignore severe problems of air pol-lution, noise, congestion, and accidents inthe 95% of Prague outside the historiccore?

There are virtually no parking restric-tions at all outside the city center.Moreover, the admirable traffic calmingmeasures introduced in the old town forthe past three decades are almost totallyabsent outside the core. Suburbs outsidethe city limits are growing very rapidly.Since they are outside the land-use plan-ning jurisdiction of Prague, suburbancommunities deliberately have very laxland-use regulations, virtually no trafficrestrictions, and very low taxes in order tolure businesses away from Prague. The

result is alarming growth in low-densitysprawl and leapfrog development at thefringes of Prague.

For obvious reasons, the old town hasgotten all the attention of city plannersand transport engineers. It would be amistake, however, to ignore the less glam-orous districts of Prague where most resi-dents live, even though tourists and for-eign experts on transport and urbandevelopment seldom venture there. Theprospects for the outlying districts ofPrague, and especially for its outer sub-urbs, seem especially bleak. Both the localgovernments outside Prague and the cen-tral government resist attempts to controlland-use and restrict car use. Thus, itseems likely that, even if transport policiescan be improved to save the city core ofPrague, the outlying districts and suburbsare headed toward more sprawl andextremely car-dependent development. ♦

Praguecontinued from p.17

John Pucher is Professor of UrbanPlanning at Rutgers University.

Martignoni and award-winning Canadianhuman-powered vehicle designer KarlMiller have been brought on board to runthe India project. Dr. Kenneth Baar, a wellrespected urban planning lawyer, hasbeen brought on to add to our technicalassistance efforts in Central Europe and atthe EU. ♦

Lettercontinued from p.16

ITDPwelcomes advertising of

products and services consistent with

our mission.Call (212) 629-8001 for information.

and IFRTD Forum News Vol 5.1

NMT Deaths in US Cities seenas Public Health Crisis

Over 6,000 pedestrians are killedby cars and trucks every year in the US,14% of all people who die in trafficaccidents. In addition, 110,000 pedestri-ans are injured every year in trafficaccidents, an average of over 300 peo-ple every day. Nevertheless, only 1% ofall Federal transportation safety moneyis spent on improvements for non-motorized transportation, according toa recent study by the SurfaceTransportation Policy Project. The riskof a pedestrian being killed by a car ortruck is roughly double the risk ofhomicide by a stranger with a gun, thestudy found, and in New York City,where almost 10 percent of peoplewalk to work, the risk is triple. NewYork City has an average of 310 pedes-trian fatalities per year, or close to oneper day.

Source: The New York Times

Yellow Line Highway BlastsThrough Rio Favelas,Dislocating Hundreds

The Municipality of Rio de Janeirohas decided to go ahead with the con-struction of the controversial YellowLine Expressway, a 15 km long roadconnecting Jacarepagua, Barra daTijuca and Recreio dos Bandeirantes tothe Island of Fundao in the GuanabraBay. The project is being built as abuild-operate-transfer toll road, withthe private concession company beingallowed to toll sections of the roadalready built with public funds. Theroad cuts through favelas and willrequire the resettlement of 10,000 low -income people. The project is beingfinanced by the private sector arm ofthe Inter-American Development Bank,and the inability to get any but themost rudimentary documents on thisproject indicates that growing private

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Sustainable Transportation

News Briefscontinued from p.13

The proposed Trans-Israel Highway(see the Summer 1996 issue of SustainableTransport), Israel’s largest ever transportproject, is moving ahead. Bids to build andoperate the first 90 kilometers of this pro-ject that will eventually run through thecenter of populated Israel, were submittedby 4 finalists in an international competi-tion, and the government of Israel,through the trans-Israel HighwayCompany, has entered into deliberationswith the two large consortia.

Much of the decision revolves aroundwhich company can offer a lower toll rate,and by the years end it is expected that awinner will be announced, with construc-tion beginning by next summer.

The organization representing thescores of settlements whose land will beappropriated for the project have beenlargely worn out by repeated fruitlesspromises and ardous negotiations on com-pensation for their land. Currently theyare trying to be allowed to convert por-tions of their remaining agricultural landto more lucrative commercial and housinguses in exchange for the appropriatedareas. Angered by the fencing of their landby the Highway company before any set-tlement has been reached, several settle-ments have repeatedly downed thesefences, coming close to confrontation withpolice.

Arab villages are particularly hardhit: they own their land, rather than hav-ing it on long term lease from the govern-ment; these are only the most recent indecades of appropriations of their land bythe state; and they lack the access to theplanning and political apparatus availableto the Jewish settlements.

While the Highway was promised tobe budget neutral, paying back the loansfor construction from toll income, moreand more lures have been necessary tokeep private capital committed to the pro-ject. The recent $7.5 billion governmentbailout of the highway companies inMexico should give Israeli taxpayerspause. Eager to use private capital to buildinfrastructure that diminishing budgets nolonger permit, the government is undertremendous pressure to show that Israel isa reliable partner in such deals.

The government, in addition to pro-viding and clearing the land, and con-structing all connecting roads, promises topay if traffic volumes are lower than pre-dicted, to refinance, and a $0.5 billion “buyback” at the end of the concession period.

The Society for Protection of Naturein Israel has been waging a media cam-paign and protests against the project, andcommissioned a major study of some ofthe project’s land-use impacts.

The State Comptroller found the pro-ject to contradict desirable transport prin-ciples and best practices. The FloersheimInstitute of Policy Studies (Jerusalem) has

published a major review of the planningand evaluation process, which found aseries of deficiencies severe enough tomerit a freeze and reevaluation of the pro-ject.

And in November, Likud KnesetMember Uzi Landau tabled a LawProposal that would do exactly this,signed by 30 Members of Parliament.

Because of its scale and proximity toIsrael’s largest and rapidly suburbanizingpopulation center, this project is not somuch a road but a national transport andland-use policy for coming decades. Willtransport sanity prevail against its gather-ing momentum? ♦

The Trans-Israel Highway: an Updateby Yaakov Garb

Land for peace? No, land for highways.

Yaak

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SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

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800,000 people are likely to be displaced,and Indonesia’s track record on resettle-ment is poor.

Indonesian Government Efforts to DealWith the Mobility Crisis

Many Indonesian government offi-cials are aware that simply expanding theroad network indefinitely is not a feasiblesolution to Indonesia’s transport woes. Inrecent years, several initiatives to improvepublic transit, reduce transport sector airemissions, and control traffic have beeninitiated, but many have been under-mined by conflicting political and eco-nomic interests.

There are three major infrastructure

plans for Jakarta under discussion, and ahandful of traffic demand managementplans. Curb lane buslanes were put in onseveral of Jakarta’s main thoroughfares,but they have done little to increase thetravel speeds of buses because of numer-ous taxis and other vehicles driving andstopping in the bus lane. An attempt torelocate the buslanes to the center of majorroads was also a failure, as no provisionwas made for the safe boarding andalighting of passengers.

Jakarta’s commuter rail network,while limited to several key corridors, wassuccessfully modernized by funds fromJapan’s OECF and a recent loan from theWorld Bank. Its modernization, however,was quite expensive, consuming 68% oftotal public transport spending in the late1980s, while bus fleets deteriorated.

Traffic Restraint MeasuresIn the early 1990s Jakarta set up the 3-

in-1 plan, which restricts a 9km section ofthe main North-South arterial to vehicleswith three or more passengers. The planhas not been effective in restraining traffic

because it covers a very limited area, it isnot tightly enforced, and drivers getaround it by picking up children and pay-ing them a nominal fee to serve as addi-tional passengers.

A parking control plan was drawn upin 1991 by private consultants, but it wasnever implemented. The plan recom-mended increasing downtown parkingcosts, and restricting the number of down-town parking spaces. It also recommend-ed changing current building codes fromminimum parking requirements to maxi-mum parking limits. There is a plan toincrease parking fees to around $3.00downtown for all day, but over half of theparking spaces downtown are not con-trolled by the government but by a ‘sort ofMafia’. The government loses an estimat-ed $3.5 million a year as a result.

Certain roads are also restricted to

use by certain types of vehicles. Thereused to be around 100,000 three-wheelednon-motorized taxis called becaks inJakarta, which were first restricted to sec-ondary streets, and then banned frommost of the city. Their routes were takenover by three-wheeled motorized bajaj,bemos, and motorcycle taxis. Bajaj andbemos are now not allowed on certainmajor roads, such as Jl. Thamrin andSudirman, and there is talk of banningthese vehicles all together.

Operation Blue Sky Over the past several years, the

Government of Indonesia has begun tomake more serious efforts to addressJakarta’s air quality problem. Japan’s JICAhas been providing technical assistancefor air quality monitoring, and they fund-ed the establishment of a number of fixedair quality monitoring stations operatedby BAPPEDAL, the Ministry ofEnvironment. Currently there are tailpipeand ambient air emission standards butthey are ‘voluntary,’, and a random test byBAPPEDAL indicated that more than half

of the vehicle fleet is in violation of thesestandards. There is some discussion ofmaking the standards more enforceable.

‘Operation Blue Sky’ was a specialinitiative of the Indonesian Government todeal with Jakarta’s air quality problems. Itincluded a new law regulating bustailpipe emissions and requiring emis-sions inspections. Public transit vehiclesand paratransit are significant contribu-tors to the overall transport sector emis-sions problem. All buses are now sup-posed to be inspected every six months. Infact, however, enforcement has beenweak, and there are only two inspectionstations which is insufficient to handle thefleet. The regulations also did not applyto the Metro-mini paratransit buses,which are a major source of particulatepollution. They are part of the protected‘cooperative’ sector, where ownership is

limited to 5 vehicles, and most of them areowner-operated. They are politically pow-erful and they threaten to block traffic anytime the government proposes to imposeemission controls or increase the heavilysubsidized diesel prices. Driver/ownersalso seem to take pride in a throaty roarfrom the engine, which is antithetical toemission control.

The Ministry of Mining and Energyalso announced that leaded gasolinewould be phased out by 1999, and thePresident has supposedly agreed, but theplan is being resisted by the state oil com-pany Pertamina. Apparently switching tounleaded gasoline would require exten-sive investment in refining capacity, andPertamina lacks the necessary funds.

The Hope for Sustainable TransportAdvocacy in Indonesia

Despite the difficulties of working asindependent NGOs in Indonesia, severalgroups manage effective advocacy workin the transport area. A group of trans-portation technical experts working at thevarious government ministries with

Jakartacontinued from p.14

When the cycle-rickshaw was banned in Jakarta,many routes were taken up by motor-rickshaw and

bemo. Now these vehicles may also be banned.

21

WINTER 1998

unable to keep up with the reality of therapidly growing city. The city is currentlycompleting a new city-wide needs assess-ment, which will form the base of the new20 year development plan, but even thislong term plan is being outpaced by thespontaneous, unregulated expansion anddevelopment of the city. A plan for the

redevelopment of the city center, whichwas destroyed by the 1972 earthquake,was finished in 1994 by the City ofManagua, with technical support fromAmsterdam’s Sister City program, but itremains unimplemented.

The bike plan alone, then, is notenough. As all initiatives for actual pro-jects come “from above,” getting cyclewayinfrastructure constructed in Managuarequires getting the Mayor himself to takea personal interest in the project. Lower-level officials are unlikely to pursue a pro-

ject unless it has been presented to theMayor or one of his close advisors first,and subsequently passed inspection there.

Next StepsBuilding a network of cycle paths

could make cycling viable in Managua,which in the long term would not onlyimprove the environment and traffic safe-ty, but also improve the City’s finances, asthe provision and maintenance of acycling infrastructure is much cheaperthan comparable infrastructure for motor-ized transport.

The next step will be for the City ofManagua to move beyond a verbal com-mitment and carry out a more comprehen-sive routing and engineering study for acycling network. JICA could play a criticalrole in this by providing funding andtechnical expertise for the study and apilot project. The creation of a personresponsible for non-motorized transportplanning and project implementationwithin the Alcaldia of Managua is alsocritical.

The city of Managua is at a crucialstage of its reconstruction, and majorinfrastructure decisions with importantenvironmental, economic and social rami-fications will be made over the nextdecade. A decision to include the provi-sion of a non-motorized infrastructure intothe city’s development plans for the nextmillennium would put the Nicaraguancapital well ahead of other developingcountry cities in terms of visionary, sus-tainable urban planning, and environmen-

Nicaraguacontinued from p.7

responsibility for transport formed the“Indonesian Transport Society” last yearto share ideas about how to solve thecountry’s transport woes. Also influentialwith technocrats in the bureaucracy, par-ticularly at BAPPENAS, are the researchinstitutes such as the Agatika Foundationin Bandung and those associated withGadjai Mada University. Together, thesegroups provide a voice of reason within achaotic planning bureaucracy.

BAPPEDAS has also set up local con-sultative councils at the mayoral (kota)and provincial (kabupaten) level wheresome public comment on transport pro-jects and plans is tolerated. Organizingmeaningful local participation into theselocal consultative councils was recom-mended as a way of enhancing public par-ticipation in the planning process.

All public transit modes are orga-nized into a government -controlled orga-nization called ORGANDA. ORGANDAis supposed to represent the interests ofMetro-minis, bajaj, bemos, microlets andkopajis. It did nothing, however, to pro-tect the becak drivers when they werebanned, and is doing nothing to protectbemo and bajaj drivers who also face like-ly elimination. The local drivers thereforefeel frustrated with ORGANDA, and feelsthat it is an attempt by the government tocontrol the industry rather than representthe industry.

The Indonesian Consumers Union(YKLI) has played a positive role repre-senting bus passengers in strugglesagainst fare increases and to maintain thequality of service. Their strength comesfrom ‘productively’ criticizing consumerrelated problems through the media.Closely affiliated with the YKLI, particu-larly outside of Jakarta, is the IndonesianLegal Aid Society (LBH), which has repre-sented people facing involuntary resettle-ment from new road construction, in thecase of the Jogjakarta and Surabaya ringroads, for example. They also gave legalsupport to becak drivers when they werebeing driven out, and may work withbajaj and bemo drivers too if these issuesarise. They are also working on a lawwhich would require public hearings onall major infrastructure projects. LPIST,another NGO, has worked on transportissues from the perspective of labor, repre-senting bus and paratransit operators.These organizations have found ways toadvocate for positive change despite the

women bear a disproportionately largershare of poverty’s burden begs the question even more: Whydidn’t women participate in the WorkbikePilot Project?

Upon being interviewed, the Mondiemployees responsible for selecting theproject particpants stated their belief thatthe goal of encouraging women to partici-pate was misguided: “you’ll never see ablack woman on a bike,” one stated. Thisbelief is widely held in South Africa, andmay be one self-fulfilling prophetic reason

why no women were recruited to partici-pate. Another reason for the failure toinclude women in the project is the factthat most paper collectors are men. If theproject targeted roadside kitchen opera-tors, which are almost invariably ownedand operated by women, the results mayhave been different. Nevertheless, at pre-sent very few black South African womenride bicycles. Most have never been ableto afford one, and as a consequence, manydon’t know how to ride. This trend isstrengthened and perpetuated by the con-ventional view that “women shouldn’tride bikes”, as one male paper collector

South Africacontinued from p.9

continued on p.23

Half of publictransit passengershave been robbed

in the last year

A Guide to Better Practice:Reducing the Need to TravelThrough Land Use andTransport Planning.Department of Transport andEnvironment. L23.50. Contact:HMSO Publications Centre,PO Box 276, London, SW85DT. 0171 873 9090, fax: 0171873 8200.

Appropriate Transport and RuralDevelopment, The Case of theMakete District, Tanzania. PhD-Thesis by Niklas Sieber.Karlsruhe papers in EconomicPolicy Research, Vol.4, ISBN3-7890-4507-1,190 pp. Orderfrom IT Publications, 103-105Southampton Row, LondonWC1B 4HH, UK.Itpubs@gn.apc.org.

Blueprints or Sustainable Transpiration in Central andEastern Europe: Regional Report. Compiled by DorianSpeakman. CEE Bankwatch Network. Contact: EnikoSzemanik, 36-1-111-7855, szemanik@sirius.ceu.hu.

“Bus Privatization in Great Britain.” By David Bayliss.Pro. Instn. Civ. Engrs. Transport, 1997, 123, May, 81-93.

The Greening of Freight Transport in Europe: What CanHaulers Do, What Can Freight Customers Demand? ByClaire Holman. Contact: European Federation forTransport and Environment. Rue de la Victoire 26, 1060Brussels, Belgium. +32 2 537 6639, fax: +32 2 537 7394.

“Gridlock: Can Asia Cope with the Car?” Far EasternEconomic Review, May 8, 1997.

Non-Motorized Transport in India: Current Status andPolicy Issues. Contact: Asian Institute of TransportDevelopment, Apt. E-5, Qutab Hotel, Shaheed Jeet SinghMarg, New Delhi 110 016. Fax: +91 (11) 6856113.

Policy of Air Protection in Poland. By Zbigniew M.Karaczun. Contact: Institute for SustainableDevelopment, Warsaw. (0-22) 646 05 11, fax: (0-22) 64601 74.

Speed Control and Transport Policy. By Stephen Plowdenand Mayer Hillman. Contact: PSI Publications Dept., 100Park Village East, London NW1 3SR. toll free: 0800262260.

“What conclusions can be drawn about bus deregulationin Britain?” By Peter R. White. Transport Reviews, 1997,Vol. 17, No. 1, 1-16.

Transport and Communicationsfor Urban Development: Report ofthe Habitat II Global Workshop.Contact: United Nations Centrefor Human Settlements, PO Box 30030 Nairobi, Kenya.621234, fax: (254)-2-624266.habitat@unchs.org

Transport For the Poor or PoorTransport? A General Review ofRural Transport Policy inDeveloping Countries withEmphasis on Low-Income Areas.By John Howe. Contact:International LabourOrganization publications, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland.

The Urban Transport Crisis inEurope and North America. ByJohn Pucher and ChristianLefevre. Contact: MacMillan

Press Ltd. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire,London, RG21 6XS.

Transport and Sustainable Human Settlements: A UNDPPolicy Overview. By Walter Hook. Available 1998.Contact ITDP for update.

New from Earthscan Publications Ltd:

Environmental Problems in Third World Cities. By JorgeHardoy, et al. Examines the environmental threat tohuman health; explores local government solutions.

The Environment for Children: Understanding and Acting onthe Environmental Hazards that Threaten Children and TheirParents. By David Satterthwaite et al. Looks at child andenvironmental issues (airborne pollutants) in developingcountries.

Sharing the City. By John Abbot. Focuses on communityparticipation and offers a participatory framework forurban management through case studies.

Smog Alert. By Derek Elsom. Presents numerous casestudies of smog problems facing world cities andexplores public policy solutions.

Sustainability, the Environment and Urbanization. CedricPugh, editor. Topics include social exclusion, globalwarming, and health in urban areas. Interprets sustain-ability and its link to development from a range of per-spectives.

Order from: Earthscan Publications Ltd, 120 PentonvilleRoad, London N1 9JN, U.K. fax: 44-171-278-1142.

22

SUSTAINABLETRANSPORT

NewTitles

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Greening Urban Transport, December 11 & 12, 1997. QuezonCity, Philippines. Contact: Citizen’s Alliance for ConsumerProtection, 3-E Scouter Ojeda St., Roxas District, Quezon City.Tel: 411-5733 fax: 410-0998.

77th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board,January 11-15,1998. Washington, D.C. TRB, National ResearchCouncil, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.20418. www.nas.edu/trb/meeting

First International Trails and Greenways Conference: Makingthe Connection, January 28-31, 1998. San Diego. Contact: AndyClarke, Rails to Trails Conservancy (202) 331-9696.

1st Asia Pacific Conference & Exhibition on Transportationand the Environment, May 13-15 1998, Singapore. Contact:Center for Transportation Research. Tel: (65) 777-0170 fax: (65)777-0994.

4th World Conference, Injury Prevention and Control.(Building partnerships for safety promotion and accidentprevention), May 17-20, 1998. Amsterdam. Contact the WorldHealth Organization: 31-24-323-4471. www.consafe.nl/confer-ence/

TRANSED ’98: 8th International Conference on Mobilityand Transport for Elderly and Disabled People, September21-24, 1998. Perth, Australia. Contact: (619) 388-2241,indomed@psinet.net.au.

Urban Transportation Policy: Tool for SustainableDevelopment. (CODATU), September 21-25. Cape Town,South Africa. Contact: C. Jamet, STP, 9 Av de Villars 75 007,Paris, France. Fax: 33 1 44 18 78 04.

B U L L E T I N B O A R D

Nonetheless, some progress has beenmade. Some of Tehran’s major boulevardsnow have bus priority lanes fully separat-ed from autos, and movement in them isfluid and efficient. And money has recent-ly been authorized by the municipality toconvert about half of the city’s bus fleetfrom diesel to CNG. The traffic restricted

zone in central Tehran continues, and theNational Institute for Tuberculosis andLung Research found that carbon monox-ide levels are roughly 40 percent lower inthe zone than outside. The new subwaysystem, when opened in about two years,will reduce surface trips by 10% to 15%,although mostly from buses.

Certainly, a good deal of workremains to be done. But, according toPaimeneh Hastaie, Managing Director ofthe Air Quality Control Company and

advisor to the Mayor on environmentalaffairs, Tehran is doing some progressivethings and can end up as a model for oth-ers to emulate. “Our collaboration withGEF demonstrates that we are anxious tomove ahead,” says Mrs. Hastaie. “With thenumber of comprehensive studies thathave already been completed on pollutionand congestion, along with the manage-ment style of our Mayor, other agencies ingovernment have been more willing to act.It is easier for us to create sound policy.” ♦

Tehrancontinued from p.11

put it. The ubiquity of this view, coupledwith the fact that women have less incometo spend on bicycles, puts bicycling out ofreach for most South African women.

Maria Sshbambu didn’t ever consid-er riding a bicycle, but she does now. Herroadside kitchen, which fits into a largeplastic cooler which in turn fits into ashopping trolley, is the place for lunch.Her food is popular with the paper col-lectors, and Gabriel is at the front of theline. On the menu today is “pom” (likethick grits) and spiced mutton. A paper-plateful costs seven Rand (US $1.52).Maria uses a shopping trolley to ferry her

business from her squatter camp, located2km from her roadside site, and as aresult spends much of her work day intransit. When asked whether or not shewould ride a bike instead of pushing hertrolley, she gazes sheepishly at theground and defers to Gabriel: “Shewould like a bicycle,” he says, “now shesees me with my bicycle, but she has noRands to buy one.”

Joyce Mzelase, 44, and UlyssesMzelase, 35, know first-hand the obstaclesthat keep black South African womenfrom riding bikes. However, according toJoyce, a lot of it is in their heads. “ [They]think it’s too difficult,” she says. Theyhave been riding avidly for almost twoyears, always ride together, and are bothsaving a lot of money that they used to

spend on combies (mini-bus taxis). Theyride identical mountain bikes, wear identi-cal University of Michigan baseball hats,and sport matching lycra riding shorts.Together, they overcome the deterrents:they helped each other save the money tobuy their bikes, look out for each other intraffic, and through mutual encourage-ment give each other the mettle necessaryto endure the disapproving yells and“funny looks” that men often throw theirway.

For the majority of people that residein and around Johannesburg, SouthAfrica, bicycling is not an easy alternativeto embrace. Social censure, lack of capital,poor facilities and sprawling urban geog-raphy are formidable barriers for anywould-be cyclist to overcome. The

South Africacontinued from p.21

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