Several recent and future partnership initiatives have resulted from the shared vision
of APTA and the Transport Sector of the World Bank in promoting public transit to achieve
sustainable development.
Intensified cooperation started last fall, when APTA First Vice Chair John Bartosiewicz
discussed the expanding U.S. commitment to public transit at a World Bank-sponsored
conference in Berlin, Germany, and continued with APTA's participation in the World Bank's
"Transit Week" at the bank's Washington headquarters in April. As a result,
APTA's Annual Meeting, October 10 to 13 in Orlando, Fla., will include international
sessions sponsored by the World Bank, bank outreach to Latin American participants, and
the support of simultaneous Spanish conference translations by the bank.
Both APTA and the World Bank are seeking to promote policies and actions to cope with
congestion and pollution, improve urban livability, and provide access to jobs for the
disadvantaged along with sustainable economic development. While the bank targets its
infrastructure loan and advisory services exclusively to the developing southern part of
the world, it has helped to create and publicize strategic concepts and actions that are
gaining increasing acceptance in the industrial and service economies of the northern tier
of countries, including the U.S.
These techniques include build/operate/transfer models involving the private sector in
infrastructure provision and Bus Rapid Transit systems pioneered in Brazilian cities, such
as Curitiba, that are now being pursued in the U.S.
It is instructive to note how closely the bank's urban transport analysis and its
vision for the future of transit in the developing part of the world dovetail with
thinking in this country, except for the exacerbating factors of poverty and overcrowding
that add an extra note of urgency to the bank's programs.
Following are extracts from the bank's current urban transport policy analysis and
priority statement, which can be found at the World Bank's home page, http://www.worldbank.org/transport,
or via a link from the APTA web site, http://www.apta.com:
"The urban sector in most developing countries accounts for at least 50 percent of
the gross national product and in some countries over 70 percent. Cities in developing
countries often devote 15 to 25 percent of their annual expenditures to their transport
systems, and sometimes much more. In developing countries, it is common to find that 5
percent to 10 percent of urban household income is spent on transport. In some cases, the
figure is 15 percent or more.
"Cities are major engines of growth in most developing countries, and urban
populations are expanding at a rate of more than 6 percent annually, doubling in size in
less than 12 years. Urban vehicle ownership and usage is growing even faster than the
urban population. Vehicle ownership growth rates of 15 to 20 percent per year in
developing countries are not uncommon. This has been largely caused by growing per capita
incomes in urban areas. Ownership and usage of vehicles therefore is growing much faster
than the ability of developing (and even industrial) countries to provide road space and
alternative means of coping with the problem. Severe traffic congestion and its adverse
side effects on the urban economy, environment, and society are being felt in many cities.
"The growing reliance on private vehicles has resulted in a substantial decline in
the share of total trips being provided by urban public transport systems in many cities.
In some cases, there has been an absolute decline in urban public transport patronage
usage and service levels. Similarly, the travel environment for pedestrians and
people-powered vehicles has rapidly declined. This trend is particularly unfavorable for
the urban poor as they are typically captive riders and often dependent on public transit
for access to employment.
"Recognizing the inability of the public sector to provide adequate finance for
urban transport infrastructure and, in many cases, the relative inefficiency of the public
sector in providing urban transport services, the public sector is increasingly relying on
the private sector to provide these facilities and services. It is estimated that at least
80 percent of all urban bus services provided around the world are now privately owned and
operated. Increasingly cities are arranging concessions or other arrangements for the
private provision of urban transport infrastructure. In short, cities are moving from
providers of transport infrastructure and services to facilitators.
"There is a growing recognition that cities cannot build enough road capacity,
especially in city centers, to accommodate the growth in travel demand by means of the
private vehicle. While recognizing that expansion of road networks will be required,
especially in rapidly growing cities, more reliance is being placed on (a) the intensive
management of travel demand, (b) traffic management techniques to increase the practical
capacity of available road space, and (c) improved urban public transport systems.
"The relatively recent development of improved "intelligent"
technologies (electronic toll collection systems, centralized traffic control systems,
automatic vehicle location systems for public transport systems, and similar techniques)
has resulted in many applications being rapidly deployed in many cities as a means of
better utilizing urban transport. The costs of these technologies are rapidly declining
while their practical applications improve. This presents an opportunity for those
developing countries with adequate financial and staff resources to "leapfrog"
forward in applying these technologies to urban transport problems.
"Transport planners and economists have been advocating for years the logic of
charging road users for the use of scarce road space, primarily as a means of maximizing
the use of urban roads during congested periods, and as a means of securing additional
funds for transport investments. These proposals have been repeatedly rejected due to
their political unpopularity. Up to the present, they have been deployed in city centers
only in Singapore and three Norwegian cities. With the introduction of improved electronic
road pricing technologies, which has the potential of eliminating delays at toll
facilities, and permits multiple means of payment with minimum inconvenience, the
practical application of pricing as a urban demand management tool may be ready for
improved acceptance and more widespread deployment. Experience has shown that public
acceptance of pricing schemes can be substantially enhanced by earmarking the funds that
are collected expressly for additional urban transport improvements.
"Public officials and the public have become much more aware of the adverse
impacts or side effects of modern urban transport systems. In recent years there has been
more attention placed on reducing the levels of mobile source pollution and accidents.
"With ownership of vehicles growing much faster than the ability of developing and
industrial countries to provide road space, the increase in traffic volumes and road
congestion has caused substantial adverse impacts, especially in the largest cities of
developing countries. These impacts are expressed in several dimensions:
- Business efficiency is adversely affected by traffic delays;
- Slow moving traffic, combined with an ill-maintained stock of vehicles, is making the
megacities in developing countries the most polluted in the world; in some large city
centers road traffic accounts for 90 to 95 percent of health-threatening lead and carbon
monoxide in the air and a major share of suspended particulate matter;
- Sprawling land-consuming urban structures and deteriorating traffic conditions are
making the journey to work, particularly for some of the very poor, excessively long and
costly. Many and diverse measures are needed to address these problems, but the most
critical of these are the introduction of economically efficient charges for
infrastructure and services, and the development of competitive market structures within
the sector.
"Most cities are unable to financially cope with the rapid increases in
motorization and travel demand being experienced. Part of the problem is caused by the
devolution of responsibilities from central governments to local governments without
providing local governments with adequate funding either through satisfactory
inter-governmental transfer arrangements or the authority to raise additional tax
revenues. Consequently traffic and general transportation conditions are declining in
many, if not most, major cities of developing countries. Beyond making wise investments in
transport infrastructure and services, improved methods and approaches to financing these
investments must be deployed. An increased emphasis on charging transport users,
especially private vehicle users who are the least efficient users of transport networks,
for the costs of the facilities and services being provided to them at public expense is
one solution. The other will be an increased reliance on private sector to build, operate,
and finance urban transport infrastructure and services.
"Concomitant with the shift of selected public sector responsibilities in the
provision of urban transport services and facilities to the private sector, is the
increased importance of appropriate regulation and supporting legislation to facilitate
this shift. In many cases, there is inadequate national legislation in place to protect
either public or private sector interests, or alternatively, legislation is too
restrictive and inhibits private sector activity. In other cases, the regulatory authority
is too centralized at the national level giving too little authority to local governmental
bodies where urban transit services are provided. (Examples include central government
mandated exemptions of large groups of transit riders and/or restrictions on fares that
may be charged.) Due in part to a history of strong central controls, local governments
typically have not developed adequate bodies to regulate urban transport at the local
level. In response to these shortcomings, governments will need to comprehensively review
their relevant legislation and regulatory frameworks and concentrate on developing
stronger local governmental capabilities in urban transport regulation.
"Urban institutions are often ill-equipped to deal with the sheer increase in
traffic or to adopt advances in technology that would help them overcome problems. It is
rare to find single agencies with the comprehensive authority needed to deal with the
large range of transport problems and to coordinate overall solutions. Instead, authority
is usually divided among several agencies, each dealing with different elements of the
transportation problem. The boundaries of these agencies' authority often tend to be
indistinct; the result is a duplication of responsibility, an undermining of
accountability, and resistance to change. Beyond fragmentation of responsibilities within
a single local jurisdiction, fragmentation of responsibilities and lack of coordination
between jurisdictions, particularly in large urban conglomerations governed by many local
governmental bodies, is a particularly vexing problem. The fragmentation problem is
particularly common with regard to the traffic management function within local
jurisdictions and transportation planning between local jurisdictions. These institutional
problems are often exacerbated by the lack of sufficient resources, particularly suitably
trained staff. Thus, considerable attention must be paid to institutional reorganization
and training so that transportation planning, traffic management, and traffic enforcement
can be properly planned, designed, implemented, and enforced."
For More Information
If the World Bank's closely argued analysis whets your appetite for more, check out the
web site listed in the opening section. The bank-sponsored sessions at the APTA Annual
Meeting will provide an inside look at major transit infrastructure projects in Latin
America supported by the bank and should be of special interest to APTA's Business
Members.
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