HABITAT-TRANSPORT: Cities Choked By Dependence On Cars

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Johanna Son

ISTANBUL, Jun 7 1996 (IPS) - Overdependence on the automobile is a disease fast spreading to developing countries, which often view motorisation as a symbol of modern living, say urban transport activists.

In many parts of the world, this ‘car culture’ exacerbates perennial traffic jams and pollutes the air. Governments often give cars priority, to the detriment of mass transport and non- motorised forms of transport used by the poor in places as diverse as Ghana and India.

The result, as delegates and non-governmental organisations at the ongoing World Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) concluded this week, is decreased or more difficult mobility in many cities. As they expand in size and population, the problem only gets worse, especially in the developing world.

“The urban transport system is like the blood system of your country. Without it, you can’t survive,” said Robert Obudho, an urban expert from the University of Nairobi in Kenya, at a forum held here this week on Transport In The City Of Tomorrow.

Yet evidence abounds on mobility problems, and has become a factor in the quality of life and economy of cities that transport campaigners want addressed in the Habitat conference.

Per capita use of cars in developed countries like the United States has risen sizably in the last decade, and only three percent of total passenger trips in that country use public transport. Car ownership in the European Union continues to rise — from 232 cars per 1,000 people in 1975 to 435 cars today.

“The problem of automobile dependency is very, very evident in the West,” said Jeff Kenworthy of Australia’s Murdoch University.

But while 64 percent of passenger movement in Asia is still through public means, this is changing as economic growth and rising incomes fuel demand for cars while transport infrastructure lags behind. “The (growth of demand) in cars there is somewhat out of control,” Kenworthy added.

China’s vehicle fleet is expected to triple in the period 1990 to 2000. And even though a commuter spends the equivalent of 44 days a year sitting in traffic jams in Bangkok, Thailand remains the fastest-growing market for vehicle sales in South-east Asia. Manila residents easily spend more than two hours traveling short distances to work.

The developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development lose two percent of GNP to congestion, while cities like Bangkok lose 10 percent.

But motorisation in Asia, where cities are usually more dense than Western ones, has not necessarily brought benefits for the urban poor who make up a fourth or more of city residents in the region.

Commuting is now among the daily struggles of the urban poor. The World Bank, in a new book on Sustainable Transport: Priorities for Policy Reform, says: “Commuting by public transport is very costly for the urban poor, taking for example 14 percent of the income of the poor in Manila compared with only seven percent of the income of the non-poor.”

It also says: “Meeting the transport needs of the poor requires more attention to the roles of the informal sector and of non- motorised transport.”

But as they move down the path of motorisation, many developing nations are pushing aside native forms of transport that are easily viewed as backward.

The New York-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy says it is the urban poor who suffer when governments, citing a desire to clear congested roads, try to get rid of non- motorised transport.

Indonesia’s native ‘becak’, a three-wheeled human-powered taxi, Vietnam’s ‘cyclos’ and Calcutta’s rickshaws are increasingly being sidelined in cities, though some projects aim to support them in places like Ghana and Peru.

“Non-motorisation is not primitive and it is not bad. It is in fact one of the best means of transport, because it is environmentally sound,” added Kenya’s Obudho.

Urban transport groups say governments should stop subsidising cars and make it pay for the traffic, accidents and pollution it causes, plan for more mass transport and adopt policies like road user charges.

The Transport Caucus at Habitat II proposes that its final Plan of Action recognise the role of transport in urban quality of life, and the need for conscious attempts to foster “sustainable transport”.

A key part of the caucus’ arguments is cities should stop being designed for cars and should focus on “moving people, not cars”. Likewise, the activists argue, streets are not only for vehicles but for pedestrians who should also have “the right of access to the street network”.

Said Kenworthy: “We can rebuild cities that are too automobile- dependent.” He cited as successful examples Toronto and Stockholm, which invested in mass transport systems with ‘nodes’ of more dense urban development along those rail or tram lines. Certain areas are purposely left to be conducive to walking and biking, he added.

A key factor in ensuring that cities take into account transport that is affordable, people- and environment-friendly is the involvement of government officials. But a Brazilian urban planner at a panel discussion on the issue here this week said a lot remains to be done to make officials aware that transport affects daily life.

She cited the case of three Sao Paolo mayors, whose conception of improving transport was changing the colours of public buses from red, to Brazil’s national colours of green, yellow and blue and again to white.