Cuenca Gets on the Bus p14 Cuenca Gets on the Bus p14

Rerouting US Foreign Aid p20

Delhi’s Alternative Fuel Buses: Flat Tire? p16

Rerouting US Foreign Aid p20

Delhi’s Alternative Fuel Buses: Flat Tire? p16

Cuenca Gets on the Bus p14

Cuenca Gets on the Bus p14

Fall 2001 Number 12

See us online at www.itdp.org

In the US, urban sprawl started withhousing, and the malls followed usto the suburbs. In Central Europeand an increasing number of devel-

oping countries, the malls and “big box”retailers are the first wave of sprawl,pulling employment and then housingbehind it. The number of companiesinvolved is small, their names familiar:Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco, Auchan,IKEA, and Metro, to name the largest.They are rapidly taking over globalretailing.

Carrefour, for example, entered Chinain 1995, and is already China’s singlelargest retailer, with $963 million in sales

last year. Wal-Mart is not far behind,with 12 mega stores. While Carrefour gotinto trouble by ignoring national regula-tions in China, an official source said,“There will not be severe sanctionsagainst Carrefour; it would be bad forour image while we are preparing to jointhe WTO.”

Major cities in Central Europe arebeing overrun by these big box retailers,and they are spreading rapidly into sec-ondary cities. Small businessmen inPoland, just learning the rules of thecapitalist game, said they lost 60% oftheir business to these big chains. InHungary and the Czech Republic, bigbox’s share of retail trade has risen fromnothing five years ago to over 40%today, and rising. Carrefour controls athird of supermarket business in

Argentina, Wal-Mart controls more thananother third. These megastores are alsonow in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Indonesia,Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India,and many other countries. Most angrysmall businessmen are not going to voteliberal, green or socialist. They vote forthe ultra-nationalists who manipulatetheir resentment against these ‘foreign’incursions. With the WTO now shiftingto discussion of free trade in services,the globalization of retail will only accelerate.

When these new suburban mallsopened in Warsaw, surveys indicatedthat 80% of the shoppers who previously

walked or took public transit to do theirshopping now drove. When Carrefourcame to Krakow, they wanted to build ahuge mall on the outskirts of the citywith a massive parking lot. The DeputyMayor blocked it on the grounds that itviolated the city’s zoning and parkingpolicies, and the traffic would overloadexisting roads. Enormous political pres-sure was brought to bear, and thisDeputy Mayor was replaced. The newDeputy Mayor approved the buildingpermit. After the new Carrefour wasconstructed,traffic soon blocked theroads. Then, pressure was put on the cityto expand the road. Now, the road isbeing expanded.

In Hungary, Tesco, Auchan, Metro,IKEA, Cora, and Baumaxare are all locat-ed at the intersection of the EBRD and

World Bank-funded M0 Ring Road, near a logistics terminal financed by theEBRD. (see image pp. 10-11) Some newmalls, like Polus II, are being developedby companies partially owned by theEBRD. The EBRD’s mandate is to fundthe transition, but a transition to what?

These retailers are experts in compet-ing on price, and everybody loves lowprices. But why are they so low? Theybuy the cheapest land possible, on ahighway paid for by the taxpayers andthe International Financial Institutions(IFIs). They build the cheapest buildingpossible, and use their huge purchasingpower to force favorable terms fromsuppliers. These companies source theirproducts largely from huge agribusi-nesses (also the recipients of massivesubsidies in the US, the EU, and else-where). With their large Western capitalbase, they can sell at a loss until theygain a monopoly position in the market.They can negotiate low interest loansfrom increasingly globalized banks,while avoiding accountability and riskby doing business through a maze ofsubsidiaries. For them, the cost of brib-ing local officials to make necessary zon-ing and other regulatory changes ismodest. (It is no accident that several ofthese companies have been implicated inrecent political scandals: Carrefour inFrance, Tesco in England, Metro inPoland.)

Finally, sited out of congested cities,with large parking lots, the cost of“delivery” is passed on to the consumer.The driver pays the cost of the last, mostexpensive leg of the journey by puttingeverything in his or her car. Ultimately,once one owns a car, and the general tax-payer has picked up the tab for the high-way, one saves money by shopping atthe megamall. These firms, ultimately,

2 SustainableTransport /Fall 2001

Letter from the Executive Director, Walter Hook

Central Europe’s New Entrepreneurs:Crushed by Carrefour

have been more successful than smalldowntown shops at getting drivers, tax-payers, and governments to pick up the tab.

In developed countries, we are belat-edly learning to deal with such business-es. In Scandinavia, parts of Germany,and England, land use is increasinglytightly regulated to prevent these busi-nesses from externalizing their costsonto society. Increasingly sophisticated‘conflict of interest’ laws help ensurethese regulations are not undermined bycorruption. Environmental authoritieswill block new retail developments if thetraffic impacts will drive an area intoviolation of ambient air quality norms.France has fairly strict laws protectingsmall businesses from hypermarkets,and most countries have some supportmechanisms for small businesses. In

these countries, some of these retailersare learning to be good corporate citizens.

Large Western chains, however, arefree from these constraints when theyoperate in Central Europe and develop-ing countries, where the regulatory sys-tems are rarely functional. Conflict ofinterest is rampant, and often legal.According to Carrefour Argentina’sDirector, Bernard Dunand, the total lib-erty to create, modernize, and expandtheir stores, in Brazil and Argentina, is amajor reason why Carrefour was able toearn 33% of its profits in Latin America,despite the region being responsible foronly 20% of its overall sales.

Some of these companies are publiclytraded, and all are susceptible to badpublicity. IKEA has been quite respon-

SustainableTransport /Fall 2001 3

is a publication of:

The Institute for

Transportation and Development Policy

115 W.30th St., Suite 1205New York, NY 10001

Tel. (212)629-8001•Fax (212)[email protected] www.itdp.org

Editors: Walter Hook, Paul S.White, NoahBudnickContributor: Simone Libman

Art Direction: Cliff Harris

Board of Directors:

Michael Replogle, President*Environmental Defense

Matteo Martignoni, Vice PresidentInternational Human Powered Vehicle Association

Karen Overton, TreasurerRecycle-A-Bicycle

Ariadne Delon-Scott, SecretaryStanford University Bicycle Program

Greg Guenther

Paul Guitink

Transport Specialist

David Gurin

University of Toronto

Walter Hook

Executive Director, ITDP

John Howe

Transport Consultant

Gerhard Menckhoff

World Bank, retired

V. Setty Pendakur

Chairman, Global Committee on International Planning and NMTTransportation Research Board

Enrique Peñalosa

Research Fellow, NYUFormer Mayor, Bogota, Colombia

Geetam Tiwari

IIT Delhi

Jay Townley

Jay Townley & Associates, LLCThe Bike Shop List

*Acting

All views expressed in the articles in this publicationare the views of the authors and not necessarily theviews of ITDP. Sustainable Transport welcomes sub-missions of articles about non-motorized transporta-tion and information about sustainable transporta-tion activities worldwide.

ITDP is a non-profit advocacy, research, and project-implementing agency which seeks to promote the use of non-motorized vehicles (NMVs)and the broader implementation of sustainabletransportation policies worldwide. ITDP is registeredin the United States as a charitable agency eligiblefor tax-deductible contributions under the InternalRevenue Service code. Members include bicycleactivists, transportation planners, economic devel-opment specialists, small businesspeople, environ-mentalists, and other professionals, primarily but notexclusively US citizens.

c o n t e n t sArticles

8Chile“Living City” Battles Santiago Highway

10Recycling Central Europe’s Urban Wastelands

12World Leaders Pedal Sustainable Transport at UN

14Cuenca, EcuadorSecondary City, Primary Vision

16IndiaBumpy Road to Cleaner Vehicles

20Corporate Welfare or Livable Communities?Rerouting US Foreign Aid

24Africa’s Bike Dealers Hold Keys to Livable Cities

26A New Bicycle for Africa

28Drumming Up Business at the Accra Bicycle Market

Fall 2001 Number 12

Features2

Letter from ITDP's Executive Director:

Walmart Goes Global

4News Briefs

22Opinion:

Motorization & Women’s

Empowerment

34New Titles

35Bulletin Board

continued on p.30

Cover: Background photo of Cuenca, and round lower right inset of Curitiba, by Lloyd Wright

DHL and UPS Go

Human-Powered in Europe;

Africa ‘Not Yet Ready’Modern workbikes are changing the

way the world’s leading package deliv-ery companies do business. With just-in-time production and internet-based busi-

nesses driving an explosion in smallpackage delivery, delivery companiesusing traditional motorized vehicles arecontributing heavily to global warmingand air pollution. They are also the firstcompanies to feel the bite of increasedcongestion, delivery delays, andincreased costs.

In London and Stuttgart, DHLInternational (UK) Ltd. and UPS areproving that human power can do a sim-ilar job as trucks, while creating jobs,minimizing vehicle emissions, andreducing costs. DHL currently has a fleetof twelve quadracycles operating in theLondon area, each of which carriesaround 100kg, delivering up to 250 ship-ments a day. In Stuttgart, Germany, UPShas displaced 50 motorized vehicles withits fleet of 150 tricycles.

DHL incorporated the quadracycleinto their alternative fuel fleet when an

innovative small company, EMCLogistics, proved the bike to be reliableand of high performance, crucial to DHLproviding a premium service. Whilecheaper than motor vehicle ownershipand operation, the primary competitiveadvantage of the quadracycles is their

ability to negotiate congested traffic andthe ease with which they can park, withthe added benefit of zero emissions, sup-porting their own EnvironmentalPolicy.

Image is also a factor. AirborneExpress has used a fleet of tricycles inManhattan for years, but the vehicles donot bear the corporate name for fear cus-tomers would not think their companywas ‘modern.’ With their sleek designand state of the art components, work-bikes deployed by DHL and UPS inLondon and Stuttgart are challengingthe widely held view that ‘moderniza-tion equals motorization’.

To date, UPS and DHL have beenreluctant to try human powered deliveryin African cities. According to AgnesBauer, a UPS Public Relations officerbased in Belgium, “riding a bicycle is adangerous activity in the African coun-

tries you were targeting and UPS’s poli-cy is to ensure a safe workplace for eachof its employees. Our managers werealso concerned about the safety of theshipments and felt that, here too, thelocal circumstances would not allow usto use bicycles.”

Busway Gets Green Light In

Los Angeles; Light Rail Project

Slogs On

The Los Angeles MetropolitanTransportation Authority recentlyapproved $285 million for a 14-mile busrapid transit line (BRT) running from theNorth Hollywood Red Line subway sta-tion to Woodland Hills. A $5.2 millionbikeway will run beside the buswayalong with a walkway and trees.Articulated buses holding up to 270 peo-ple will operate on exclusive lanes.

The two east-west bus routes currentlycarry a combined 13,878 riders a day. Bycomparison, MTA officials estimate thebusway would attract a daily ridershipof 25,000. It is expected to cut journeytimes across the Valley from 55 minutesto 30 minutes. Construction is scheduledto begin late next year and be completedin 2005. Some neighborhood groupshave opposed the BRT, contending thatit will increase accidents, noise and pol-lution, and will bring down propertyvalues.

Meanwhile, construction continues onthe Pasadena Blue Line, a light rail ser-vice between Los Angeles and Pasadena.The Los Angeles Metropolitan TransitAuthority (MTA) has already spent$286.9 million on the line, which wasscheduled for completion in 1998. In1998, a new institution, the Los Angelesto Pasadena Metro Blue LineConstruction Authority, was set up tocomplete the project for an additional$438.8 million, and scheduled comple-tion was shifted to 2003.

This estimated price tag is likely toescalate further, if the concerns of sever-al critics are to be answered. The city of


Ultra-modern human-powered delivery by EMC Logistics

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South Pasadena, the California PublicUtilities Commission, and activistgroups in Pasadena and Mt. Washingtonsay that more of the line should be ele-vated on bridges above the streets orlowered into trenches or tunnels to max-imize pedestrian safety.

Modernizing Becaks in

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

In April, ITDP launched its firstIndonesian becak modernization projectin Yogyakarta, the cultural center ofJava. Yogya is home to the famousBuddhist monument, Borobodur, andthe Hindu monument, Prambanan.Unlike many parts of Indonesia wherecycle rickshaws, or becaks, face govern-ment repression, in Yogyakarta, they aremuch more accepted. The main commer-cial spine, Malioboro Avenue, is halfdedicated to non-motorized travel.Yogya is also home to the famousGadjah Mada University (GMU).

G. Shyam, the leading Indian designerin ITDP’s Indian Cycle RickshawModernization Project, working withfaculty and students of GMU and LPIST,has developed four working prototypes,two minor modifications of the existingbecak, and is working on two moredesigns. The vehicles went out for fieldtrials at the end of August.

A half-hour long television special onthe project was featured on national television, making the Indonesian publicaware that human powered vehicle tech-

nologies can play an important role inIndonesia’s modernization process. Theproject has been nominated for the PutraBangsa (Son of the Nation) PresidentialAward for Community Action.

New World Bank Program to

Revitalize Fez Historic Medina

The Medina in Fez, Morocco, a cultural

heritage site on UNESCO’s WorldHeritage List, is about to get a facelift.Facing severe transportation bottlenecksalmost as famous as the Medina, theGovernment of Morocco approached the

World Bank to finance an urbanimprovement project, with heavyemphasis on improving transportation.Resolving these problems without dis-rupting Fez’s social and architecturalfabric posed a major challenge.

The project team first considered aconsultant group’s UNDP-sponsoredplan to significantly expand roads toimprove access to the historic Medinah,but the plan was rejected as too threaten-ing to the City’s social and architecturalfabric.

A new plan was developed whichincluded only modest widening of asmall network of roads deemed criticalto improve access by emergency vehi-cles. Rather than designing the roads tofit the garbage truck, new solid wastecollection vehicles were speciallydesigned. Of the $14 million loan, only$2 million will now go to road wideningand improvement, while $2 million willrehabilitate historical sites in the Medina,and another $1.2 will help rehabilitateprivate historic buildings and housing.Another $2 million will go to redesignedparking facilities, and $1.4 million forinnovative solid waste removal services.It is hoped that the project will generateconsiderable lasting employment in thecraft and tourist industries, not to men-tion works.

The Fez project and several otherCultural Heritage projects in the MiddleEast and North Africa have inspired thedevelopment of a new World Bankurban development strategy paper, enti-tled: “Cultural Heritage andDevelopment: A Framework for Actionin the Middle East and North Africa”, byMichael M. Cernea. www.worldbank.org/publications [email protected].

Car-Free Day Movement

Gains Steam

The Car Free Day movement is now onthe agenda of at least a thousand cities.

On Thursday, September 21, 2000, thefirst World Car Free Day was held inmore than 50 cities Europe, America,Australia and Asia. This was the firsttime for most of the participant cities.Organizers criticized the timid reach ofthe European Car Free Day, since this


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one only closes a few streets in the citycenter. Cities such as Budapest, Prague,Montreal, Boston, Mexico City, Adeleine,Bangkok and Tel Aviv organized suc-cessful events.

One day after the World Car Free Day,September 22, 2000, 760 European townsjointly organized the “In town, withoutmy car!” day. The success of this pan-European event highlights everyone’swillingness to co-operate in developing agreater respect for the environment in anurban context. In 2001 the date will bethe same, September 22.

Bogota held its second Car Free Dayon February 1, 2001, the first after thepublic voted to approve the Mayor’sproposal of celebrating a Car Free Daythe first Thursday of February of everyyear. Thanks to the new bus rapid sys-tem, TransMilenio, and the 300-kilome-ter bicycle path network, this Car FreeDay improved in terms of velocity andparticipation.

Eleven weeks later, the first-ever EarthCar Free Day took place on Thursday,April 19, 2001. Led by The Commonsand the Earth Day Network, a widerange of self-organized events, large andsmall, took place in hundreds of citiesinvolving millions of people, fromHalifax, Pune, Taipei, Katmandu,Seattle, Pusan, to Hong Kong.

Further information on Car Free Daycan be found at www.carfreeday.com- Oscar Edmundo Diaz

TransMilenio: Bogota’s Bus

Rapid Transit System Opens

New Corridor

TransMilenio, Bogota’s Bus RapidTransit System (BRT), opened a new 17-kilometer exclusive corridor on August6. Serving some 53,000 passengers perhour, the new line is already the world’sbusiest BRT. The system, created anddeveloped under Mayor EnriquePeñalosa in just three years, began func-tioning in December 2000. With only 3corridors (41 kilometers) functioningtoday, TransMilenio moves 550,000 peo-ple daily, 10% of whom used to drive. If

system expansion goes forward asplanned, by 2015 TransMilenio will have22 lanes and 6,000 articulated buses pro-viding five million trips per day.

TransMilenio’s articulated buses oper-ate on the central lanes of existingstreets, longitudinally segregated fromthe general traffic. The system is comple-mented with integrated feeder buses andfacilitates pedestrian access.Stations are closed facilities,located in the median every 500meters on average.

The system is operated by pri-vate providers, under conditionsstipulated in concession con-tracts with a central authority.TransMilenio operators are con-sortiums of traditional localtransport companies, associatedwith national and internationalinvestors that own the busesand hire drivers and mainte-nance personnel. Payment isrendered based on kilometersserved by each operator.

The ticketing system is alsoprivately operated. It includesproduction and distribution ofsmart cards, acquisition andinstallation of turnstiles andvalidating systems, passenger informa-tion and money handling. Concessionswere awarded through an open bid-ding process. The money collected fromcard sales is deposited in a trust fund,which is used to pay the operators.

TransMilenio S.A. operates a ControlCenter that allows service and passengeraccess supervision. Each articulated busis equipped with a GPS and a processingunit reporting its location every 6 sec-onds. Turnstiles also report to theControl Center the number of passen-gers entering and leaving the system.Supply and demand is then adjusted.

The same day the new corridor waslaunched, the current Mayor of Bogota,Antanas Mockus, implemented a pecu-liar measure that restricts 40 percent ofpublic vehicles from traveling between5:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in the entireurban area (32,000 hectares).

The restriction on public service vehi-cles runs Monday through Friday,according to the last number on the

license plate. In response, bus and taxidrivers went on strike, blocking mainarteries and generating the worst trafficjam Bogota has ever seen. After failednegotiations, a judge declared the restric-tions unconstitutional because they com-promised the ‘fundamental right ofwork’. Rumor is that Mayor Mockusmay try to reinstate the restrictions.

Due to the enormous interest inTransMilenio, a three-day internationalconference will be held on November 13.www.transmilenio.gov.co

Fix It First, New Jersey’s

Innovative Road Maintenance

Law, Fails To Change

Permanent Government

In 1999, the New Jersey legislatureapproved “Fix It First,” an innovativenew law spearheaded by the Tri-StateTransportation Campaign and otherNGOs. The law mandated that the NJDepartment of Transportation (NJDOT)use Transportation Trust Fund revenuesfirst to reduce the backlog of structural-ly deficient bridges and road surfacesby half in five years before funding anynew infrastructure. The law also calledfor 1,000 new lane-miles of bicycle pathsto be built during that period. A similarprovision was attached to a 2000 trans-


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New TransMilenio buses, Bogota

portation bond act, which wasapproved in a referendum by voters. Ifenforced, these laws would have divert-ed part of the $65-$70 million in annualhighway capacity expansion projects toroad and bridge maintenance and bicy-cle lanes.

The new law, however, is beingundermined by NJDOT, who’s pro-posed 2002 budget for road mainte-nance and bike lanes falls $45 millionshort, and even falls below previousyear spending levels, while new high-way construction funds remain in the$66-$70 million range. In the politicalvacuum created by the departure ofGovernor Whitman to head the USEPA, Democratic lawmakers and pub-lic interest groups were unable to forceNJ DOT to change its priorities duringthe 2002 budget negotiations.

Immediately after the vote, Tri-Stateand four other groups filed a lawsuit tohold the Department of Transportationto the Fix-It First law. At the end ofJuly, the case was dismissed by theNew Jersey Superior Court, on thegrounds that laws cannot dictate thespending priorities of the followingyear’s legislature, raising questionsabout the possibility of multi-year bud-geting. “In effect, it is a victory for thepermanent government,” says Tri-StateDeputy Director Jon Orcutt.

Afribike Update

South African Transport Minister DullahOmar is teaming up with Afribike tomobilize one million low-income SouthAfricans with bicycles and training by2010. “The time has come to promotebicycle transport as a strategic solution,”said Omar. Thousands have alreadybeen mobilized this year, with Afribikeprograms getting underway in all nineSouth African provinces.

“Shova Lula”, which means “RideEasy” in Tswana, is the name given tothe government’s ambitious nationalcycling program, which focuses onmobilizing primary and secondary stu-dents and day laborers who, withoutbicycles, are virtually stranded fromschools and jobs.

Most of the Afribike bicycles are com-ing from Re-Cycle, a UK based groupthat joined ITDP’s efforts to foundAfribike back in 1998. Re-Cycle receivesused bicycles from the Royal Mail,which renews its nationwide fleet ofpostal delivery bicycles every few years.Pedals for Progress is also sending thou-sands of used bicycles from New Jersey.

Bicycles are also coming from donors inthe Netherlands, and from within SouthAfrica. The distribution of the bicyclesto local townships and rural communi-ties is executed via Afribike’s container-based workshop, or “AfribikeFranchise” unit.

To address the safety issue, Afribike isworking to establish South Africa’s firstbicycle path network. The network,being constructed in Ivory Park, a town-ship north of Johannesburg, will linkschools, homes, and popular markets.The Dutch consulting firm Interface forCycling Expertise (ICE) provided con-sulting support to the project. AlexandraTownship is also slated for bicycletracks, which will be placed as a key partof a new US $20,000,000 infrastructureupgrade package.

www.Afribike.org.

New US Bill An Incentive To

Cycling

If passed, the US “Bicycle CommuterAct” will allow employers to give theiremployees up to $65 per month in taxbenefits for commuting to work by bike.The landmark pro-bicycle legislationwas introduced in March 2001 by

Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D - Oregon) and Mark Foley (R - Florida).

The bill is modeled after the newlyenacted transportation fringe benefit, orTransit Chek, which allows employers togive employees a $65 per month tax ben-efit for commuting to work by masstransit or carpool. The new bill addsbicycling to the list of alternatives modesof transit eligible for the benefit.Opponents of the bill argue that there isno way to guarantee that those who takeadvantage of the cycling benefit actuallyride. Proponents contend that since thebenefit is intended to reduce single occu-pancy vehicle trips it can be utilized aslong as the employee does not receiveparking benefits.

To support the Bike Commuter Act(H.R. 1265) please call or write to yourMember of Congress to encourage them


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We first heard the rumor in December 1996.In the kitchen of a neighbor in BarrioBellavista (an artsy area just outside down-

town Santiago, like Greenwich Village in New York)the neighborhood association’s Ecological Committeewas discussing how to quiet the newly installed dis-cotheques enough to get a decent night’s sleep. Thensomeone mentioned that a highway project, the“Costanera Norte”, was being planned, to slice east towest through the middle of our city, Santiago, Chile.

That day, our small citizens group started a strug-gle that has brought the Costanera Norte highwayproject to its knees. Out of that struggle grew a repre-sentative and heterogeneous citizens’ organization,Ciudad Viva, or Living City.

Barrio Bellavista

Three months later, official news of the highway project hitwith the force of a hurricane. Our neighborhood association—and the Ecological Committee— found themselves hastily try-ing to learn about how highway projects impact cities. It didn’tsound good.

Chris Zegras, then with the International Institute for EnergyConservation’s Santiago office, was the first expert to throw usa life jacket, giving a talk at one of our meetings. Then, a neigh-borhood chemist started researching emissions. Within weekswe had a series of fact sheets that painted a very ugly picture.Soon architects began to rally, as did Santiago’s lively, expert,and extremely generous community of environmental non-government organizations. Then, transport engineers andarchitects, some of them working within the national govern-ment, began to support us. We were developing a clear pictureof what we were up against. The highway project was thebrainchild of the national Public Works’ Ministry, then headedby Ricardo Lagos, now the President of Chile. The 33 km cityfreeway project would be built as a private concession. Lagos

intended it to be the shining star in the somewhat tarnishedcrown of the government’s program for using concession con-tracts to build up sea ports, airports and highways throughoutthe country. Our ragtag group of common citizens were upagainst the most powerful ministry in the country and one ofits most powerful and ambitious politicians. Even our friends(especially our friends!) told us to shut up and stay home. Butwe couldn’t.

When the Ministry opened bidding on the concession con-tract, no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the pro-ject had been submitted. We filed a writ of habeas corpus inthe Chilean courts. It was a terrifying decision – lawyers arevery expensive and we were relatively poor. Lagos foughtback in the press. Screaming headlines in El Mercurio, Chile’smost influential newspaper, attacked us. The governmentthreatened to change laws so groups like ours could be suedfor filing this kind of writ. I pasted George Eliot’s quote (at thetop of this article) to my office door and we quoted it at panelsand seminars, NGO meetings and workshops, neighborhoodassemblies, rallies and marches. For months, we had no hopeof winning, as the government hammered us constantlythrough the press. Reporters treated us like Luddites battlingagainst the common good.

A Train with Many Wagons

Gradually, the winds of fortune began to change. To raisemoney to pay the lawyer, local artists donated works. MariaInes Solimano, a neighbourhood designer, organized an artauction, which has now become an annual event. CesarGarrido, leader of the “Movimiento de los Furiosos Ciclistas”,Santiago’s creative, rebellious cycling organization, donatedhis expertise to develop our web site.

We lost our writ, but only because the Ministry finally pre-sented an Environmental Impact Assessment. Despite gravereservations about the newly created national environmentalcommission (composed entirely of ministerial appointees,including one representing the project’s proponent) we partici-pated fully in the formal review process. With data from thegovernment’s own technical departments criticizing the projectand from studies of similar projects abroad, we drafted a

Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, but give me theman who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir;and there are many victories worse than a defeat. – George Eliot


“Living City”Battles Santiago

By Lake Sagaris, Ciudad Viva (Living City)

lengthy critique of the highway project, supported by 100pages of footnotes and bibliographic references. A forester,Mauricio Montecinos, coordinated the many talented peoplewho contributed to our environmental impact study.

By early 1998, our two humble Bellavista groups were joinedby many others. Expert geographers joined us in predictingdisaster. The market organizations around the Vega Central –the Vega Chica, the Pérgola Santa María (flower vendors), theTirso de Molina, the Acofer, Túnel del Tiempo, Baratillo andothers – joined the campaign; they were fighting for their eco-nomic lives. The well-heeled and well-connected Pedro deValdivia neighborhood, appalled at the destruction the roadwould bring to the Cerro San Cristobal, the most important of

Santiago’s few parks, spent every weekend for a year collect-ing over 10,000 signatures against the project. Two poor com-munities from Independencia joined the struggle because theirhomes would be expropriated. Architects, alarmed at theimpact on the urban fabric, particularly the planned destruc-tion of the historical buildings surrounding the former homeand museum of Pablo Neruda, Chile’s Nobel prize-winningpoet, began to speak out and organize forums. Then key trans-port engineers joined in, several with international reputations.Almost without exception, the professional society and distin-guished transport engineers joined the opposition and somevery brave ones were willing to join us speaking out publiclyagainst the project at congressional committees, and on nation-al television.

Winning Over the PressWe decided to publish a book: “Costanera Norte: what kind

of city do we want?” We held a press breakfast to launch thebook in the Antojo restaurant, with home-baked bread, freshfruit, flowers from our markets, and fresh jam from neigh-bors, things representing the communities we were fightingto defend. Dr. Ricardo Araya showed slides demonstratingthe damage to the hill, and we provided a blow-by-blowaccount of the project’s devastating effects on the city’s archi-tectural and human heritage, as well as a thriving local econo-my, central to the city’s food supply and entertainment.Francisco Martínez, then president of Chile’s prestigiousSociety of Transport Engineers, spoke too. Patricio Lanfrancooffered an economist’s view. It turned the press around.Suddenly they began to look at us as people with an important message.

Bad Business

By this time, the projected cost of the highway had bal-looned from US$140 million to US$360 million (it now standsat US$480 million). We started questioning the fairness ofspending at least $80 million of taxpayers’ money to subsidizethe wealthiest 20% of citizens who chose to commute by auto-mobile, when there was ‘no money’ for the 60% of Santiago cit-izens who commute by bus.

Information leaked to us made it clear that the project wastoo poorly conceived and studied to be a sound businessopportunity. Profitability studies, we learned, had been sus-pended when results indicated it would not work financially.We started a campaign focusing on the companies interested inconcession contracts, launching a web site in Spanish, Frenchand English, aimed at potential foreign investors. As it turnedout, it proved impossible to raise the money abroad.

By this time, the Environmental Commission had approved

the project, over the objections of its own regional AdvisoryBoard, the only independent body involved in the environ-mental evaluation of projects in Chile. The approval was madein a matter of minutes, but writing the justification of this deci-sion took over a month. However, the environmental reviewprocess revealed such serious faults that when the governmentopened bidding no one was interested.

The Highway Promoter Fights Back

In 1998, it appeared that the highway was dead. But,despite considerable opposition within its own ranks, the gov-ernment regrouped. It increased the level of subsidies andguarantees, and a new bid was able to attract investors. Weresearched the firms participating in the tender, and attacked


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“Our ragtag group of common citizenswere up against one of Chile’s most

powerful politicians. Even our friendstold us to shut up and stay home.”

Highway

Recycling Central Europe’sRecycling Central Europe’s

URBAN WASTELANDS

Developers in Central Europedon’t necessarily prefer the city-edge sites that promote sprawl.

Some would love more central, transit-accessible locations. In Prague alone,there are some 2,500 acres of derelictland (“brownfields”), much of it inexcellent locations adjacent to subwaystops, tramlines, and in walking dis-tance from the city’s core. This land isthe legacy of Central Europe’s rapiddeindustrialization and demilitarizationafter the fall of socialism. If rehabilitat-ed, these brownfields could providetransit-friendly locations for most need-ed new homes, offices, parks, and shop-ping facilities.

Unfortunately, fear of discoveringcontamination, and a host of other prob-lems, have scared off legitimate devel-opers. Developers able to tackle brown-field sites tend to be shady, willing to‘cut corners’ on toxic cleanup, or ‘acci-dently’ burning down historically- pro-tected buildings on the site. Even legiti-mate developers are shy about dis-cussing their success in rehabilitatingsites, not wanting to stigmatize thedevelopment as ‘brownfield,’ and thuspotentially contaminated.

An exceptionally large percentage ofurban land in Central and EasternEurope is brownfield. (see graph) Somebrownfields are decommissioned urban

military bases, others are obsolete rail-way sidings and marshaling areas, butmost are old industrial sites. Socialiststate enterprises, unconcerned aboutland prices, tended to build their over-sized industries in urban areas.

The transition from socialism createdmajor obstacles to revitalizing these sites.When the state enterprises that occupiedthem were privatized, they were notbought by investors interested in savingthese companies. Rather, the newinvestors were out to strip them of their

assets. In a process known as ‘tunneling,’a group of investors would buy a state-owned enterprise, borrowing moneyfrom a bank, and using the land as col-lateral. Then, the investors would sell offall the valuable assets, including choice

parcels of land, at fire-saleprices to other companies,also under their control.These companies in turnre-sold the land again,which under current lawensured that creditorswould never be able torecover it. In the mean-while, the investors treatedthemselves to generoussalaries and perks.Naturally, such companieswent bankrupt. Banksseized their remainingassets, but their collateral,such as the remainingland, was now mostlyworthless.

Hoping to sell the landfast for a good price, banks

and other creditors then split the landinto small parcels. Speculators then


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Photo below: The Budapest suburbs – retail sprawl nearBudaörs as seen from Kalvaria Hill.

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bought them up, hoping a large develop-er needing to assemble a larger tract ofland would be forced to buy them out.

To make matters worse, tunneling ren-dered invalid Environmental ClearanceContracts, or ECCs. ECCs were guaran-tees issued by the state’s NationalProperty Fund, to protect privateinvestors in case any unknown environ-

mental hazards were found on the prop-erty. Because ECCs were vested with theoriginally-privatized company, and notwith the land itself, they disappearedwhen this company went bankrupt. Thecreditors had little interest in makingknown any environmental encum-brances, since these compromised theirability to maximize sale price.

As a result, potential brownfielddevelopers face tremendous risks, highcosts, legal headaches, and significantsite re-assembly problems. In the West, amunicipal development corporationwould deal with many of these prob-

lems, assembling the site using thestate’s power to expropriate land. InCentral Europe, there are few of theseinstitutions, and, as a reaction to decadesof heavy-handed abuse, the state’sexpropriation powers are limited to pub-lic facilities recognized in an approvedland use plan. A developer doesn’t wantto buy six pieces of land, only to find

they cannot buy the seventh needed tomake their development viable. Thelegal tools to make conditional purchaseviable, however, have been ruled illegalor have proven ineffective. Without thepossibility of assembling sites back intosingle ownership, many brownfields willremain brown for years.

Cities worldwide are becomingincreasingly aware of the social costs ofurban sprawl and the drag on urbanvitality created by derelict brownfields.In Britain, planning guidance from thenational government aims to concentrate50% of new housing development on

brownfields between now and 2011, andthey hope to raise this percentage to 70%.

This is even more important in CentralEurope, where brownfields are muchmore extensive, and sprawl still relative-ly constrained. Central European citieshave only recently started to establishthe necessary policies and instruments to

deal with these problems. To support this process,

ITDP sponsored a workshophosted by the City of Pragueat the City Hall this April,entitled “OvercomingBarriers to the Recycling ofUrban Land: Brownfield andDerelict Sites.” This work-shop was part of ITDP’s 3year program on sprawlrestraint and city center revi-talization, funded by theRockfeller Brothers Fund.(See ITDP’s web-site for fullcoverage.)

The workshop broughttogether all the major gov-ernmental agencies and pri-vate sector stakeholderswhose cooperation is neces-sary if new development is tobe channeled away fromgreenfields onto brownfields.For example, the Ministry ofEnvironment shared its sig-nificant expertise in the tech-nical aspects of site evalua-tion and treatment, while

other stakeholders made clear that strin-gent undifferentiated environmentalclearance standards make little sense. Toclean a site to the level required forgrowing vegetables or a children’s play-ground is needlessly expensive if the siteis destined to become a new industrialsite.

The Ministry of Finance will play akey role in enabling brownfield rehabili-tation programs, both in directly shapingthe various fiscal incentives for brown-field redevelopment, and in approvingthe budgets of the other ministries that


continued on p.13

A derelict site in Prague

World Leaders Pedal Sustainable Transport at UN

World Leaders Pedal Sustainable Transport at UN

The UN CSDThe United Nations CSD was created

in the wake of the 1992 Rio de JaneiroEarth Summit, as an international bodyto monitor the implementation of the“Agenda for the 21st Century” (or“Agenda 21” as it is popularly known).Agenda 21, which makes recommenda-tions for transport, forestry, and otherkey environmental issues, was adoptedby more than 178 governments in Rio deJaneiro in June of 1992. Each year sincethen, the Commission has met to discussspecific topics of Agenda 21. This year’stopics were sustainable transportation,and energy.

As co-chairs of the UN SustainableTransport Caucus, ITDP and theSustainable Transport Action Networkfor Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN)played a major role in preparing andexecuting the meeting.

Prior to the meeting, the UNSustainable Transport Caucus assembleda delegation of twenty sustainable trans-portation specialists, from technicalexperts to grassroots advocates. Theinternational cast included Ms. AnaBravo (International Forum for RuralTransport and Development, Panama),Ms. Moekti Handajani Soejachmoen(Sustainable Transport Action Networkfor Asia and the Pacific, Jakarta), Mr.Patricio Lanfranco (Ciudad Viva,

Santiago), Jeffrey Maganya(Intermediate Technology DevelopmentGroup, Nairobi), Mr. Roger Torode(Inter-national Association of PublicTransport, Brussels), and Ms. BeatriceSchell (European Federation forTransport and Environment, Brussels).

The First Ever UN Bicycle Ride

During the meeting, ITDPstaged the first bicycle ride everheld on United Nationsgrounds. The event highlightedthe bicycle as a modern andenvironmentally sustainablemode of transportation.Ministers and UN ambassadorspedaled alongside sustainabletransport advocates and repre-sentatives from the laborunions. In all, ministers andambassadors from Sweden,Belgium, the Czech Republic,France, Spain, Finland, SouthAfrica, and New Zealand par-ticipated in the ride.Invigorated with the spirit of

cycling, the Ministers joined the NGOSustainable Transport Caucus in ensur-ing that the final CSD statement promi-nently featured support for non-motor-ized transport.

The Caucus hosted two other events.“Creating a Global Network ofSustainable Transport Organizations”began the early discussion and planning


For two weeks in April, environment and transportation ministers, labor unions,local government representatives, scientists, business people, and advocatescame to New York for the 9th Meeting of the United Nations Commission onSustainable Development (CSD). The meeting featured the first-ever UnitedNations bicycle ride; a rousing presentation from Enrique Peñalosa, the ex-Mayorof Bogota; and some promising yet unenforceable guidelines for reforming theway national governments develop their transportation systems. While these andother positive outcomes resulted from this follow-up meeting to the Rio EarthSummit, the dialogue was eclipsed by the US pull out of the Kyoto Protocol.

Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor ofBogota and ITDP board member

with Madame Dominique Voynet,French Environment Minister. The

bicycles were donated by TrekBicycle Corporation and SRAM.

by Noah Budnick

of an international transportation advo-cacy network. The idea is to build globalnetworks analogous to SUSTRAN thatlink individual groups within regionsand then link those larger bodies to cre-ate a global forum. The Latin Americanetwork will be hosted by Living City(see article this issue), and in Africa byITDG Kenya.

The second event, “Towards Sustain-able Public Transit Systems and UrbanLand Use Policies,” featured EnriquePeñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá,Colombia (see ST#11 “Peñalosa Lets ItRide”), who gave an inspiring presenta-tion on how Bogotá reformed its trans-portation policies, built public support,and implemented its massive buswayand cycling networks.

Setting the Stage for Earth Summit II

While the recommendations producedat CSD 9 were vague, they did supportnon-motorized transport and suggested,at the behest of the NGO TransportCaucus, that the regional UN commis-sions initiate the development of region-al minimum tailpipe standards, fuelspecifications, ambient air standards,and safety standards, following on workdone by the UN ECE.

However, in a meeting between theEU Environmental Ministers and theTransport Caucus, the EU Delegatesdescribed these regional dialogues as‘frustrating.’ In a Multi-Stakeholder dia-log, with representatives of businesses,NGOs, labor unions, and local govern-ments, some general consensus wasreached on the phase out of lead andother issues. Despite calls from theGroup of 77 countries from developingnations for new funding mechanisms tosupport transport system development,such calls were rejected by the US, (theypromised to reject any new fundingmechanisms) as well as the EU and theNGOs, for fear such funds would bemisused to subsidize motorists. The finalstatement of CSD 9 will serve as thebasis for any transport discussions at theEarth Summit next year inJohannesburg, though it is likely that theUS pullout of Kyoto will dominate thesemeetings.

For more information, see:www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd9/csd9_2001.htm

Istanbul +5

Immediately after CSD, a follow upmeeting to the City Summit in Istanbul

was held, also in New York. EachMember State presented a report onnational and local implementation of theHabitat Agenda. The discussion focusedexclusively on housing, and excludedany discussion of the transport provi-sions in the Istanbul Global Plan ofAction. This was unfortunate becausethe UN Center for Human Settlements isthe only UN Agency with a specificmandate to work on transport issues.Without a vote, the Member Statesadopted a Declaration on Cities andOther Human Settlements in the NewMillennium.

A side event on transportation spon-sored by the World Bank, UNCHS, andthe W.Alton Jones Foundation was alsoheld at Istanbul +5, bringing backtogether many of the same speakersfrom the Transport Dialogue for the 21stCentury in Istanbul in 1996. KenGwilliam of the World Bank presentedthe broad outlines of the World Bank’snew urban transport strategy, whileITDP presented an overview of theWorld Bank’s loan for the Guangzhouinner ring road, illustrating how farWorld Bank transport lending still has totravel before it can realize its new sus-tainable vision.

♦ ♦ ♦


propose various brownfield measures.The newly formed regional administra-tions, who will control spatial planningin their jurisdiction, and who will berecipients of EU funds, will also play akey role.

The workshop, drawing from interna-tional experts, outlined a number of pub-lic measures which, if adroitly applied,would give brownfields a fighting com-petitive chance against greenfield devel-opment. The measures needed includecoordinating registration and environ-mental analysis of sites, assessment oftheir commercial potentials, sophisticat-ed area-wide planning and zoningchanges, and the development of a rangeof financial incentives. The incentivescan include assistance in assembling asite into single ownership, providingguarantees that companies will not beresponsible for future cleanup costs

beyond a fixed cap, provision of sup-porting infrastructure, providing grantsfor demolition and cleanup, or taxbreaks that allow companies to deductthese expenses.

Follow-up ITDP brownfields work-shops are planned for this fall in cooper-ation with the Ministry of Finance (ontaxation issues) and the newly formed

regional administrations. Anotheragency that has taken leadership on theissue is CzechInvest, the governmentinvestment promotion agency. Theyhave studied the brownfield issue in aneffort to steer investors not only togreenfields, but to central brownfields aswell, and developed a quite comprehen-sive package of incentives.

While there is much to be said forincreasing the state’s powers to acceler-ate the development of brownfield sites,many feel this could be a two-edgedsword. Without constant supervisionand participation by civil society, thesenew powers could be misused.Brownfield development can strengthenthe city center, but questions still remain:what kind of development, and forwhom? ♦

Many of the presentations and associatedmaterials (in English and/or Czech) fromthe workshop described in this article, anda set of further brownfield resources andwebsites, are provided on the ITDP web site, www.itdp.org.

continued from p.11

Brownfields

Central Europeangovenments haveonly weak powers

to expropriate land.If these powers arestrengthened, willthey be abused?

Blanquita Soria, an Ecuadorian domestic worker, awakeswell before dawn to prepare for a several hour com-mute. It begins with a 2-kilometer walk to the nearest

bus stop, where she waits in line to board an overcrowded,informal bus that takes her only on the next frustrating leg ofher long journey. Last year, at this very bus stop, her 7-year oldson, Fausto Alejandro, was killed when a private bus opera-tor – eagerly rushing to complete as many daily trips aspossible – jumped the curb while making an abrupt u-turn. Thebus operator paid a mere $350 and was back operating his busin a matter of days. Stories like these have led to efforts nowunderway to end the chaos on Ecuador’s urban streets.

Cuenca’s alternative

Finally, the dramatic improvements of bus services in near-by Quito and Bogota are starting to ripple across the region,even to smaller and less affluent locales. While clearly a work-in-progress, Cuenca, Ecuador has taken key first steps.Cuenca has already developed bus rapid transit plans, formal-ized its previously unregulated bus operators, removed manyof its oldest buses from service, implemented an innovativeparking scheme, and upgraded pedestrian services.

Nestled in the Andes mountains, Cuenca, Ecuador, is animportant tourist destination mainly because of its colonial-era historical center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Anunregulated transit system combined with escalating motorvehicle use brought congestion to its historical core. The nar-row, colonial streets entrapped and concentrated pollutants.Recently installed monitoring equipment shows particulateand noise levels well above World Health Organizationguidelines. Traffic is responsible for 85% of this pollution. Thisgrowing daily bombardment is undermining Cuenca’s statusas a premiere tourist destination.

In partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank,Cuenca’s dynamic mayor, Fernando Cordero, has created analternative vision: the Cuenca Plan for Sustainable Transportand Transit. Using the Curitiba system as a model, the Cuencasystem will feature 24 kilometers of principal trunk lines andapproximately 100 kilometers of feeder routes. Over 11 kilome-ters of the inner-city trunk lines will operate on segregatedbusways to improve travel times. Several terminal stations willprovide integrated transfers between the trunk and feederlines as well as access to regional and long-distance bus ser-vices. The Cuenca system will also include other innovationssuch as automated fare collection and improved shelter and station design.

The Two-Phase Plan

For too long, public transport in Ecuadorian cities was char-acterized by uncomfortable, unsafe, and unregulated servicesprovided by private operators who suffer under the poor eco-nomics of their trade. With multiple operators on the sameroute, operators drive aggressively to beat the competition forpassengers. This practice along with 12-16 hour working daysfor many drivers creates an array of safety and security problems.

Cuenca’s aging bus fleet is a major source of air pollution.The average bus age is 18 years, and 150 of the fleet of 650 pri-

vate buses are more than 20 years old. The new transport plancalls for 110 of the oldest units to be immediately retired whilethe other units will be gradually phased-out. At present thebuses are envisioned to be of low-floor design with three widedoorways for rapid boarding and alighting. Overall, the sys-tem will reduce the number of buses and vehicles kilometerstraveled, while the coverage and access for passengers willactually increase. The plan will be implemented over twophases, with the entire system to be completed by 2008.

Formalization without confrontation

To focus the plan’s management and oversight, the munici-pality has created the Municipal Transit and Transport Unit(Unidad Municipal de Transito y Transporte Terrestre or

Cuenca, Ecuador

Secondary City, Primary By Lloyd Wright

New bus inspection station, Cuenca

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UMT), which is managed by aformer advisor to the QuitoTrolley-Bus system, RodrigoTorres. While the UMT will main-tain overall quality control on thesystem, the private sector willactually be awarded operationalresponsibilities through competi-tive concessions.

Transforming Latin America’sunregulated private bus operations into a rational and formalsystem has not been an easy road. In Bogota and nearby Quito,the development of bus rapid transit systems stirred opposi-tion from some existing transit operators. These existing busowners and drivers viewed the newintegrated systems as a serious threat totheir continued economic viability andnear monopolistic control of transportoptions. While cities eventually over-came such opposition, the resultingprotests and violence did predicate theuse of military and police officials torestore calm.

Benefiting from knowledge of theexperiences of Bogota and Quito,Cuenca has sought to retire buses andrationalize bus lines without substan-tially affecting employment and personal livelihoods. By usinga highly participative decision-making process and phasedimplementation, Cuenca has not only avoided confrontationbut has also gained the confidence of the private sector.Already the private sector operators have enjoyed financialbenefit from the formal distribution of routes and control oftariff rates. During the first year of the plan’s implementation,the sector’s total revenues increased a remarkable 80% from$15 million to more than $27 million. The formalized systemwill also help to reduce excessive working hours and overallwork conditions for drivers.

Bus transit economics

Financing is currently the principal obstacle to full imple-mentation. The total public investment, mainly for the initialinfrastructure, will be $10 million in phase I and another $5million in phase II. The private sector will be investing anadditional $50 million, primarily in the form of new buses.While not trivial for a secondary developing-nation city, thisbus rapid transit system costs a fraction of other traffic solu-tions, whether auto or rail-based. The municipality has soughtout strategic alliances with multilateral and bilateral institu-tions, and is showing that such partnerships are not the exclu-sive domain of larger cities. The Inter-American DevelopmentBank (IDB) is assisting the municipality develop a financingplan which already includes the support of a local commercialbank and the municipality’s own tax base.

An integrated package

The new bus system is only part of Cuenca’s story. The fullyintegrated plan also includes innovative approaches to parkingcontrol, pedestrian access, and bicycle infrastructure. With nar-row roadways dating back to colonial designs, private automo-biles can quickly overwhelm road capacity even at relatively

low ownership levels. Cuenca’s design team realized that theexisting uncontrolled parking in the city center was not only adeterrent to the city’s burgeoning international image, but suchconditions would also impede the free-flow of public transit.Thus, the city embarked upon two firsts for Ecuador: 1) strictparking control, and 2) privatization of parking services.Formal payment stations serving 1534 parking spaces havebeen installed and managed by a private sector firm that com-peted for a concession of approximately $1 million. The for-malization of parking, which includes the brisk booting of vio-lators, has dramatically helped to reduce the traffic congestionand conflict.

The diminished presence of autos in the historical core hasbeen matched by an upsurge in pedestrian-friendly designs.

The calming of traffic, installing oftraffic signals, widening and beau-tifying of sidewalks, and formaliz-ing of sidewalk vendors has madestrolling in the city center a morepleasurable and time-efficientexperience. The city’s geographicalcenter, the Tomebamba River, pro-vides a natural corridor for bothpedestrians and cyclists along itsbanks. Extensive cycle ways arebeing constructed along both theTomebamba (6.1 km) and Tarqui

Rivers (5.8 km). The cycle ways will form an integrated net-work that will connect with residential and commercial centersas well as the formal bus system; cycle parking facilities will beavailable at bus stations. Already many members of theCuenca police force have converted to making their roundswith bicycles.

Sizing it up

As a smaller-sized city in the developing world, Cuenca ismaking for an important test case. Innovations in the design ofurban bus systems are not limited to the wealthiest or largestcities. With Cuenca as a successful base, the IDB is now leadingsimilar initiatives in other secondary and smaller cities inEcuador as well as the state of Parana in Brazil. Bus rapid tran-sit initiatives may well be the preferred economic choice evenfor cities of 100,000 inhabitants.

The trend started in Curitiba and then adapted in Quito,Bogota, and now Cuenca shows remarkable similarities. Ineach case, a dynamic mayor in tandem with a skilled technicalteam has overcome institutional and political barriers to createexcellence in transit design and implementation. The thriftyeconomics of bus rapid transit in conjunction with strong polit-ical will is proving to be a successful combination in LatinAmerica and beyond. ♦

For further information contact:Arq. Rodrigo Torres, DirectorUnidad Municipal de Tránsito y TransportesIlustre Municipalidad de CuencaCalle Sucre S/N y Benigno MaloCuenca, EcuadorTel. +593 7 845 [email protected]

Vision

New bus, Cuenca

Delhi,India, one of themost polluted cities in the world, hasfinally taken some serious steps toaddress its air pollution problem. Recentevents in Delhi – from transit strikes, riotsby irate bus passengers, to negotiationswith Pakistan about a natural gaspipeline from Iran – provide a rich casestudy in the promise and pitfalls of alter-native fuel vehicles. This innovation invehicle technology, meanwhile, hasunfortunately not been accompanied byinnovative traffic management measures.

Delhi’s Contentious CNGConversion

In April of this year, the SupremeCourt of India finally decided to enforcetheir 1998 decree requiring all commer-cial vehicles in Delhi to convert to com-pressed natural gas (CNG). Few wereready to comply with the law. The daythe law went into effect, only 2,000 out ofDelhi’s 14,000 buses, 12,000 of its 58,000auto rickshaws, and 1,000 of its 2,000taxis had made the conversion to CNGand were in service. The result was pan-demonium. Some 10% of workers failedto make it to work at all, others werehours late. After waiting hours for a bus,thousands of enraged passengers wenton a bus-burning rampage. Only 70 ser-vice stations were selling CNG, so com-mercial vehicles waited in queues morethan a kilometer long. By August, waitsat fueling stations increased to six hoursor more in some locations. Once at thepump, refueling takes another 15 to 20minutes. Unlike in Western countries,irate passengers typically waited withtheir buses. Two people were killedwhen one bus exploded during refuel-ing. With the public transit system inchaos, trips by highly polluting motorcy-cle skyrocketed.

Witnessing the chaos, the SupremeCourt again relented, and granted a fur-ther extension until 30 September 2001,but in order to meet the deadline allcommercial vehicles needed to have a

purchase order for CNG conversion bythe 14th of May. On August 29, a monthbefore the ban was to go into effect, 95%of private bus and auto rickshaws wenton strike, paralyzing the transport sys-tem for a day. While the Supreme Courthas now decided to also allow taxis touse low sulfur diesel if in compliancewith EURO -2 standards, the requiredCNG conversion for buses stillstood at press time.

While it still remains likelythat the Supreme Court’sactions will eventually force ashift to cleaner commercial vehi-cles, public transit fares willincrease, and the loss of publictransit ridership to pollutingmotorcycles may be permanent,countering environmental gains.Politicians, bureaucrats, experts,and environmentalists are stillapportioning the credit and the blame.

Back in 1995, M.C. Mehta, anenvironmental lawyer affiliatedwith Anil Agarwal’s Center forScience and Environment (CSE),filed a petition to the SupremeCourt of India demanding thatthe Delhi government protectthe public’s health by reducingpollution from motor vehicles.While in Western countries on-road commercial vehicles wouldhave to comply with national orEU emission standards usingany technology in compliance,CSE argued that vehicle emis-sion inspection and maintenancehad proven ineffective in India.In the lawsuit, they therefore asked thecourt to name a specific clean vehicletechnology as the only viable means ofenforcing the ban. The Delhi MunicipalCorporation then put together a commit-tee to recommend a technology. Thiscommittee, not composed of technicalexperts, in 1997 identified CNG as the

most reasonable conversion technology. In 1998, there was an election and con-

trol over the Municipal Governmentswitched from the Congress Party to theBJP, the ruling Hindu Party. The newgovernment asked the court to be givenuntil 2001 to implement the conversion.When the time arrived, the conversionhad still not occurred.

Debate continues to rage as to whetherthe recommendation of CNG was thebest one. While CSE basically endorsesthe CNG decision, Tata Energy ResearchInstitute (TERI) argues that clean dieseltechnology would have been more effec-tive. Others, like Dr. Dinesh Mohan atIndian Institute of Technology, contend


Modern cycle rickshaws, Krisna Temple, Vrindavan

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there is sufficient uncertainty about howthese vehicles will perform in Indianconditions that several alternativesshould have been phased in and testedbefore locking the city into one technolo-gy. It is not yet clear how well this tech-nology will perform in India’s typicalhot weather. Overloading and poorengine maintenance, also typical inIndia, further reduce the environmentaladvantages of CNG.

Experts generally agree that convert-ing buses and taxis from diesel willreduce SO2, and converting taxis andmotorcycle rickshaws (Bajaj) from lead-ed petrol will reduce lead. Most alsoagree that carbon monoxide emissionsand large particles, or soot, will bereduced, which will make the air appearmuch cleaner. Debate primarily centerson their impact on NOx emissions,Hydrocarbon (HC) emissions, andmicro-particles. Many believe that theseemissions will increase or only marginal-ly improve by the conversion to CNG inIndian conditions. Until the CNG vehi-cles are actually tested in these condi-tions, nobody really knows.

Bus CNG technology is immature,and developed countries only recentlyintroduced CNG buses on any scale. InIndia, there are only two companies thatsell CNG buses, Ashok/Leland andTelco, and they import the CNG engine.These monopoly market conditions arecontributing to the high cost of conver-sion. While ordinary Indian diesel busescost between $11,000 and $20,000, newCNG buses cost around $40,000. To con-vert an existing bus to CNG costsaround $8000, but with the ban looming,just making an appointment is costingaround $1100. As all but 2000 of Delhibuses are privately owned and operat-ed, these costs are being pushed ontosmall businessmen, who in turn areclamoring for fare increases. Unregulat-ed charter bus fares are already risingsharply. Some are arguing that the gov-ernment should step in and purchasethe buses, then re-sell them to small busoperators at cost or even at a subsidy, asthe government would be able to negoti-ate a better price with private manufac-turers.

While motorcycle rickshaw operatorsare poorer than bus companies, the con-version technology for small CNGengines is more mature, as it is alreadyextensively used in Egypt, Argentina,Bangkok, Italy, and several other coun-

tries. Conversion, costing as much as$450, is a burden, but this is generallymade up for over time by lower vehicleoperating costs. Refueling is also easieras they simply replace an old canisterwith a new one.

The political economy of natural gas isalso a consideration. While India has itsown natural gas, demand is projected toquadruple by 2020, rapidly outstrippingdomestic sources. Iran is the likelysource of imported natural gas, but thisrequires building a pipeline acrossPakistan. Two options are discussed,overland through Pakistan, and off-shore. While the offshore option maymake it harder for Pakistan to tamperwith, it also dramatically increases thecost. The on-shore pipelinewill cost over $3 billion, andthe off-shore pipeline over $5billion. This is not to mentionthe environmental risks ofleaks from underwater gaspipelines. Nor would theunderwater version beimmune from submarineattack or depth charges. As ahedge against sabotage, Indiais proposing to share the gasfrom the pipeline with a majorPakistani city like Lahore.

Finally, with bus faresincreasing and service plum-meting because of the conver-sion, critics like Dr. DineshMohan, argue that the antici-pated environmental benefits are beingundercut by more and more peopleswitching to motor scooters, which arenow much cheaper and more convenientthan buses, and face no emission con-trols.

There are three other important alter-native fuel vehicle projects currentlyunderway in India. The US Agency forInternational Development (US AID) hasfunded the development of modernhuman powered vehicles (ITDP’s cyclerickshaw modernization project) andelectric vehicle technologies. The IndianGovernment has also supported electricvehicle projects. Finally, the GlobalEnvironmental Facility (GEF), under theMinistry of Non-Conventional EnergySources, has a program to supporthydrogen fuel cell buses.

Cycle Rickshaw Modernization

ITDP’s US AID-funded cycle rickshawmodernization project ended in October

of 2000, though it continues in a reducedcapacity with private funding. A visit inJune 2001 indicated that today roughly2,000 of the modern cycle rickshawshave been manufactured and sold inIndia. As they are luring roughly a fifthof their passengers away from highlypolluting motorized modes, modernizedhuman powered vehicles pro-activelyreduce greenhouse gases and otheremissions. The largest concentration ofthe modern vehicles is in Vrindavan, asmaller city between Delhi and Agra,where there is a popular Krisna temple.There, the entire ricksahw fleet has beenconverted to the modern vehicles. Thetourist area around the Taj Mahal andthe Dayal Bagh area in Agra have both

also been fully converted. There are con-centrations of modern cycle rickshaws ineight other cities.

In areas where the modern cycle rick-shaws have taken root, they have entire-ly displaced the traditional rickshaw.Even without requiring the new vehi-cles, as soon as they are introduced thetraditional vehicle operators are unableto attract new passengers. As a result, ithas created a burgeoning market for aretrofit-design, also developed by theproject. The retrofit reduces the hardshipof conversion for poor operators.

Now that several large manufactur-ers and assemblers have entered thebusiness, the cost of the modern cyclerickshaws has come down to parity withthe traditional cycle rickshaw, and maycontinue to fall, though the market priceremains higher. Daily rental rates arecurrently $0.11 more than for the traditional vehicle.


Confiscated rickshaws, Delhi

continued on p.18

Electric Vehicle Projects

While public sector hostility to cyclerickshaws remains, with bans continuingin large parts of New Delhi, Hyderabad,Calcutta, Bangalore, and many othercities, the project helped convince thePrime Minister to call for a meeting withthe Chief Minister of Delhi to considerloosening these restrictions and replac-ing the outmoded 70-year old cycle rick-shaw registration system.

E Electric vehicles hold the promise ofcompletely removing all tailpipe emis-sions from heavily polluted urban areas,though they increase the demand forelectric power. In India, electric power isanother major source of air pollution asmuch of it is generated using coal orother fossil fuels. For electric vehicles toreduce greenhouse gas emissions, theywould have to use electricity generatedfrom hydro, wind, or solar sources.

Electric Two and Three-Wheelers

Of the various electric vehicle projectsin India, the one currently most visibleon the road is the electric Vikram. TheVikram is a three-wheeled six-seaterslightly larger than the Bajaj (motorcyclerickshaw), manufactured by a state-owned company called “Scooters India”in Pune. There are 8 in commercial oper-ation in Agra, and maybe a dozen inDelhi. In Agra, the electric Vikrams wereintroduced on two routes, includingaround the Taj Mahal, where traditionalVikrams were banned. Whereas a tradi-tional Vikram costs only about $1,200and is cheap to operate and maintain,the electric Vikram costs $6,100, notincluding batteries, which cost another$1,750, and wear out after twelve toeighteen months. Charging equipmentcosts about $400. Unlike the petrolVikrams which were sold to operators,thus far only one electric Vikram hasbeen sold. The rest of the electric fleet isoperating on a rental basis from the dis-tributor, who received a subsidy fromthe government company of roughly$300 per vehicle. They are only earningabout $400 per year per vehicle abovethe cost of the battery, so the business isnot very profitable.

The banning of the petrol Vikrams,meanwhile, has dramatically reducedtheir value. Virtually no one is buyingnew ones in anticipation of further bans,

and as a result the resale value of thesevehicles is extremely low. Vikram own-ers, therefore, have seen their largestcapital asset dramatically devalued.There does not appear to be any simpleretrofit technology for the Vikram,unlike the CNG conversion of the Bajaj.

USAID has also provided roughly $4million in financial support and techni-cal assistance for the development of anelectric motorcycle rickshaw and an elec-tric motorcycle, with Unique MobilityInc. (Unique), Golden, Co.(now partially owned by aLee Iaccoca group) andBajaj Auto, Pune. Mostfinancial support went tothe US companies involvedin the project.

Bajaj made prototypes forfifteen electric two-wheelersto be operated by Pizza Hutfor delivery of pizzas inDelhi, and ten three-wheeled taxis in Delhi forexposure to basic drivingconditions. Five three-wheelers are also being test-ed in Agra, at the MughalSheraton. As of today, thevehicles were not availablefor commercial sale so costand performance data is notyet available.

Closest in size to the Philippine jeep-ney, a somewhat larger, 10 seater-threewheeler called a Bijlee has also beenintroduced in India. Now available forsale, they cost about $6,300 in India. Asthe Bijlee can only go 90 km before itneeds a recharge or a battery switch,Mahindra and Mahindra, the manufac-turer, designed it as a fixed-route pas-senger taxi in Delhi. There are sevenelectric Bijlees in test operation in Delhi,and Nepal has ordered 51.

The Bijlee’s are competing in Nepal forthe market share now taken by the SafaTempo, an electric vehicle introduced inKathmandu when conventional diesel-fuelled Tempos were banned. The elec-tric Safa Tempo project was also sup-ported by U.S.AID-Nepal in 1996, aswell as by the Government of Nepal. TheSafa Tempo, which has a maximumcapacity of 10 passengers and a driver,can travel only 60 kilometers, go only 40kph, and has a maximum payload ofonly 600kg. This requires that the batter-ies be switched twice during a standardday of operation.

Electric Buses Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited

(BHEL), another government-ownedcompany, has also been producing anelectric 15 seater bus called Electravan. Itcosts about $25,000, and can only goabout 40kph, and its range is only 70km,and can only handle 10% gradients. Itsbattery weight, at 1,100kgs, is actuallygreater than its payload capacity of1,000kgs. The cost of replacing the bat-teries is significant. The vehicles are a

later generation of an earlier electric busdemonstration project in Delhi whichended in failure. There are a few of thesebuses of an earlier model in operationbetween the Taj Mahal and the touristarea, and its commercial application islikely to be limited to such areas andother specialty markets. www.bhelbhopal.com

Electric Cars

An electric car has been developedfor the Indian market with support fromUS AID, the Indian TechnologyDevelopment Board, and the Ministry ofNon-Conventional Energy Sources. USAID gave two grants for a US company,Amerigon, to develop and test the pro-totype. The result, the “Reva,” made bya joint venture between Amerigon andthe Indian company Maini, went on themarket this year. So far, sales have beenfew but it may be too early to tell.Designed as a clean upgrade from amotor scooter, at $5,900 plus a $450 bat-tery pack that needs to be replacedevery two years, it’s cheaper than the


The electric Bijlee has found a market in Kathmandu.

continued from p.17

cheapest petrol car. However, it onlyseats two people, can go only 65kph,and its range is only about 100 kilometers, making inter-city travel impractical.

The GEF Fuel-Cell Bus Project in Delhi

By far the most expensive alternativefuel vehicle project in Delhi is the new$6.28 million Global EnvironmentalFacility (GEF) - funded hydrogen fuelcell bus demonstration project. For thehydrogen bus, the only tailpipe emissionis water, and the vehicle can go 400kmwithout refueling. The main obstacle, ofcourse, is cost.

The GEF funds will go mainly to pur-chase three $1.2 million prototypes man-ufactured by Ballard Power, a joint ven-ture between Shell Hydrogen, DaimlerChrysler, and Ford. The vehicle costsroughly a hundred times the price of acheap diesel bus, and the fuel cell stackhas to be replaced every 4,000km, com-pared to 30,000km for major engineoverhaul for a diesel engine. More sub-sidies from GEF went to an electrolyserunit, high pressure hydrogen gas stor-age cylinders, hydrogen compressors,dispensers, and other expenses.According to the project’s promoters,even by 2010 the fuel cell bus will cost20%-30% more than a standard USdiesel bus. (i.e. it will still be 15 timesthe cost of a standard Indian diesel bustoday.) This still does not explain whowill pick up the cost of the alternativefuel system development. India is still adecade away from full commercial via-bility for hydrogen fuel cell buses, andreaching that stage will require a mini-mum additional $23 million in subsidies,$15 million from Indian taxpayers. At$1,500 per ton of CO2 emissionreduction – by the best estimates – theproject is far less cost-effective than ahost of other measures. Even this may bean exaggeration. (ITDP’s cycle rickshawmodernization project cost less than $2per ton of CO2 reduction). The full fuel-cycle greenhouse gas emissions reduc-tion depends on where the hydrogencomes from. Project promoters are say-ing it would come from electrolysis.According a study by Pembina inCanada, full fuel cycle CO2 emissionsreductions when electrolysis is used areonly 5% less than for a standard dieselvehicle.

The Road Less Traveled: Retrofitsand Fuel Improvements

There are a number of alternativeways of addressing these problems thathave not been sufficiently explored.While particle traps have to be cleanedregularly, they are a much cheaper wayof reducing particulate emissions fromtrucks and buses. They have reducedparticulate by 21% in field tests in Asia,with better results in Germany. These fil-ters are much cheaper than many alter-native fuel technologies. A top of the linebus particle filter can reduce particulatesby 97%, according to Axel Friedrich ofthe German Environmental Agency.Other hopeful retrofits require first refor-mulating diesel fuel to reduce the sulfur.Hong Kong introduced Ultra-Low SulfurDiesel (ULSD) recently. ULSD makespossible the use of catalytic converterswith diesel engines, which can reducemany emissions but their impact onmicro-particulates remains in doubt. Italso makes possible the use of aContinuous Regenerative Trap for par-ticulates, which does not require regular

cleaning. Field trials in Japan reducedparticles by 84% to 95% in some cases,though not in others. These measures dolittle to address greenhouse gas emis-sions, however.

Busways or Flyovers?

Meanwhile, India has done almostnothing to introduce the host of innova-tive traffic demand management mea-sures that have been so successful inWestern Europe, Singapore, Curitiba,and other cities. A pilot integratedbusway/bikeway in Delhi on the highlycongested inner ring road has beenstalled for years. Instead, the Delhimetro is going forward, despite a costper kilometer one hundred times that ofthe busway. Meanwhile, a proposal to

build a second, elevated ring road on topof the existing ring road, costing billionsof dollars, is being seriously considered.Fifteen highway flyovers are under con-struction, each one costing tens of mil-lions of dollars, and another 30 areplanned.

The benefits of fly-overs are far fromclear. According to traffic planners at theWorld Bank and IIT Delhi, the benefitsare only felt after they are built along anentire corridor, and even then their bene-fits have not been fully demonstrated.One or two merely move the congestionproblem to the next intersection.Furthermore, they create enormousproblems for public transit passengerswishing to change buses, forcing them towalk hundreds of meters, often in veryunsafe and uncomfortable conditions.

The situation in other metro areas issimilar. Highway flyovers are beingbuilt from Bombay to Hyderabad toCalcutta. Surface trams in Calcutta con-tinue to deteriorate, while nothing isdone to give buses priority in the trafficsystem. A bus rapid transit system in

Bangalore is stalled bycompetition with a lightrail project.

Meanwhile, cyclists,pedestrians, and cyclerickshaws, still accountingfor more than 35% of tripsin many cities, are virtual-ly ignored by traffic plan-ners. While studies showthat segregating slow andfast moving traffic wouldincrease the capacity andimprove safety for both,while reducing fuel con-

sumption by 28% and health costs by29%, a poorly planned bikeway built inPune is used to descredit wider imple-mentation.

Conclusion

For alternative fuel vehicle projects toreally protect the environment, theimpacts on public transit ridership needto be considered. If public transit vehicleand operation costs increase, and fare-prices increase, more passengers will bepushed to far more polluting modes likemotorcycles. Meanwhile, the Govern-ment of India needs to consider how itsscarce public funds can cost effectivelyclean up Indian cities. Traffic demandand management measures, ultimately,will have to be part of the solution. ♦


New flyover, Hyderabad


Two years ago ITDP began reviewing the overseas trans-port-sector activities of US Government agencies. As UScompanies dominate the global oil, aircraft and automo-

bile industries, it was not surprising to learn that the vastmajority of US international transport work supports theseindustries.

While US agencies are not heavily involved in overseashighway development, the US is financing numerous transportprojects that are contributing to global auto and oil depen-dence. Save a few exceptions, US agencies prefer to leave directfinancing of highway infrastructure to the World Bank andother development banks, over which the US wields enormousinfluence. Since highway projects financed in this way must beopen to international competitive bidding, US highway con-struction firms are reasonably well served by the develop-ment banks.

US Foreign Programs Providing Corporate Welfareto the Airline Industry

The US Export Import Bank (ExIm Bank) is by far thelargest US institution directly involved in the transport sector,providing billions of dollars of loans, loan guarantees, andsmall grants every year. They lend over $2 billion annually toforeign government-owned airlines to buy airplanes fromBoeing. With air travel emissions one of the fastest growingsources of greenhouse gas emissions, the international com-munity is duly outraged at the US Kyoto Protocol walkout.

Oil pipelines have been the next most important area oflending. The ExIm Bank financed a large part of the contro-versial Chad and Cameroon oil pipeline, as well as oil drillingand oil equipment sales in the former Soviet Union. In 1999they provided loans and credit guarantees to hasten the devel-opment of the oil pipeline from Baku through Turkey toCeyhan, and a planned natural gas pipeline under the CaspianSea. They also co-financed a Ford-owned motor vehicle manu-facturing plant in Turkey, and some highway reconstructiondone by Bechtel in Croatia.

Working hand in hand with the US ExIm Bank is the USOverseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which pro-vides low interest loans and political risk guarantees to US pri-vate companies investing overseas. They funded the first Fordauto dealership in Kiev, and an offshore oil platform co-ownedby Marathon Oil off the Sakhalin Islands (Russian Far East).Other clients include General Motors, Texaco, and Conoco.

Also working closely with these two export credit institu-tions is the US Trade and Development Agency. TDA fundsfeasibility studies for infrastructure projects where US firmshave a good chance of winning the actual construction bid. As

the PHARE grant program assists EU-based firms, TDA wasset up to help US firms compete for largely the same business.TDA has funded numerous feasibility studies for oil pipelines,highways (e.g. Sofia ring road, a Bulgaria to Albania corridor),and rail restructuring. TDA also funded several trade mis-sions by the American Road and Transport BuildersAssociation.

These institutions, providing mostly loans and guarantees,are generally not placing a huge burden on taxpayers, theirservices are open to any US corporation and have no specificfocus on promoting US auto and air industries. However, notone dollar from any of these three institutions has gone to ben-efit pedestrians, cyclists, or public transit passengers, despitethe fact that the majority of the population in developing coun-tries rely exclusively on these modes.

US influence over the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) has also helped to ensure that 60% oftheir support for transport programs has gone to civil avia-P

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US foreign aid agencies are backing Boeing, oil pipelines, and car-dependent development

Corporate Welfare or Livable Communities?

Rerouting US Foreign Aid

tion, UNDP’s mission of poverty alleviation notwithstanding. A junior partner to these efforts has been the US

Department of Transportation (US DOT). US DOT recentlybegan funding a new organization called the “TransportationExport Council,” comprised of US industry associations dedi-cated to road building and car-dependent development. TheTransportation Export Council’s mission is to “export the UStransportation story to Third World countries through US for-eign aid agencies like US AID and the Foreign CommercialService.” This initiative is currently not heavily funded, butthis could change under the Bush Administration.

The US Federal Highway Administration, a branch of USDOT, set up a series of Technology Transfer Centers in devel-oping nations. To date over 90 of these centers have been creat-ed throughout the developing world, including such countriesas Latvia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The Centers are heavilyfocused on road networks and so-called ‘Intelligent TransportSystems’ technology. While an area with growing US corpo-rate expertise, the ‘advice’ of these Centers is hardly applicableto the 95% of the Malawi population that is too poor to ever beable to afford a motor vehicle.

An example of US DOT advice to developing countries canbe seen from their recent activity in Nigeria. In July 1999 USDOT assessed Nigeria’s transport situation. The emphasis ofthe US technical team and the resulting US AID programfocuses first and foremost on normalizing air travel connec-tions, and on road rehabilitation. While privatization of rail-ways was recommended, increasing Nigerian oil prices, whichat $0.10 per liter are some of the most heavily subsidized in theworld, was not mentioned. Measures to address Nigeria’sworld-leading roadway fatalities were also absent from the recommendations.

Signs of Hope: Other US Government Programs

The US Agency for International Development’s (US AID)activity in the transport sector has been fairly limited to date.Since 1996 it has been difficult to take a comprehensive look atUS AID’s programs, as there is no directory listing all US AIDgrants by sector. Further complicating the issue, more andmore US foreign aid is controlled through Congressional ear-marks, or is responsive to disasters, undermining the ability ofthe Agency to develop coherent, longer-term strategies.Nonetheless, some positive work has been achieved.

India hosts perhaps the largest transport program under USAID’s auspices. (see article in this issue) Support has gonemainly to electric vehicle development, but also to ITDP’sCycle Rickshaw Modernization Project. A comprehensive sus-tainable transport program is also being developed with theIndian city of Hyderabad. Details of this program have yet tobe determined. A program in Cairo played a role in the con-version of the taxi and bus fleet to Compressed Natural Gas(CNG). US AID also recently initiated a program in

South Africa to get bicycles to healthcare workers trying tostem the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Also led by US AID is the US Asia EnvironmentalPartnership (US AEP). US AEP has been actively involved inpromoting alternatives to diesel-fuelled vehicles, particularlypromoting natural gas vehicles. They have also worked withUS EPA to help countries phase out leaded gasoline. US AEPwas also a key co-funder and co-organizer of the InternationalConference on Transport and Clean Air in Jakarta last year,and made possible the participation of regional NGOs in theconference.

International work on transport at the US EnvironmentalProtection Agency (US EPA) is done not only by their Office ofInternational Activities, but also by their transport and policydivisions. In the past, US EPA supported the joint efforts ofITDP and the International Institute for Energy Conservation(IIEC) to monitor and reform the transport sector lending ofthe World Bank, and was instrumental in initiating the trans-port policy reform process at the World Bank. They supportednumerous studies developing greenhouse gas and other emis-sion inventories in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia.

US EPA has an extensive program of technical cooperationwith China, training their counterparts in transport-sector airquality monitoring and regulation. They have developed a kitof training materials for environmental policy makers in the airquality sector, though their usefulness has not been carefullyevaluated. US EPA also funded some brownfield revitalizationprograms in the Czech Republic. Most recently, they are devel-oping a program to work with the World Bank on developingmechanisms for incorporating induced demand into the eco-nomic and environmental appraisal of road projects in China.They have also worked with several countries on developinglead phase out strategies, and supported the RegionalEnvironmental Center in Budapest, which in turn has support-ed many local NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe.

The US Federal Transit Administration under the US DOTalso has a small international program. While largely focusedon exchange programs between public transit agency profes-sionals, it played an important role in popularising the successof bus rapid transit (BRT) programs in Latin America with USpublic transit agencies.

The US Department of Energy’s (US DOE) Clean Cities ini-tiative funded several trade missions between Chile and theUS which led ultimately to the adoption and subsidization ofnatural gas buses in Santiago, Chile. The pros and cons of nat-ural gas buses are more fully discussed in the article on Indiain this issue.

A New Vision: Exporting America’s LivableCommunities

While much of the US foreign aid establishment continues toexport US-style auto dependence of the 1950s, America todayis a very different place. While big auto, big oil, and big high-way are heavy manufacturing industries typical of the 20thCentury, the growth sectors of the 21st Century economy willbe knowledge-intensive industries which thrive best in livable communities.


continued on p.23

Growing car use among womenexplains a large part of the rapid growthof car use in the US and the UK over thelast decade. For a variety of reasons,women will use a car if one is available,either as a driver or a passenger. Thefailure to produce transport policies andservices that meet women’s needs hasexacerbated the social exclusion andenvironmental pollution which resultfrom automobile dependence. The travelneeds of women differ from men inimportant ways which tend to encour-age rather than discourage car use, mak-ing it increasingly essential to women’saccess to employment, education, healthand the political process.

While only 57 % of British women holda drivers license, compared to 81 % ofBritish men, the gap is rapidly closing. Inthe US this disparity had almost disap-peared by 1990, with 96% of men and90% of women between age 30 and 49being licensed to drive. Thus, while caruse is still dominated by men, the growthof car use is much faster among women.While women still constitute a majorityof public transit and walking trips, this ismore a reflection of lack of car accessthan a clear preference for alternativemodes. While statistics based on ‘thehousehold’ have done much to hide thefull extent of gender inequality in caraccess, it is clear that when there is onlyone car, the male driver has priority.

Underlying the growth in car useamong women in developed countrieshas been the dramatic increase inwomen in paid employment and thegrowth in female-headed households.Since 1970 the number of Americanwomen in paid employment increasedby over 14% - male employment over thesame period dropped by 4%. Currently,

almost 60% of allwomen in the US arewage earners. Familiesheaded by a lone femaleparent account foralmost a quarter of allUS families. Over thethree decades since 1960the percentage of chil-dren living with justone parent tripled. In1990 around 22% of allchildren lived in singlewomen households.Trends in Sweden andthe UK are similar.

Unlike men, however, who tend towork full-time, women are far more like-ly to work part time. Women, mean-while, continue to be primarily responsi-ble for domestic work, including shop-ping, child rearing, and care for elderlyor sick family members. In Britain, 88%of part-time workers are women. InSweden, 29% of employed women workonly part time.

As a result of conflicting demands ontheir time, and continued lack of equalpay for equal work, women tend to havelower paid jobs closer to their homes. In1998 in the UK, the average male full-time hourly rate was £9.22 (part-time£6.71), while for women, the full-timerate was £7.48 (part-time £5.68). InSweden, college educated women earnbetween 85-89% of men’s salary.

These differences result in very differ-ent travel patterns and mobility needsfor women. In the UK, walking tripsaccounted for 30% of women’s journeys,compared to 25% of men’s, while cartrips accounted for only 30 % ofwomen’s trips, compared to 47% bymen. In addition, over 7 % of women’s

journeys were by bus, compared to only5% by men. These differences are mainlyexplained by lack of equal access tomotor vehicles.

While in England and Sweden, menand women make roughly the samenumber of trips per day, but their tripstend to be shorter. In the US mothers inparticular make more than 21% moretrips per day than men, and the time anddistance of women’s trips are rapidlygrowing. In Sweden, men travelledapproximately 71 billion kilometres in1994 and women travelled 45 billion. Inthe UK in 1995/97, men travelled onaverage nine thousand miles per year,compare with an average of fewer thansix thousand miles travelled by women.Longer journeys to work tend to accountfor a higher proportion of men’s jour-neys, while shorter shopping and schooltrips account for a higher proportion ofwomen’s travel.

Women tend to make more linked off-peak trips than men, and these trips areless conveniently served by public tran-sit. In the US, 61% of women stop on theway home, compared to only 46% of


Motorization&Women’s Empowermentby Kerry Hamilton

While 80% of the population even inthe poorest emerging market couldafford a good quality bicycle, the USbike industry, which is as large as the USgun industry, thus far has not focusedon emerging markets, nor has it devel-oped the sophistication required to tapUS export-promotion programs. US AIDcould facilitate this process, and build onits growing experience in alternativevehicle promotion, to help expand mar-kets for bicycles and modernize theseaffordable, non-polluting technologies.

As domestic policy changes, more UStraffic engineering firms are developingcapacity in traffic calming, bicycle andpedestrian facility design, bus rapidtransit, road safety, parking systems,congestion pricing, and traffic demandmanagement— all far more applicable ina developing country context than ITS(Intelligent Transportation Systems). USDOT training facilities would be betterutilized focusing on these more relevantissues. US EPA’s increasing sophistica-tion in testing transport system invest-ment plans for conformity with ambient

air quality norms could play a key rolein re-orienting transport planning indeveloping countries. US planning andconstruction firms are as capable of

building busways, sidewalks and bikelanes as they are at building highways.Tighter environmental screening and

pro-active promotion of more sustain-able transport projects by US exportcredit agencies could help to counteractthe environmental consequences of themassive subsidies going to Boeing andthe oil industry.

More and more architects and realestate developers are interested indesigning transit and pedestrian-friend-ly communities, and developing vibrantdowntown public spaces, but interna-tionally they face obstacles to financingfrom traditional financial institutions.The tourism, real estate, and retail indus-tries could be allies in working with USgovernment institutions to encouragepeople-friendly urbanization in develop-ing countries, though to date their focushas been on helping big chains developauto-oriented hotels and retail outlets.

In the last few months, ITDP has initi-ated a dialogue with sustainable trans-port leaders in the US Congress, likeEarl Blumenauer (D. Oregon) and JamesOberstar (D. Minnesota), and NGOleaders like Environmental Defense,STPP, and others, to redefine US trans-port programs overseas. In time, wehope to end corporate welfare for theairline and highway lobbies and beginthe promotion of livable communitiesinternationally. A journey of a thousandmiles begins with a single step. ♦

Foreign Aid

men. Only 16% of women’s trips arework-related in the US, compared to24.5% of men’s trips. Some 50% ofwomen’s trips are for shopping andbringing children and elderly to schoolsand doctors appointments. These tripsare growing rapidly. Vehicles miles trav-elled for shopping and family errandsincreased by 137% from 1969 to 1995.

As cities have sprawled, travel isbecoming an increasing burden forwomen, particularly in the US, wherewomen today are spending 64 minutes aday meeting their own and familymobility needs.

Safety concerns, both for themselvesand their children, are also a major con-sideration for women’s travel. Fear ofviolence and aggression means that theyare far less willing than men to travelafter dark, particularly by public trans-port or walking.

According to a recent study by STPP,(www.transact.org), in the US, children’strips by walking or cycling havedropped from 15.8% of trips in 1977 to

9.9% in 1995. Since 1990 the number ofkids walking to school has dropped by23%, to only 11% of total school trips.Pedestrian deaths per kilometre walkedare 14 times higher in the US than inGermany and the Netherlands, andpedestrian deaths per kilometre areincreasing rather than decreasing in the US.

The growth of large sports utility vehi-cles and vans in the United States is alsopartially attributed to women’s concernabout the safety of their children shouldan accident occur. This is fuelling adestructive upward spiral in vehicle sizeand weight that is partially responsiblefor the sudden deterioration in US vehi-cle fuel efficiency (miles per gallon) afterdecades of improvement, and the endingof a downward trend in roadway fatali-ties.

Bicycling and walking can be a viable,low cost means of travel to meetwomen’s shorter, off-peak trips, but tobe feasible requires a safe cycling envi-ronment, locating day care, shopping,

and elderly care facilities near publictransit hubs, and a critical mass of ‘eyeson the street.’

Unless transportation planners paygreater attention to the safety and mobil-ity needs of women and children, thegoal of more sustainable transportationsystems in developed countries willprove elusive. ♦

Professor Kerry HamiltonTransport Studies, University of East London, Duncan House, High Street, London, E15 2JBTelephone: +44 (0) 208 223 [email protected]

*Gender Audit of Public Transportavailable at: www.uel.ac.uk/womenandtransportalso seewww.transact.org/reports/highmilemoms/text.htm

continued from p.21

US Representative Earl Blumenauer


The Poverty Trap: Walking to Stand Still

It’s 5:30am on Monday and Ghana’s work-ing poor are packing into “Tro-Tros”(minibus taxis) for the second leg of their

morning commutes. Many riders havealready walked several kilometers to accessthis taxi stop. Others—unable to pay thefare— are walking all the way to downtownAccra, the capital city located 13 kilometersaway. On their way many will hike overGhana’s latest symbol of modernization: a$30,000,000 highway overpass.

This scenario takes place every morning all overurban Africa, where the lack of efficient transport isstifling the productivity of millions of likely students,wage earners, and entrepreneurs. Dysfunctional trans-portation systems geared towards a motorized minor-ity are increasing congestion and pollution, chokingthe engines of economic growth, and causing serioushealth problems. At their own peril, governments areignoring the transportation needs of the +90% of theircitizens that rely on walking, transit, and cycling.

George Aidoo Finds a Way Out: “I save money and I beat the traffic”

George Kofi Aidoo, 36, is one Ghanaian who hasfound a way out of the madness. Because he ownsand operates a bicycle shop, George is uniquely posi-tioned to leverage the efficiency of cycling.

George’s taxi commute took three hours each way,including a 30-minute walk near his home where thetaxis don’t reach. He shunned cycling as an alterna-tive. Today, rising petrol prices caused him to beginriding one of his shop’s “nice bikes” for his owntransportation. Cycling, George now saves four hoursof commute time and a significant 2,600 Cedis (US$.75) a day. “I save money and I beat the traffic,” said George.George’s bike is a used Giant brand mountain bike for whichhe paid about $50 wholesale.

Obstacles to Mainstreaming Utility Cycling

Why don’t more urban Africans employ George’s strategyand cycle to work? To be sure, road conditions are hazardous,and the poorest of the poor cannot afford the upfront cost of abicycle. An often-overlooked obstacle, however, is the fact thatdesirable types of bicycles (practical, modern, low-cost qualitymountain bikes) are simply not available.

Most bicycles are antiquated in design and lack a sense ofstyle – savvy urbanites associate them with poor farmers.

Although some mountain bikes are available, they are lowquality and tend to break down after a few months of use – nota good investment for those with severely limited incomes.


Africa’s Bike DealersHold Keys to

Easing the burden: hauling water in Senegal

by Paul Steely White

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Livable Cities

While efforts to import donated used bicycles from theEurope and the US have led to some very positive develop-ments, particularly in South Africa, these efforts have rarelyled to viable local bike businesses that can supply bicyclesabsent continued grant funding.

What’s more, the supply of used bicycles remains limitedand inconsistent. Also, used bicycles distort rather than aidlocal markets, making it difficult for local dealers to blossom.There is also the problem of stocking the wide variety of spareparts necessary to service a vast array of recycled bicycles, andin sourcing skilled repairmen. For low-income owners of usedbikes, the initial low cost of a used bicycle is too often eclipsedby chronic maintenance problems.

Clearly, local dealers must be empowered to deal in the typesof bicycles that people need and want at a price that they canafford. Today most dealers are not up to this task.

What is Ailing Africa’s Bike Businesses?

Africa has been slow to adjust to changing realities in theincreasingly global bicycle industry. Laudable efforts duringthe 70’s and 80’s to found bicycle factories in Senegal, Uganda,Mozambique, Tanzania and other countries have either failedor are struggling, manufacturing decreasing numbers ofincreasingly antiquated designs and producing overpricedbicycles that status-hungry young adults associate with theirpoor grandparents.

Increasingly, innovative designers in the US, Europe, Japan,and Taiwan are outsourcing their manufacturing to China,Taiwan, and to a lesser degree India. Good quality productionin these counties occurs at so large a scale that price competi-tion from other manufacturers is difficult. Most of the bicyclessold in the US, Holland or Japan, for example, are designed,marketed, and assembled locally, but produced in China orTaiwan, and imported ‘completely knocked down’ (CKD).

Senegal, by contrast, applies high tariffs to protect a domes-tic manufacturer that sells only 2,000 bicycles per year andgenerates only 12 full time jobs. Their bikes cost twice as muchas a nearly identical bicycle imported in neighboring Guinea.Senegal does have bicycle importers and assemblers, butbecause they are heavily taxed, the most highly skilled busi-nessmen have left the industry to focus on more lucrativeimports like automobile tires, consumer electronics, or textiles.

Those remaining are small, fragmented, and lackaccess to suppliers in China and Taiwan, and tosources of credit. Most are comfortable sellingfamiliar antiquated models to older men, andflashy but low-quality bikes to youth. Importersalso tend to be foreign nationals, or from minorityethnic groups. This had made the reduction ofhigh tariffs and taxes on imported bicycles morepolitically difficult.

Even if the small numbers of jobs involved indirect manufacturing are lost, far more jobs willbe generated if bike businesses expand and

proves to be economically viable. The downstream employ-ment effects of bicycles, not only in the assembly, service, saleand repair of cycle fleets— but also in the use of bicycles forreaching distant jobs and for small scale vending activity— arefar more important than the small number of jobs in capital-intensive manufacturing. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, for example,460,000 people are directly employed by bicycle service indus-tries, or nearly one-fourth of all employment in metropolitanDhaka.

ITDP’s Strategy for Revitalizing theAfrican Bicycle Industry

Importing and Assembling a Better Bike

ITDP’s strategy is to work at all levels of the bicycle distribu-tion system to bring the industry up to state of the art practice.This process began by developing with industry experts thespecifications of a low cost yet modern, durable yet stylish,bicycle aimed at status conscious adults. (See “A New Bike forAfrica,” this issue.)

Isency, the Senegalese privatized state bicycle manufacturerwho will also receive some modest training to assemble thevehicles, is importing a trial order of these vehicles. By involv-ing Isency directly in the assembly and importation of the newvehicle, we hope to win their political support for reducing tar-iff barriers.

In South Africa, ITDP is working with PEER Africa, a com-pany developing low-income housing and supporting retailservices. PEER is purchasing with ITDP partial support a ship-ment of these bikes via B. Slotar & Son, South Africa’s secondlargest bike importer. In this way, ITDP has forged a supplychannel between importers and suppliers.

Supporting Bicycle Retailing

Local bicycle retailers and service providers are the vital linkbetween the community and the importer/assembler. ITDPwill provide many bikes to critical care providers and otherNGOs to help popularize cycling. Rather than donating thesebicycles directly, they will be given funds to purchase the vehi-cles from local retailers who will also service them. In Senegal,


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The Old Black Roadster

Africa is the most rapidly urbanizingcontinent in the world. It is also theyoungest. Each day millions of ambi-tious young urban entrepreneurs andwage earners walk to access jobs, inputsand customers. If all of those walkingtrips were replaced with bicycling trips,all of Africa would reap significant pro-ductivity gains.

The most widely available bicycle inAfrica, the long-standing “BlackRoadster” has decades of proven use,and spare parts are widely available. Yetsales of the Black Roadster have beendecreasing in many countries, particular-ly in urban areas. Why is this bicyclebeing shunned by a new generation ofincreasingly urban Africans, most all ofwhom have an acute need for low-costtransportation?

First, the Black Roadster is synony-mous with the elderly, rural, and poor.Young urban entrepreneurs are movingup in the world, and to travel like an ‘oldfarmer from the village’ runs contrary totheir aspirations. Second, the Roadster isalmost exclusively considered a man’sbicycle, presenting aspiring femalecyclists with yet another obstacle to riding.

The Black Roadster has other prob-lems. Its 1.5-inch wide tires are too thinfor many unpaved roads and tracks, andthe bicycle itself is too big for womenand children. Neither the handlebars northe seat are easily adjustable. Roadstersrarely have adequate reflectors, and theirdesign does not optimize efficiency. Thegearing is generally too high, and thusdifficult to pedal, especially for new riders.

What do Africa’s young, increasinglyurban and status conscious consumerswant in a bicycle? Like their Americanand European counterparts they wantcolorful mountain bikes. The problem isthat mountain bikes and mountain bikeparts (especially derailleurs) are fragileand oftentimes unavailable, and whenparts are available they tend to be pro-hibitively expensive. There is a dearth ofmoderately priced modern bicycles andrelated parts.

A Gap in The Urban Market

The increasingly global bicycle indus-try is focused on developing bicycles forcompetition and recreation, not for utili-tarian purposes. This has changed some-what in recent years with many of themajor brands selling increasing numbersof ‘comfort’ bicycles. Unfortunately,these bicycles target relatively affluentconsumers in European and Americanmarkets. For low-income consumers inIndia, Africa, and Asia, the industry hasbeen content to use an old design thathas not changed in over 60 years: theBlack Roadster.

In September 1999, ITDP began con-sulting with several leading US-basedbicycle designers, asking the question:“What is an appropriate, low-cost andmodern bicycle for Africa?” At the sametime, single speed mountain bicycleswere gaining adherents because of theirelegance, efficiency, simplicity, and lowmaintenance requirements. Leadinghigh-end bicycle companies like Bianchi,VooDoo, and Kona were all rolling outsingle-speed bicycles. Also around thistime ITDP was learning valuable lessonsin India, where the most successfullycommercialized innovations made tomodernized cycle rickshaws were sim-ple, low-cost “off the shelf” improve-ments— not “new-fangled” ones.

The “Africa Bike” is Born in Soweto

In March of 2000, ITDP began workingin Johannesburg, South Africa with SamMaswangyani, Afribike’s MasterMechanic from Soweto. Mr.Maswangyani began to build a proto-type “Africa Bike” from the ground up.Sam and ITDP were working from aprice point of about $60, which is about

what the Black Roadster costs in manyAfrican countries.

ITDP and Afribike started with a basicsteel mountain bike frame. Value wasplaced in the hubs and rims, parts thattend to fail first on low-end mountainbikes. A single low gear (40 tooth chainring :18 tooth rear cog) was deemedsuperior to the higher, less efficient gearsgenerally found on Roadsters. The singlegear drive train eliminates the need forfragile parts, such as derailleurs, shifters,cogs, and gear cables, that tend to failfrequently and cost plenty to repair andmaintain – critical concerns for low-income cyclists.

The traditional flat mountain bikehandle bars were replaced with barswith a slight rise to yield a more com-fortable, stylish, and upright riding posi-tion. Simple handbrakes were used, butwith quality brake pads for insured stop-ping power, as African bicycles are oftenused to carry produce, crafts, a friend, orother large cargo. Whenever possible,


A NewBicycle

for Africaby Paul Steely White and Noah Budnick

The Super Thiof GT retails for about $65.

components compatible with existingRoadster parts were specified, as in thecrank and bottom bracket. Finally thebicycles were splashed with color, anddonned with several reflectors.

The Road to Commercialization

Fifty “Africa Bikes” outperformed ahost of other models (including theRoadster and some low-end “depart-ment store” 18-speed mountain bikes)during a rigorous test marketing inSenegal. According to most all of thelocal Senegalese who received bicycles,our bike was superior to the rest in termsof performance and desirability.

ITDP then began to work more closely

with bicycle dealers and designers fromaround the globe to explore full com-mercialization of the new “Africa” bicy-cle. Mitch Gurdjian of J & B Importers,Ibrahima Diallo (Senegal), GrantPeterson of Rivendell, David Peckhamof Village Bicycle Project, Jay Townley(on ITDP’s Board of Directors) all pro-vided key input. Matteo Martignoni,ITDP’s Vice President, oversaw the process.

It was often difficult to balance costand quality criteria. It was a constantbattle to maintain the price point whilestriving to improve the durability of thebike. Sometimes parts that we wantedwere simply not available, or made insuch small quantities as to make a morecommon but lesser value part a moreobvious choice.

In March 2001 ITDP finalized the“Africa Bike” spec with designers atBlotar and Son, one of the largest bicycleimporters in Africa with close ties tomany factories in China. The finalizedbicycle sports several features intendedto make the bicycle low-cost, easy tomaintain, durable, and desirable. Thebicycles are also designed to optimizeutility for all members of the household.For example, a quick-release seat postmakes the bike easily adjustable for useby smaller and larger users. In Senegal,the bicycles sport a sloping top tube toaccommodate women and men whowear ‘Bou Bous’, or traditional dresses.The bicycles are wholesaling to localretailers for about US $50 and retailingfor $65.

The bicycles come with fenders and atool kit, and boast names that were cho-sen by local consumers and marketingexperts. The Tanzanian model will becalled “Mkombozi”, which means“Savior” in Swahili. The South Africaversion is called “Shova Lula”, whichmeans “Ride Easy” in Tswana. InSenegal, bicycles targeting women arecalled “Tour des Femmes”, and themen’s model is called “Super Thiof GT”.“Thiof” is French for “Tilapia”, the mostpopular fish in Senegal. (“Thiof” is also apopular slang term for “hunk”).

In 2002 and 2003, ITDP, in cooperationwith local bicycle dealers and NGOs,will work to place thousands of thesecustomized Africa bicycles within reachof cyclists throughout Africa. Obstaclesto full commercialization include afford-ability (even at $65 retail, the bike stillrepresents a few months of income formost Africans), spare parts availability(some parts will be difficult to keep instock until economies of scale arereached), and the hazards of cycling onAfrica’s dangerous streets. ♦

the privilege of becoming a distributor ofthe new bicycle design, where theywould also receive business skills train-ing and low interest loans, are beingoffered on a competitive basis to smallbike mechanics, existing bicycle retailerswith links to Isency, and non-bicycleretailers. In South Africa, the KutlanongIntegrated Civic Housing Trust, whichcurrently markets eco-housing, will dobike retailing. Local bike mechanics willalso be trained to be part of the business.ITDP will be providing the necessarytechnical support.

In Ghana, ITDP started small, lendingmoney to buy tools to bicycle dealersand repair shops, while giving themtraining in repair. The tools boosted theirprofits by 15%, and they repaid theloans. In 2002 those small dealers with aproven credit history with the projectwill become distributors for the newstyle bikes. (See “Drumming UpBusiness at the Accra Bicycle Market”).

Once small retailers receive trainingand prove they are reliable and willrepay low interest loans, ITDP will slow-ly establish a fund of program-relatedinvestments where retailers in low andmoderate-income neighborhoods can getlow interest loans to expand their busi-nesses. If this process successfullyexpands in scale, the project will havedemonstrated its ability to be ‘bankable’,the litmus test for the World Bank andother large lending institutions.

Mobilizing Key Constituencieswith Modernized Bicycles andTraining

Once this supply chain has beenstrengthened, donations of bicycles forHIV/AIDS outreach workers, schoolchildren, NGOs, and other critical careproviders can be used to strengthen,rather than compete with, the local bicy-cle industry.

Providing modern, low-cost bikes totargeted organizations, governmentagencies, and communities demonstratesthat bicycles increase the efficiency oftheir work. This creates a potentiallylarge market from businesses, govern-ment agencies, and relief organizationsfor more bicycles. This also creates agroup of politically influential ‘converts’

Bike Dealerscontinued from p.25

continued on p.29


Through the introduction of spe-cialty bicycle tools, skills training,small loans and community out-

reach and marketing, bicycle dealers inGhana are increasing their profits.

Before Ghana eliminated the tax andtariff on the importation of bicycles in1989, the Accra Bicycle Market onlyhoused a handful of small bike dealers.Today the market boasts scores of bicy-cle dealers, attracting buyers from allover Ghana, and from neighboring Coted’ Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, andNiger.

Most of the tens of thousands of newand used bicycles sold here per year areimported from Europe and NorthAmerica. Most dealers buy several bicy-cles at a time from the importers, then fixthem up and resell them to individualsand smaller dealers.

The Right Tools for the Job

Lacking specialty bicycle tools, dealersused to refurbish used bicycles withhammers, chisels, and nails. No more. InMarch 2000, ITDP and Village BicycleProject started the “Specialty Bike ToolsProgram” with support from Park ToolUSA, a Minnesota based tools manufac-turer.

At first the dealers were wary to payfor tools, as many had never even seenfreewheel removers, chain breakers,chain pullers, and pin spanners, muchless used them. To surmount this initialobstacle, about $1,000 worth of tools wasmade available to dealers at a specialintroductory price. Still, only a handfulof dealers and mechanics showed inter-est; only five out of the Accra BicycleMarkets’ 25 main dealers bought tools.One dealer who did show interest wasGeorge Kofi Aidoo, the proprietor ofGeofaido Enterprises.

“These tools help my business verymuch,” said George. “It was very diffi-cult to rebuild a rear wheel before, youusually would break the free [freewheel]before it would come off…A new free

[freewheel] costs 22,000 Cedis [US $4]. Iuse the free remover twice and it is paid for.”

Samson Ayine is another bicycle deal-er who has benefited from the tools pro-gram. “I used to have to throw them[wheels] away or sell broken wheels forsmall money,” said Samson. “Now I canmake them like new again…we stillhave not enough rear wheels, but notlike before.”

After the value of the tools began to berecognized, the prices of the secondshipment of tools were raised to marketvalue in March 2001. George, who pur-

chased the tools from ITDP with 60 daysterms, sold most of these tools. Thoughdemand had dropped off a bit due to theincreased price, all the tools were soldand George was able to repay the cost ofthe tools and make a tidy profit. NowGeorge wants to import increasingamounts of specialty bicycle tools, and

meet increasing demand from dealersthroughout West Africa who come to theAccra Bicycle Market. ITDP is linkingGeorge with suppliers in Asia, and pro-viding financing so that George canimport increasing quantities of specialtybicycle tools.

Establishing Credit

Credit in Ghana is prohibitivelyexpensive; if small-scale bicycle dealerswant to grow their businesses they mustbe prepared to pay loan shark interestrates in excess of 30%. After establishing

good credit with the tools program,George Aidoo and Samson Ayine wereextended $4,000 worth of used bicyclesimported from Seattle by Village BicycleProject (VBP). George and Samson refur-bished and resold the bicycles, and net-ted $1,500 after repaying VBP for thebicycles. As an added bonus, Samson


Drumming up Business at theAccra Bicycle

by Paul Steely White and David Peckham

Strong local bike retailers can mobilize entire communities.

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to the importance of government policiessympathetic to bicycling.

NGOs in northern Ghana, for exam-ple, successfully demonstrated that withbicycle riding, training, and access tocredit to buy bicycles, women cyclistsare able to significantly increase theiragricultural output. Similarly, a recentlymobilized HIV/AIDS outreach group inGhana is reaching 50% more beneficia-ries, thanks to their new fleet of bicycles.By showing that cycling creates jobs,improves school attendance, slasheshousehold transport budgets, and boostsincome generation and access to healthcare, decision makers take notice andbegin to see the value in cycling relatedinvestments.

When leading companies and corpora-tions promote cycling as a strategy to cutcosts, raise productivity and create jobs,decision makers take notice. WhenMondi Recycling, one of South Africa’slargest corporations, began using tricy-cles to enable efficient recyclable papercollection, local efforts to make streetssafer for cyclists were catalyzed.

Making Cycling a National Priority

In South Africa, a unified group ofNGOs, bicycle industry, and sympathet-ic government officials successfully con-vinced national and provincial leaders toadopt “Shova Lula” (“Ride Easy” inTswana language), a package of cyclingpromotion strategies that aim to put onemillion new cyclists on the road by 2010.This led to the implementation of the‘National NMT Promotion Strategy’, astep-by-step plan for making cycling,walking and other forms of non-motor-ized transport an increasingly larger por-tion of all trips.

By improving their capacity to supplytheir communities and key constituen-cies with appealing, low-cost mobility,and by giving them and their customersa voice in transportation planning andinvestment, Africa’s bike dealers canlead the charge to make Africa’s citiesmore livable and productive. ♦

For continuing updates about ITDP’sSenegal, Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa programs, log ontowww.itdp.org, or subscribe to the bi-weekly email newsletter, ‘MobilizingAfrica’ by sending a ‘subscribe’ messageto [email protected].

was able to use the plywood packingmaterials (donated by Habitat forHumanity) from the VBP container ofbicycles to build his own storage anddisplay shop in the center of the market.

Prior to this, George and Samson didnot have a reliable connection to a bicy-cle importer and their supply was veryinconsistent. They also lacked sufficientfinancing to scale up their businesses toa level necessary to reap economies ofscale. What is more, before the projectGeorge and Samson, typical of dealers inthe market, were isolated from eachother and rarely pooled their buyingpower and expertise to mutual benefit.Now they work as a team, with Georgerefurbishing bicycles, while Samson spe-cializes in stripping bicycles down forthe export bicycle parts market to neigh-boring countries. They have also pooledtheir inventories, further boosting theirefficiency.

Community Outreach and Marketing

Geroge and Samson have also teamedwith ITDP and Village Bicycle Project topromote bicycle use in rural communi-ties throughout Ghana. In Kopeyia, acommunity in Ghana’s SoutheasternVolta Region, they have been workingwith ITDP and VBP to help a newlyestablished local bicycle shop becomeprofitable. They’ve also been conductingtraining workshops, helping farmers,teachers and students reap gains in pro-ductivity and attendance.

Besides giving their fellow country-men a helping hand, George andSamson are drumming up business.Once communities start cycling, demandis created for bicycles, spare parts, acces-sories and service. By establishing sup-ply connections with local “shade treemechanics”, they are growing their busi-nesses. Many local mechanics and deal-ers are now making the Tro-Tro (collec-tive taxi) trip to Accra to buy productand resell it to their communities. ♦

Market

Bike Dealerscontinued from p.27

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sive to criticisms about the environmen-tal impact of the production of its prod-ucts. Others have been responsive tocampaigns against selling products pro-duced with child labor. So far, no onehas systematically taken these corpora-tions to task for what is arguably one oftheir most significant environmentalimpacts—the location of their outlets incar-dependent greenfield locations,which generate traffic that may violateambient air quality standards, andundermine city centers, smaller shopsand local communities. Both a carrot anda stick are in order.

On the one hand, ITDP is working toinitiate creative, forward-looking dialogue among stakeholders – includingnot only planners but retailers andinvestors – on what the next generationof more accessible retail might look like.At the same time, we are teaching gov-ernments to foster more community-ori-ented development, and working withcitizens and environmental groups whoare forcing their governments to act.Investors and investment managersshould take these globally damagingactivities into consideration whenscreening their portfolios, and anti-glob-alization protesters might consider aim-ing directly at corporations involved inthis sort of malfeasance.

ITDP Update: New Programs,Directors, and Staff

ITDP has initiated several major newprograms. With the support of theRockefeller Brothers Fund, we havestarted an anti-sprawl campaign inCentral Europe, and a program in SouthChina to train municipal officials inpedestrian and Bus Rapid Transit plan-ning. We have recently started a cam-paign to promote bus rapid transit inLatin America and Asia with supportfrom the W.Alton Jones Foundation. Ourefforts to develop a modernized bikeindustry in Africa and get bikes towomen and critical care providers havemoved on to Senegal, Tanzania, andGhana, thanks to support from theInternational Foundation, AlternativeGifts International, the Marcia BradyTucker Foundation, and the Roy A.

Hunt Foundation. Our efforts to mod-ernize the becak in Indonesia continue,thanks to continued support from theChanging Horizons Fund of the TidesFoundation, our partners Gadjah MadaUniversity, the New Land Foundation,and now Germany’s GTZ. We’ve startedto evaluate, influence, and try to change,the numerous ways the US governmentprojects its influence over transport poli-cy in developing countries. We’verecently worked with the World Bankhelping them develop a new, progres-sive Urban Transport Strategy, pushedalong by our new critique of a majorproject in Guangzhou. We continue topush for changes in the new EBRDProperty Policy. We’ve facilitated NGO

involvement and monitoring of a host ofnew auto and oil industry-led initiativessuch as the Commission for SustainableDevelopment’s Global Initiative onTransport Emissions, the Asian RegionalAir Quality Initiative, the WorldBusiness Council on SustainableDevelopment’s mobility project, and theevolving Shell Center for SustainableTransportation.

We would like to welcome EnriquePeñalosa, Gerhard Menckhoff, andGeetam Tiwari to our Board ofDirectors. Mr. Peñalosa was the Mayorof Bogota until December of last year,when he had to step down because ofterm limits. In his short term of office,he was able to completely change

Bogota’s transportation system from anightmare of congestion and automobiledependence. Today, Bogota has anextremely successful Bus Rapid Transitsystem, TransMilenio, much improvedpublic space, a network of hundreds ofkilometers of bikeways, new low-income housing served by bikewaysand busways, and popular auto-freedays. Gerhard Menckhoff recentlyretired from the World Bank, where heheaded the transport division for LatinAmerica. Geetam Tiwari, of the IndianInstitute of Technology in Delhi, is oneof the world’s leading experts in roadsafety in developing countries, and theintegration of busways with non-motor-ized traffic. We also welcome to the staff

Oscar Edmundo Diaz, previously spe-cial advisor on foreign affairs to MayorEnrique Peñalosa, who has taken overfor Noah Budnick as our UN Liaisonand Administrative Director, and LloydWright, previously IIEC Director inSouth Africa, and Advisor to AccionEcologica in Quito, Ecuador, whobecomes our Director for Latin America.These additions have greatly strength-ened our background in Latin Americaand India, and our technical skills in busrapid transit and road safety.

Finally, I would like to thank all ofITDP’s new and long-standing support-ers. Ultimately, we are trying our best togive a voice to your concerns. Please letus know how we can do this better. ♦


Lettercontinued from p.3

Bogota’s impressive TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit System.

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the increasingly generous governmentsupport. Our attacks pushed severalfirms, including those with the worstlegal records (they had been tried fororganizing cartels to defraud the govern-ments in their home countries), to dropout of the bidding. In September 1999,the head of the MOP’s concessions pro-gram promised Congress that the win-ning company would pay at least US$60million for the right to build. In the end,the winning firm, a consortium con-trolled by Impregilo, Italy (notorious forits participation in many dam projectsthat have touched off world-wide cam-paigns), offered US$12 million.

The government assigned people towork full time to divide and conquer.They offered legal agreements to marketorganizations that would guarantee theirright to remain wherethey were, near thecenter, hoping to neu-tralize their opposi-tion. After a long,heart-searching ses-sion under the paint-ings in María InésSolimano’s spaciousliving room, we decid-ed not to expel themarket organizationsfrom the coalition, butrather to treat theseagreements as a mini-mum guarantee, akind of safety net ifour general campaigneventually fails toachieve our mainobjective.

From 1999 untilthis year, the projectstalled. The govern-ment had not yet car-ried out the expropria-tions necessary to hand over the clearedright of way to the company, nor had itfulfilled any of the commitments it madeduring the environmental assessmentprocess. Impregilo had not raised thenecessary financing. A bitter strugglewas going on backstage. Impregilowanted to change the route in our sector,to sink the highway under the MapochoRiver, rather than run it through our

neighborhoods. The Public Works min-istry was against the idea.

In January 2001, Public Works finallyagreed, announcing that the projectwould go under the river in our neigh-borhoods (a 7 km stretch of the 37 kmproject). We celebrated a major, if par-tial, victory.

Today, the project is once again backin the Environmental ImpactAssessment process. The company hasrefused to reveal designs for all-impor-tant features: ventilation systems andaccess ramps (in fact, their latest propos-al, announced in early August, was touse access ramps for ventilation and nothave any filters at all). In early Augustwe condemned the report as completelyinadequate.

“Living City is Born”

During these years of work together,we have built a group with enormousmutual confidence, a very scarce com-modity in Chile, where civil society had

been completelydestroyed underPinochet by exile, tor-ture, disappearance andterror. Pinochet movedthe poor out of wealthyneighborhoods and intoshantytowns ringing thecity, herding the middleclasses into specificareas, creating archipela-gos of luxury for thevery wealthy. The strug-gle against the CostaneraNorte highway has cre-ated a rare coalition ofpeople from every class.Our group consists ofleaders elected by grass-roots organizations. Insectarian Chile we repre-sent a wide range ofpolitical tendencies andideas, including peoplewho supported andopposed the military

regime (an apparently unbridgeabledivision at the time when we first beganto work together). Above all, we came tolike each other and to believe in what wewere doing.

We eventually concluded that theenormous investment that academics,NGOs and our own members had madein us should go somewhere. We decidedwe would carry on together as a perma-

nent organization, which we named“Living City,” but on one condition. Itwasn’t enough to burn all our energyfighting a single project: even if we win,we will only end up where we started.We decided not to wait for the authori-ties, but to develop our own innovative,effective proposals for reviving our com-munities, protecting our heritage, andstimulating local businesses.

In 2000, we developed a citizens’waste management project, which wasawarded financing from the AmericasFund this year. We launched our own“Citizens’ Transport Agenda” inNovember, with the support of a widerange of community representatives andNGOs, along with government bodiesand academics, and now much of ourAgenda is reflected in the government’snew urban transportation plan forSantiago. We successfully fought noisepollution and a serious crime wave inBellavista, hosted what may have beenChile’s first electronic debate on trans-portation (thanks to the e-group“Redam”, run by an NGO called Casa dela Paz), and started work on urbanrenewal for two very damaged areas.We host a weekly radio program, widelydistributed newsletters and a popular e-newsletter with over 800 recipients.Even President Ricardo Lagos has recog-nized in several nationally broadcastspeeches that, while he was furious withus when we dared to oppose the high-way project, he now realizes that we areexactly the kind of group Chile needs torebuild civil society.

We’ve started to play a role in regionaland international efforts. We spoke upfor civil society during the World Bank’sconsultations in Santiago last year for itsurban transport policy, and at a work-shop on sustainable transport sponsoredby the World Council for SustainableBusiness in Sao Paolo in April. We repre-sented Latin American NGOs within theNGO Caucus for SustainableTransportation during the NinthMeeting of the UN Commission forSustainable Development in New Yorkin April. We visited Bogotá in July to seethe amazing developments there despitewar, poverty, and drug trafficking. InAugust we launched a Spanish-languageversion of SusTran, the sustainabletransportation discussion group on theInternet, Innovación Urbana.

What started as a terrible burden hasgradually found a place in our lives. ♦


continued from p.9

Living City

Bellavista neighbor, Alma Enriquez, tells municipal

candidates what’s wrong with theBellavista neighborhood during

elections, October 2000. Bellavista is the only

neighborhood in Chile that holds all-candidates meetings.

to cosponsor the measure if they havenot done so already. For more informa-tion, log onto the League of AmericanBicyclists’ website: www.bikeleague.org

Nigeria’s Transport Minister

Cycling To Work

Nigerian Transport Minister, Chief OjoMaduekwe, is emerging as one ofAfrica’s most visible supporters ofcycling. In a refreshing departure fromthe “Wabenzi” (a colloquial term forAfrican civil servants who travel inMercedes Benzes) Maduekwe and hisaides regularly pedal through the streetsof Abuja en route to meetings, with theirformal clothes and papers strapped totheir rear carriers. In fact, Maduekweloves his bicycle so much that he hasnamed it “Champion”. He recentlycycled through a torrential downpour onhis way to a cabinet meeting. “Rain doc-tors did their worst, I defied them. Inthis business, rain does not really mat-ter,” said Maduekwe.

Maduekwe maintains that Nigeriansshould embrace cycling as a partial solu-tion to growing gridlock that is cripplingNigeria’s economy. In June, Maduekwewas even hit by a bus and thrown into aditch while cycling to work. This onlyled him to redouble his efforts to makecycling viable. According to Dr. OkeyOkechukwu, a renowned journalist andSpecial Assistant to Maduekwe:

“…road construction no longer tookcare of anyone else except the car roadusers. There used to be pedestrian cross-ing and walkways on the sides. But thesedays, we have one gutter to another.That’s not right. The Minister is not say-ing that people should travel long dis-tances on bicycle. No, he knows theimplications. And also, the elites haveimbibed the wrong concept of luxury.And of course being well to do, theyhave abandoned simplicity.”

Southern China Sustainable

Transport Initiative

ITDP has completed the first year ofwork in a mutual effort with the City of

Guangzhou to develop a more sustain-able transport system. As part of thiseffort, ITDP conducted an independentevaluation of the World Bank’s fundingof the inner-ring road in Guangzhou.

The evaluation of the WorldBank’s loan found that theBank’s analysis of the projectfailed to address the effects ofincreased motor vehicle trafficinduced by the construction ofthe new road. Instead of requir-ing offsetting traffic demandmanagement measures, theBank merely required the studyof these measures.

In addition, the road projectled to increased air pollution inareas already in violation ofnational standards. The analysisof the project failed to presentalternatives for reducing conges-tion and air pollution withoutconstruction of the new road-way.

To help offset the motor vehi-cle focus of the ring road con-struction, ITDP has providedexpertise on pedestrian facilitydesign, co-sponsored a seminarwith the Guangzhou TransportPlanning and Research Institute,and proffered specific alterna-tives for the city to consider.

For the second year of work,ITDP hopes to assist the city inimplementing a priority bus sys-tem tied in with pedestrian facil-ities, similar to measures thathave been successfully adoptedin Kunming.

—John Ernst, Asian Regional Director

Bangalore – Mysore

Highway Draws Fire

A new highway betweenBangalore and Mysore, India is the latest“Public-Private Partnership” to draw firefrom environmentalists. The developer,the Nandi Infrastructure CorridorEnterprise (NICE) is a non-transparentconsortium of firms that will make mostof its profits on massive new real estatedevelopments that will create sprawling

cities housing 500,000 people along thenew highway. The Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests has claimedthat the real estate developments associ-ated with the project need not be subject-

ed to an environmental impact assess-ment. The Government of Karnataka,meanwhile, has refused to release to thepublic any details about these develop-ments, saying that they are the propertyof the private developer and not subjectto public disclosure laws. Citizensgroups pressing for access to informa-


continued from p.7

Pedestrian crossing, Guangzhou

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tion have been harassed by the police.Independent assessment of the level offinancial risk to the taxpayers is thus notavailable to the public.

NGOs estimate that as many as200,000 people will be displaced by theproject. To make the project viable, theGovernment of Karnataka is providingmassive subsidies to the developer.Some 7,000 acres of government landwill be sold to NICE for only $0.22 anacre, and the state is appropriating anadditional 14,000 acres and reselling it tothe company, well below market price.NICE does not have to bear any of thecosts related to the relocation of dis-placed families, and NICE may be ableto keep the land even if they never buildthe road. The Government of Karnatakais also planning to divert 150 millionlitres of water per day out of the RiverCauvery, despite continuing water crisesin Bangalore.

For more information,visit: www.indiatogether.org/campaigns/bmicor contact: Environment Support [email protected]

Jakarta Phases out Lead,

Continues Becak Crackdown

In early July, unleaded fuel becameavailable in Jakarta for the first time, inpreparation for a phase out of leadedgasoline. A ceremony was held at CityHall with Governor Sutiyoso, seniorministers, NGOs, and the press.According to Sonny Keraf, the Ministerof Environment, “We’ve been strugglingto do this since 1993. However, this is animportant step, and it’s amazing that wecan see it through in this time of crisis.”

Currently, the use of unleaded gaso-line is voluntary. The lead is beingreplaced with High Octane MogasComponent (HOMC), which currently isimported from Saudi Arabia. Pertamina,the state-owned oil and gas company,currently has refining capacity for125,000 barrels of unleaded fuel per day.Because this adds cost, unleaded fuelwould be more expensive than normalgasoline. However, Minister of Energy

and Mineral Resources PurnomoYusgiantoro, also on hand at the launch-ing ceremony, said that the governmentwould sell the unleaded gasoline at thesame price as leaded gasoline, and hasallocated $27 million for the first year ofsubsidies. The Minister of Energy andMineral Resources is now looking foranother $250 million in subsidies tofinance the full phase out of leaded gaso-line. At press time, the phase-out was all but completed.

Other efforts inside the Ministry ofEnergy and Mineral Resources to bringfuel quality up to US or EU fuel specifi-cations have floundered, and now theyare aiming only to reach the specifica-

tions suggested by the World WideEnergy Charter, a much weaker, oil-industry promoted specification.

In June, the Government increasednominal fuel prices by 30%, which led tosome minor demonstrations in Java, butthis increase, to only $0.13 per litre, isreally only an inflation adjustment, andIndonesian fuel remains among thecheapest in the world. Forum Kota andthe Democratic People’s Party represen-tatives were arrested at protests againstthe increases.

Meanwhile, city traffic authorities(DLLAJ) are trying to ban the motorizedthree-wheeler Bajaj and the non-motor-ized becak, and replace them with afour-wheeled gasoline-powered vehicle

called a Kancil. The Kancil is made byPT Industry Pesawat TerbangNusantara, a struggling state-owned air-craft manufacturer headed by formerPresident B.J. Habibie. On August 14, 80becaks were confiscated in East Jakarta,two police cars were burned, and twoofficers were injured. Becak drivers areplanning to march on the PDIP PartyHeadquarters, hoping the newPresident, Megawati Soekarnoputri, willstand up for the poor.

Bicycles, Buses and Peds Begin

Reclaiming Paris Streets

Paris Mayor BertrandDelanoe is spearheadinga controversial transportpolicy that is reallocat-ing roadspace to pedes-trians, cyclists, andbuses.

Over 1.6 million vehi-cles circulate the city’sroads every day, result-ing in severe conges-tion, and air and noisepollution. Delanoe hasearmarked $30 millionto boost public trans-port, walking andcycling. As a 41-km net-work of dedicated bus routes is planned.Between mid-July andmid-August the Mayor

allowed only cyclists, pedestrians androller-bladers on the central cityexpressway.

Critics contend that these measuresare only aggravating the traffic problemand adding to pollution. A recent opin-ion poll, however, found that 66%werein favor of the temporary closure.

In addition, a survey by the Mayor’soffice revealed a 3% rise for the firstquarter in the number of cyclists travel-ing during rush hour. NathalieSteinfeld, manger of bike rental groupParis a Velo Cést Sympa, has seen a 20%increase in rentals this year. She said,“Parisians are noticing more and morethat the best way to get around is by bike. ♦


Modern becak: not welcome in Jakarta

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“Evaluating the Promise and Hazards of Congestion PricingProposals: an Access Centered Approach.” Jonathan Levine andYaakov Garb. 2000. The Floerscheimer Institute for PolicyStudies. 9a Diskin St. Jerusalem, 96440. Tel [email protected] www.fips.org.il

“A Pilot Project in Two Neighbourhoods: Improving Conditions forNon-Motorised Transport in Surabaya.” Deutsche Gesellschaft furTechnische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and ITDP. 2000.Sustainable Urban Transportation Project, Kantor DLLAJ KotaSurabaya, Jl. Arif Rahman Hakim No. 131. Tel: [email protected] www.sutp.org

“Making World Bank Transport Lending Sustainable: Lessons fromthe Guangzhou City Center Transport Project.” John Ernst andWalter Hook. Institute for Transportation & DevelopmentPolicy, 2001. www.itdp.org

“Guangzhou Traffic Demand Management Study: Final Report.”Guangzhou Transport Planning Research Institute, 2000. 80Jixing Rd, Guangzhou, P.R., China, 510030. Tel: (8620) 83330805. [email protected]

“Planning for Retail Trade in the Nordic countries.” Edited byAxel Thrige Laursen and Bernhard Brackhahn, 2000. Ministryof Environment and Energy. Spatial Planning Department,Hojbro Plads 4, DK-1200 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Tel +45 3392 76 00. [email protected] www.mem.dk

The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in theWest and Fails Everywhere Else. Hernando de Soto. BasicBooks, 2000. 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299.

“EBRD Property Lending and the Future of the Central EuropeanCity: An Assessment of Property Lending in Central Europe by theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and itsImpact on Urban Sprawl.” Institute for Transportation &Development Policy, 2001. www.itdp.org

“Dossier: Transport.” The Courier-Africa-Caribbean-Pacific-European Union, 1998, No. 169.

“Tracking Transport Systems: an environmental perspective on pas-senger transport modes.” M.E. Bouwman. Geo Press. PO Box2230, 9704 CG Groningen, The Netherlands. www.geopress.nl

“Parks and Public Space” Best Practices in Urban EnvironmentalTechnologies UNHCS (Habitat), 2001, No.6 Vienna.

“Istanbul +5 Special.” Best Practices in Urban EnvironmentalTechnologies UNHCS (Habitat), 2001, No.7 Vienna.

“Hydrogen Futures: Towards a Sustainable Energy System.” SethDunn, 2001. Worldwatch Paper 157. Worldwatch Institute,1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20036.www.worldwatch.org

“Fuel Cell Buses for Delhi: Going Nowhere?” Down to Earth, 2001,Vol 10, No. 4. www.oneworld.org

“Cleaner Vehicles & Fuels: Workshop Information Booklet.” TheAsia Foundation and Civic Exchange, 2001. The AsiaFoundation 9/F., Shun Ho Tower, 24-30 Ice House Street,Central, Hong Kong. Tel: 2971 0889. www.asiafoundation.org

The Civic Exchange, Hoseinee House, Room 601, 69Wyndham Street, central, Hong Kong. Tel: 2893 0213.www.civic-exchange.org

“Quality : Cycling-city.” Ursula Lehner-Lierz, LangzaamVerkeer and FGM-AMOR. Bicycle Policy Audit.www.bypad.org

Privatization and Regulation of Transport Infrastructure:Guidelines for Policymakers and Regulators. Edited byAntonio Estache and Gines de Rus. World Bank, 2000.www.woldbank.org

Richards 21st Century Bicycle Book. Richard Ballantine. TheOverlook Press, 2001. 386 West Broadway, New York, NY10012. Tel: 212 965 8400.

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Transit Villages for the Twenty-First Century. Michael S.Bernick and Robert Burke Cervero. McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1996.www.ebooks.mcgraw-hill.com

Moving Beyond Gridlock: Traffic and Development. RobertT. Dunphy; with Deborah L. Brett, Sandra Rosenbloom, andAndre Bald. Urban Land Institute, 1997. Department 186,Washington D.C. 20055-0186 U.S.A. Tel: 202 624 7000.www.uli.org

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Handbook of Transport Systems and Traffic Control. Editedby Kenneth J. Button and David A. Hensher. Elsevier Science,2001. Regional Sales Office, PO Box 945, New York, NY 10159-0945, USA. Tel: (+1) 212-633-3730 or [email protected] www.elsevier.nl


International Conference on Spatial Information for

Sustainable Development, Nairobi, Kenya, 2-5 October2001.The ISK/FIG Conference Coordinator, PO Box4047, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: +254-2313 490. [email protected]

Second International Walk to School Day – 4 October 2001. www.iwalktoschool.org

Regional Workshop on Healthy Cities- Johor Bahru,Malaysia, 17-20 October 2001. Dr Hisashi Ogawa, WHO-Regional Office for the Western Pacific, The WorldHealth Organization Regional Officer for the WesternPacific (WPRO), PO Box 2932, 1000 Manila, Philippines.Tel: +632-528 8001. [email protected]

www.wpro.who.int

International Forum for Urban Development (INTA)–Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 20-23 October.International Secretariat, Nassau, Dillenburgstraat 44,NL-2596 AE, The Hague, The Netherlands. Tel: +31-70324 4526. [email protected]

Road Risk Management, Chile, 23-26 October 2001.Marcelo Medin , PIARC Committee C18 and NationalRoad Directorate of Chile. [email protected]

Fourth Conference of the Eastern Asian Society for

Transportation Studies (EASTS) - TransportationScience Society, Hanoi, Vietnam, October 24-26, 2001.Office of the EASTS Secretary General, c/o Associationfor Planning and Transportation Studies, K-Wing 6F, 5-2-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083, Japan. Tel: +81 3 3265-1774. [email protected]

//ichini.cv.titech.ac.jp/~easts

Sustainable Development in Road Transport, India, 8-10 November. Hari Baral, PIARC Committee C14 andIndian Roads Congress. [email protected]

PABIC Pan African Bicycle Conference, Jinja, Uganda,21-25 November 2001. FABIO, First African BicycleInformation Office, Jinja Uganda, PO Box 1537, Jinja,Uganda. [email protected]

8th International Conference on Urban Transport and

Environment, Seville, Spain, 13-15 March 2002. [email protected]

www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2002/ut02

Third International Conference on Traffic and

Transportation Studies (ICTTS) – Guilin, China, 23-25July 2002. Guiping Xiao PhD Associate Professor ofTraffic Safety, School of Traffic & Transportation,Northern Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, PRChina. Tel: +86 10 6324 [email protected]

The 46th International Federation for Housing and

Planning World Congress, Tianjin, PR China, 8-12September 2002. IFHP Congress Department, JokeBierhuys, Wassenaarseweg 43, 2596 CG The Hague,The Netherlands. Tel: +31-70-328 [email protected]

Codatu X – Lome, Togo, 12-15 November 2002. 10thWorld Congress of Urban Transport. Central theme:Urban mobility for all. [email protected]

Providing Road Connectivity. The PMGSY approach: AVision to Transform Rural India. - Conference dates tbc,Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. Orissa Regional Forum forRural Transport & Development. C/o OSVSWA, N-1/324, IRC Village, Bhubaneswar 751015, Orissa, India.Tel: +91 674 552496. [email protected]

UPCOMING CAR FREE DAYS

Car Free Fremont - (Seattle), WA, US, 16 September, 2001. www.thinksmall.org

European Car Free Day - 22 September, 2001.www.22september.org

In Bogota· without my car? - Colombia, 1 February, 2002. www.alcaldiadebogota.gov.co

Earth Car Free Day - 22 April, 2001.www.carfreeday.com

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

ONLINE RESOURCES

International Walk to School - www.iwalktoschool.org

European Federation for Transportation and Environment – www.t-e.nu

MIT Center for Transportation Studies –http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/org/c/cts/www

University of Leeds, Institute for Transport Studies – www.its.leeds.ac.uk

Texas Transportation Institute – http://tti.tamu.edu

Bikes at Work– www.workbike.org

Moving the Economy–www.city.toronto.on.ca/mte

Detour Publications– www.detourpublications.com Printed on recycled paper

Sustainable Transport is now only published annually. Because of the growinguse of electronic media, we are publishing anon-line magazine, TransportActions, whichappears on our web site, www.itdp.org,three times a year.

All back issues of Sustainable Transportare also available online.

Non-Profit Org.U.S. PostagePaidNew York, NYPermit No. 6323

115 W. 30th St., Suite 1205 New York, NY 10001

www.itdp.org

When you contribute to ITDP you support clean air, livable cities, andaffordable access to markets, jobs,health care and schools.

Give to ITDP today.

Cuenca Gets on the Bus p14 Cuenca Gets on the Bus p14

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