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Urban transport problems of Third World cities: the third generation
HABITATINTL. Vol. 7. No. 314, pp, 99%110,1983 Printed in Great Britain.
0197-3975183 $3.00 + 0.W Pergamon Press Ltd.
Urban Transport Problems Third World Cities: the Third Generation* Department
GEORGE BANJO of Civic Design, University
of Liverpool,
of
UK
and Development
HARRY DIMITRIOU Planning Unit, University College London,
UK
INTRODUCTION
Although urban transport problems in developing countries may be perceived in a variety of ways, depending upon the location, wealth and motorisation levels of the city concerned, the planning responses to such problems have essentially been based upon standardised traffic and transport planning procedures. Underlying these procedures are assumptions and perceptions which owe their origin more to professional practice in the industrialised world than to the development circumstances of Third World cities. This paper argues that the application of standardised traffic and transport planning approaches to Third World settlements have not only failed to resolve their urban movement problems, but have themselves created additional transport problems by employing inappropriate and misconceived assumptions and perceptions. The paper comprises four parts, the first two of which are devoted to the nature of urban travel within Third World cities during their colonial period and immediately after.’ The third part of the paper outlines the major underlying assumptions and perceptions employed in the standardised planning response provided by many international consultancy firms and development agencies for such cities. The final part concludes with a summary of a new generation of urban transport problems currently facing many developing countries, which owe their origin, at least in part, to the application of standardised traffic and transport planning approaches. COLONIAL URBAN TRANSPORT
PROBLEMS
The settlement patterns of many Third World cities were largely moulded by interests and economic activities of past colonial powers, notably in the case of capital cities, The configurations of such settlements were essentially tripartite in character, the indigenous and colonial populations living apart, each having their * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, University of Warwick, July 1980. This paper is based on a chapter in a forthcoming book and is copyright of the authors. ’ Observations made in this paper concerning colonial settlements refer primarily to the British colonial cities in Africa and the Indian sub-continent.
99
100
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
own residential areas, with contacts between them mainly confined to official and business matters. Within this configuration, it was common for residential areas of the colonialists to be adjacent to the business and commercial sector. Being well served by transport facilities, both areas were relatively trouble-free in terms of movement problems. Transport investment priority was also afforded to the industrial and port areas of the cities (where such settlements were port cities). Typically, the urban form pattern of such colonial settlements were dominated by a major trunk road, commencing from the business and commercial sector, leading out of the city to the provinces, with a spur to the industrial and/or port area (see Fig. 1). up-country
/Major
arterlaL
Fig. 1. The tripartite urban form configuration
of colonial settlements.
Meanwhile, the residential areas of the indigenous population were left to be developed either side of the major arterial systems. They accommodated the vast majority of the settlement’s population and were characterised by poor transport access both to the city’s transport network and within the area itself. For roads within such areas were very few and invariably the result of community efforts. What roads existed often had sharp bends and permeable surfaces and were initially intended for animal and pedestrian movement. The indigenous residential areas were by no means monolithic in their structure, since they typically consisted of various small villages and hamlets that had been absorbed into the city as it grew. The areas closest to the business and commercial sector of the city usually attracted most of the expenditure provided by the colonialists for the indigenous population and thus were the most densely populated. The continuous flow of rural migrants into the indigenous residential areas accelerated the congestion of both living and movement space. Characteristically, however, the growth of the native population did not immediately increase journey-to-work movements from the indigenous residential areas. Most migrants confined themselves to the native areas. Their sustenance revolved around activities within the indigenous areas, moving around on foot or bicycle, leaving the more well-established of their community to commute daily to the central area. As a result, many of the urban movement problems of the indigenous population during the colonial era were contained within their residential areas. These problems, however, were intensified by the increased motorisation levels within such areas: as traders hired lorries to bring food from rural areas to feed the burgeoning populations. Informal motorised transport services within the areas thus became more common as the native areas grew and travel demand increased.
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities: the Third Generation
101
However, because the native areas were invariably outside the interest and activity spaces of the colonialists, official knowledge about their development was confined to hearsay and their movement problems passed largely unrecognised. They therefore did not figure in any major transport plans of the time. The high population density of the indigenous residential areas and their low levels of basic infrast~cture facilities were in stark contrast with the low-density developments and good infrast~cture provision of the colonial residential areas. Distributor and access roads within the latter areas were both well planned and well maintained, providing good access to the city’s wider transport network as a whole, and its business and administrative centre in particular. The pre-independence Third World city was thus characterised by the separate development of the indigenous and colonial populations, with dominant movements of its indigenous population largely being confined to their own residential areas (see Fig. 2). On the other hand, the colonialists with good access to the city’s transport network and with high vehicular-ownership, were very much more mobile. Indeed, a factor not always readily appreciated is that vehicular growth rates in Third World cities in many cases took on dramatic proportions before independence (see Table 1). So much so, that the increased vehicle-ownership of the colonialists represented one of the transport problems of the day; others being how to improve the road access to the industrial and port areas and how to accommodate the increased motorisation in the city’s business and commercial area. The acute movement problems of the native population, however, particularly in their own residential areas, attracted little attention.
Fig. 2. Dominant movement patterns of colonial settlements.
Table I. Average post-war vehictegrowth Country
Percentage growth rate* %per annum
Kenya Tanzania Ghana Nigeria Uganda
8 11 12 14 18
rates of African colonial cities
Nairobi:
Lagos:
6.8%,(1960-70)
15.5%(1960-70)
* Based upon 1950-60 estimates. Source: Hawkins, E.K., Roads and Road Transport in an Underdeveloped Country. A Case Study of Uganda, HMSO, 1962.
102
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
POST-COLONIALURBANTRANSPORTPROBLEMS As independence approached and was achieved, it was not uncommon to find economic resources declining in Third World cities and their infrastructure facilities deteriorating. This was due in part to the gradual run-down of the previous colonial investment, the increased population growth, and the scarcity of resources in general. This soon led to a decline in the maintenance of what urban infrastructure existed, so that, in the face of the increased urban population and travel demand, a marked deterioration of the city’s transport network took place. Under this transition, more and more locals were assimilated into the roles and functions to be left vacant by departing colonialists. In the public sector, this resulted - particularly immediately after independence, in the occupation of government residences by a new local elite. In the business community too, a new local elite evolved, many supported by previous colonial interests eager to maintain good trading relationships with the past colony. These &tist groups soon developed values and asp~ati~ns not too dissimilar from those of their previous colonial masters. They aspired, for example, to increased car-ownership which, in the case of some civil servants, was encouraged by the provision of cheap loans to assist car purchases. Many, by taking up residence in the old colonial areas, accelerated the change away from the previous separate development characteristics of the settlement. New work-trip patterns emerged, so that within a relatively short period of time, a totally different set of interaction activities emerged. The post-independent Third World city was thus characterised by more widespread movement patterns than before, movement patterns which ignored previous socio-economic and cultural divisions within the city (see Fig. 3). Since their social roots were still firmly in the old native areas, the new elite made visits to and received visits from those areas. The increased car-ownership IeveIs of this community further facilitated such trips, whilst informal public transport systems began to operate a city-wide service: together these accelerated the breakdown of the old separate development characteristics of the settlement,
Fig. 3. Dominant movement patternsof the post-cokmfa~ era.
The resultant urban movement patterns, together with the additional travel demands generated by increased migration from the rural areas, exerted pressures on the urban form and its infrastructure which they were ill-equipped to resolve. Compounding the situation was a relaxation (not always by design) of traffic regulations, parking restrictions and land-use controls; within a few years of in-
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities the Third Generation
103
dependence, many of the more formalised land-use and urban patterns superimposed on the original settlement structure were eroded. The internal planning response to the above situation was slow, for many of the post-independence governments placed a great deal of emphasis on national (a-spatial) economic policies, rather than urban development. Reliance upon industrialisation and modernisation to achieve national economic goals further accentuated the transport problems of such cities: much of the resultant industrial investment took place in urban areas, thus generating additional transport demands on an already inadequate and overcongested system. The technological forces released by the adopted industrialisation and modernisation development strategy also generated new travel patterns, as well as different travel behaviour and lifestyles, all of which were to mix with the old. This then, was the ‘second generation’ of urban transport problems faced by many Third World cities. However, with inadequate technical and administrative capacity to tackle the situation confronting them, it was to the industrialised nations that the Third World governments turned for assistance. Whether the initial contact was with the international development agencies or through bilateral trade negotiations, the result was invariably the appointment of international consultants from industrialised countries, commissioned to examine these urban transport problems. Such consultants were either appointed on the basis of their previous transport planning experience in developing countries during the colonial period or as a result of the expertise they had acquired in their own countries. Given the confined scope of urban transport planning during the colonial period, consultants appointed on the basis of their colonial experience possessed a limited understanding of the urban movement problems of the majority of the indigenous population. Moreover, those consultants appointed on the basis of their home experience too readily resorted to highway-orientated solutions based upon a standardised urban transport planning approach developed in the industrialised world. As a result, transport plans for a large number of Third World cities - such as Calcutta, Kuala Lumpur and Lagos - are now based upon procedures which owe their origin to developments in urban transport planning practice in the USA. For, between the mid-l 950s and early 197Os, the USA saw the evolution of transport planning procedures developed for the planning and const~ction of 42,500 miles of inter-state highways (at a total cost of US$114 billion, of which 8,500 miles were in urban areas - possibly the most costly public sector project in the world).2 These procedures, packaged into a single basic urban transport planning approach (with numerous variations) are perhaps supported by the best financed research and development of all urban infrastructure planning procedures. It was not surprising therefore that many of the international consultancy teams employed this standardised approach. Indeed, it is only within the last five years or so that greater emphasis has been placed on traffic management measures, The underlying assumptions and perceptions of the standardised approach are however still being employed in traffic management and other more short-term traffic and transport planning approaches for developing countries. The discussion which follows attempts to highlight the implications of the continued use of such assumptions and perceptions. SOME ASSUMPTIONS OF THE URBAN TRANSPORT
The general assumptions procedures, are that:
PLANNING PROCESS
of the urban transport planning process and its related
* Schwartz, G.T., “Urban Freeways and the Interstate March 1976.
System”, South California Law Review Vol. 49,
104
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
(a) travel is a function of land use and land use is a function, amongst other things, of available transport; and (b) the above relationship can be measured accurately enough to be successfully simulated for predictive purposes. In its application to Third World settlements, the process thus assumes that urban transport supply and demand may similarly be adequately simulated in such cities, despite their differing cultural and developmental circumstances. However, it has been recently argued3 that this assumption is too simplistic in respect of social norms and cultural values, with consequent deficiencies in the models. Indeed, additional research suggests that a whole battery of other implicit developmental assumptions, equally as controversial as the social and cultural values embedded in the cause-effect relationships simulated,4 may be identified. Some major assumptions, common to many urban transport planning exercises in developing countries, may be considered. The authors regard them as either misconceived in any context or inappropriate to the developmental circumstances of Third World cities. (1) The urban transport problem is essentially the problem of how to overcome motorised traffic congestion. Comment. In spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of households in Third World cities are not vehicle-owning households (see, for example, Table 2), urban transport problems are almost invariably perceived in terms of motorised especially private car - traffic congestion. Meanwhile, scant attention is given to the urban movement problems of the non-motorised transport sector, the means of movement relied upon by the majority of the poorer inhabitants of Third World cities. Table 2. Levels of motorisation in Indian cities Non-car-owning 1961 Delhi Bombay Madras Calcutta
households 1971
91 94 97 96
Source: Kumar, R.K. and Rao, M.S.V., “An Appraisal Techniques”, Indian Highways, September 1975.
93 _ 91 95
Car-owning 1961
households
3 6 3 4 of Transportation
Planning
1971 1 3 5
and Trawl
Forecasting
(2) Rapidly increasing car-ownership levels are inevitable. Comment. Dramatic rises in car-ownership levels in Third World cities (see Table 3) are invariably taken as an inevitable trend to be accommodated. Very often, saturation levels of these predictions are likened to those of the industrialised countries, with the net result that scarce resources are allocated to provide for the anticipated increased levels of car-ownership - thus making such projections self-fulfilling. (3) Informal public transport does not warrant detailed study. Comment. Many urban transport planning studies in developing countries fail to concern themselves with informal means of public transport - except perhaps to recommend their abolition in favour of municipal or government-run services! However, those that do, often reveal an insufficient understanding of the operating characteristics and related travel behaviour of such systems. Yet the increasing dependancy upon such transport modes by the urban poor, not only for mobility 3 Banjo, C.C.A., “The Relevance of Travel Time Valuation in Developing Countries”, paper presented at PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, July 1979. 4 Dimitriou, H.T., “The Urban Transport Planning Process: an txamination of the Validity of its Application to Developing Countries”, Chap. 2 of an unpublished draft Ph.D. Thesis, University of Sheffield, June 1980.
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities: the Third Generation
105
but also for employment, has wide-ranging implications where informal public transport is either omitted or superficially provided. (4) Benefits are best derived by improving the operational efficiency of urban transport systems. Comment. The assumption that improvements to the operational characteristics of an urban transport system will automatically yield benefits (at least in most cases), not only to the system itself and thus to its users, but also to the urban area it serves, is a dominant assumption of urban transport planning practice in most countries. This bias towards transport user interests, however, has wider and more critical implications in developing countries, especially if the urban transport system in question is planned and managed in favour of a particular section of the travelling community. In these situations, not only are efficiency goals pursued at a high opportunity cost of more general urban development goals, but the elitist interests of a particular section of the travelling public are also pursued at the expense of the majority of other transport users. (5) Variables affecting travel demand will not experience unexpected changes. Comment. An assumption increasingly being criticised, yet still essential if urban transport plans are to make forecasts, is that no major unexpected changes are to take place in the variables affecting travel during the planning period of an urban transport study. Although long-term forecasting exercises are no longer favoured, the issue still remains critical for studies in developing countries empolying more immediate horizons of lo- 15 years. For the rate of change in Third World cities is both very much more robust and unpredictable than in cities of the industrialised countries. (6) Urban transport problems are essentially the same world-wide. Comment. The use of urban transport planning procedures in Third World cities initially designed for industrialised countries perhaps implies this most general of all the assumptions. Hence, the problems of Third World cities are merely a special case of this international phenomenon. This general assumption, the use of a standardised approach to resolving urban transport problems in different cities, irrespective of their cultural and developmental context, is thus legitimised. However, the very different evolutionary development of urban transport problems in developing countries, suggests that this is not invalid but currently is contributing to the increasing internationalisation of the character of urban problems. Partly as a result of the above assumptions, the basic travel problems of the inhabitants of Third World cities remain unresolved. Scarce resources have meanwhile been mis-spent on recommendations based upon misconceived or inappropriate assumptions, which merely add to the existing urban movement problems. The current urban transport problems of Third World cities must therefore be seen as evolving not only from the characteristics of the settlements themselves, and their inhabitants’ travel demands, but also from the planning response(s) to which they have been subjected. A depiction of urban transport problem development in Third World cities is suggested in Fig. 4. The containment of the indigenous population’s urban transport problems during the colonial period enabled the colonialists to confine their concern to the transport system serving their own economic and administrative interests. The subsequent abandonment of separate development after independence threw open the whole city to the indigenous population, changing almost overnight the demands made upon the existing transport system. The urban movement problems of the native population, now not confined to their own residential areas, extended to the whole city. Since the colonial transport system was not designed to accommodate the new travel patterns and volumes which emerged after independence, the Third World looked to the industrialised countries for assistance in tackling these problems. The nature of the assistance was such that
6.0 4.5 1.9 12.1
810 820 555 660
270 390 180 440 325 850 360 950 525 1,100 660 1,275 1,800 785 760 1,600 430 275
(3)
per capita (USS) (1970)
Income
t Included in ‘other motorised’. 2 Figures 9 Figures for 1972. lo Figures for 1973.
2,800 1,505 1,448 1,134
Istanbul Casablanca Lagos Kinshasa
2.2 3.7 4.5 8.5 5.3 2.9 5.6 7.0 6.2 2.6 6.5 5.8 2.4 6.4 1.3 5.4 5.4 5.7
(2)
(1)
1,402 5,192 3,438 5,536 4,312 3,350 3,460 3,600 3,090 2,110 755 8,600 8,400 8,400 2,551 2,277 435 6,500
Calcutta Bombay Madras Seoul Jakarta Hong Kong Karachi Tehran Bangkok Singapore Kuala Lumpur Mexico City Buenos Aires Slo Paul0 Bogotii Caracas San Jose Cairo
City
Rate of growth of population (%) (1960-70)
Population (1,000) (1970)
1.0 1.2 1.3 1.0 1.3 1.6 1.3 1.4 0.6 1.0 0.3 0.2 0.4 1.0 0.4
(15.4) 12.0 6.7 11.3 10.5 (12.1) _ 8.3 10.9 _ 12.2 (6.1) 15.5 _
for 1966. 4 Figures
(6) 0.3 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.1 0.3 2.1
(5)
13.1 26.1 8.3 -
6.8 16.3 17.9 21.8 9.0 25.6 10.6 25.0 27.3 34.0 -
4.0 4.5 1.9 3.5 4.3 _ 7.0
(7)
62 80 25 60 212 140 105 350 135 100 200 25 120 150 20 for 1968. 6 Figures
30 80 25 35 212 140 70 350 135 100 100 25 120 75 20 0.80 1.46 0.52 1.52
0.35 0.50 0.98 !.40 0.45 1.29 1.30 0.10 0.13 0.98 _
1.76 1.76 1.76 1.65 0.44 0.89 1.10
(10)
Price of regular grade gasoline per US gallon (USS) (Oct. 1974)
28 _ _ 58
51 _ 12 33
8 29 22 16 31 29 24 47 19 17 26 17 46 23 _
34 41 54 89 49 55 63 42 59 43 35 65 60 60 71 35 74 -
(11)
Buses
8 ‘t
Automobiles
82 g7
l?
583 48’ 46a 37 229 232 21* 217 127 335 187 163 236 144 126 193 31°
Other motorised
Modal split of motorised trips (%)
for 1969. 7 Figures for 1970. 8 Figures for 1971.
(9) 150 150 150 150 200 150 _
(8) 150 150 150 100 200 300 _
Import duty on luxury cars (%) (Oct. 1914)
Import duty on economy cars (%) (Oct. 1914)
for 1967. ’ Figures
Number of buses per 1,000 population (1910)
1.2 8.2 5.8 22.0 8.8 (Z)
Rate of growth of automobiles (%) (1960-10)
for 1965. 3 Figures
21.0 12.9 22.8 _
13.0 13.5 7.9 6.3 18.0 26.2 10.4 44.4 49.1 73.0 51.9 78.3 73.9 62.3 22.0 91.0 47.9 _
(4)
Number of automobiles per 1,000 Po~lu;;tipn
Number of commercial vehicles per 1,000 population (1970)
Table 3. Population and transport data of selected cities
_
_ _
_
6
4 2 10 10-20
2.5 _
5
3-8 5 6.5
4-10 1
4
3 3 3
(12)
Bus fare for a 3-mile trip (US cents) (Oct. 1974)
-. $ 3. :
3
$
za 2 3 3
Q $ G
746 600 567 424 350 225 14,900 10,547 8,448 2,416 757
2.5 2.9 8.1 11.0 9.0 3.1 3.4 -0.7 1.3 3.0 -0.1
Rate of growth of population (%) (1960-70)
500 1,000 495 500 710 660 2,715 2,550 3,530 5,390
Income per capita (US$) (1970)
57.6 153.0 52.7 75.5 33.0 45.7 83.3 222.0 248.0 60.8 316.0
Number of automobiles per 1,000 pop;ull~;n
(12.7) _ 16.0 5.2 6.5 12.8 2.0
6.0 (G)
Rate of growth of automobiles (%) (1960-70) 0.5 2.3 1.5 1.7 0.6 1.1 1.3 0.6 0.4 2.5 2.9
Number of buses per 1,000 population (1970) 12.1 17.3 40.6 35.4 17.3 22.1 134.5 22.0 44.4 18.2 24.1
33 32 40 58 75 10 40 15.4 11 25 3
Import duty on economy cars (%) (Oct. 1974) 33 32 100 58 150 10 40 15.4 11 25 3
Import duty on luxury cars (%) (Oct. 1974) 1.50 0.54 1.12 1.31 _ _ 1.46 1.29 1.40 2.15 0.55
Price of regular grade gasoline per US gallon (US8) (Oct. 1974) lo9 30’ -’ 13ro 534 27: 57’ 17’ 432 -i
32 68
Other motorised
75 10 28 47 40 7 8 24 21 _
Buses
15 60 72 40 7 66 35 59 36 -
Automobiles
Modal split of motorised trips (%)
25 25 30 10 40
1.5 6 10 5
Bus fare for a 3-mile trip (US cents) (Oct. 1974)
Table reproduced
from: WORLD
BANK,
Urban Transport, Sector
Policy Paper, May 1975.
Sources: United Nations, World’s Million Cities, 1972 (for columns 1 and 2). Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, Digest of Import Duties for Motor Vehicles Levied by Selected Countries, 1974 (columns 5 and 6). Wilfred Owen, Brookings Institution, Automobiles and Cities - Strategies for Developing Countries, Bank Staff Working Paper No. 162, September missions and government authorities (columns 10 and 12).
1973.
Data supplied
by Bank
Notes: Because of the variety of sources, differences of definition and general weaknesses of collection, the data, though indicating orders of magnitude, have only limited comparability. Caution is accordingly required in their use. See below for general notes and sources. The data in the table were obtained from several publications indicated below, supplemented by information in various urban and transport studies available in the Bank. Information was also collected by World Bank missions and from government authorities. Since the sources and methods of data collection are extremely diverse, the table indicates only in rough measure conditions of urbanisation and motorisation. Data for columns 1, 3,4,6, and 7 are for 1970, except in the case of a few cities for which data for 1969 or 1971 had to be used. Rates of growth in columns 2 and 5 are for 1960-70, except for a few cities where growth rates were available for a shorter period only. Growth rates in parentheses are for the country and not the city. For columns 8 and 9, a Toyota Corona was used to represent an economy car and a Mercedes-Benz 280 a luxury car. In column 11, the data are for different years, depending on the most recent traffic survey available to the Bank, The different years are shown in the footnotes.
Tunis Beirut Nairobi Abidjan Da; es Salaam Lusaka Tokyo London Paris Athens Washington DC
City
Population ( 1,000) (1970)
Number of commercial vehicles per 1,000 population (1970)
Table 3 (continued)
2
2 cl 3” ? 4 6 3
2
$
F’
s 8 n 3
< Y $ &
108
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
Scope of concern
of colonial
Urban transport scope of concern of lmmedlate post-colonial governments ie all movement problems wlthln the settlement
Recent standardised scope of concern of urban transport planning /e prlmarlly motorlsed movement problems wlthln the settlement
excludes aspects such as lnformol publtc transport, non-motorised movement, and soclai / economx impact on the urban poor
Fig. 4. Overlays of Third World urban transport problems in ex-colonial settlements.
it concerned itself only with particular aspects of these problems, leading to the creation of additional problems elsewhere in the urban transport system and the city as a whole.
THE THIRD GENERATION
URBAN TRANSPORT
PROBLEMS
Whilst the specific characteristics of the new generation of Third World urban transport problems vary from city to city, they may be briefly described. (1) Destruction of existing urban form structures. The adoption of universal perceptions of how best to tackle urban transport problems have led many settlements in developing countries to have road patterns imposed upon them such as grid iron networks, totally alien to their existing urban structures. This has again led to the imposition of concepts of order in urban form and movement patterns unrelated to the evolutionary development of such settlements. It has simultaneously led to the indiscriminate disruption of urban social networks and cultural lifestyles upon which people’s livelihood depends - all in the interest of an elitist group’s mobility. (2) Penalisation of the non-motorised community. The obsession of urban transport planning studies with motorised traffic congestion problems, vehicularownership and the means by which these may be accommodated, have produced urban transport systems which primarily benefit motorised traffic. The pursuit of that aim is in fact depriving the vast majority of Third World inhabitants (notably the uban poor), for whom motorised transport is either too costly or just not available, from an equitable provision of urban transport facilities. By
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities: the Third Generation
109
adopting a transport planning approach which favours motorised traffic so indiscriminately, the 6lite of these cities are thus in effect acting no differently from their colonial masters in encouraging separate development. (3) Failure to incorporate the informal transport sector into urban transport plans. The absence of any real detailed analysis of the informal public transport sector in most urban transport planning studies for Third World cities has meant that they are, at best, studies of the formal (moto~sed) transport sector alone and are not the comprehensive urban transport planning studies they are often claimed to be. The implications of this are threefold. First, it ensures that transport demand is forecast erroneously, both in nature and amount. Secondly, it denies the urban poor - who are the main users of informal means of transport .any consideration in the planned urban transport infrastructure. Finally, it ensures the continued failure to coordinate the public transport operations of both transport sectors, thus preventing an efficient use being made of all public transport resources in the city. (4) Dominance of transport user considerations. The treatment of urban transport systems as essentially ‘closed systems’ is a familiar characteristic of many urban transport studies, with quantitative transport user costs and benefits ove~lladowing non-transport user aspects. This is especially true where the nontransport user aspects cannot be quantified or are not directly related to the urban transport system itself. With the heavy investment the urban transport sector attracts, this has led to many transport proposals playing an over-dominant role in shaping the future of cities. Furthermore, by facilitating mobility, such proposals not only encourage dispersed urban development, and thus more travel, but also generate additional problems outside the transport sector. This is clear, for example, in land-use planning and energy conservation, which are critical problems for Third World countries. (5) Trends providing the blueprint for the future. Urban transport ‘improvements’ to many Third World cities have been based upon the operational convenience of a particular transport system, namely a road system for motorised (often private) transport, on the assumption that the transport technologies and energy sources will be available for a substantial proportion of the lifespan of the settlement in question. Quite clearly, however, these assumptions do not stand the test of time in the industrialised world. This is especially evident in many cities utilising car-orientated transport systems in the USA, which have seen the decline of their central areas as urban decentralisation increased. Trends in the USA now suggest a reversal of these developments, in the meantime wasting vast amounts of resources in the abandonment and re-modification of urban land uses. Third World countries cannot afford such an experience and, yet, there is growing evidence that such trends are being repeated, where standardised urban transport planning approaches based on the demands of the motor car have been employed.
CONCLUSIONS
Whilst it is appreciated that many of the assumptions identified in this paper are not exclusively inappropriate to Third World cities, in that they may be argued as misconceived in any context, the authors are of the opinion that their invalidity is much more critical in developing countries, in the light of their limited resources and more acute problems. Furthermore, although it is readily appreciated that there is a growing awareness among transport planners of the deficiencies of the more conventional transport planning procedures and their Ll~lderlying assumptions, the authors remain rather concerned at the direction in which alternative approaches are being sought. For it is felt that the current return to traffic management and short-term
110
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
traffic planning measures still rely (if not implicitly) upon many of the assumptions and perceptions criticised in this paper. The notion that one has to make assumptions and, once made, plough on with the ‘real issues’, never to return to them again for modification has proved to be both expensive and undesirable. It is only through a fundamental reconsideration of the conceptual basis for urban transport planning in developing countries that new generations of urban transport problems can be avoided.
REFERENCES Dimitriou, presented
Integration H.T., “A Call for the Effective at PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, July 1978.
of Urban
Planning
Kumar, niques”,
of Transportation Planning R.K. and Rao, M.S.V., “An Appraisal Indian Highways Vol. 3, No. 9, NW Delhi, September 1975.
Hawkins, London,
E.K., Roads and Road Transport in an Underdeveloped 1962.
World Bank,
Urban Transport, Sector
Policy
Paper, Washington,
in Developing and Travel
Countries”,
paper
Forecasting
Tech-
Country: a Case Study of Uganda. HMSO,
DC, May 1975.
Editors’ Note: Because of vagaries of international postal services, it has proved necessary to proceed to publication without receiving the authors’ final corrections. The Editors have made every effort to ensure that the authors’ final text has been accurately reproduced here, but accept responsibility for any deviation therefrom.
0197-3975183 $3.00 + 0.W Pergamon Press Ltd.
Urban Transport Problems Third World Cities: the Third Generation* Department
GEORGE BANJO of Civic Design, University
of Liverpool,
of
UK
and Development
HARRY DIMITRIOU Planning Unit, University College London,
UK
INTRODUCTION
Although urban transport problems in developing countries may be perceived in a variety of ways, depending upon the location, wealth and motorisation levels of the city concerned, the planning responses to such problems have essentially been based upon standardised traffic and transport planning procedures. Underlying these procedures are assumptions and perceptions which owe their origin more to professional practice in the industrialised world than to the development circumstances of Third World cities. This paper argues that the application of standardised traffic and transport planning approaches to Third World settlements have not only failed to resolve their urban movement problems, but have themselves created additional transport problems by employing inappropriate and misconceived assumptions and perceptions. The paper comprises four parts, the first two of which are devoted to the nature of urban travel within Third World cities during their colonial period and immediately after.’ The third part of the paper outlines the major underlying assumptions and perceptions employed in the standardised planning response provided by many international consultancy firms and development agencies for such cities. The final part concludes with a summary of a new generation of urban transport problems currently facing many developing countries, which owe their origin, at least in part, to the application of standardised traffic and transport planning approaches. COLONIAL URBAN TRANSPORT
PROBLEMS
The settlement patterns of many Third World cities were largely moulded by interests and economic activities of past colonial powers, notably in the case of capital cities, The configurations of such settlements were essentially tripartite in character, the indigenous and colonial populations living apart, each having their * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, University of Warwick, July 1980. This paper is based on a chapter in a forthcoming book and is copyright of the authors. ’ Observations made in this paper concerning colonial settlements refer primarily to the British colonial cities in Africa and the Indian sub-continent.
99
100
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
own residential areas, with contacts between them mainly confined to official and business matters. Within this configuration, it was common for residential areas of the colonialists to be adjacent to the business and commercial sector. Being well served by transport facilities, both areas were relatively trouble-free in terms of movement problems. Transport investment priority was also afforded to the industrial and port areas of the cities (where such settlements were port cities). Typically, the urban form pattern of such colonial settlements were dominated by a major trunk road, commencing from the business and commercial sector, leading out of the city to the provinces, with a spur to the industrial and/or port area (see Fig. 1). up-country
/Major
arterlaL
Fig. 1. The tripartite urban form configuration
of colonial settlements.
Meanwhile, the residential areas of the indigenous population were left to be developed either side of the major arterial systems. They accommodated the vast majority of the settlement’s population and were characterised by poor transport access both to the city’s transport network and within the area itself. For roads within such areas were very few and invariably the result of community efforts. What roads existed often had sharp bends and permeable surfaces and were initially intended for animal and pedestrian movement. The indigenous residential areas were by no means monolithic in their structure, since they typically consisted of various small villages and hamlets that had been absorbed into the city as it grew. The areas closest to the business and commercial sector of the city usually attracted most of the expenditure provided by the colonialists for the indigenous population and thus were the most densely populated. The continuous flow of rural migrants into the indigenous residential areas accelerated the congestion of both living and movement space. Characteristically, however, the growth of the native population did not immediately increase journey-to-work movements from the indigenous residential areas. Most migrants confined themselves to the native areas. Their sustenance revolved around activities within the indigenous areas, moving around on foot or bicycle, leaving the more well-established of their community to commute daily to the central area. As a result, many of the urban movement problems of the indigenous population during the colonial era were contained within their residential areas. These problems, however, were intensified by the increased motorisation levels within such areas: as traders hired lorries to bring food from rural areas to feed the burgeoning populations. Informal motorised transport services within the areas thus became more common as the native areas grew and travel demand increased.
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities: the Third Generation
101
However, because the native areas were invariably outside the interest and activity spaces of the colonialists, official knowledge about their development was confined to hearsay and their movement problems passed largely unrecognised. They therefore did not figure in any major transport plans of the time. The high population density of the indigenous residential areas and their low levels of basic infrast~cture facilities were in stark contrast with the low-density developments and good infrast~cture provision of the colonial residential areas. Distributor and access roads within the latter areas were both well planned and well maintained, providing good access to the city’s wider transport network as a whole, and its business and administrative centre in particular. The pre-independence Third World city was thus characterised by the separate development of the indigenous and colonial populations, with dominant movements of its indigenous population largely being confined to their own residential areas (see Fig. 2). On the other hand, the colonialists with good access to the city’s transport network and with high vehicular-ownership, were very much more mobile. Indeed, a factor not always readily appreciated is that vehicular growth rates in Third World cities in many cases took on dramatic proportions before independence (see Table 1). So much so, that the increased vehicle-ownership of the colonialists represented one of the transport problems of the day; others being how to improve the road access to the industrial and port areas and how to accommodate the increased motorisation in the city’s business and commercial area. The acute movement problems of the native population, however, particularly in their own residential areas, attracted little attention.
Fig. 2. Dominant movement patterns of colonial settlements.
Table I. Average post-war vehictegrowth Country
Percentage growth rate* %per annum
Kenya Tanzania Ghana Nigeria Uganda
8 11 12 14 18
rates of African colonial cities
Nairobi:
Lagos:
6.8%,(1960-70)
15.5%(1960-70)
* Based upon 1950-60 estimates. Source: Hawkins, E.K., Roads and Road Transport in an Underdeveloped Country. A Case Study of Uganda, HMSO, 1962.
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George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
POST-COLONIALURBANTRANSPORTPROBLEMS As independence approached and was achieved, it was not uncommon to find economic resources declining in Third World cities and their infrastructure facilities deteriorating. This was due in part to the gradual run-down of the previous colonial investment, the increased population growth, and the scarcity of resources in general. This soon led to a decline in the maintenance of what urban infrastructure existed, so that, in the face of the increased urban population and travel demand, a marked deterioration of the city’s transport network took place. Under this transition, more and more locals were assimilated into the roles and functions to be left vacant by departing colonialists. In the public sector, this resulted - particularly immediately after independence, in the occupation of government residences by a new local elite. In the business community too, a new local elite evolved, many supported by previous colonial interests eager to maintain good trading relationships with the past colony. These &tist groups soon developed values and asp~ati~ns not too dissimilar from those of their previous colonial masters. They aspired, for example, to increased car-ownership which, in the case of some civil servants, was encouraged by the provision of cheap loans to assist car purchases. Many, by taking up residence in the old colonial areas, accelerated the change away from the previous separate development characteristics of the settlement. New work-trip patterns emerged, so that within a relatively short period of time, a totally different set of interaction activities emerged. The post-independent Third World city was thus characterised by more widespread movement patterns than before, movement patterns which ignored previous socio-economic and cultural divisions within the city (see Fig. 3). Since their social roots were still firmly in the old native areas, the new elite made visits to and received visits from those areas. The increased car-ownership IeveIs of this community further facilitated such trips, whilst informal public transport systems began to operate a city-wide service: together these accelerated the breakdown of the old separate development characteristics of the settlement,
Fig. 3. Dominant movement patternsof the post-cokmfa~ era.
The resultant urban movement patterns, together with the additional travel demands generated by increased migration from the rural areas, exerted pressures on the urban form and its infrastructure which they were ill-equipped to resolve. Compounding the situation was a relaxation (not always by design) of traffic regulations, parking restrictions and land-use controls; within a few years of in-
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities the Third Generation
103
dependence, many of the more formalised land-use and urban patterns superimposed on the original settlement structure were eroded. The internal planning response to the above situation was slow, for many of the post-independence governments placed a great deal of emphasis on national (a-spatial) economic policies, rather than urban development. Reliance upon industrialisation and modernisation to achieve national economic goals further accentuated the transport problems of such cities: much of the resultant industrial investment took place in urban areas, thus generating additional transport demands on an already inadequate and overcongested system. The technological forces released by the adopted industrialisation and modernisation development strategy also generated new travel patterns, as well as different travel behaviour and lifestyles, all of which were to mix with the old. This then, was the ‘second generation’ of urban transport problems faced by many Third World cities. However, with inadequate technical and administrative capacity to tackle the situation confronting them, it was to the industrialised nations that the Third World governments turned for assistance. Whether the initial contact was with the international development agencies or through bilateral trade negotiations, the result was invariably the appointment of international consultants from industrialised countries, commissioned to examine these urban transport problems. Such consultants were either appointed on the basis of their previous transport planning experience in developing countries during the colonial period or as a result of the expertise they had acquired in their own countries. Given the confined scope of urban transport planning during the colonial period, consultants appointed on the basis of their colonial experience possessed a limited understanding of the urban movement problems of the majority of the indigenous population. Moreover, those consultants appointed on the basis of their home experience too readily resorted to highway-orientated solutions based upon a standardised urban transport planning approach developed in the industrialised world. As a result, transport plans for a large number of Third World cities - such as Calcutta, Kuala Lumpur and Lagos - are now based upon procedures which owe their origin to developments in urban transport planning practice in the USA. For, between the mid-l 950s and early 197Os, the USA saw the evolution of transport planning procedures developed for the planning and const~ction of 42,500 miles of inter-state highways (at a total cost of US$114 billion, of which 8,500 miles were in urban areas - possibly the most costly public sector project in the world).2 These procedures, packaged into a single basic urban transport planning approach (with numerous variations) are perhaps supported by the best financed research and development of all urban infrastructure planning procedures. It was not surprising therefore that many of the international consultancy teams employed this standardised approach. Indeed, it is only within the last five years or so that greater emphasis has been placed on traffic management measures, The underlying assumptions and perceptions of the standardised approach are however still being employed in traffic management and other more short-term traffic and transport planning approaches for developing countries. The discussion which follows attempts to highlight the implications of the continued use of such assumptions and perceptions. SOME ASSUMPTIONS OF THE URBAN TRANSPORT
The general assumptions procedures, are that:
PLANNING PROCESS
of the urban transport planning process and its related
* Schwartz, G.T., “Urban Freeways and the Interstate March 1976.
System”, South California Law Review Vol. 49,
104
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
(a) travel is a function of land use and land use is a function, amongst other things, of available transport; and (b) the above relationship can be measured accurately enough to be successfully simulated for predictive purposes. In its application to Third World settlements, the process thus assumes that urban transport supply and demand may similarly be adequately simulated in such cities, despite their differing cultural and developmental circumstances. However, it has been recently argued3 that this assumption is too simplistic in respect of social norms and cultural values, with consequent deficiencies in the models. Indeed, additional research suggests that a whole battery of other implicit developmental assumptions, equally as controversial as the social and cultural values embedded in the cause-effect relationships simulated,4 may be identified. Some major assumptions, common to many urban transport planning exercises in developing countries, may be considered. The authors regard them as either misconceived in any context or inappropriate to the developmental circumstances of Third World cities. (1) The urban transport problem is essentially the problem of how to overcome motorised traffic congestion. Comment. In spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of households in Third World cities are not vehicle-owning households (see, for example, Table 2), urban transport problems are almost invariably perceived in terms of motorised especially private car - traffic congestion. Meanwhile, scant attention is given to the urban movement problems of the non-motorised transport sector, the means of movement relied upon by the majority of the poorer inhabitants of Third World cities. Table 2. Levels of motorisation in Indian cities Non-car-owning 1961 Delhi Bombay Madras Calcutta
households 1971
91 94 97 96
Source: Kumar, R.K. and Rao, M.S.V., “An Appraisal Techniques”, Indian Highways, September 1975.
93 _ 91 95
Car-owning 1961
households
3 6 3 4 of Transportation
Planning
1971 1 3 5
and Trawl
Forecasting
(2) Rapidly increasing car-ownership levels are inevitable. Comment. Dramatic rises in car-ownership levels in Third World cities (see Table 3) are invariably taken as an inevitable trend to be accommodated. Very often, saturation levels of these predictions are likened to those of the industrialised countries, with the net result that scarce resources are allocated to provide for the anticipated increased levels of car-ownership - thus making such projections self-fulfilling. (3) Informal public transport does not warrant detailed study. Comment. Many urban transport planning studies in developing countries fail to concern themselves with informal means of public transport - except perhaps to recommend their abolition in favour of municipal or government-run services! However, those that do, often reveal an insufficient understanding of the operating characteristics and related travel behaviour of such systems. Yet the increasing dependancy upon such transport modes by the urban poor, not only for mobility 3 Banjo, C.C.A., “The Relevance of Travel Time Valuation in Developing Countries”, paper presented at PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, July 1979. 4 Dimitriou, H.T., “The Urban Transport Planning Process: an txamination of the Validity of its Application to Developing Countries”, Chap. 2 of an unpublished draft Ph.D. Thesis, University of Sheffield, June 1980.
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities: the Third Generation
105
but also for employment, has wide-ranging implications where informal public transport is either omitted or superficially provided. (4) Benefits are best derived by improving the operational efficiency of urban transport systems. Comment. The assumption that improvements to the operational characteristics of an urban transport system will automatically yield benefits (at least in most cases), not only to the system itself and thus to its users, but also to the urban area it serves, is a dominant assumption of urban transport planning practice in most countries. This bias towards transport user interests, however, has wider and more critical implications in developing countries, especially if the urban transport system in question is planned and managed in favour of a particular section of the travelling community. In these situations, not only are efficiency goals pursued at a high opportunity cost of more general urban development goals, but the elitist interests of a particular section of the travelling public are also pursued at the expense of the majority of other transport users. (5) Variables affecting travel demand will not experience unexpected changes. Comment. An assumption increasingly being criticised, yet still essential if urban transport plans are to make forecasts, is that no major unexpected changes are to take place in the variables affecting travel during the planning period of an urban transport study. Although long-term forecasting exercises are no longer favoured, the issue still remains critical for studies in developing countries empolying more immediate horizons of lo- 15 years. For the rate of change in Third World cities is both very much more robust and unpredictable than in cities of the industrialised countries. (6) Urban transport problems are essentially the same world-wide. Comment. The use of urban transport planning procedures in Third World cities initially designed for industrialised countries perhaps implies this most general of all the assumptions. Hence, the problems of Third World cities are merely a special case of this international phenomenon. This general assumption, the use of a standardised approach to resolving urban transport problems in different cities, irrespective of their cultural and developmental context, is thus legitimised. However, the very different evolutionary development of urban transport problems in developing countries, suggests that this is not invalid but currently is contributing to the increasing internationalisation of the character of urban problems. Partly as a result of the above assumptions, the basic travel problems of the inhabitants of Third World cities remain unresolved. Scarce resources have meanwhile been mis-spent on recommendations based upon misconceived or inappropriate assumptions, which merely add to the existing urban movement problems. The current urban transport problems of Third World cities must therefore be seen as evolving not only from the characteristics of the settlements themselves, and their inhabitants’ travel demands, but also from the planning response(s) to which they have been subjected. A depiction of urban transport problem development in Third World cities is suggested in Fig. 4. The containment of the indigenous population’s urban transport problems during the colonial period enabled the colonialists to confine their concern to the transport system serving their own economic and administrative interests. The subsequent abandonment of separate development after independence threw open the whole city to the indigenous population, changing almost overnight the demands made upon the existing transport system. The urban movement problems of the native population, now not confined to their own residential areas, extended to the whole city. Since the colonial transport system was not designed to accommodate the new travel patterns and volumes which emerged after independence, the Third World looked to the industrialised countries for assistance in tackling these problems. The nature of the assistance was such that
6.0 4.5 1.9 12.1
810 820 555 660
270 390 180 440 325 850 360 950 525 1,100 660 1,275 1,800 785 760 1,600 430 275
(3)
per capita (USS) (1970)
Income
t Included in ‘other motorised’. 2 Figures 9 Figures for 1972. lo Figures for 1973.
2,800 1,505 1,448 1,134
Istanbul Casablanca Lagos Kinshasa
2.2 3.7 4.5 8.5 5.3 2.9 5.6 7.0 6.2 2.6 6.5 5.8 2.4 6.4 1.3 5.4 5.4 5.7
(2)
(1)
1,402 5,192 3,438 5,536 4,312 3,350 3,460 3,600 3,090 2,110 755 8,600 8,400 8,400 2,551 2,277 435 6,500
Calcutta Bombay Madras Seoul Jakarta Hong Kong Karachi Tehran Bangkok Singapore Kuala Lumpur Mexico City Buenos Aires Slo Paul0 Bogotii Caracas San Jose Cairo
City
Rate of growth of population (%) (1960-70)
Population (1,000) (1970)
1.0 1.2 1.3 1.0 1.3 1.6 1.3 1.4 0.6 1.0 0.3 0.2 0.4 1.0 0.4
(15.4) 12.0 6.7 11.3 10.5 (12.1) _ 8.3 10.9 _ 12.2 (6.1) 15.5 _
for 1966. 4 Figures
(6) 0.3 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.1 0.3 2.1
(5)
13.1 26.1 8.3 -
6.8 16.3 17.9 21.8 9.0 25.6 10.6 25.0 27.3 34.0 -
4.0 4.5 1.9 3.5 4.3 _ 7.0
(7)
62 80 25 60 212 140 105 350 135 100 200 25 120 150 20 for 1968. 6 Figures
30 80 25 35 212 140 70 350 135 100 100 25 120 75 20 0.80 1.46 0.52 1.52
0.35 0.50 0.98 !.40 0.45 1.29 1.30 0.10 0.13 0.98 _
1.76 1.76 1.76 1.65 0.44 0.89 1.10
(10)
Price of regular grade gasoline per US gallon (USS) (Oct. 1974)
28 _ _ 58
51 _ 12 33
8 29 22 16 31 29 24 47 19 17 26 17 46 23 _
34 41 54 89 49 55 63 42 59 43 35 65 60 60 71 35 74 -
(11)
Buses
8 ‘t
Automobiles
82 g7
l?
583 48’ 46a 37 229 232 21* 217 127 335 187 163 236 144 126 193 31°
Other motorised
Modal split of motorised trips (%)
for 1969. 7 Figures for 1970. 8 Figures for 1971.
(9) 150 150 150 150 200 150 _
(8) 150 150 150 100 200 300 _
Import duty on luxury cars (%) (Oct. 1914)
Import duty on economy cars (%) (Oct. 1914)
for 1967. ’ Figures
Number of buses per 1,000 population (1910)
1.2 8.2 5.8 22.0 8.8 (Z)
Rate of growth of automobiles (%) (1960-10)
for 1965. 3 Figures
21.0 12.9 22.8 _
13.0 13.5 7.9 6.3 18.0 26.2 10.4 44.4 49.1 73.0 51.9 78.3 73.9 62.3 22.0 91.0 47.9 _
(4)
Number of automobiles per 1,000 Po~lu;;tipn
Number of commercial vehicles per 1,000 population (1970)
Table 3. Population and transport data of selected cities
_
_ _
_
6
4 2 10 10-20
2.5 _
5
3-8 5 6.5
4-10 1
4
3 3 3
(12)
Bus fare for a 3-mile trip (US cents) (Oct. 1974)
-. $ 3. :
3
$
za 2 3 3
Q $ G
746 600 567 424 350 225 14,900 10,547 8,448 2,416 757
2.5 2.9 8.1 11.0 9.0 3.1 3.4 -0.7 1.3 3.0 -0.1
Rate of growth of population (%) (1960-70)
500 1,000 495 500 710 660 2,715 2,550 3,530 5,390
Income per capita (US$) (1970)
57.6 153.0 52.7 75.5 33.0 45.7 83.3 222.0 248.0 60.8 316.0
Number of automobiles per 1,000 pop;ull~;n
(12.7) _ 16.0 5.2 6.5 12.8 2.0
6.0 (G)
Rate of growth of automobiles (%) (1960-70) 0.5 2.3 1.5 1.7 0.6 1.1 1.3 0.6 0.4 2.5 2.9
Number of buses per 1,000 population (1970) 12.1 17.3 40.6 35.4 17.3 22.1 134.5 22.0 44.4 18.2 24.1
33 32 40 58 75 10 40 15.4 11 25 3
Import duty on economy cars (%) (Oct. 1974) 33 32 100 58 150 10 40 15.4 11 25 3
Import duty on luxury cars (%) (Oct. 1974) 1.50 0.54 1.12 1.31 _ _ 1.46 1.29 1.40 2.15 0.55
Price of regular grade gasoline per US gallon (US8) (Oct. 1974) lo9 30’ -’ 13ro 534 27: 57’ 17’ 432 -i
32 68
Other motorised
75 10 28 47 40 7 8 24 21 _
Buses
15 60 72 40 7 66 35 59 36 -
Automobiles
Modal split of motorised trips (%)
25 25 30 10 40
1.5 6 10 5
Bus fare for a 3-mile trip (US cents) (Oct. 1974)
Table reproduced
from: WORLD
BANK,
Urban Transport, Sector
Policy Paper, May 1975.
Sources: United Nations, World’s Million Cities, 1972 (for columns 1 and 2). Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, Digest of Import Duties for Motor Vehicles Levied by Selected Countries, 1974 (columns 5 and 6). Wilfred Owen, Brookings Institution, Automobiles and Cities - Strategies for Developing Countries, Bank Staff Working Paper No. 162, September missions and government authorities (columns 10 and 12).
1973.
Data supplied
by Bank
Notes: Because of the variety of sources, differences of definition and general weaknesses of collection, the data, though indicating orders of magnitude, have only limited comparability. Caution is accordingly required in their use. See below for general notes and sources. The data in the table were obtained from several publications indicated below, supplemented by information in various urban and transport studies available in the Bank. Information was also collected by World Bank missions and from government authorities. Since the sources and methods of data collection are extremely diverse, the table indicates only in rough measure conditions of urbanisation and motorisation. Data for columns 1, 3,4,6, and 7 are for 1970, except in the case of a few cities for which data for 1969 or 1971 had to be used. Rates of growth in columns 2 and 5 are for 1960-70, except for a few cities where growth rates were available for a shorter period only. Growth rates in parentheses are for the country and not the city. For columns 8 and 9, a Toyota Corona was used to represent an economy car and a Mercedes-Benz 280 a luxury car. In column 11, the data are for different years, depending on the most recent traffic survey available to the Bank, The different years are shown in the footnotes.
Tunis Beirut Nairobi Abidjan Da; es Salaam Lusaka Tokyo London Paris Athens Washington DC
City
Population ( 1,000) (1970)
Number of commercial vehicles per 1,000 population (1970)
Table 3 (continued)
2
2 cl 3” ? 4 6 3
2
$
F’
s 8 n 3
< Y $ &
108
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
Scope of concern
of colonial
Urban transport scope of concern of lmmedlate post-colonial governments ie all movement problems wlthln the settlement
Recent standardised scope of concern of urban transport planning /e prlmarlly motorlsed movement problems wlthln the settlement
excludes aspects such as lnformol publtc transport, non-motorised movement, and soclai / economx impact on the urban poor
Fig. 4. Overlays of Third World urban transport problems in ex-colonial settlements.
it concerned itself only with particular aspects of these problems, leading to the creation of additional problems elsewhere in the urban transport system and the city as a whole.
THE THIRD GENERATION
URBAN TRANSPORT
PROBLEMS
Whilst the specific characteristics of the new generation of Third World urban transport problems vary from city to city, they may be briefly described. (1) Destruction of existing urban form structures. The adoption of universal perceptions of how best to tackle urban transport problems have led many settlements in developing countries to have road patterns imposed upon them such as grid iron networks, totally alien to their existing urban structures. This has again led to the imposition of concepts of order in urban form and movement patterns unrelated to the evolutionary development of such settlements. It has simultaneously led to the indiscriminate disruption of urban social networks and cultural lifestyles upon which people’s livelihood depends - all in the interest of an elitist group’s mobility. (2) Penalisation of the non-motorised community. The obsession of urban transport planning studies with motorised traffic congestion problems, vehicularownership and the means by which these may be accommodated, have produced urban transport systems which primarily benefit motorised traffic. The pursuit of that aim is in fact depriving the vast majority of Third World inhabitants (notably the uban poor), for whom motorised transport is either too costly or just not available, from an equitable provision of urban transport facilities. By
Urban Transport Problems of Third World Cities: the Third Generation
109
adopting a transport planning approach which favours motorised traffic so indiscriminately, the 6lite of these cities are thus in effect acting no differently from their colonial masters in encouraging separate development. (3) Failure to incorporate the informal transport sector into urban transport plans. The absence of any real detailed analysis of the informal public transport sector in most urban transport planning studies for Third World cities has meant that they are, at best, studies of the formal (moto~sed) transport sector alone and are not the comprehensive urban transport planning studies they are often claimed to be. The implications of this are threefold. First, it ensures that transport demand is forecast erroneously, both in nature and amount. Secondly, it denies the urban poor - who are the main users of informal means of transport .any consideration in the planned urban transport infrastructure. Finally, it ensures the continued failure to coordinate the public transport operations of both transport sectors, thus preventing an efficient use being made of all public transport resources in the city. (4) Dominance of transport user considerations. The treatment of urban transport systems as essentially ‘closed systems’ is a familiar characteristic of many urban transport studies, with quantitative transport user costs and benefits ove~lladowing non-transport user aspects. This is especially true where the nontransport user aspects cannot be quantified or are not directly related to the urban transport system itself. With the heavy investment the urban transport sector attracts, this has led to many transport proposals playing an over-dominant role in shaping the future of cities. Furthermore, by facilitating mobility, such proposals not only encourage dispersed urban development, and thus more travel, but also generate additional problems outside the transport sector. This is clear, for example, in land-use planning and energy conservation, which are critical problems for Third World countries. (5) Trends providing the blueprint for the future. Urban transport ‘improvements’ to many Third World cities have been based upon the operational convenience of a particular transport system, namely a road system for motorised (often private) transport, on the assumption that the transport technologies and energy sources will be available for a substantial proportion of the lifespan of the settlement in question. Quite clearly, however, these assumptions do not stand the test of time in the industrialised world. This is especially evident in many cities utilising car-orientated transport systems in the USA, which have seen the decline of their central areas as urban decentralisation increased. Trends in the USA now suggest a reversal of these developments, in the meantime wasting vast amounts of resources in the abandonment and re-modification of urban land uses. Third World countries cannot afford such an experience and, yet, there is growing evidence that such trends are being repeated, where standardised urban transport planning approaches based on the demands of the motor car have been employed.
CONCLUSIONS
Whilst it is appreciated that many of the assumptions identified in this paper are not exclusively inappropriate to Third World cities, in that they may be argued as misconceived in any context, the authors are of the opinion that their invalidity is much more critical in developing countries, in the light of their limited resources and more acute problems. Furthermore, although it is readily appreciated that there is a growing awareness among transport planners of the deficiencies of the more conventional transport planning procedures and their Ll~lderlying assumptions, the authors remain rather concerned at the direction in which alternative approaches are being sought. For it is felt that the current return to traffic management and short-term
110
George Banjo and Harry Dimitriou
traffic planning measures still rely (if not implicitly) upon many of the assumptions and perceptions criticised in this paper. The notion that one has to make assumptions and, once made, plough on with the ‘real issues’, never to return to them again for modification has proved to be both expensive and undesirable. It is only through a fundamental reconsideration of the conceptual basis for urban transport planning in developing countries that new generations of urban transport problems can be avoided.
REFERENCES Dimitriou, presented
Integration H.T., “A Call for the Effective at PTRC Summer Annual Meeting, July 1978.
of Urban
Planning
Kumar, niques”,
of Transportation Planning R.K. and Rao, M.S.V., “An Appraisal Indian Highways Vol. 3, No. 9, NW Delhi, September 1975.
Hawkins, London,
E.K., Roads and Road Transport in an Underdeveloped 1962.
World Bank,
Urban Transport, Sector
Policy
Paper, Washington,
in Developing and Travel
Countries”,
paper
Forecasting
Tech-
Country: a Case Study of Uganda. HMSO,
DC, May 1975.
Editors’ Note: Because of vagaries of international postal services, it has proved necessary to proceed to publication without receiving the authors’ final corrections. The Editors have made every effort to ensure that the authors’ final text has been accurately reproduced here, but accept responsibility for any deviation therefrom.