RETHINKING URBAN TRANSPORT

RETHINKING URBAN TRANSPORT

The automobile once promised a dazzling world of speed freedom, and convenience, magically conveying people wherever the road would enthusiastically embraced the dream of car ownership. But societies that have built their transport systems around the automobile are now waking up to a much harsher reality. The problems created by overreliance on the car are outweighing its benefits.

These problems are numerous and widespread. Traffic congestion and air pollution plague all major cities, and oil dependence makes economies vulnerable. Cities with streets designed for cars instead of people are increasingly unlivable. In developing countries, automobile serve only a small elite and leave the vast majority with inadequate transport. In Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, recent reforms could add the problems of automobile dependence to overwhelming economic and environmental crises.

A new, more national approach to transportation is needed, one that puts the automobile in its rightful place in a city as one among many options for travel. Buses and trains are more appropriate than private cars as the centerpieces of transportation systems, particularly in the world’s most congested urban area. At reasonable occupancy rates, public transport uses space and energy many times more efficiently than cars do and create much less pollution.

In this new transport environment, walking and bicycling would also play important roles complementing public transport with the convenience of individual mobility. These non-motorized forms of travel have the potential to provide a considerable share of transportation – as long as cities cater for the needs pedestrians and cyclists.

Getting away from automobile also requires gradually restructuring cities and suburbs to lessen the need for driving. Development can be planned to create compact cities in which jobs, homes, and services are considered and near public transport. In both industrial and developing countries, careful urban planning can help meet future transportation needs by minimizing the demand for travel.

Perhaps more than any other inventions, the automobile embodies author Jacques Ellu’s observation about all technologies:  it makes a good servant but a bad master. Yet obeying the demands of the private car has become a passive routine for many of the world’s cities. Automobile access has dictated the very character of urban life, most obviously in the design of the modern cities. Vast road and parking lots distorts cityscape into proportion, which dwarf and intimidate humans. Once all available surface space has been surrendered to private cars, engineer has turn to space overhead and underground. In a final gesture of submission entrepreneurs in Yokohama, Japan, recently opened a floating parking lot in local bay.

Growth in the world’s 400-million-strong auto fleet makes it clear that if society fails to regain mastery over this servant, car related problems will become global crises.    The average annual rate of growth in car ownership has slowed from 5 per cent in the seventies to 3 per cent in the eighties because of saturation in the industrial countries.

Motor vehicle are the single largest source of air pollution, create a haze of smog over the world cities. The main component of car induced smog is ozone, a gas formed as nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons react with sunlight. Ozone and other pollutants – hydrocarbons monoxides, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbon – aggravate bronchial and lung disorders and are often deadly to asthmatics, children, and the elderly. Automobiles also emit carbon dioxide; the greenhouse gas is responsible for over half the global warming problem. Passenger cars account for more than 13 per cent of the total carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuels worldwide, or more than 700 million tons of carbon annually.

The economic and political vulnerability of a car-dependent society becomes painfully clear whenever there is an oil crisis. The United State, which devotes 43 per cent of its petroleum use to  run cars and light trucks and imports half its oil, was sharply jolted in August 1990 when Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait claiming control over nearly 20 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves. Even when the current crisis subsides, the Middle East may never again be counted on for a stable supply of oil.

            Public transport plays a central role in any efficiently urban transport system. In developing countries when at least 10 cities are expected to have more than 12 million people each by the end of this decade failing to give priority to public transport would be disastrous. But neither the exploding Cairo and Delhis nor the relatively stabilized New Yorks and London’s can sustain future growth in automobile use. As the nineties begin, a new oil crisis mounting pollution and congestion, and global warming all call for a greater commitment to public transport.

The term ‘public transport’ covers many different types of vehicles, but most commonly it refers to buses and trains. Buses take many forms, from mini-buses to double length vehicles with pivoting centers Rail services which fall into four major categories: rapid rail (also called the underground, tube, metro, or subway), which operates on exclusive right-of-way in tunnels on elevated tracks; streetcars (or trains) which move with other traffic on a regular streets; light rail (or trolleys), quieter, more modern versions of streetcars that can run either on exclusive right-of-way or with traffic; and suburban or regional trains which connect a city with surrounding areas.

   The concept of public transport also includes organized car pools and van pools. For U. S commuters in areas with in adequate bus and train service, this is the only ‘public’ transport option. But even when the other systems are comprehensive, there is vast potential for carpooling; recent research shows that in cities the world over, private cars during commuting hours on average carry just 1.2 – 1.3 persons per vehicle.

Public transport modes vary in fuel use and emissions and in the space they require-but if carrying reasonable numbers of passengers, they all outperform one-occupant private cars on each of these counts. Although energy requirements vary according to the size and design of the vehicle and how many people are on board, buses and trains requires far less fuel per passenger for each kilometer of travel. In the United States, for example, a light-rail vehicle carrying 55 passengers needs an estimated 640 Btus of energy per passenger per kilometer; a city bus with 45 passengers would use 690 Btus per passenger kilometer; a city bus with 45 passengers would use some 690 Btus per passenger-kilometers; and a car pool with four occupants, 1.140 Btus. A single-occupant automobile, by contrast, burns nearly 4,580 Btus per passenger kilometer.

(From: M. D Lowe ‘Rethinking Urban Transport’ in I.R. Brown (ed). State of the World New York: N. W. Norton and Co, 1991)

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka