Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) News Digest - Vol. 6 Issue 2 - 8 February 2008

[sudhir]

Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) News Digest

Vol. 6 Issue 2 - 8 February 2008

SUMA News Digest is a free weekly e-mail publication that features
news, information, and events related to sustainable urban
transportation in Asia.

*** VISIT THE SUMA PAGES: http://www.cleanairnet.org/suma ***

SUMA PARTNERS ON THE MOVE!

Bangalore Cycling Initiative workshop

January 31, 2009, EMBARQ and Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-CE)
jointly organized the Bangalore Cycling Initiative workshop under the
SUMA program. This workshop was sponsored by Bangalore Metropolitan
Land Transport Authority (BMLTA). Karnataka State Road Transport
Corporation (KSRTC), Bangalore City Connect Foundations, and Ride a
Cycle Foundation were the local partners for the workshop. The
workshop was very successful with participation from public, private
and civil society sectors. Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Member of
Parliament, and the convener of ABIDE was the chief guest for the
workshop.
http://www.embarq.org/en/news/09/01/28/embarq-co-sponsors-bangalore-cycling-workshop
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bangalore/Making_Bangalore_cycle_friendly/articleshow/4058037.cms

India Transport Indicators –

Embarq has released the draft report on India Transport Indicators.
These are indicators reported in city development plans, comprehensive
mobility plans, comprehensive traffic and transport studies and
detailed project reports submitted to the Ministry of Urban
Development between 2005 and 2007. The list was created with an
intention to include, metropolitan cities, cities with ongoing or
future BRT projects. We divided the 12 cities into three categories,
“metro” cities (Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi), “millennium
bloomers” (Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Pune) and “now exploding” (Bhopal,
Indore, Jaipur, Mysore, Rajkot and Surat). http://www.embarq.org/en/india-transport-indicators

Delhi BRTS -

With the financial support of Climate Works Foundation, has
collaborated with the Center for Science and the Environment CSE in
reviewing the current BRT corridor in Delhi and the proposed
expansions to provide recommendations to the local authorities on the
best way to enhance current operations and incorporate best practices
in the proposed expansions. Modifications of the existing operations
are expected during 2009 and expansions are expected to be completed
in 2010.
http://thecityfix.com/op-ed-say-yes-to-improving-delhis-brt/
NEWSREPORTS


HEADLINES

Pakistan: Karachi badly needs cycling, pedestrian tracks

http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73237.html

China: City to spend US$379m on 3,200 new buses (Shanghai)

http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73235.html

China: China to subsidize purchases of clean-energy cars

http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-69329.html

India : 100 AMTS buses proposed to link BRTS network (Ahmedabad)

http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73226.html

India : West Bengal plans BRTS

http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73230.html

Singapore : Singapore increases ten times their CNG vehicles

http://www.gnvmagazine.com/ingles/detalle_noticia.php?id=911

Global : Global Transport Sector Meets To Discuss Greenhouse Gas

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1623956/global_transport_sector_meets_to_discuss_greenhouse_gas/

Bangladesh : Record car sales raise fear of traffic chaos in Dhaka

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/South_Asia/Record_car_sales_raise_fear_of_traffic_chaos_in_Dhaka/articleshow/4040078.cms

* * * *
INTERESTING FINDS/SEMINARS

Summary of World Urban Transport Leaders Summit 2008

The inaugural World Urban Transport Leaders Summit was held from 4 to
6 November 2008 and addressed the theme "Transforming Urban Transport
for Liveability and Sustainability". Organised by LTA Academy, the
event included a two day conference, guided site visits and various
networking and social programmes. The summary has been uploaded at
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-73231.html

Does Traffic Congestion Reduce Employment Growth?

This paper examines the impact of traffic congestion on employment
growth in large U.S. metropolitan areas. Historical highway
construction, political variables, and other traffic measures serve as
instruments for endogenous congestion. The results show that high
initial levels of congestion dampen subsequent employment growth. The
contentious part of the study is one of the conclusions that expanding
road capacity can generate long term economic growth. Read More
http://www.economics.uci.edu/docs/micro/f08/hymel.pdf

Urban Bus Specifications

Indian Ministry of Urban Development has released the book on urban
bus specifications to serve the purpose of educating people about
efforts collectively being made by the Government, Industry and
Academia to improve urban bus- based transportation. The release of
the book comes during interesting times as government has increased
the investment on public transportation as only 25 of large cities in
India offer some form of organized city bus service. Read more
http://urbanindia.nic.in/moud/programme/ut/urbanbus_spec.pdf

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Freight Transport

Over the last 15 years there has been no significant change in the
fuel efficiency of road freight transport in EU -
www.transportenvironment.org/Publications/prep_hand_out/lid:525

Shanghai

In the ten years to 2000, the length of roads increased by 40 per
cent, and the number of cars quadrupled to just over one million.
Official predictions state that by 2020 Shanghai will have 2.5 million
private cars, and that daily motor vehicle trips will increase to
seven million compared to just over three million in 2000. – Shanghai
- Mobility On Demand Urban Implementation Case Study

Air Pollution - Taipei, China

Commuters' PM exposures are significantly influenced by their choice
of commuting modes. Significant long traveling time in the outdoor
environment is an important factor contributing to whole-trip PM
exposures for motorcycle, bus and MRT commuters. This is the reason
why motorcycle, bus and MRT commuters had higher exposure than car
commuters. - Dai-Hua Tsai etal.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V78-4T2RYPR-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1bdea5cf1166b33ffb80c53c3f467a20

CALL FOR RESEARCH PAPERS

We in CAI-Asia are looking for good analytical/research papers on
Sustainable Transport and Air Pollution. If you would like your paper
to be linked/ published in the CAI website, please let us know…

* * * *
MARK YOUR CALENDARS

JARI China Roundtable 2009 , 13 February 2009 Beijing
http://www.jari.or.jp/en/index.html

Fourth Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST forum) in
Asia, Seoul, South Korea, 24-26 February 2009
http://www.uncrd.or.jp/env/4th-regional-est-forum/index.htm

Third International Conference on Urban Transport Systems, Shanghai,
China, 18-20 March 2009 http://www.asce.org/files/pdf/conferences/Call-for-Papers-v2.pdf

Transport Asia 2009 Exhibition, Karachi, Pakistan, 28-30 March 2009
http://www.transportasia.com.pk/

The 4th International Conference on Future Urban Transport, Goteburg,
Sweden, 19-21April 2009 http://www.fut.se/

Urban Transportation 2009, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 26-29 April 2009
http://www.iqpc.com/ShowEvent.aspx?id=166586

Sustainable Development 2009, Cyprus, 13 - 15 May 2009
http://www.wessex.ac.uk/09-conferences/sustainable-development-2009.html

eceee 2009 Summer Study, Côte d'Azur, France, 1-6 June 2009
http://www.eceee.org/summer_study/

Urban Transport 2009, Bologna, Italy, 22-24 June 2009
http://www2.wessex.ac.uk/09-conferences/urban-transport-2009.html

* * * CONTRIBUTE * * *

To contribute articles, news items, or event announcements for the
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mailto: sud...@cai-asia.org Past issues from March and April 2008
are found at http://groups.google.com/group/suma-news

* * * ABOUT SUMA * * *

The Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) program is supported by
the Asian Development Bank through a grant from Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency. SUMA is implemented by the Clean Air
Initiative for Asian Cities Center (www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia), in
partnership with EMBARQ - the World Resources Institute Center for
Sustainable Transport (http://embarq.wri.org), GTZ Sustainable Urban
Transport Project ( www.sutp.org), Interface for Cycling Expertise
(www.cycling.nl), Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
(www.itdp.org), and United Nations Center for Regional Development
(www.uncrd.or.jp/est)