Congestion pricing for Latin America: Prospects and constraints

In an effort to reduce the adverse impacts of the car and promote sustainable transport in Latin America, some governments have either implemented travel demand management policies or have considered ways of directly reducing the number of vehicles in congested areas. While demand management measures have been promoted in a small number of countries, including vehicular restrictions as well as the promotion of public transport modes, there are currently no congestion pricing programmes in operation in Latin America. This paper begins with an overview of travel demand management, including its principal aims as well as its primary objectives within the Latin American context. It discusses past efforts to promote traffic restraint and perspectives for developing congestion pricing schemes in both São Paulo and Santiago. Finally, it examines the potential role of congestion pricing as a demand management tool. While it is one of the most effective demand management measures in the industrialised world, a number of barriers currently prevent it from being widely adopted in Latin America.     

Nations and regions in transition

The workshop included presentations of nine papers covering very different types of situations and transitions. Some papers were region specific (Russia, Middle East, Asia, Europe, and two from Latin America) and others were of general applicability. The discussion highlights that virtually all cities and regions will go through one type of transition or another, sooner or later, and that the study of such transitions provides a very rich learning environment. The most important conclusion has been that in many cases the stability of supply and accessibility to public transport by all population segments is more important than competition and ownership.     

IAME 2011 – contemporary studies on maritime transport in Latin America

Latin America and the Caribbean have evolved as a region of increased interest for the maritime and port industry as well as for academic research. Maritime transport activity in the region has experienced sustained growth rates over the last decades, resulting in ever-increasing demand for maritime services and port infrastructure. At the 2011 Annual Conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), Latin America received significant attention. This editorial responds to growing research by giving a brief overview of the current situation and contemporary issues in maritime transport within the region. It also introduces the six selected papers for this Special Issue.     

Cities on the move – Ten years after

The World Bank urban transport strategy review, “Cities on the Move” analyzed urban transport problems in developing and transitional economies and articulated a proposed strategy framework for national and city governments. This paper describes how the urban transport problems of the developing world have changed in the last decade and assesses the extent to which the strategies recommended in 2002 have been successfully implemented. It shows that progress has been widespread in some areas – particularly in mass transit analysis and investment and some environmental policies – and that there have developed some good planning and public transport practices in a smaller number of model cities. But more strategic institutional and policy issues, including the mobilization and regulation of private sector initiative in meeting infrastructure and public transport supply deficiencies, have tended to be poorly developed. Above all, the growth of medium sized cities with weak institutions and finance highlights the need for the international development institutions to put greater emphasis on helping those cities by dissemination of best practice in strategic transport planning and traffic management.     

拉美水工工程承包市场分析

拉美水工工程市场潜力巨大，但由于中拉文化和体制的差异，目前拉美水工工程市场尚未得到充分开发。介绍拉美地区基础设施的现状，并结合实际市场开发中的经验和教训，阐述在拉美地区开拓水工工程市场将面临的困难及问题，并提供了有效的应对策略。随着中国与拉美各国经贸合作的不断深入，中拉双方将在水工承包领域拥有更加广阔的合作前景。     

How much can public private partnership really do for urban transport in developing countries?

A few cities in some of the larger developing countries in Latin America and Asia have made increasing use of multi-year concessions or franchises, competitively awarded to private companies, for construction and operation of urban transport infrastructure and for provision of public transport services. In view of the strong prospective growth of developing-country cities with large transport needs, and the rise in the emerging economies of potential new sources of private capital, it is important to see how effective PPP has so far been in this area. The experience is analyzed principally by thorough comparative review of what has actually happened for some of the main users to date: Bogotá, Santiago, São Paulo, Seoul, and several cities in both China and India. Despite delays and mistakes that have been made in development of most of the projects, the overall results, already delivered and in prospect, are very positive and urban public transport is benefiting substantially, with significant side effects on poorer people's access to work and to services, air pollution levels and road accident rates. The widest and most important advantage of the PPP arrangements, as compared with more conventional short-term contracting, is found to be the innovations, technical and managerial, developed, and, in particular, the mutual capacity building of the countries' private and public sectors and their more effective interaction. The experience in the six countries covered suggests that other developing-country cities may be best assisted to develop sound urban transport PPPs more rapidly through provision of help on chosen items among 7 elements that have proved particularly crucial but sometimes weak in the projects reviewed: Civic consultation systems, Land-use/Transport strategic planning, Land/property market management, Monitoring systems, Progressive policies, Economic regulation, and Public institutional framework for PPPs.     

Urban transport lending by the World Bank: The last decade

Over the preceding decade, the World Bank committed about US$7.5bn in loans for urban transport projects in its client countries, involving total project costs of nearly US$13bn. Projects are designed by the client city/national governments and the World Bank in an interactive, give-and-take process. As is common in development finance, urban transport projects entail an investment program and a set of policy and institutional initiatives. A majority of Bank-funded operations in this period focused on public transport modes. A clear and overarching strategic thrust is evident, favoring private delivery of services with a strong public role through city-specific regulatory agencies. Depending on the context, projects involved efforts to introduce private operators and competition into an all-public set-up, or tighten up weakly regulated, “informal” public transport markets. A notable feature of many projects in the latter context is the use of investments in bus rapid transit infrastructure to reach multiple goals: improve transport services, maintain affordability for low-income passengers, attract new passengers, reduce negative environmental impacts, and leverage complementary reforms of policies and institutions. The Bank’s program in China, unique in its local context of a dynamic urban society moving away from a near-universal reliance on bicycles, initially did not focus on public transport but on urban roads and traffic management. Towards the end of the last decade, the motorization process and the outlook of decision makers entering a more mature stage, projects in China started to converge towards what the rest of the Bank’s program was doing – searching for a more sustainable path to urban transport development.     

Four decades of changing transport policy in Santiago,Chile

During the last forty years, Santiago has experienced a series of drastic changes in public transport policies. These changes have ranged widely, from total deregulation to processes that concentrated the management of public transport within the hands of the public sector.     

Transantiago: A tale of two cities

The Chilean government decided to modernize Santiago's entire public transport system, integrating the underground and the private bus networks based on a structure of trunk and feeder services, and a fare-payment by touchless smart card. The new, integrated transit system, known as Transantiago, very soon ran into serious problems that alienated much of its user base and significantly lowered the government's approval ratings. This paper recounts how Transantiago was planned and designed and then discusses its evolution after implementation. It concludes with suggestions for the Transantiago authorities and lessons to be learned from this traumatic process.     

Comparisons of urban transport sustainability: Lessons from West and North Africa

The diagnosis for urban transport sustainability depends on the context of different regions worldwide. We focus in this paper on West and North Africa which reveal similarities but also structural differences which are explored further. The importance of paratransit in its various forms is strongly observed in sub-Saharan Africa and to a lesser extent in North Africa. The attempts to regulate and organise this sector have been difficult; one interesting experience in Dakar occurred during a programme of fleet renewal. In parallel it is observed that there are positive but insufficient experiences of public transport authorities in some cities (Dakar, Abidjan) and similar projects postponed in other cities because of the institutional problems. One also observes the constant difficulties of designing sustainable schemes for bus companies. An answer to this crisis has been found in North Africa, through investment in new mass transport systems. However, mass transport projects in West Africa are very weak in comparison. The gap between public transport costs and income levels there remains a major obstacle to sustainable mobility exacerbated by the poverty of a significant part of the urban population in West Africa. Two other critical factors are also identified affecting sustainable mobility requirements, namely, the urban sprawl and increasing energy costs. Finally the conclusion recommends the use of research and expertise networks in order to help the design and the implementation of suited solutions.     

Engaging paratransit on public transport reform initiatives in South Africa: A critique of policy and an investigation of appropriate engagement approaches

A number of South African cities are planning integrated public transport networks that rely on the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), in line with similar trends to expand or upgrade public transport services in emerging and industrialised urban transport markets around the globe. In addition, BRT in South Africa is being used as a mechanism to drive reform in the dominant yet highly fragmented paratransit sector, inspired by similar processes particularly in Latin American cities such as Bogotá, Mexico City, and Santiago de Chile. Thousands of paratransit operators would have to formalise their businesses, or merge into new or existing operator entities in order to participate in the new systems. There is, however, an absence of accessible business plans and regulatory regime proposals around which paratransit can be engaged to convince it to alter its current modus operandi. A large number of national, regional and local paratransit groupings have furthermore indicated their resistance to the planned networks on the grounds of insufficient consultation, an unclear future role in the system and employee redundancies. Should this deadlock not be resolved, it seems unlikely that the planned networks will be realised in the proposed timeframes, if indeed at all. This paper investigates the South African passenger transport policy framework that has contributed to the current deadlock, and explores appropriate approaches to engaging paratransit operators on a system of contracting, competition and ownership that recognises the sector’s aspirations and fragmented nature, yet contributes towards improved passenger transport services. It is the authors’ view that paratransit reform is a highly context-specific process, even at the sub-city level, and that this could prevent transferring paratransit regulatory and integration approaches across countries, and even cities in the same country, without adaptation to local conditions.     

新型交通工具在交通运输中的应用进展和展望

为了应对快速城镇化发展中的城市交通问题,城市新型交通工具发展迅速。文中综述了国内外11种新型交通工具的关键技术和特性,包括城市轨道交通、地面交通及航空交通,考察新型交通工具在公路、铁路、航空等不同模式下的具体应用,并从资源环境约束、技术经济性能、系统服务性能、产业发展潜力等方面讨论新型交通工具的发展态势。提出多模式一体化综合交通系统发展的关键特征在于共享、畅达、绿色、公平。     

Mumbai lunch box delivery system: A transferable benchmark in urban logistics?

This paper presents findings of a freight transport study carried out for Mumbai city (India). Based on the case study of lunch box delivery system organized by the Mumbai dabbawalas, demonstrated that an informal sector was capable of developing an urban logistics system that was precise, reliable and affordable to the middle class society in Mumbai. These facts suggest an approach based on adapting logistics solutions harmoniously to the urban landscape, public policy, infrastructure and skill sets of the company’s employees in order to be attractive to the end customer, offering a good match between supply and demand i.e., consumer and producer satisfaction. At the same time logistics solutions should evolve continuously in order to be attractive to the core customer base and should be customer driven. These basic management principles can be applied in the management of other urban logistics companies in the world over.     

渤海湾滚装船开展甩挂运输可行性研究

近几年,渤海湾装滚运输的发展势头很强,但渤海湾的水面风大浪高,如果用通常的客滚运输方式,很难保证安全运输。为了加强渤海湾滚装运输的安全,提出了一种全新的滚装船甩挂运输的运输方式,探讨了滚装船甩挂运输的运输组织形式。并从安全、经济、技术和运输组织方面对在渤海湾滚装船上开展甩挂运输的可行性进行了研究。     

论泥沙运动理论的流派及相互关系

泥沙运动理论种类繁多 ,众说纷纭 ,这给泥沙工作者带来了诸多不便。按各学者研究泥沙运动所引起的水流强度指标 ,对泥沙运动理论的流派地行了划分 ,分为力学派、运动学派和能量学派。在理论上 ,各学派均可表示成统一的形式 ,根本区别在于各学派对于阻力系数对泥沙运动影响上认识不一致。在运用上 ,除个别问题外 ,对各学派的优劣存在较大分歧 ,特别在预测输沙强度方面 ,虽说能量学派占有一定的优势 ,但仍有待进一步检验     

Short sea shipping in North America: understanding the requirements of Atlantic Canadian shippers

This research examines the potential for short sea shipping services on the east coast of North America, and focuses on the factors that freight shippers use to choose a transport mode. While there is significant literature available on modal choice and carrier selection, very little examines the effect of splitting the business on the choice that shippers specifically make between short sea and trucking options. Contrary to existing literature, we find that shippers' perceptions of short sea are favourable in this market. We also identify a new method of collecting data on how companies split business in these decisions.     

Promoting social inclusion in a deregulated environment: Extending accessibility using collective taxi-based services

Bus based public transport has enjoyed revitalisation in many urban areas but outside large towns and cities its provision and quality remains erratic. Many rural settlements have infrequent services giving rise to social exclusion through transport disadvantage.The UK Government highlighted a need in Towards a Sustainable Transport System (2007) for radical new thinking on rural accessibility to help meet goals of quality of life and accessibility for all and to help meet the challenge in finding carbon friendly ways of meeting rural transport needs. This paper reports work undertaken for the Commission for Integrated Transport, an advisory body to UK Government, on how shared taxi-schemes could be developed within a deregulated environment to meet rural accessibility needs. This is based on an analysis of institutional barriers and comparison between successful mainland European schemes and UK schemes. The paper considers economic viability and the levels of subsidy currently used to provide accessibility in rural areas to show the potential for making current expenditure on rural transport in the UK ‘work harder’ to deliver a collective taxi-based service as part of the public transport mix so as to increase rural accessibility.     

Mumbai Urban Transport Project – A multi dimensional approach to improve urban transport

This paper attempts to bring out the lessons learned from implementation of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), a World Bank financed project. While some of the problems and many solutions may be case specific, the lessons learnt would be of use for other similar interventions especially in similar urban settings. Even complex engineering challenges are generally easy to be surmounted, when compared with the bigger challenges like resettling the project affected peoples, managing several stake holders and institutions, bringing them together and they agreeing to do things differently.     

长江上游集装箱运输方案优选

随着国际集装箱运输的发展,世界各国开始采用滚装运输方式组织集装箱运输,逐渐形成了一种新颖的集装箱滚装运输工艺。目前长江滚装运输以载重汽车滚装为主,尚未发展为标准化滚装集装箱运输。文中利用层次分析法,对长江上游的万州到宜昌段滚装集装箱运输方式与传统的公路集装箱运输之间进行定量综合分析。通过比较,可以看出长江上游集装箱滚装运输与传统集装箱运输之间的优势和不足。文中对长江上游实行集装箱滚装运输的可行性进行了初步探讨。     

散货集装化运输、装船工艺的发展趋势

为了提高生产效率,研发了散货集装化运输、装船工艺。分析这一新工艺形成的背景。将散货集装化运输、装船工艺与传统工艺比较,展示了新工艺的诸多优点。最后,对散货集装化运输、装船工艺与传统工艺的发展前景作了展望。