Strategies for sustainable urban and transport development in Nigeria

A transportation system can enhance the productivity and quality of life of a community if properly planned and managed. At the same time, development stimulates demand for transport. This paper looks at urban development and the transport system in Nigeria and finds that conflicts exist between them. The paper then tries to analyse these conflicts with a view to understanding their causal agents in order to address them. Finally, the paper proposes some strategies that could be adopted to resolve the conflicts and put in place sustainable urban development and transport system in Nigeria.     

Verkehrsverbund: the success of regional public transport in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

The Verkehrsverbund system of public transport organization offers a practical solution to the problem of providing integrated regional public transport service for the increasingly suburbanized metropolitan areas of Europe and North America. By carefully coordinating fares and services for all routes, all types of public transport, and all parts of the metropolitan region, Verkehrsverbund systems in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have greatly improved the quality of the public transport alternative to the automobile. Five Verbund systems were chosen for detailed analysis: Hamburg, Munich, the Rhein-Ruhr region, Vienna and Zurich. This article documents the success of each Verbund in attracting more public transport riders and, in most cases, increasing or at least stabilizing public transport's share of modal split. It also analyzes the reasons for the success of the Verkehrsverbund, including service expansion, improvement in service quality, more attractive fares, and extensive marketing campaigns. The five case study systems offer lessons for other public transport systems facing similar challenges of dealing with increasing auto ownership and suburbanization. The article concludes with an analysis of the most challenging problem of all: public transport finance. As shown dramatically by the five case studies, the service improvements and fare structures needed for truly effective regional public transport require substantial government subsidy. Fiscal austerity at every government level is leading to subsidy cutbacks in most countries of Europe and North America. The five case study systems examined in this article provide lessons on how to deal most effectively with limited subsidy funds in order to minimize service deterioration, fare increases and ridership losses.     

Verkehrsverbund: The evolution and spread of fully integrated regional public transport in Germany,Austria, and Switzerland

Throughout the world, urban areas have been rapidly expanding, exacerbating the problem of many public transport (PT) operators providing service over different governmental jurisdictions. Over the past five decades, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have successfully implemented regional PT associations (called Verkehrsverbund or VV), which integrate services, fares, and ticketing while coordinating public transport planning, marketing, and customer information throughout metropolitan areas, and in some cases, entire states. A key difference between VVs and other forms of regional PT coordination is the collaboration and mutual consultation of government jurisdictions and PT providers in all decision-making. This article examines the origins of VVs, their spread to 13 German, Austrian, and Swiss metropolitan areas from 1967 to 1990, and their subsequent spread to 58 additional metropolitan areas from 1991 to 2017, now serving 85% of Germany's and 100% of Austria's population. The VV model has spread quickly because it is adaptable to the different degrees and types of integration needed in different situations. Most of the article focuses on six case studies of the largest VVs: Hamburg (opened in 1967), Munich (1971), Rhine-Ruhr (1980), Vienna (1984), Zurich (1990), and Berlin-Brandenburg (1999). Since 1990, all six of those VVs have increased the quality and quantity of service, attracted more passengers, and reduced the percentage of costs covered by subsidies. By improving PT throughout metropolitan areas, VVs provide an attractive alternative to the private car, helping to explain why the car mode share of trips has fallen since 1990 in all of the case studies.     

How persuasive is ‘free’ public transport?: A survey among commuters in the Brussels Capital Region

In Belgium, several cities have been experimenting with ‘free’ public transport based on the concept of a third payer system. This study explores the modal shift potential of this measure for commuters by means of a large-scale survey. The results indicate that there is still a margin for a further modal shift, but in order to make public transport more attractive to car users, the price paid by the commuter should be lowered, the quality and capacity of the public services should be improved and the mobility policy of the companies should be adjusted in favour of public transport.     

Car-sharing organizations: The size of the market segment and revealed change in mobility behavior

Car-sharing organizations (CSO) have recently spread throughout central European cities and currently have 20000 members. They lower individual fixed costs of car availability change the incentive structure of private vehicle use by transforming nearly all costs into variable costs. A survey of all current Austrian CSO members is used to identify the characteristics significant of members. A procedure is proposed to quantify urban local market segment potentials and is applied to two residential areas. The net impact of CSOs depends on how the new incentive structure changes mobility behavior. A controlled experiment of voluntary new members was carried out to compare pre-membership and membership trip structure and modal split. Results indicate a substantial reduction of aggregate private vehicle mileage. While the share of trips by car is constant, changes in trip length are observed, with there being different changes for households which previously owned a car and those which did not. Combining behavior impact with market segment size results in the quantification of emission reduction and car ownership reduction (land use demand) due to car-sharing, which is a decentralized demand-side transport policy.     

Beijing: urban transport issues in a socialist Third World setting (1949–1992)

Post-1949 development of urban transport in Beijing, the national capital of the People's Republic of China, has been for a long time shaped by the ideology of the Chinese communists, in a setting of rapid urban growth and industrialization with general neglect of the ‘consumption’ needs of the urban populace. The Old City of feudal Beijing which the municipality inherited in 1949 and the need to preserve its pre-industrial street pattern, set by the city wall and the former Imperial Court (the Forbidden City), for historical and cultural reasons added another interesting and almost insurmountable constraint to the city's urban transport development.This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the situation and development of urban transport in the city from 1949 to 1992, outlining its major characteristics and problems. The effects of the new Open Door and modernization policies since 1978 and their impact on a new approach emphasizing market forces are evaluated. Wherever feasible, comparative figures and materials from the western and Third World city are used to provide better appreciation of Beijing's situation. The experience of the new policy of Market Socialism that started in 1978 provides valuable evidence for other large Third World cities.     

Commute mode diversity and public health: A multivariate analysis of 148 US cities

Urban sprawl has a negative relationship with regional health outcomes, such as high obesity and chronic diseases related to physical inactivity. At the same time, literature has shown that walkable built environments are connected to lower obesity rates and increased physical activity. Less understood is the association of modal diversity with those health outcomes. This research studies a range of public health outcomes to determine their associations with commute mode diversity. Researchers adapted the methodology of urban sociologists Harvey Molotch and Richard Appelbaum to explore twelve different health measures in 148 US counties and their metropolitan statistical areas. The test measure is the percentage of commuters who use some means other than a single-occupant vehicle (SOV). The percentage of such commuters ranges from as low as 11% in Houston County, Alabama to as high as 36% in Honolulu County, Hawaii. Using bivariate and multivariate analyses, we found better health outcomes in counties and metropolitan areas that have fewer workers commuting by SOV. These findings underscore the positive impact of sustainable transportation policies on community health and open up a new direction for public health research and the built environment.     

Strait crossings and economic development: Developing economic impact assessment by means of ex post analyses

There is widespread scepticism among politicians and authorities concerning CBA as a main instrument for decision-making. This may cause possible bias towards non-quantitative factors as decisive. The challenge is to improve the methological approach, carefully examining the real benefits for road users. One way of doing this is to develop ex post CBA to test how critical assumptions fit to reality. The focus of this paper is on ex post analyses carried out with five case studies in larger infrastructure projects to assess the economic profitability actually occurring from new infrastructure. There are substantial differences in benefits ex post compared with the ex ante analyses, mainly explained by a shift parameter in willingness to pay (WTP) for the improvements. These ‘inconvenience costs’ saved by the road users add to the traditional value-of-time benefits. The paper also examines the profitability of private versus public funding and ends up with some considerations on regional impacts of transport infrastructure. A short presentation of a pilot study from two of the fixed links to elicit the influence on local industry is given. Some informal results support the theory of forward and backward linkages from new economic geography.