Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Asia, with the growth of the traffic-saturated bus cities (Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila) due to the
rapid motorisation and low investment in transport infrastructure, and the eventual movement
into congested conditions and gridlock. Other cities have developed from motorcycle cities
(Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), but again increased levels of mobility have been overtaken
by motorisation with similar effects (
Figure 5.3
).
The possibilities for the future seem to include the conventional model (1970s-2000s) of
developing the motor car city (based on the US dispersed urban structure, or other similar
variants from North America or Australasia). A major difficulty is that this cannot be afforded
in terms of building the appropriate road infrastructure in cities with low income bases, and
of course there are fundamental environmental, social and indeed economic difficulties in
such an approach. Mumford (1968, p. 92) provides an early warning of the problems of planning
for the private car, yet the same mistakes seem to be endlessly repeated on a global scale:
When Congress voted last year for a twenty-six-billion-dollar highway programme, the
most charitable thing to assume about this action is that they didn't have the faintest
notion of what they were doing. Within the next fifteen years they will doubtless find
out. But by that time it will be too late to correct all the damage to our cities and our
countryside [. . .] that this ill-conceived and absurdly unbalanced programme will have
wrought.
Public transport, walking and
cycling dominates
Motorisation
dominates
Pre-1970s
Walking and
cycling cities
Early cycling cities
(Shanghai, Beijing,
Jinan, Zhengzhou
1980s)
Motor cycle cities
(Hanoi, 1980s)
Bus/paratransit
cities
(Seoul, Manila
in 1970s)
Increased
motorisation
Rapid motorisation, low
road and public transit
investment
Moderate
road building,
investment in
cycling
facilities
Modern cycling cities
(Amsterdam, Groningen,
Copenhagen, Oxford)
Traffic saturated
motorcycle cities
(Ho
Chi Minh City)
Traffic saturated bus
cities
(Bangkok,
Jakarta, Manila, Delhi)
Unrestrained
motorisation
Restrained private
cars, investment
in alternatives and
TOD
Transit cities
Hong Kong, Shanghai,
Singapore, Tokyo,
London, Paris,
Zurich)
Car cities in
decline
(Detroit)
Motor car cities
(Los Angeles,
Houston, Dubai)
Continued
motorisation
BRT cities
(Curitiba,
Bogotá, Jakarta,
Jinan, Lagos)
HSR connecting major
cities in China
Entrenched traffic
saturation
(Manila)
Early 2010s
Spectrum of city types between the car city and transit city -
with most acting as hybrid forms
Figure 5.3
Developmental paths for transport in Asian cities
Source
: Developing Barter, 2000.
