Hi,
Monday’s e-lecture was held by DR Khan Rahaman. The broadcast came from Canada. First, Dr Rahaman introduced the term ”SUT”, meaning sustainable transportation. This means environmentally, socially and economically sustainable transportation system. The key terms in SUT are access, mobility and affordability. Sustainable transportation is environmentally friendly. Social sustainability means safety and affordability, meaning that also poor people should have access to transportation. Economical transportation means cost allocation and possible subsidies for public transportation. How are these goals met? Governance is needed in a form of proactive government involvement and consolidation.
The next topic was related to urbanization. Urban population growth especially inn Asia has led to intensive motorization. In countries like Vietnam, India and China CO2 emissions are increasing rapidly. This is due to increase of the number of vehicles. In these areas there are for example lots of motorbikes. It was a surprise to me that motorbikes are the cause of increased CO2 emissions in Asian transportation. I thought it would have been cars.
So is the transportation sustainable in Asia?
The answer is no! Some reasons listed below:
- no development strategy
- unsustainable transport policy -> new infrastructure instead of developing old ones
- low income groups suffer, because policies favour private transport, which is expensive
- poor can not live in city center because transportation is expensive
Solution Dr Rahaman gave includeded design of integrated transport sustems, analysis, planning, implementation, and monitoring.
The next topic was Europe’s transportation. It is estimated that 84 % of European inhabitants live in cities by 2050. Most of GDP is generated in cities currently and 40 % of CO2 emissions are from transport. Most of the road accidents happen in cities. Dr Rahaman gave 3 solutions: Energy efficiency, cleaner energy, less use of energy. Lots of policies have been developed to improve the situation. EU research programme ”city vitality and sustainability” CIVITAS is focused on creating cleaner technologies for transportation. I have notices the change in Europe in the past 5-10 years. Nowadays there are for example electric cars and biofuels. The problem is they are more expensive than conventional technologies, and recently car manufacturer Toyota admitted that the carbon foot print of a hybrid car is larger than a normal car. In my opinion, new technologies are however an important milestone for developing better technologies in the future.
In Canada: 80 % of people are living in cities, Mostly Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
60 % of transportation is based on car, because of poor public transportation especially in smaller towns. Recently the situation has improved in larger cities in the US and Canada, for example bicycle roads have been built.
In the end, Dr Rahaman gave conclusions. To achieve sustainable transportation, teamwork, and communication between stakeholders parties (goverment, national, local) are needed. The use of public transportation can be increased by for example road tolls and mproving public transport. In the very end Dr Rahaman gave an interesting example: If you measure how many people per hour can pass through a 3,5 m lane in one our, the result is higher walking than with a bus.
In the end there were a few questions from audience:
Question 1: Is it a good option to change the place of capital to improve transportation?
Answer: There have been examples where part of the city has been moved, like Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bagladesh and Indonesia. This can lead to better transportation planning. Not everyrhing can be however changed from the city center, because especially poor people in informal economy would suffer. Government offices can be moved. and building separate bus lanes makes public transportation more effective.
Question 2: More demand for logistics or transporting people? ->
Answer: Integration of service transport and transport of people means shorter distances and more sustainable transportation.
Question 3: Where does public transportation work best?
Answer: Helsinki and Stockholm have very good bus transport. Railways are effective in Germany and Tokyo.
Question 4: How to improve public transportation in Toronto?
Answer: By changing peoples attitudes towards public transportation, for example with roal tolls.
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