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By Molly O'Meara Sheehan
United Nations Chronicle
Volume XXXVIII, Number 1, 2001
http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2001/issue1/0101p52.html
On the first Tuesday of every month,
a group of bicyclists take to the traffic-clogged streets of Santiago de
Chile to advocate changes in the city's structure. This unlikely band of
revolutionaries, the Ciclistas Furiosos, includes lawyers, doctors, labourers
and students who want the Government to add bicycle lanes to existing roads,
create new bike paths and install racks for bicycle parking.
More bicycles and fewer cars, argue the activists, would benefit Santiago. For nearly nine months of the year, the region is mired in a heavy, brown smog. Motor vehicles emit nearly three quarters of the nitrogen oxides in Santiago's air and over half of the volatile organic compounds; these pollutants interact in sunlight to form ozone, which exceeds health standards on more than 150 days per year. Traffic accidents, pollution and congestion cost residents almost $800 million annually. And as motorized travel in Santiago has more than doubled in the last two decades, housing projects and new businesses have sprouted on the city's outskirts, encroaching on farms and forests. With fewer trees and vegetation to soak up rain, the region is at greater risk of harm from floods, such as a major one in 1993 that claimed many lives.
People in many other cities share the concerns of Santiago's cyclists, that motor vehicle-centred urban development brings benefits to individual drivers at a huge cost to society. Car users enjoy door-to-door service, protection from weather and pride of ownership. But as cities grow to accommodate motor vehicles, they push built-up areas over forests and farmland, pave over watersheds, and invite accidents and pollution from ever-greater vehicle traffic. Various reports suggest that car-reliant cities not only damage the environment but also worsen social inequities and impede economic growth. As the world becomes more urban, a major challenge for societies will be to reorient current patterns of urban development away from car-dependent sprawl and towards walkable neighbourhoods connected by networks of bicycle paths, bus routes and railways.
Vehicle emissions are worst in urban centres of the developing world. Highly polluting two- and three-wheeled vehicles are prevalent in many of these cities. Most of these are powered by simple but dirty "two-stroke" engines, in which much of the fuel goes unburned and is released with the exhaust.
These vehicles emit more than 10 times the amount of fine particulate matter per vehicle-kilometer as a modern car and only slightly less than a diesel truck.
Studies in Europe show that pollution from motor vehicles can actually kill more people than do vehicle accidents. In Austria, France and Switzerland, the number of premature deaths brought about by particulate emissions from vehicles is about twice that from traffic accidents, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal. The death toll from vehicle accidents alone is not insignificant. Researchers estimate that nearly a million people are killed on the world's roads each year, and most of them are pedestrians.
Better technologies are needed, but they are not the entire solution. In much of the developing world, pollution-cutting catalytic converters and unleaded fuel could help clean the air, and better road design could help reduce fatalities. But, as wealthy countries have discovered, emissions reductions can be swallowed by greater vehicle use, and better roads can actually induce more traffic. Moreover, most vehicles continue to emit carbon dioxide which warms the planet's atmosphere. Spurred by greater road traffic, the transport sector has become the fastest growing source of carbon released from human activities. Motor vehicles accounted for 73 per cent of carbon emissions from transportation in 1997, up from 58 per cent in 1990.
Aside from degrading the environment, car-centric cities worsen disparities between rich and poor. The problem is most stark in the world's poorest cities. For instance, in Nairobi, more than half the population lives in makeshift slums on the city's edge, which are hard to reach by public bus; in any case, more than 40 per cent of the city's population cannot afford the bus fare.
Although most people travel by foot, road improvements consist of widening roads for motor vehicles, without marking separate lanes or paths for pedestrians. Even in the wealthiest cities, a lack of transportation options limits opportunities for poor families. In Boston, for example, the majority of people living below the poverty line live within walking distance of public transit, but only a third of potential employers are that close to a transit station.
Spread-out cities without effective public transit or cycling networks trap people in traffic and sap their productivity. Motor vehicles impede other forms of traffic and cause delays. Cities in the developing world may have fewer motor vehicles than wealthier cities, but suffer worse traffic delays, because they have inadequate facilities for bicyclists, pedestrians and public transit. Every day, Atlanta loses more than $6 million to traffic delays and Bangkok more than $4 million. But such estimates only value hours that could have been spent working; it's harder to measure the loss to society of time that could have been used to care for one's children or build friendships in a community.
These problems will only intensify as the world becomes more urban. Half of the global population of 6 billion people now resides in "urban agglomerations", nearly four times as many as in 1950. Demographers estimate that the population increase in cities and towns of Africa, Asia and Latin America will account for nearly 90 per cent of the 2.7 billion people they expect will be added to the world population between 1995 and 2030. How these cities meet the transportation needs of their citizens will affect not only billions of lives, but also world energy demand for years to come.
AGENDA
21, SECTION 9
#2 Addresses "Sustainable Transportation"
(Reprinted Below)
2. Transportation
Basis for action
9.13. The transport sector has an essential and positive role to play in economic and social development, and transportation needs will undoubtedly increase. However, since the transport sector is also a source of atmospheric emissions, there is need for a review of existing transport systems and for more effective design and management of traffic and transport systems.
Objectives
9.14. The basic objective of this programme area is to develop and promote cost-effective policies or programmes, as appropriate, to limit, reduce or control, as appropriate, harmful emissions into the atmosphere and other adverse environmental effects of the transport sector, taking into account development priorities as well as the specific local and national circumstances and safety aspects.
Activities
9.15. Governments at the appropriate level, with the cooperation of the relevant United Nations bodies and, as appropriate, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector, should:
(a) Develop and promote, as appropriate, cost-effective, more efficient, less polluting and safer transport systems, particularly integrated rural and urban mass transit, as well as environmentally sound road networks, taking into account the needs for sustainable social, economic and development priorities, particularly in developing countries;
(b) Facilitate at the international, regional, subregional and national levels access to and the transfer of safe, efficient, including resource-efficient, and less polluting transport technologies, particularly to the developing countries, including the implementation of appropriate training programmes;
(c) Strengthen, as appropriate, their efforts at collecting, analysing and exchanging relevant information on the relation between environment and transport, with particular emphasis on the systematic observation of emissions and the development of a transport database;
(d) In accordance with national socio-economic development and environment priorities, evaluate and, as appropriate, promote cost-effective policies or programmes, including administrative, social and economic measures, in order to encourage use of transportation modes that minimize adverse impacts on the atmosphere;
(e) Develop or enhance, as appropriate, mechanisms to integrate transport planning strategies and urban and regional settlement planning strategies, with a view to reducing the environmental impacts of transport;
(f) Study, within the framework of the United Nations and its regional commissions, the feasibility of convening regional conferences on transport and the environment.
