Mr. Santhosh Kodukula, Urban Transport Specialist of GTZ-SUTP, visited the recently opened Bangkok Bus Rapid Transit System - a new addition to the existing mass transit systems of the city. His observations during his visit to the system have been documented and are available as a survey report.

The system started on 29 May, 2010 and is called the Bangkok Rapid Transit or BRT. The route is currently 15.9 kms long with 12 stations. The system has distinct buses that are exclusive to the BRT route. According to the Office of the Traffic and Transport Policy and Planning's (OTP) master plan for Bangkok, the final BRT system will be 110 kms with 5 routes.

More information on the BRT in Bangkok can be found in the report, which also suggests some improvements for the existing system. Should you have any suggestions, comments or queries, you may contact Santhosh on his email santhosh.kodukula(at)sutp.org.

Registered SUTP users can download the document from here (2.3 MB) after logging in. Un-registered users please click here to register and then proceed for login

Author: Ko Sakamoto

Urban transport has historically not received the attention, careful planning and financial support it deserves in order to function in a sustainable manner. As a step to address this issue, this new  GTZ Sourcebook module provides detailed information on available options for financing urban transport. It presents different financing instruments and ways in which they can be best used, and how to optimally combine them.This module is dedicated to policy makers, financial sector specialists and urban planners/practitioners working on key challenges related to financing urban transport systems.The module provides options to close the gap between the ever growing demand for efficient, equitable and environmentally friendly urban transport systems on one hand, and the dwindling financial resources available to state and local authorities on the other.

In this module, the author, Mr. Ko Sakamoto, Senior Transport Consultant at the UK Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and an expert in the field of finance,  builds upon work done earlier by Dr. Gerhard Metschies. This document also has substantial research inputs by Mr.Stefan Belka, GTZ. The Sourcebook module covers the following subject area:

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The participants of the 5^th Regional EST, who were policymakers and senior officials from transport and environment authorities from 22 countries across Asia, drafted and agreed to adopt a declaration called the "Bangkok Declaration for 2020–Sustainable Transport Goals for 2010-2020" (download PDF), for achieving safe, secure, quick, reliable, affordable, efficient and people-centric and environment friendly transport in rapidly urbanizing Asia. A Press Release titled "Asian Countries Call for Actions to Attain 10‐Year Goals for More Sustainable Transport" (download PDF), summarizing the key highlights and outcomes of the 5^th Regional EST Forum is also available.

For the event, the GTZ transport team prepared a background paper entitled "Beyond the Fossil City: Towards Low Carbon Transport and Green Growth" (download PDF). This paper discussed what national and/or urban low-carbon transportation policy packages exist and how they could help countries win the battle against climate change, how sustainable development policies and measures in the transport sector could include a variety of co-benefits, and the role that global policies and deals on emissions control for developing countries could potentially play.

Mr. Manfred Breithaupt, Project Director of GTZ's Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) and one of the UNCRD EST experts introduced the background paper and made a presentation titled "Low-Carbon Land Transport Options towards reducing Climate Impacts and achieving Co-Benefits" (6.85 MB).

The presentation files including  background papers and keynote addresses have been uploaded on the UNCRD website.

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This document "Mega events-pacemaker of sustainable urban transport concepts" (download PDF) is an interesting compilation of instances where mega events related to sports, etc. have triggered major reforms in urban mobility, which people and cities have benefitted from for years to come.

This document has been prepared by GTZ as part of the ‘Climate-friendly mobility in Ukrainian cities’ project, and discusses key issues and recommendations and also provides a reading list, on urban mobility improvements during mega events.

For more information visit www.sutp.org/suteca.

The Local Development Programme of UNITAR, in partnership with GTZ, the German Technical Cooperation, is launching a new e-learning course on “Sustainable Urban Mobility in Developing Countries”, running from 4 October 2010 to 18 March 2011. The e-course aims to enhance the capacity of local decision makers and urban and transportation planners to formulate and implement appropriate policies that contribute to sustainability in urban transport in developing countries. It allows an analysis of the main issues of sustainable transport including transport demand management, improved public and non-motorized transport, environmental protection, road safety, and gender in transport.

The 6-module course is based on sound adult pedagogical principles including, among others, self-assessment activities and case study, as well as social elements such as peer-to-peer review and a discussion board. It is distributed in such a way to ensure the achievement of the learning objectives in a flexible manner, as participants can choose the learning pace that is the most adequate to them.

More details on the course can be read from the course flyer (download PDF).

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