Mr. Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI), has released a report on Vehicle Travel Reduction Targets. This report investigates whether transportation policies should include targets to reduce vehicle travel and encourage use of alternative modes, called mobility management objectives. Such objectives may be justified on several grounds: they help insure that individual short-term decisions support strategic  goals, they provide numerous benefits, and they help prepare for future travel demands. Many mobility management strategies are market and planning reforms that increase transport system efficiency and equity. Mobility management criticism tends to reflect an older, automobile-oriented planning paradigm which considers a limited range of objectives, impacts and options. More comprehensive analysis tends to favor mobility management. Appropriate mobility management can reduce vehicle travel in ways that minimize costs and maximize benefits to consumers and society.

The "Developing Danang - Environmental City" project was launched on 3 March 2010 in Danang city. The city is a home to approximately 600,000 inhabitants and also is a fast growing city. Within this project there is a component to support the introduction of a bus based public transport system. In the initial stage there will be 70 buses serving 6 routes. A Public Transport Authority (PTA) will be set up as a part of this project.

The Vietnamese-German Unviersity in cooperation with Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Germany and University of Transport and Communications organised a one day symposium titled "The Future of Public Transport" on the 5 March 2010 at Department of Transport, 63 Ly Tu Trong Street (District 1), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietname. The event was also co-organised by the State of Hessen, Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Germany and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Approximately 60 participants attended the event. 

GTZ Senior Transport Advisor and SUTP Project Director, Mr. Manfred Breithaupt attended the event and delivered a presentation on "Promoting Public Transport to Support Sustainable Development". 

The agenda of the symposium can be downloaded from here (270 KB).

The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT, Bangalore), the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Institute of Urban Transport (IUT) jointly organised a one day workshop on Bus Rapid Transit. The event was conducted on the 26 February 2010 at the Goldfinch Hotel, Bangalore. The funding for the event was provided by DULT while GTZ and IUT were the organising partners.

The workshop focussed on the importance of BRT systems and the ways for integrating and marketing the BRT system. Various examples from India and abroad were elaborated in the workshop. The speakers for the workshop include Dr. Dario Hidalgo and Mr. Madhav Pai from WRI-EMBARQ, Prof. Shivanand Swamy, CEPT University, Ms. Shreya Gadepalli, ITDP, Ms. Sonia Kapoor, IUT/UMTC and Mr. Santhosh Kodukula, GTZ. More than 100 participants attended the workshop. The participants were mainly from the local governments who held the position of engineers or executive engineers. Also present at the event was Mr. Ranganath, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka and advisor to the Chief Minister of Karnataka on Urban Affairs. The principal secretary Mr. Subhir Hari Singh, Mr. Shankarlinge Gowda, Secretary, Transport, Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Managing Director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Mr. Sayeed Zameer Pasha, Managing Director, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) were also present and have chaired some sessions.

The agenda for the workshop can be donwloaded from here.

More information can be had by sending an email to Mr. Santhosh Kodukula ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Is it hard to find information on transport? Did you ever wanted to spread the word about the upcoming workshop/conference that will be of great benefit to the transport community? Considering these issues the transport team at GTZ has compiled a list of Newsletters and Discussion Groups for Researchers, Policy-makers and Planners in the Transport Sector. The 14 page document attempts to list all the well visited transport discussion groups and also sorts these groups into specific areas of focus.

The document can be downloaded from here 235.00 Kb. In case you are aware of any other group that is active in transport please do send in your recommendations along with a small write up on the discussion group/Newsletter and the weblink where people can access the group/newsletter.

Submissions can be sent to sutp[at]sutp.org

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) has translated the Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide into Spanish. The translation was made possible through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The Spanish verison of the planning guide can be downloaded by clicking here.

More information on the Spanish version of the planning guide can be obatianed by visiting the ITDPs website (click here)

A week after the official deadline for submissions, the Bridging the Gap Initiative has analyzed the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) submissions for the Copenhagen Accord made by developing countries as of February 4th, 2010 (see attachment). 16 out of 25 countries made explicit reference to the transport sector. This shows that transport gains increasingly importance on the agenda of climate change mitigation efforts. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of NAMAs submitted and classifies them according to transport measures proposed. The results find that submissions vary to a great extent in detail and specification, but the inclusion of transport is already a very positive sign. This can be seen as the will to act and Bridging the Gap will help developing countries in the expansion of further transport NAMAs. The analysis will be updated as more NAMAs will be submitted. Stay tuned!

For further information, please visit www.transport2012.org.

The document can be downloaded from here .

The Copenhagen Accord allows developing country parties to submit Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) i.e. low carbon policies to Annex 2 of the Accord until January 31. The Bridging the Gap Initiative has now published a guidance document for parties on transport NAMAs.

Download:

Formulating NAMAs in the Transport Sector - Kick-starting action

The Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) has come up with the first of its kind pedestrian design guidelines to ensure that walking in the city becomes safe and a pleasurable experience.

Download by clicking here (31 MB)

Hosted at the Inter-American Development Bank, in partnership with the Asian Development Bank, the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), and EMBARQ - The WRI Center for Sustainable Transport, the second day of the Transforming Transportation event was aimed at providing a forum for the transport, climate, and development communities to discuss the outcomes from the 2010 climate summit in Copenhagen and significance for national and local policy making in the transport sector; the connection between climate change and other drivers of transport interventions in developing countries; and how the transport community can best engage in solving the challenges caused by climate change.

A session was held at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) looking at a study conducted by the Institute for Transportation Policy Studies (ITPS) titled “Transport in a Low Carbon Society”, which takes a back-casting approach to identify pathways to reduce CO2 emissions from the transport sector by 50% compared to the total level of emissions in 2000, and make bold policy recommendations to achieve this goal.