The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

Contact: Walter Hook
Executive Director
 
Institute for Transportation & Development Policy

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) was set up in 1985 by leading advocates for sustainable transport in the US who realized that the US was exporting its model of automobile dependence. ITDP chose to focus on counteracting this development. Today ITDP co-chairs the United Nations NGO Sustainable Transportation Caucus, and is leading a worldwide coalition of NGOs that are working to promote clean, low-cost transportation.

ITDP-sponsored projects in South Africa and Mozambique have demonstrated conclusively that access to a bicycle can dramatically increase income and decrease the mobility burden. For example, in Beira, Mozambique, access to a bicycle saved women involved in subsistence agriculture 72.9 hours a month, worth roughly $7.29 a month to them. It is possible through commercial means to supply new bicycles to this population for $70 apiece, but the profit margin is not sufficient for entrepreneurs to risk their capital to enter this business. However, once the business is established it can be commercially sustaining. ITDP has fostered bicycle ownership and bicycle businesses through the implementation of dozens of demonstration projects in countries around the world, including Haiti, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, and Mozambique.

ITDP has taken a leading role internationally in promoting Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). With a multi year program for BRT promotion in developing countries, funded by W. A. Jones, ITDP hired Lloyd Wright, one of the world's leading experts on BRT.

Dissatisfied with the state of the art in road safety which tends to focus primarily on the safety of the motor vehicle passenger, ITDP began a campaign to redefine road safety from the point of view of the vulnerable, non-motorized road user. ITDP's road safety pilot project in Surabaya, Indonesia has been widely heralded as groundbreaking by experts in the field.

ITDP recently added Enrique Peñalosa, the former Mayor of Bogotá, to their Board of Directors. Mr. Peñalosa transformed Bogotá into the world's foremost example of a sustainable transportation metropolis with the innovative TransMilenio BRT system and over 250 kilometers of state-of-the-art bicycle tracks. His former chief of staff, Oscar Edmundo Diaz, has also joined the ITDP staff as a technical advisor.

ITDP publishes Sustainable Transport Magazine and E-Sustainable Transport newsletter, both of which are available on ITDP's website.