• "airborne lead [related to transportation emissions] continues to cause abbreviated mental development in cities like Mexico City and Jakarta where leaded gas is still the norm" (Institute for Transportation Development Policy - ITDP).
• By 2020 the World Health Organization predicts that traffic accidents will be the second leading cause of death and injury in developing countries,
• "in developing countries, more than 60% of [traffic accident] victims are pedestrians and other vulnerable road users" (ITDP).

Poverty

• Even bikes and public transit are out of reach for many families in developing countries. "Giving a rural woman in Africa a access to a bike can cut her daily workload by a third, thus increasing her income by 30% (ITDP).
• A sustainable transportation option is almost always a cheaper one. And an innovation that improves the safety, accessibility, and reach of lower cost travel options such as walking and cycling may serve a higher proportion of residents in developing countries (Victoria Transport Policy Institute - VTPI)

Inequitable Infrastructure Provision

• Inequitable infrastructure spending is felt in most cities, but perhaps most strongly in the developing world. For example, in East Africa "travel by private car meets less than 10% of demand but incurs over 50% of total system costs. By contrast, walking meets almost half of trip demand but accounts for only 1% of total costs (World Bank, 2001).

Environment

• "If the new population centres in Asia, Africa, and Latin America motorized to the same degree as the US and Western Europe, the global environmental, energy, and economic consequences would be disastrous. These cities now stand at a fork in the road. They may choose to repeat the mistakes of many European and North American cities, or they may learn from [these cities'] mistakes and step directly into the 21st century of sustainable transportation (ITDP).

Local Economy

• A World Bank Study found that the cities that invest and innovate in sustainable transportation infrastructure are coming out ahead. It indicated that the world's most thriving and livable cities have the most developed sustainable transportation systems and spend the least per capita on transportation
• Sustainable transportation can have economic benefits. Moving the Economy identifies and develops sustainable transportation innovations from around the world that also save money, make money (boost business), create jobs, and revitalize local economies.

This brief outlines emerging trends in urban transportation that are shared by growing cities around the world, and links to living examples of how transportation solutions are being increasingly applied to address broader and more diverse issues of poverty, job creation, quality of life, sustainable infrastructure development, pollution, climate change impacts, and more.

In the best practices listing of Mobility in The Developing World, you will find living solutions that create jobs, stimulate small business, alleviate poverty, address social inequities, create innovative financial solutions to common problems, stimulate civic pride, provide municipal services, reduce tailpipe emissions, address safety, and improve access to education.

Common Themes

Based on case studies gathered from cities around the world, a survey of the evolving transportation landscape raises a number of common themes that can inform and guide future understanding and action:

1. Transportation is an increasingly urgent issue in growing cities in both developing and developed countries.
2. Sustainable transportation solutions are being sought, applied, and shared amongst cities in developing and developed countries.
3. Transportation is increasingly understood as a means, not an end, giving priority to providing convenient and equitable access to people's daily needs, moving people, moving goods, and moving less in ways that are economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable.
4. Sustainable transportation can provide a framework for addressing a broad range of urban issues, specifically and systemically, including poverty, food issues, housing and homelessness, health and health provision, culture, labour and employment, tourism, trade, and more.
5. Sustainable transportation is increasingly understood as an investment rather than a cost. Applying sustainable transportation can save money, stimulate business, create jobs, and revitalize local economies.
6. Sustainable transportation is increasingly understood as supporting an improvement in quality of life, rather than a sacrifice, and conferring greater status to people and cities.
7. Sustainable transportation provides a rich arena for innovation
8. Common preconditions support the development of sustainable transportation

What Is Sustainable Transportation?

In an ideal world, or perhaps at some time in the future, we may not need to make a distinction between "sustainable" and "regular, run-of-the-mill" transportation. But for the meantime, sustainable transportation can be described in a nutshell as:

• Moving people and goods in cleaner, greener, healthier, safer, more equitable ways, and,
• Where appropriate, moving people and goods LESS (to reduce un-necessary urban journeys)

This short description embraces a wide range of options, including:

• Telecommunications to reduce or replace travel, or to make it more efficient (eg tele-work, tele-banking, tele-shopping, electronic signage, route optimization systems and more) (See for example Traffic Taming in Brasília) Cleaner and more efficient systems for moving goods, or for moving fewer goods, less (See for example Rickshaw Trolley Community Solid Waste Collection and Disposal System)
• Land use planning and green development to bring people and their needs closer together and to make cities more vibrant and walkable (See for example Curitiba's Integrated Transit Network)
• Sustainable personal transportation modes, including transit, walking, cycling, blading, and scooters (See for example The AfriBike, a New Bicycle for Africa)
• New approaches to automobile travel, including car pooling,car sharing, and cleaner, lighter vehicles and fuels (See for example Compressed Natural Gas Microbuses Conversion Program)
• All the policies, practices, legislation, and financial incentives and disincentives that allow and promote these options (See for example Tariff Reduction on Bicycles and Parts)

Canada's Centre for Sustainable Transportation defines a sustainable transportation system as one that:

• allows the basic access needs of individuals and societies to be met safely and in a manner consistent with human and ecosystem health, and with equity within and between generations
• is affordable, operates efficiently, offers more choice of transport mode, and supports a vibrant economy
• limits emission and waste within the planet's ability to absorb them, minimizes consumption of non-renewable resources, reuses and recycles its components, and minimizes the use of land and the production of noise

Sustainable Transportation: Why Do We Need It?

Because Transportation Has Big Impacts -
Environmental, Social, and Economic - Especially in Cities

To varying degrees, every urban trip or journey emits pollutants, takes up space, needs different equipment and infrastructure, happens at different speeds, costs different amounts, carries different numbers of people and different things, and happens at peak times and slow times.

Take your last trip as an example. Was it a 15 kilometer subway ride or a 7 kilometer bike ride or a 55 kilometer car ride? Were you driving a truck full of chickens? Or were you taking a short walk? Could your trip have been eliminated altogether? Multiplying the effects of your trip by several million represents the scale of effects - positive or negative - that shifting transportation choices could have over the course of an hour, let alone over the course of a decade in just one city. In fact, current urban transportation trends include:

• Rapidly increasing road congestion related to increased reliance on single occupancy vehicles.
• Rapidly increasing road congestion related to increased truck volumes, in particular in city regions.
• Increasing urban sprawl, directly affecting costs and efficiencies of providing services and eating into our diminishing supply of prime agricultural land.
• Declining air quality, water quality and climate change directly and indirectly related to transportation activity.
• Increasing sickness and death and associated health costs directly and indirectly related to transportation activity.
• Decreasing oil supply globally **
• Increasing costs of using and providing transportation.
• Shifting demographics leading to increased health, social, and financial impacts for a growing aging population, as well as for youths, homeless people, and the unemployed.

We Can't Do Without Transportation -
It Is Important to Our Lives and Our Cities

Transportation is an integral part of how, where, and with whom we live, love, work and play - on a daily basis. So much more than getting from a to b, transportation figures prominently in some of our deepest personal memories and in some of our greatest historical moments. As a shaper of our culture, the way we get around is one of the fundamental determinants of the character and quality of life and community - and our own place in that community.

Transportation is also essential to our economies. It's hard to do business without transportation. People need to get to work. Products need to get to market. Tourists need to get around. But clogged arteries mean business can't function. Smoggy air means people can't breathe, visitors don't want to visit, and businesses don't want to locate here. It's a fine balance.

It is this deeply entrenched and multifaceted quality of transportation that makes it so interesting and yet so challenging just to think about it - let alone to affect it or evolve it. Especially in a big city, with the sheer volume and teaming complexity of modes and systems and people and places and needs and desires, it can be hard to get your head around getting people and things around. When a city gets bigger, the complexity and all its effects (positive or negative) are multiplied and magnified.

Why Do We Need It -- Now?

Because The Lead Time for Change is Long

As for most things but especially for transportation, being aware of the problem and affecting the solutions are two different things. Transportation, in all its complexity, is a bit like an ocean liner. If you want to be going in a different direction tonight, you'd better start turning around this afternoon. Improved transportation infrastructure and new land use patterns are not as easily or as quickly implemented as, for example, a blue box re-cycling program.

Transportation Relates to So Many Things…

Transportation's central role in our cities means that it is related to a whole gamut of other issues and policies at all levels of government, and to a range of other industrial sectors and community issues. These include but are not limited to:

• poverty
• food production and distribution
• housing and homelessness
• health and health provision
• culture
• labour and employment
• energy
• environment
• business, finance, economics
• telecommunications and telework
• industrial development
• tourism
• green industry
• trade and trans-border issues
• and more

So when we seek new solutions and new directions, whether they be policies, economic approaches, or infrastructure shifts, we need to consider the implications in all these areas. By the same token, solutions to social and economic challenges will almost certainly have a transportation component to consider.

It can take time to change a policy or a law or an economic practice. It can take even more time to change the physical layout of a city. Our present urban landscape and the way we live in our communities very much reflects the decisions of our predecessors, for better or for worse. In some ways we are living the life of the new millennium on the streets of the 1950's.

At this turning point for transportation in our growing cities, we have an ideal opportunity to envision and create livable transportation for livable communities and base our decisions on our emerging and changing needs, desires, and means.

We cannot start soon enough, not only with short-term measures that will immediately benefit us and curb the tide of congestion and smog, but also with far reaching approaches, so that our children may reap the full and integrated benefits of our foresight and vision.

Hopeful Trends

Sustainable Solutions are Win-Win -- Global Evidence

Just as the negative effects of our transportation choices are compounded with growth, so too are the beneficial effects of our positive actions and decisions. All over the world, sustainable transportation systems and initiatives - whether they are tried and true or new and innovative - are resulting not only in better air quality, but also in a better quality of life and local economic vitality.

A 1998 World Bank study found that the cities that invest and innovate in sustainable transportation infrastructure are coming out ahead. It indicated that the world's wealthiest and most livable cities:

• have the most sophisticated sustainable transportation systems
• are highly transit-oriented with strong regional passenger rail networks
• have (mixed), compact urban and suburban development with densities that support viable public transit and active transportatio
• have developed highly integrated transportation systems that make efficient use of all transportation modes
• facilitate face to face economic communication, an essential requirement for global competitiveness of city regions
• spend the least per capita on transportation

Sustainable (Win-Win) Solutions Do Exist…

The sustainable transportation or "new mobility" industry is growing worldwide, innovating and developing a wider and more integrated range of transportation choices for people and for businesses - improving efficiency, safety, accessibility, convenience, enjoyment, and affordability, and providing new opportunities for business spin-offs, cost savings, job creation, and local economic revitalization. A 1998 Moving the Economy conference in Toronto showcased over 150 living examples from around the world where sustainable transportation initiatives and ventures have created jobs, saved money, boosted business, or revitalized local economies. These and more examples are now on-line in searchable form at www.city.toronto.on.ca/mte and at Sustainable Transportation Live.

Urban Transportation is Evolving

Then and Now…

Since time began, humans have tried to tweak or even overhaul systems of our society so that they work better for us. From the invention of the wheel to the moon launch, we've been envisioning and at times actually creating transportation options or systems that are - for the time - cleaner, more impressive, more affordable, faster, more efficient, more democratic or equitable.

Back at the beginning of the twentieth century for example, the futurists and planners of the age envisioned and created an option that offered more convenience, comfort, freedom, and status for more people. It also provided a cleaner alternative to streets dominated by the particular form of pollution of the horse-drawn age. It was the automobile -- and it worked for a while.

But since then the role of the private automobile has changed - especially in cities. Cars offer less convenience and freedom than they once did when there weren't quite so many of them and when they didn't take up quite so much space. We are increasingly realizing that they are no longer a clean alternative. More and more we are finding them (and their infrastructure) to be less affordable on a personal and societal level. And when communities are designed so that everyone needs one to get around, even the status benefit has less impact.

As we move into the new millennium, we are seeing new patterns of life and new challenges. The transportation system that was envisioned at the turn of the last century and very much expanded during the fifties and beyond does not promise to address these new patterns and challenges adequately. So then, where are the progressive minds of this age heading?

Progressive Minds Are Going Sustainable

It seems that the world's leading cities are on the threshold of a new age of sustainable transportation that is also about offering more convenience, choice, comfort, freedom, and status for more people but in a way that will also protect and enrich future generations. From the car companies to the economists, from government agencies to environmental and labour leaders, from the telecommunications gurus to the growing cadre of green developers, sustainable transportation is beginning to be understood as a win-win solution, and the only way to go in our rapidly growing cities.

Not surprisingly, the evolution of transportation systems around the world very much mirrors the evolution of other new and emerging systems and technologies. Just as we moved from the typewriter into the networked and multifaceted computer age without completely rejecting the typewriter, transportation innovations are evolving away from our automobile-focussed systems to become:

• lighter, cleaner, more compact
• capable of offering a much wider range of options
• networked, connected, integrated
• flexible, personalized, customized
• service-oriented versus product-oriented
• convenient, universally accessible
• an integral part of evolving compact development patterns
• convivial, humane
• swift
• safe and comfortable
• knowledge oriented, systems oriented, smart
• elegant, sophisticated
• sustainable

According to Dr. Robin Murray, former Director of Industry with the Greater London Council:

The new transportation system will have the economy of transit and the flexibility of the automobile. (from his speech to Moving the Economy, July 1998).

In ecological terms, it should come as no revelation that as cities grow and become more complex and diverse, they begin to create more efficiencies. Ecosystems grow from simple systems with a few pioneering species to more mature ecosystems with diversity and interconnection. Thus, after a fire or flood or some other disturbance, a cleared piece of land will begin developing the structure of its ecosystem with an emphasis on rapid and simple growth. After a period it becomes more diverse and more efficient as it establishes a more complex network of interactions Dr. Peter Newman, in his book "Sustainability and Cities".

New Trends In Moving People Around Cities

Integrated urban sustainable transportation, or "new mobility" as it is more commonly known in some parts of the world, is taking shape. In Canadian cities and around the world, new products, new services, and new systems are emerging to bring sustainable transportation closer to reality.

New Products

• Hybrid and low floor buses, some made of cleaner, lighter materials
• Pedicabs, tandem taxis, new cycle rickshaws, pedal assisted electric bikes, and foldable urban scooters
• Smaller, lighter motorized vehicles specific to urban use

New Services

• Car sharing businesses
• A wider range of transit service options, including jitney services for outlying areas, and hybrid uses such as employing school buses as transit during the day
• Walking school buses and other options for walking to school

New Systems and Technologies

• Electronic trip information systems
• Advanced electrified rail networks
• Integrated Mobility Systems (IMS) to bring together all options seamlessly

New Trends In Moving Goods Around Cities

Goods movement is the fastest growing segment of the transportation sector. It is becoming a key urban issue as cities grow and as "just in time" manufacturing systems and e-commerce increase transportation of products. With public attention focused on congestion and the challenge of how to move more and more people around, the comparatively less visible world of goods movement tends to be ignored from an urban perspective. But changes in the way goods move along the industrial and retail supply chain have dramatic implications for land use and urban transportation policy makers.

Around the world, new approaches to moving goods into and around cities address the entire goods mobility (supply) chain through:

Cleaner, Greener Modes

• rail freight can be a clean and convenient urban option
• smaller, lighter, cleaner trucks and more sustainable truck related infrastructure
• human powered delivery in intensified areas and city cores
• green fleets

Intermodal Approaches

• linking rail and truck freight systems and vehicles

City Logistics

• bundling of freight transport and joint distribution cen
• route optimization through electronic and other systems applications and efficiencies

Local Production and Distribution

• to reduce the movement of goods by keeping products local

New Trends In Moving Less In And Through Cities

Our expanding electronic networks are assuming an increasingly important role in our patterns of settlement and transportation. On the one hand, electronic shopping, banking, working and playing can reduce or eliminate the need for travel. On the other hand, advanced telecommunications has the potential to encourage travel by allowing people to locate farther away from other people and services and in this way contribute to urban sprawl e-commerce is also having a profound effect on the amount and frequency of goods transport, especially in the dense urban cores.

With a North America-wide trend towards "wired" communities, the human and physical interface in cities and communities is assuming new forms. In relation to transportation, telecommunications is neither a roadblock nor a panacea in its own right. However it is important to recognize its growing presence and consciously plan for its sustainable evolution.

According to Dr. Peter Newman: Rather than favouring scattered development, the information based city needs intensive areas where people can meet and share their expertise, to plan and develop their projects. Electronic communication supplements face to face contact, does not replace it.

New trends in moving less are focused on applying and linking telecommunications options with land use and development practices and innovations to meet sustainable ends. This is done through dialogue and partnerships with relevant telecommunications industries and development interests.

Examples of new trends in moving less, or reducing un-necessary trips for people and goods, include:

Land Use and Green Development

• progressive zoning and growth management policies
• car free housing and location efficient mortgages
• development around transit stations

Telecommunications

• tele-work and videoconferencing
• tele-banking, tele-shopping and entertainment
• applications to goods movement efficiencies

Thinking about moving less favours access over mobility. Providing closer, more convenient access to the basics means reducing the length and number of trips people need to take. An access-based approach can be more socially equitable than a mobility based approach because it downplays the need for costly transportation and prioritizes the needs of people who are the least advantaged, or cannot or choose not to drive. The social implications of telework must be fully explored to assure that telework is also meeting social goals and not resulting in social isolation.

Making It Happen Around The World:
Building Blocks For Sustainable Transportation

In the world of transportation, there is no "silver bullet" for addressing transportation challenges in our cities. Solutions need to be applied on a range of levels in a range of areas by a range of players. The following pages (developed by the Sustainable Transportation Working Group of the City of Toronto Environmental Task Force) outline the building blocks for implementing a comprehensive, sophisticated and integrated sustainable transportation system:

• INFORMATION: The First Step To Action
• INFRASTRUCTURE: The Foundation

1. Sustainable Land Use
2. Sustainable Transportation Modes and Networks
3. Telecommunications: The Emerging Virtual Transportation Network

• INTEGRATION: For Efficiency, Cost-effectiveness, and Convenience

1. Of Modes and Systems
2. Of Functions: People, Goods, Information
3. Of Decision Makers

• INVOLVEMENT: Of Users and Providers

• INVESTMENT:

1. Public Funding
2. Innovative Financing and Partnerships
3. Sector Development: Speeding the Pace of Sustainable Transportation (or "new mobility") Industry Development

• IMPLEMENTATION: Beyond Policies and Principle

• INNOVATION: Of Services, Products, and Technologies For Emerging Needs and Markets

• INDICATORS OF PROGRESS: To Inform Future Action

• INFORMATION - "Moving Minds" The First Step to Act

Awareness is Increasing…

In our cities transportation challenges are becoming more and more evident. As a result the risks of inaction and the urgency of the transportation situation are becoming more apparent to all levels of government, business and industry, organized labour, local communities, and concerned citizens. Government is facing increasing health costs and a whole range of other social costs. Business is beginning to see transportation-related lost productivity on their ledgers. Organized labour is feeling the effects of transportation inefficiencies on workers. And communities are suffering the effects of increasing local transportation and air quality problems.

The past few years have seen a stepping up of awareness and dialogue by all levels of government, community, and business. This increased awareness is a positive sign. Moving minds is the first step to moving people and goods in cleaner and greener ways.

Gaps in the Information and Communication Flow…

Gaps and challenges unquestionably remain when it comes to information and understanding of sustainable transportation:

Glass Half Empty

• Our information on the negative impacts of current transportation trends outweighs and outstrips our information on the positive benefits related to sustainable transportation options and solutions. Because transportation is so much a part of our daily lives, doom and gloom can have a numbing and paralyzing effect if not presented in conjunction with options for action - both related to our own travel behaviour, and to being part of a larger solution in our communities, governments, and businesses. Recognition of such positive action could also be expanded.

Fragmented Perspectives

• Our understanding of transportation and of sustainable transportation can be fragmented and limited by our particular perspective or role. This allows us to neglect important pieces of the transportation puzzle - goods movement, telecommunications, social equity and community, for example. We may focus too much on technical solutions, or on economic issues, without linking it to the big picture, which then limits the tools we use for creating and implementing the solutions. There is a saying: "To a man with a hammer, all problems look like nails".

Quest for the Silver Bullet

• Proposed solutions to transportation problems are often presented as single, simple fixes, or alternatively, long lists of options that are difficult to understand or prioritize. Without painting door to door scenarios of how a user will experience the particular innovation or system, it is difficult to understand and deliver an integrated package of more sustainable options and their benefits

Need for Diversity

• While efforts have been made to reach out to diverse communities on transportation issues, our efforts to inform and involve all communities and communities of interest could be improved in the context of such diverse and world cities.

Limited Resources for Crucial Messages

• In all cities, but especially in cities of developing countries, resources for promoting both the benefits and the options for sustainable transportation are very limited.

Cultural Context

• Many cultures still hold the automobile as a symbol of success and a key to freedom. The private automobile -- our most polluting urban transportation mode -- is the one machine for which we will gladly forfeit our organs in advance in the event that we die as a result of its use. This phenomenon is in part related to the status the car assumes in our culture, supported by multimillion dollar advertising budgets. While some effort has been made to communicate the issues and impacts related to sustainable transportation, very little high level marketing effort has been made to advertise the benefits of sustainable transportation in a compelling way.

Steps To Moving Minds

It is important to communicate more widely, effectively and compellingly with people, media, politicians, bureaucrats, and the business community, not only about the full range of problems and issues related to current transportation trends, but also about the options and benefits related to sustainable transportation. Our communication challenge is not only to underscore the significant risks of the status quo, but also to shift the mindset from one of fear, denial, and paralysis in this context of massive change, to one of opportunity, options, and prosperity.

We can do this in the following ways:

1. Gathering Information, Knowledge, and Best Practices

• data - facts and figures relevant to emerging trends and issues
• science - both positive and negative impacts of transportation and sustainable transportation
• examples - of successes in cities around the world (see Sustainable Transportation Live and Case Studies)

2. Sharing Information, Knowledge, and Best Practices

• Through Information channels
• Books / publications
• The Internet
• The Media
• Events (eg Car-free days)
• Schools
• Communities
• Businesses (Marketing and advertising)
• Community Organizations and Places of Worship

Infrastructure

The Foundation of Our Transportation System

When we think of infrastructure, usually roads and sewers come to mind. But as we evolve into the new mobility and information society, the notion of what infrastructure actually is, is evolving.

In Transportation, there are three basic infrastructures that inform the ways that we can get around, and the ways in which we can shape and change the ways in which we get around:

1. Land Use

Land is the palate on which we paint our growing cities. It is the basis for transportation infrastructure. The way we choose to use and organize land is one of the key determinants of the efficiency and cost effectiveness of transportation systems and other services, and in turn, the extent and effects of urban sprawl. Land use also very much affects how our communities feel and function.

In many cities up to 40% of the land is dedicated to automobile transportation in the form of roads, parking lots, drive throughs, gas stations, and more. Movement by car demands at least 70 times more road space to move each person than is required to walk.

Land devoted to automobiles means land not devoted to housing, food production, greenspace, commercial and retail operations, not to mention walking, cycling,or transit. Using land for automobiles not only takes space from other transportation modes, it can also decrease the feasibility and efficiency of other modes. Appropriate densities and zoning in the appropriate nodes and areas are needed for transit, cycling and pedestrian options to work to their optimal benefit.

Smart land use and zoning can vastly increase the number of people and the amount of industry and economy that can comfortably take place in a given space. With thoughtful zoning, brownfield development, live-work arrangements, industry clustering and other land use and development approaches (supported by an efficient transportation network), cities can comfortably accommodate vastly larger populations using the same amount of space.

Some cities have taken advantage of their pre-automobile urban form to maintain and improve their walkable, bike friendly and transit friendly land use patterns through innovative zoning and land use policies and wise urban design. And a growing league of developers is seeing the economic benefits of sustainable transportation and land use development.

2. Modes and Systems

The network of transportation systems in our cities goes far beyond roads and includes transit networks, bike lanes, sidewalks, and public spaces. Transportation modes and networks form the framework around which our lives are lived. Traditional transportation planning and engineering of the past half century has tended to focus on the road network and move secondarily to the transit system and then to "capillary" roads and sidewalks or green spaces. More recent thinking, especially for urban centres, is beginning to reverse this hierarchy, with the organizing principle being to start with walkable communities and neighbourhoods, then moving to bicycle and transit facilities for longer trips, then providing for a limited amount of additional car infrastructure only as necessary.

The paradigm of a functionally segregated, auto-accessible city is making way to a more integrated and compact model where the car is supplementary rather than a dominant mode of travel. (Newman and Kenworthy, 1999)

In addition, more recent thinking and planning works not only to increase the range of options, but also to link the modes and options seamlessly. This allows wider choice and links the choice of more more closely to the nature of the trip.

3. Telecommunications

The most recent addition to the transportation infrastructure is electronic. A vast network of electronic information courses throughout most large cities, and serves to support the movement of people, goods, and information around -and between our cites. Moving information also serves to reduce the need for un-necessary transportation of people and goods.

INTEGRATION (BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER) Integration (Bringing It All Together)

Integration of Modes and Systems

The sum of the modes and systems is greater than its parts. Linking transportation options and systems increases the use, efficiency and cost effectiveness of all the modes and, in turn, the entire system. It extends the reach and increases the market. There is great potential to link a much wider range of modes and systems seamlessly.

Imagine stepping outside your door and knowing that you can move effortlessly and affordably from one appropriate mode of transportation (the best for the purpose) to the next, all the way to your destination.

Integration also links networks of bikeways and walkways and other physical infrastructure and urban design geared to increasing the range of options and the ease of "switching" from one choice to the next.

Integration of Functions: Moving People, Moving Goods, Moving Information

Integration increases the efficiency of moving goods. Intermodal and mixed mode applications to freight movement are increasing and paying off in many large urban centres, In addition, our decisions about the ways in which we move people, goods, and information are all interrelated. Passenger travel congestion can slow down truck movement, truck traffic can cause both risk and inconvenience to passenger travelers, and movement of information allows people to locate differently, which can either reduce the need to travel or move goods, or increase it by allowing people to locate farther away. And all of this both affects and is affected by our land use decisions.

Integration of Decision Making

Responsibility for transportation policies and resources is generally spread across all levels of government and other agencies and industries. In most growing cities there is a need for greater and more efficient co-ordination of these responsibilities so that a holistic seamless transportation product or service can be provided for people and goods.

Implementation

How do we make sustainable transportation / new mobility actually happen in our cities? We know that the next ten to twenty years will be a challenge regardless of whether we continue with business as usual or opt and act for a sustainable, liveable solution. How we put our visions, goals, and available options into practice is very much grounded in our current context, and will profoundly affect many generations to come.

Making things Happen - Beyond Policies

A top notch sustainable transportation system can be judged by the way in which it meets current and evolving needs within its current and evolving means. Policies and principles are the first step in the process but policies are 100% more effective if they are actually implemented.

To develop and apply a comprehensive, integrated approach to sustainable transportation, we need to start with:

• Some basic goals based on current and emerging trends and needs
• A preliminary vision and action framework
• A sense of the available and emerging options, from here and around the world

Then we need to involve a wide range of transportation users and providers in:

• Refining the goals, vision and framework based on real life scenarios, door to door
• Developing a detailed action plan to achieve the vision
• Partnering on an ongoing basis to carry out the evolving plan

Good plans and strategies for implementation save money and time by avoiding and reducing duplication of effort and spending, especially when the subject is complex, sophisticated, and related to a variety of sectors and players. From the beginning they involve both those who will carry out the plan and those who will be affected by it. They take the time and commit the resources to build a solid foundation and achieve early buy-in. And most importantly they build in implementation mechanisms, accountability, and indicators for success. Good plans also send a message that we are open for business. They act as tools for garnering the resources and partnerships needed for success.

Developing a Vision and a Framework For Action:

Some Basic Goals:

Any sustainable transportation initiative should start with some basic goals. The following general goals are adapted from the City of Toronto Environmental Task Force Report (1999) and may be used as a starting point for other cities or communities.

Moving People:

Providing Canadians and visitors to Canadian cities with the widest range of sustainable transportation options that are seamlessly linked, safe, convenient, enjoyable, affordable, equitable, and economically competitive, and applying the best available and emerging means to significantly reduce the negative environmental, health, social, and economic impacts of personal transportation.

Moving Goods:

Reducing the congestion, pollution, danger, costs, and inefficiencies related to the movement of goods - (the fastest growing segment of the transportation sector), with emerging consolidation systems, cleaner freight vehicles, local production and distribution, and intermodal approaches.

Moving Less:

Replacing or reducing the need for transportation (of people or goods) where appropriate with emerging telecommunications technologies and advanced land use, development, and economic policies and practices

Moving Minds:

Shifting our mindset towards sustainable transportation amongst businesses, government, labour, education and community through all available and emerging communications channels and educational opportunities.

Moving the Agenda:

Giving priority in all transportation and land use decisions to sustainable transportation, in policy, spending, programs, and partners

Developing a Vision:
Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Vision as a Guide

The next step is to develop a preliminary vision of what sustainable transportation will look and feel like in the future. It is also important in this process to consider what has led up to the system we have now.

The Transportation Association of Canada has put forward a generic vision for Urban Transportation in 2023. It could serve as a jumping off point for Canadian cities.

By 2023:

• A long-term urban development plan has been approved. It emphasizes multi-use town centres and high density, mixed use along connecting corridors. Transit has funding and operating priority in those corridors.
• Short-medium term community / neighbourhood plans have been approved. They emphasize compact, mixed use communities based on pedestrian, cycling and transit-friendly design
• Transit, highways, arterials, parking and truck routes are planned and coordinated across the urban area
• The percentages of trips made by walking, cycling, transit and high occupancy automobiles are all increasing; the percentage of trips made by single occupant automobiles is decreasing
• The average distance and time for peak hour commuter travel is decreasing
• An area-wide parking strategy is in place and enforced
• There are very few places which still require on-street goods transfer
• The physically challenged enjoy universal access to public transport facilities and services
• Roads and bridges are in a good state of repair
• Air pollution from motor vehicle sources is declining
• Urban transportation infrastructure and services are adequately funded from stable and sustainable revenues
• Political leaders have the support of a well-informed public when making decisions on urban development and transportation systems to serve the area.

Developing a Vision: Imagining the Scenarios Door to Door

The next step is to translate the vision into realistic scenarios specific to your city or community.

In all its complexity, decision making related to transportation can tend towards oversimplification - a futile search for the single (often technical) fix, or the "silver bullet". Alternatively, transportation planning and implementation can be diluted and diffused by the process of making long lists of options and ideas without setting clear and practical priorities and frameworks. In either case we risk investing in solutions which do not relate to our current and emerging needs and priorities, and which ignore or neglect key links in the transportation chain.

Recent international approaches to transportation planning have successfully combined a backcasting methodology based on clear goals and timelines and detailed, door-to-door scenario setting for a range of transportation needs. Bringing sustainable transportation home to practical reality in this way has a few advantages:

• it gives a general picture of how a system or innovation will work and feel
• it places a vision of transportation within a larger vision of how we want to live
• it brings important details to the fore, useful to the planning and implementing process
• it focuses on the individual user - an emerging approach to transportation planning now being embraced by progressive transportation marketing departments

A Checklist For Action

Having envisioned how an individual trip will look, the next step is to imagine how the whole system will look, and how it will be developed. The Transportation Association of Canada offers a checklist for action in implementing sustainable transportation in our cities. This list is geared to decision makers charged with transportation but can also be used as a guide for community efforts and for employers and businesses thinking about transportation specifically or generally.

Of course this is only a guide. Each community or city makes its own decisions about what to implement and how.

TAC Checklist For Action

• Urban Structure and Land Use: Plan for increased densities and more mixed land use, including development of more compact, mixed use communities offering a range of housing types, with pedestrian friendly urban design as a prime objective; reurbanization of municipal core areas; a transit friendly grid pattern of local streets; pedestrian, cycling, transit and truck-friendly designs including sidewalks and foot paths, cycle lanes and paths; higher densities close to transit stops; and off street loading.
• Walking: Promote walking as the preferred mode for person trips, including: increased densities and mixed land use to bring origins and destinations closer together; design of public rights-of-way to encourage pedestrian use and not just motor vehicle use; protection from inclement weather; adequate lighting for safety and security; accessibility for the physically challenged; street level establishments close to the sidewalk
• Cycling: Increase opportunities for cycling, including: cycle lanes on the public right-of-way and separate cycle networks; assuring that the needs of cyclists are considered in the preparation of community / neighbourhood plans; storage facilities at transit stations and on transit vehicles to encourage bike and ride; storage facilities in the downtown core, suburban town centres, and other key locations; provision of cycle facilities as a condition of development
• Transit: Provide higher quality transit service to increase its attractiveness relative to the private auto, including: development of a hierarchy of transit services; giving transit funding and operating priority; improving comfort, security, frequency, on time reliability, geographic coverage, access for the physically challenged, and public information services; encouraging park-and-ride, kiss-and-ride, and bike-and-ride by providing appropriate facilities; integrating transit stations, schedules and fares in areas with more than one transit system; introducing preferential income tax treatment for transit use
• Automobile: Create an environment in which automobiles can play a more balanced role, including reducing travel demand by bringing origins and destinations close together through higher densities and mixed land use; designing new suburbs, major developments and redevelopments to be more walking, cycling, and transit friendly; employing traffic management techniques to achieve more efficient use of roads; encouraging flexible working hours and ride sharing and car sharing programs
• Parking: Plan parking supply and price to be in balance with walking, cycling, transit and auto priorities including: detailed studies to determine current and future parking supply and demand; emphasizing short stay over long stay parking downtown; on-street parking priced at a higher rate than off-street; on-street parking limited to off-peak periods; off-street neighbourhood parking structures incorporating retail and commercial uses; park-and-ride facilities integrated with the transit system; municipal enforcement to ensure a balance of parking supply with demand
• Goods Movement: Improve the efficiency of the urban goods distribution system, including co-operative efforts by the trucking industry to give municipalities a better understanding of how to meet industry needs; consideration by municipal authorities of the total goods distribution system in all stages of urban planning and development (i.e. urban development plan, community/neighbourhood plan, site development plans); requiring off-street loading facilities or zones for all new developments; encouraging industry to make more use of consolidated delivery services to congested areas; improving the truck route network through designated routes, better road geometrics, stronger pavement, etc.
• Inter-Modal Integration: Promote inter-modal and inter-line connections, including designing the location of transit connections to be quick, easy and weather protected; minimize walking distances to transit; promote gateway / mobility centres; integrate fares and services between transit systems; consider inter-city links in developing urban area terminals for passengers and goods
• New Technology: Promote new technologies which improve urban mobility and help protect the environment including telecommunications to reduce peak period travel demand and lessen the strain on the system; Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems and computerized signal control to increase the efficiency of existing road systems; vehicle locating systems to allow for demand responsive transit; enhanced pollution control equipment and standards for all motor vehicles to slow the increase in air pollution; fuel substitution and increased fuel efficiency
• System Optimization: Optimize the use of existing transportation systems to move people and goods including treating the road system as a multi use public facility which recognizes the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, transit, high occupancy vehicles, autos and trucks; making operational improvements through transportation management; promoting ways to flatten traffic peaks and shift modes through demand management; enhance transit services; implement supportive parking policies
• Special User Needs: Design and operate transportation systems which can be used by the physically challenged including using low floor transit vehicles; providing cost effective para transit services; establishing by-laws for minimum numbers of off-street parking stalls for the physically challenged; use curb cuts, ramps and other designs to improve access; provide for special vehicle access in parking structures.
• Environment: Ensure that urban transportation decisions protect and enhance the environment, including developing environmental codes of practice based on a national environmental policy; requiring environmental considerations to be an integral part of the urban development plan, community / neighbourhood plans and site development approvals; giving funding priority to the most environmentally friendly transportation options; considering mandatory regular inspections of motor vehicle emission control systems; encouraging the development and use of environmentally friendly power sources for vehicles
• Funding / Financing: Create better ways to pay for future urban transportation systems. Funding should be: stable over time; predictable in magnitude; transparent (open and easily understood by decision makers and the public); increasingly derived from users in proportion to benefits received; dedicated by law to urban transportation system enhancements; designed to foster an urban transportation system operating at the lowest possible cost.

(This outline is provided courtesy of the Transportation Association of Canada)

Involvement: Of Users and Providers

Transportation is used by everyone and affects everyone. While no one government, or any person, corporation, or group could shift our transportation system single-handedly, involving all decision makers: citizens, businesspeople and employers, educators, politicians, public officials, and labour and community leaders, is a key to ongoing participation not only in developing an awareness of the issues but also in affecting the solution. This is beginning to happen at all levels in the face of rapid local and global changes and transportation challenges. Everyone who uses transportation (and that's everyone!) is beginning to understand the need for wise investments in efficient, sustainable transportation for livable, prosperous cities.

Citizen Involvement:

Informed citizen involvement and organized community action has made an immeasurable contribution to the development of current sustainable transportation infrastructure in many cities. Involving users in envisioning and developing transportation systems has been invaluable in ensuring ultimate success, as well as saving time and valuable resources. See our case studies in Tanzania, Brazil, and India for good examples of citizen involvement.

In The Schools and Educational Institutions:

Children learn about transportation not only at school, but on their way to school. What they learn en route is perhaps more long lasting in terms of future habits and lifestyles. Shifting towards sustainable transportation begins with our children and with the schools, both formally and informally.

At the same time, trends are moving away from children using sustainable transportation because of increasing security and health concerns. The challenge is to maintain and increase support for and involvement in programs and initiatives that will set a sustainable transportation foundation for future generations. See Safe Routes to School Demonstration Project.

Sustainable transportation learning must also continue beyond the school system and into the places of higher education and research, to ensure ongoing capacity for innovation and development of practical solutions to emerging transportation needs.

In The Workplace:

Getting to work can be one of the major challenges of daily life. Employers and employees who work towards providing more sustainable and affordable and less frustrating options for the daily commuter are contributing greatly to society. Workplace transportation programs are sometimes nationally supported and in some cases legislated. A variety of workplace programs and supports have been initiated by businesses, labour organizations and community groups all over the world. They include Transportation Management Associations (TMA's); Workplace Transportation Programs; lobbying efforts for employer-provided transit passes and welfare to work; Corporate and Community BUG's (Bicycle User Groups) and TUG's (Transit User Groups); Car Pooling Initiatives; Cashing Out initiatives for parking; and local TDM (Transportation Demand Management) programs and Anti-Smog plans. South Africa's BikeWell program has shown that employers can be leaders in promoting sustainable transportation options.

In The Business Community:

Business can play a strong role in innovation and transformation through employee programs, green fleets initiatives, producing greener products and services, and general corporate responsibility related to transportation. For more information on the role of the private sector and the emerging New Mobility Industry Cluster, see the report "Building the Toronto Regions New Mobility Sector" on the Moving the Economy Website (www.city.toronto.on.ca)

Investment

Cities are at a crossroads in terms of financing urban transportation. While money doesn't necessarily translate into thoughtful and integrated sustainable transportation planning, it is essential, especially in the face of current challenges, for maintaining and expanding sustainable transportation capacity.

Financing sustainable transportation is indeed a wise investment in terms of both economic and social "payback". Financial investment in transportation can take several forms:

• Public/Government Funding
• Innovative Financing Models and Mechanisms, Incentives and Disincentives
• Sector Development: Attracting Private Investment to Sustainable Transportation, and Speeding the Pace of Sector Development.

Current opportunity lies in the capacity to spend existing money more efficiently, generate new revenue that is more closely linked to actual costs and use, (through existing and new powers to the local government) and stimulate increased public and private investment in sustainable transportation infrastructure. Opportunity also lies in creating partnerships to establish innovative financial incentives to sustainable transportation.

A New Financing Model Should Meet a Basic Goal and Nine Criteria

(this model provided courtesy of the Transportation Association of Canada)

The goal of a transportation related financial model is to provide adequate and secure funds to deliver urban transportation systems that support new visions and move toward a sustainable future. The new model should meet the following criteria:

1. Stable and Predictable. Capital, operating and maintenance funding should be stable over time, predictable in magnitude, and provide long term financial commitment to the new vision.
2. Transparent. The sources and allocation of funds should be open, clearly presented, and easily understood by decision makers and the public to ensure accountability and fairness.
3. Least Cost. The model should foster an urban transportation system operating at the least possible tital cost to the environment, society, and economy.
4. Simple. The process should carry a low administrative overhead burden
5. Access to Funds. When senior governments assign additional transportation responsibilities to local governments, access to sufficient additional revenues should be provided at the same time.
6. User Pay. Funds should be increasingly derived from users, with transportation treated as a government controlled utility where the user is charged based on consumption.
7. Dedicated. Revenues derived from user pay methods should be dedicated, by law, to urban transportation system improvements that support new visions.
8. Public Involvement. Public support for the model, resulting from information and consultation programs, should be an integral part of the process.
9. Measurable Results. Performance indicators should be used to measure progress and report to decision makers and the public.

Excerpted with Permission from The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Factsheet on Financing Urban Transportation

Steps For Financing Urban Transportation

(these steps provided courtesy of the Transportation Association of Canada)

1. Adopt a Local Vision for Urban Transportation. Each urban area should first adopt its own local vision for urban transportation, using the TAC vision as a model. Some municipalities have already done this. The vision will result in relatively less expensive systems, provide a framework for future action and involve citizens in the process.
2. Determine Financial Requirements to Achieve the Local Vision. Comparison of transportation budgets from traditional sources versus requirements to achieve local visions will help prioritize projects and identify any financing shortfalls.
3. Select a Package of New Revenue Sources to Fill the Gaps. A key feature of any new vision, which is fundamental to the success of a new financing model, is that it offers choices in land use and travel options. User fees should be designed to provide and encourage choices that minimize future urban transportation costs to the total community. Care must be taken to avoid economic imbalances or competitive disadvantages between municipalities, regions, and provinces. New revenue sources must be acceptable to citizens and all levels of government. Consultation and consensus building will be required throughout. In some cases, legislative change, empowering municipalities, may be needed prior to implementation.
4. Create Mechanisms to Dedicate New Revenues. Dedication will be critical for public acceptance. Details on how new revenues will be collected, and who will control them and how, must be decided in consultation s between provinces and their municipalities. Clarification of provincial, regional and city mandates regarding urban transportation infrastructure and services may be required, to ensure that jurisdictional disputes do not compromise good planning and operations. Legislative change may again be required to empower municipalities, who in turn may require new by-laws to administer the funds.
5. Allocate Funds to Support the Local Vision. Performance indicators, based on policies and priorities in local visions should be established, monitored over time, and reported to the public. This will help track progress in achieving the vision, justify revenue allocations, and demonstrate the benefits received. None of this will be accomplished easily. But the benefits - in terms of environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable communities for future generations - are well worth the effort.

Innovation: For Emerging Needs

In challenging times, innovation is most needed and often least supported. Around the world innovative and sustainable approaches to transportation systems are paying back in both social and economic terms. Our present opportunity lies in our capacity to build on innovations from elsewhere, and to provide a supportive context for sustainable transportation innovation to be developed, applied locally and exported. (see also Moving the Economy's website for more information on new mobility innovation and sector development).

Indicators of Progress

To Inform Future Action

Evaluation - both quantitative and qualitative, is essential to the success of specific sustainable transportation initiatives and to setting general future directions. Our present opportunity lies in our capacity to develop cost effective, consistent and regular evaluation mechanisms that provide both qualitative and quantitative measures, and that provide information on both the negative impacts and positive benefits of the range of transportation activities.

Possible Target / Indicator Categories

The following list suggests areas where indicators might be developed and applied. They go beyond traditional indicators and targets to include positive benefits and to include specific economic, social and information indicators as well as environmental ones. This list can assist in developing targets and indicators for specific projects or communities.

General / Environmental

• Transportation related air quality targets (CO2, NOX, VOCs, particulates, number of smog days)
• Decrease in transportation-related hospital admissions
• Decrease in traffic injuries and deaths
• Improved Quality of Life indicators (including transportation related crime rates, community cohesion)

Moving People

• Modal shift (to walking, cycling, transit, car sharing / pooling, and other emerging sustainable options). Suggested starting point: OECD targets, and including TTC and GO ridership increase by 50 - 60% by 2020
• Reduction in number of single occupancy vehicles (suggested starting point: 20%)
• Reduction in vehicle kilometers travelled (VKT) by SOV's (suggested starting point: 20% by 2020)
• Reduction in number of car trips less than 7 km
• Increase in average speed of transit relative to cars
• Increase in service kilometers / miles of transit relative to road provisions
• Increase in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure relative to road provisions
• Decrease in average commute time / distance to work

Moving Goods

• Reduction in vehicle kilometers travelled (vkt) by trucks (suggested starting point 40%)
• Decrease in noxious emissions from trucks
• Increase in proportion of goods and food produced and distributed locally

Moving Less (People and Goods)

• Decrease in land devoted to automobiles (roads, parking, drive throughs, big box, etc)
• Increase in population in the city (related to wise land use, live work arrangements, industry clusters, brownfield development, growth management) Suggested starting point: 1 million in next 10 years.
• Increase in appropriate use of telecommunications as travel replacement / goods movement replacement
• Increase in densities around transit hubs

Economic / Social

• Increased public and private investment in sustainable transportation infrastructure, systems, initiatives.
• Increased investment attracted to and employment created in sustainable transportation sector
• Reduction in public money spent on supporting automobile infrastructure
• Decrease in transportation related health costs (air quality and traffic collisions)
• Decrease in bicycle thefts

Information / Indicators

• Increased investment in promoting / communicating re: transportation issues, benefits, opportunities of sustainable transportation
• Increase in citizen / user involvement related to transportation early in development process
• Increased research investment in beneficial effects of sustainable transportation initiatives / policies
• Increased investment in indicators and evaluation related to transportation trends, impacts, solutions