Professional Documents
Culture Documents
China
and
Asian Development Bank
Project Number: RSC‐C80953 (PRC)
Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change The views expressed in this
paper are the views of the author
(s) and do not necessarily reflect
Lessons from PRC and Abroad the views or policies of the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), or its
Board of Directors or the
governments they represent.
By ADB does not guarantee the
source, originality, accuracy,
Stein HANSEN, Su SONG, completeness or reliability of any
statement, information, data,
Presented at ADB, Manila 26. February 2010
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
Lessons:
Good Intentions, limited Success:
• Increased supply of car parking space in buildings
• Auctioning of vehicle licence plates (Shanghai
cars are registered outside, and used inside the
city, but works fine in Singapore)
• Local fuel surcharges (drivers refuel outside city)
• License plate numbers decide what day you can
drive has initial immediate effect, but is rigid and
stimulates innovative evasion methods
• Free public transport attracts NMT users mostly
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
Lessons from e.g. Europe:
Drastic fuel price‐ and transit fare changes
have limited GHG reduction effects:
• Doubling of fuel prices for cars will reduce car
use 20%, but emissions only by 14%
• Doubling of current urban tolls will only
reduce GHG emissions by 1.3%
• Cutting transit fares 50% > GHG down 2%
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
Why such limited effects of tolls and transit fares?
• Commuting is cost‐inelastic travel
• Commuters are captive to rush hour travel
• Many are mode‐captive
• Also buses use energy
• When transit becomes cheaper, many of the
new users will have been former NMT‐users
(cycle and moped users and pedestrians)
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
What has worked abroad?
• Singapore traffic restraint scheme with wide
coverage by public tranport
• High frequency of public transport modes (value of
waiting time is 2‐3 times that of travel time)
• Minimize need to change mode while underways
(mode change on a trip is bad for public transport)
• Well maintained and protected NMT lanes
• Safe and convenient parking spaces for NMTs
• Reduced and costly on‐ and off‐street CBD‐parking
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
Available Climate Change Mitigation Instruments:
1. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
• Good, step‐by‐step GTZ guidelines, but demanding in
practice
• Very costly‐, risky‐, time‐consuming‐, data‐demanding
and limited to investments only
• Extremely hard to have urban transport CO2‐reducing
projects CDM‐approved
• Only one approved so far (Bogota), all oters rejected.
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
2. Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• Covers policy instrument actions as well
• Also very time‐consuming processing of applications
and costly for an applicant
Therefore:
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs)
introduced in the Bali Action Plan are needed as an
alternative to overcome the obstacles of CDM and
GEF, and attracting DMC governments to accelerate
efforts to make urban transport more energy saving.
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
Good Practice Examples from PRC Cities:
Regulatory instruments in use:
• Licence plate number decides day of use (Beijing,
Shanghai, Shenzhen), has reduced congestion and
emissions, but is inconvenient for car owners willing
to pay to travel
• Tight but good schedule for updating vehicle
emission standards to latest Euro‐standards
• Restrictions on parking and idling with fines enforced
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
Economic Instruments in use:
• Fuel tax reform of 2009 simplifies and raises revenue
for better roads, but no direct effect on emissions
• Subsidy to E‐bike charging points
• Parking fees demand responsive (high cost at peak
times)
• Support for BRT and public transport right‐away
(Kunming a good practice case)
• Dedicated NMT‐networks developed (Shenzhen, etc)
• Facilitating measures for E‐bike use
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Urban Transport Strategy to Combat Climate
Change: Lessons from PRC and Abroad
Information Instruments:
• Eco‐driving training and competitions funded by
employers
• IT for Car‐pooling schemes with employer support
• IT for Employer‐sponsored commuter buses
• Easy to read information signs regarding traffic
situations (congestion, delays, fastest detour,
accidents etc)
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