Thursday 13th February - Saturday 15th February 2003
Copenhagen, Denmark

Session 7: Sustainable Transport Systems

Mark Keppens, Evy Crals & Lode Vereeck
Tradable Fuel Permits: Towards a Sustainable Road Transport System
Limburgs Universitair Centrum, Universitaire Campus, Diepenbeek,
Belgium

Pollution and congestion are generally considered the blatant symptoms of an unsustainable economic and transport system. Over the past decades, the steadily growing use of the road transport system is causing major negative externalities. Moreover, with a 20% share, road transport is one of the main energy-consuming industries in the EU. Therefore, transport and environmental economists are developing more sustainable transport systems. So far, their main focus is on pricing mechanisms: road and congestion pricing, variable taxation and tolls.

But these traditional policy measures such as road pricing are not only ineffective (congestion is not to disappear due to demand inelasticity) and inefficient (road tolls reflect construction and tolling costs, not market prices) but also unjust because they deprive poor people of their right of free movement. The uneasy tension between efficiency and effectiveness on the one hand and sustainability and justice on the other can be resolved by a tradable permit system that meets economic, ecological, and social demands.

Little attention is paid to rationing road transport use by ticketing or the distribution of permits, in other words quantity-based instruments. In particular, opponents of the permit system argue that the administrative and transaction costs of such a system are prohibitively high. However, since the introduction of Intelligent Transport Systems – which are also used in pricing systems – the design of an efficient permit system is becoming more realistic. This system does create a sustainable road transport network. Firstly, the permit system is highly effective in realising a fixed objective since it is possible to set precise and measurable targets. Secondly, the system allows a fair social redistribution of means. Thirdly, since road users are more sensitive to quantitative signals than to price signals, an efficient road transport market can be set up.

This paper examines the design of a tradable fuel permits (TFP) system of which following aspects will be discussed: geographical distribution, target group, allocation aspects, cap and trade, monitoring & enforcement, implementation path and used technology. The implementation of the TFP-system will not only lead to a sustainable road transport system, it will be an unequivocal enhancement for further innovation in the car industry.

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Imran Muhammad
Time to Change the Old Paradigm; Promoting Sustainable Urban Transport in Lahore, Pakistan
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning,, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Urban transport is one of the most important sectors having a direct bearing on sustainable development because of the high growth of the transport sector’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes more important in case of Pakistan where the motor vehicle fleet is growing at two to three times the rate of population. Especially in Lahore, designed transport strategies and programs have resulted in high growth of urban road traffic, increasing air and noise pollution, and traffic crashes.

The purpose of this paper is, to review the adequacy and deficiency of transport planning in Lahore and to recommend some measures for developing a sustainable urban transport system in the city.

In order to develop a sustainable transport system effectively, research has sought to refine the concept of sustainable transport to suit the particular case of Lahore according to the social, economic and environmental needs of this developing city. Sustainable transport guiding principles and a short list of indicators has been established for Lahore, as a methodological approach for the analysis of existing data. In analysis, the overall picture shows that Lahore is not only far away from sustainable having a transportation system but is also in some respects going in the opposite direction. The past approach of road building and road expansion is still continuing as a remedy for traffic congestion and environmental degradation. Even foreign aid projects are implemented as piecemeal approaches in certain domains of transport and environment. The situation is further complicated by the lack of a comprehensive urban transport policy. But some potential areas for improvement have been found during analysis, in the form of moderate to high density in the central area, mixed land use, a large number of pedestrian trips and low car ownership. All these will be helpful in establishing a sustainable transport system in future.

On the basis of analysis, and considering environmental, social and economic impacts, recommendations are proposed for Lahore. These also include town planning measures and the empowerment of all stakeholders in an integrated way. In conclusion, research has revealed that there is no single solution to achieve sustainable transport system in Lahore. Lahore’s urban transport cannot be considered in isolation because it has intimate interactions with the whole pattern of urban development. So only those solutions should be adopted that are long term and integrated.

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