Promoting Non-motorised Transport in Asian Cities

of cycling or walking infrastructure, or helping to make
the case; to value the reduced mortality from past and/
or current levels of cycling or walking; or to provide input
into more comprehensive economic appraisal exercises
or prospective health impact assessments (World Health
Organization). 22
Bikeways to reduce Emissions -Marikina Bikeways 23
World Bank Global Environment Facility (WB-GEF) with
active support of local government initiated Marikina
bikeways project in 2001 to reduce air pollution,
greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion problems
in the Marikina city. The network was increased from
initial 19 km to around 66 km. The modal share of bicycle
ridership in Marikina city increased from 4.2% in 2001 to
7.9% in 2010. The construction of bikeways has led to
improved liveability of the area (which is predominantly
low and middle income) and the Marikina Bikeways was
awarded in 2008 in the category of “Climate change and
health in cities” by WHO. The increase in biking trips
has led to reduction in emissions. An ADB publication
which evaluated the impact of Marikina Bikeways has
quantified the impact of bikeways in reducing fuel
consumption, CO 2
, PM and NOx emissions. The project
provides substantial annual savings of 250 tons/km of CO 2
,
0.02 tons of PM and 0.13 tons of NOx. The project over
its entire lifetime saves around 0.2 to 0.3 million tons of
CO 2
emissions which is equivalent to 100 million litres of
diesel. Considering that the total cost of investment was
only 1.51 million USD, the NMT lanes can be an effective
way of sustaining eco-friendly transport system.
2.9 Summary
This chapter presented and discussed the tools for
assessment and evaluation of NMT applicability for Asian
cities, a means for implementation, and several city and
country experiences. In Section 2.1, this chapter shows
one model of the transportation planning process to
create the foundation that integrates all the tools that
promote cycling and walking in the succeeding sections.
continue in the choice of a strategy, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation within the planning process.
Sections2.3, 2.4and 2.5presented the prime considerations
for NMT assessment. Three indices were presented: the
Clean Air Asia Walkability Index, the Copenhagenize
Index and the Cyclability Index are tools for assessing
walkability and cyclability, and the methodology and
considerations for each were provided in their respective
sections.
As mentioned repeatedly in this section, stakeholder
engagement and public participation are keys to
successfuladoption and integration of NMT. Section 2.6
discussed various means of engaging with stakeholders,
such as the walkability rating website (walkonomics.com),
Clean Air Asia’s own walkability app (walkabilityasia.org),
and the Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research
and Transformation mapping method (SMART).
Section 2.7 on Complete Streets discussed issues with design
codes, and how “bad” design codes (those that do
not incorporate or consider pedestrian safety and convenience)
create problems for the people. The Indian Design
Guidelines were included in the section to show how
pedestrianization can be incorporated into design codes.
Finally, Section 2.8 provided the most important considerations
for design and implementation of NMT policies
and infrastructure. As mentioned in this section, any NMT
improvement policy, strategy and project should be fundamentally
built upon the following characteristics - density,
diversity, design which includes safety, coherence,
directness, attractiveness and comfort and destination
accessibility. At the end of the section, some examples of
various experiences were shared to build on various perspectives
about NMT.
Section 2.2 was about visioning and its importance to
integrating NMT into transportation planning. This
section emphasized the importance of an inclusive
vision of society; that a “livable city” is what the people
see as their city, and such vision includes the future of
transportation. Stakeholder engagement and public
participation are keys to this process; these should
22. http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/155631/E96097rev.pdf
23. http://www.adb.org/documents/reducing-carbon-emissions-transport-projects
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