URBAN TRANSPORT STRATEGIES IN THE THIRD WORLD
Capital-intensive high-technology transport strategies have provided few benefits to the mass of the people in Third World cities. An alternative approach underlines the unique feaiures of each urban setting and focuses on the relationship between the characteristics of the urban area, appropriate transport technology, and the social, economic and demographic structure of the population providing the demand. These principles are encapsulated in the protocol shown in Figure 28.2, which first establishes the characteristics of the city, its people and its trans-
port, then identifies deficiencies in the existing transport systems. Once future demand for transport has been estimated, the current systems are examined for all possible ways of expanding capacity (e.g. changes in management, maintenance or operational procedures) before attention is given to new capacity options, each of which must be scrutinised against financial, technical and environmental factors. Since in most Third World cities scarcity of public finances is likely to be the major determinant of transport policy, there is little point
in developing options that are unaffordable by either society or individual users. In view of this it would also be unwise to discount the likely continuing contribution of walking, uon-motorised and motonsed IPT to mobility and accessibility in the Third World city.