Reinventing Transport

[Update: Looking for more parking policy information?   Try Reinventing Parking. ] On-street parking (and double-parking) in the Motijheel office district of Dhaka. Obviously the cars on the right are there all day. As I mentioned last year , I have been investigating parking policy in 14 Asian cities. The report, commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), should be out in a month or two. Over the next few weeks, I want to share some highlights. Yes, highlights. Don't laugh! Even I was surprised how much drama there is around parking. Basement in a commercial street in Dhaka signposted as 'car parking' (but there are stairs not a ramp and this space had obviously been used for shops before being demolished, presumably in enforcement action.) Newly motorizing cities in parts of Asia face some alarming predicaments over parking. For example, in South Asia it is common to find something like this: A commercial street is clogged with motor vehicles. Many ...

Sorry for the long silence on this blog. In 1999 and 2000, when I was living in Kuala Lumpur and working for the SUSTRAN Network, I collaborated with Tamim Raad to produce a little yellow book called "Taking Steps: A Community Action Guide to People-Centred, Equitable and Sustainable Urban Transport" . The old URL for downloading Taking Steps is now dead, so here is a new one, via google docs. You can view or download the Taking Steps book here . The aim of the book was to demystify urban transport (especially for civil society in Asia): The purpose of this guide is to introduce urban transport issues to a wider audience than just professional transport planners and experts. Many community organisations, journalists and decision-makers need to have some awareness of the basics of urban transport. This book tries to make it easier to find out those basics. Is the book badly dated? Not as badly as I had thought. I think I would handle various issues differently now. And...