Bangkok--22 Oct--AIT
A policy paper on ‘Sustainable Urban Transport Systems — An Overview,” authored by Mr. Ridwan Quaium, a researcher working at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), has been published by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok.
The paper explores the traditional way of solving traffic congestion, which has focused on increasing the capacity of the road network. However, experience has shown that this solution works as a temporary fix, the paper says. Most large cities in Asia have reached a stage where adding lanes or building new roads has become difficult due to land scarcity and increasing cost of construction materials. Coupled with this, adding lanes may not be financially feasible and is not environmentally sustainable. This further leads to greater traffic congestion, which has an adverse impact on GDP. The solution lies in creating sustainable transportation systems, the paper concludes.
Mr. Ridwan, who works as a Research Associate in the Transportation Engineering (TE) field of study at AIT’s School of Engineering and Technology wrote the report during his intership at UN ESCAP. The paper was written by Mr. Ridwan under the supervision of Mr. Adnan H. Aliani, Chief, Sustainable Urban Development Section, UN ESCAP; Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Programme Director, CITYNET; and Dr. A. S. M. Abdul Quium, Transport Division, UN ESCAP.
The report can be read at this link:
http://www.unescap.org/esd/suds/publications/Sustainable-Urban-Transportatation-System/Sustainable-Transportation-9.pdf
Photo: Mr. Ridwan Quaium