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Improving urban transport systems: towards a pro-poor, user-centred approach

How should we judge whether a transport system is facilitating or hindering the economic development of a city in a developing country? Can a sustainable livelihoods approach help to better plan transport services for low-income communities in urban areas?

A report from Loughborough University’s Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) examines the transport system in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Looking at the perceptions of commuters, transport operators, regulators and such other transport actors as mechanics and hawkers, it charts a pathway out of the current transport chaos in a megacity with a diverse population of some 10-13 million people. Currently three more case studies are being undertaken in Faisalabad, Pakistan; Colombo, Sri-Lanka and Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania.

Economic activity in Karachi revolves around the port and the industrial activities it makes possible. Both depend on a huge blue-collar workforce drawn from the outlying squatter settlements which are home to half the city’s residents. In the 1960s misguided military-driven planning policies evicted the poor from the city centre but failed to deliver promised industrial employment on the outskirts. As a result, commuting distances are great.

Ad hoc planning, lack of maintenance, population growth and political/ethnic violence have all contributed to the collapse of a once reasonably efficient public transport system. The public sector has almost completely withdrawn from providing transport. Buses operating on set routes and schedules perform erratically. Forced to perch on roofs of unsafe vehicles, at least two commuters die each day.

The individual owner-operators who run what passes for a transport system have many grievances: high fuel prices, adulteration of fuel and oil, high vehicle import duties, crumbling roads, vendors blocking roads, the absence of bus stops and terminals, lack of credit and insurance facilities and the predatory activities of officials who ‘inspect’ vehicles to solicit bribes.

Other findings presented include:

The cost, danger and threat of violence when using transport has caused some women to abandon livelihoods.
Thousands of public transport vehicles operate without valid route permits.
The unplanned irrational distribution of transport routes creates a situation in which passengers often have to travel long distances in the wrong direction.

The report accepts that the dire lack of public funds will not permit Karachi to get a new transport system. The immediate focus must be on improving the current system and maximising its potential to assist the livelihoods of the poor. Transport planners and academics need to shed western theoretical perspectives, to understand the users’ point of view and explore links between their vulnerability and the transport system.

Recommendations of relevance to other cities similarly struggling to cope include:

a single city-wide transport authority with legal status
rejuvenation of urban railways and designation of bicycle and pedestrian access ways and bus-only routes
replacing mini-buses with larger buses through provision of credit to co-operatives of operators
forums and workshops to explore scope for developing self-help solutions to encourage entrepreneurs to build and repair facilities and improve standards of vehicle comfort and safety
relocation of hawkers and vendors
reduction of pollution by conversion of buses to compressed natural gas and phasing out of auto-rickshaws.

Source(s):
‘Urban public transport and sustainable livelihoods for the poor: a case study: Karachi, Pakistan’ by M. Sohail, WEDC Publications, 2000 Full document.

Funded by: DFID (IUDD)

id21 Research Highlight: 13 August 2002

Further Information:
M. Sohail
Institute of Development Engineering,
Water, Engineering and Development Centre
Loughborough University
Leicestershire LE11 3TU
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1509 222890
Fax: +44 (0)1509 211079
Contact the contributor: M.Sohail@lboro.ac.uk

Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), University of Loughborough, UK

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