Driving Forces in Developing Cities’ Transportation Systems: Insights from Selected Cases

In this paper, we examine basic transportation and land use characteristics from a selection of cities in Africa, China, Latin America, and South Asia. By definition, poorer than their industrialized country counterparts, developing cities are in a stage of rapid dynamism. From a mobility perspective, perhaps the single most influencing factor is motorization – the growth in motor vehicle ownership. While income drives motorization, national industrial policy, trade liberalization and the influx of used vehicles, and income distribution all play roles. In many cities, motorized two-wheelers serve as a mobility equalizer, extending mobility for many residents, increasing the overall motorization level, and, possibly accelerating the path towards automobile ownership. They also pose a host of traffic safety, pollution, and traffic management challenges. While public transportation continues to serve as the primary transportation mode for the majority of developing country residents, the systems are hampered factors such as low purchasing power of users, often large presence of “informal” para-transit operators, and a difficulty in managing private sector operators. While some cities lean towards high profile, high cost public transportation projects, bus rapid transit interventions are also spreading rapidly. In terms of land development patterns, urban expansion is ubiquitous in the form of high and low income residential suburbanization, globalization-related real estate megaprojects, and continuous pressures to provide affordable housing. Finally, these and other transportation-related dynamics present particular institutional challenges, as the rates of change often exceed institutions’ capabilities to adapt, in part due to jurisdictional and sectoral boundaries. Zegras & Gakenheimer: Developing Country Urban Transport Cases