Institutions and Governance for Urban Mobility

Institutional and governance frameworks are the structures through which political, technical and finan cial decisions are translated into resource allocation and priority setting for implementing urban mobility plans, programmes and projects. No matter how good the policy recommendations, their imple mentation is dependent upon how fit-for-purpose these institutional and governance frame works are to direct, manage, resource and deliver them. Visions of sus tain able urban mobility cannot be translated into plans, nor can plans be successfully imple mented, without addressing the very sus tain ability of the key organizations involved and their institu tional and governance frameworks. Institutional and governance frameworks and their related networks are critical to how well (and how fast) urban trans port infra struc ture and services are planned, appraised, delivered and operated. They are also essential to how well joined-up urban mobility planning is with land-use devel op ments, and how consistent both are with the declared goals of sus tain able devel op ment. In many cities, formal institutions that affect the trans port sector frequently operate in a less than desirable manner. This is particularly the case in devel op ing countries. Notwithstanding this, people and goods continue to circulate, and indeed in many cases traffic continues to rise. The issue here, however, is with what suboptimum level of efficiency is this achieved, at what opportunity cost and at whose cost does this growth take place? The chapter starts with a clarification of the main terms used in the discussion of urban mobility institutions and governance. This is followed by a regional review of current conditions and trends of institutional and governance devel op ments that affect urban mobility policy-making, planning and manage ment and ultimately, many aspects of urban land-use devel op ments. A number of key institutional and governance challenges and underlying influences facing cities are then drawn from this review. The chapter also contains a discussion of policy responses to these challenges, with some detailed examples drawn from good practice. It ends with concluding remarks and lessons for policy makers.