Most Asian cities have grown more congested, more sprawling, and less livable in recent years; and statistics suggest that this trend will continue. Rather than mitigate the problems, transport policies have often exacerbated them. In this book, ADB outlines a new paradigm for sustainable urban transport that gives Asian cities a workable, step-by-step blueprint for reversing the trend and moving toward safer, cleaner, more sustainable cities, and a better quality of urban life.

ADB’s analysis suggests that the principal problems have been the following:

• Too often, transport plans stem from transport model black boxes and not from empirical evidence. Models have substituted for sound policy.
• Transport planning has been considered a task for the experts, and stakeholders exercise little influence. Users, residents, and other affected parties have been disenfranchised.
• Expert planning has been found wanting. Planners’ core assumptions were that the future could be predicted, that funds were available, and that projects could be implemented. In reality, the future is extremely unpredictable, affordability is always a constraint, and implementation is readily thwarted. As a result, planning was not fit for purpose.
• As a result of the above, transport plans have been closer to “wish lists” than to feasible strategies. Planners failed to prioritize goals and neglected to make projects resilient and adaptable to an unpredictable future.
• City institutions have thwarted effective urban management and decision-making bodies frequently proved to be unable to deliver the plans, projects, and policies promised.
• The transport sector has not been managed systematically. Risk analysis, risk management, and performance assessments are rarely conducted and outcomes of projects and policies are seldom evaluated to see if they are successful.
• Too often, politics have won over technocratic advice. This is not to argue that decisions should always follow technical recommendations, but when technical advice is poor or is ignored, outcomes do not match hopes and expectations.
• Inadequate enabling environments established by central governments have created an ambiguous and uncertain framework for decision making and have undermined efforts at the city level.

The New Paradigm

Based on its analysis of what went wrong, ADB developed a new paradigm that reflects the best knowledge and practices of sustainable urban transport programs around the world. ADB’s new paradigm has five core elements:

1. Transport policy is based on what works. In addition to technical specialists, stakeholders—including end users—also participate in the policy-making process to ensure that plans and projects reflect actual needs.
2. Land-use planning is part of the solution. The former link between land use and transport planning is recreated to facilitate the provision of public transport and reduce the need for travel.
3. Transport demand is managed alongside supply, and projects are centered on traffic restraint and the greater use of public transport. No longer is road traffic capacity automatically expanded in response to demand forecasts.
4. Transport plans and projects reflect a wider city vision or spatial strategy. They are also affordable, adaptable, and implementable. Furthermore, policy makers recognize that soft measures such as public transport advertising, internet shopping, telecommuting and teleconferencing, and better information are effective ways to influence behavior.
5. Policy effectiveness is demonstrated to a skeptical stakeholder community.

Taken together, these elements comprise a fundamental change of direction. As a result, ADB’s new paradigm for sustainable urban transport offers the prospect of a much more effective management of the region’s cities in coming years. As great as the challenges are, commitment and resources can empower stakeholders to make changes and accomplish what everyone is clamoring for: to place cities on a more sustainable trajectory.