Towards a generic sustainable urban transport strategy for middle-sized cities in Asia: Lessons from Ningbo, Kanpur and Solo

Almost 10 years ago the World Bank and UNDP expressed grave concerns about the likely future adverse impact of motorization on middle-sized cities in Asia and the Pacific region.1 They claimed that, while many mega and primary cities in the region have an acknowledged transport crisis that has attracted major planning efforts, and extensive large-scale investment, the middle-sized cities (with only a fraction of the resources available to them) remain neglected and as result will reach their own crisis points unless effective policies are developed and implemented. Both agencies argued that catching the problems at an early stage would offer the advantage of developing a more systematic approach to tackling problems associated with unabated motorization and the opportunity to develop a generic method that could be applied to many medium-sized cities throughout the region. With this in mind, the World Bank, through UNDP and ESCAP, completed a study in 1998 directed by the author which sought to establish what generic strategic steps should be taken to prepare proactive measures to confront the challenges that motorization poses for such cities. The study drew extensively on the urban development and motorization experiences of three middle-sized cities in Asia—Kanpur in India, Ningbo in China and Solo in Indonesia—and recommended building blocks of a generic sustainable transport strategy for the region. Seven years on from the completion of this study, this paper examines the validity of the original motorization fears, re-examines the study's key findings and recommendations, and concludes that many still have resonance today.