As cities become the engines of economic growth, they are becoming major contributors to GHG emissions. They are also faced with severe congestion, deteriorating air quality and an increasing incidence of road accidents. This is adversely impacting the health of the people and constraining economic growth. Building flyovers and road widening has often led to long run increases in road traffic and congestion. Others have built rail mass transit systems, but high costs have limited their extent and coverage. So what is the way out – what is the right direction to take?

It seems that a piecemeal approach to deal with urban mobility is not the way to go. The approach has to be more comprehensive, and multimodal, encompassing both supply side and demand side measures. It has to go beyond a mere building of facilities to understanding linkages with land use planning, human behavior, affordability, environment, etc. It needs to incorporate institutional arrangements and also ensure financial sustainability. Thus, a comprehensive or integrated approach is called for.
 

Objectives

It is with this background that a 5-day learning event is being held in Dubai f. Organized jointly by the World Bank and the UITP MENA Center for Transport Exellence, with support from Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, PPIAF, Korea Green Growth Trust Fund, and ESMAP, this event aims at developing leadership capabilities in urban mobility planning. It seeks to create awareness of what integrated mobility planning involves, what are its different components and how it needs to be undertaken. It will use a “hands on” learning approach, making extensive use of case studies, group exercises and site visits – all aimed at highlighting linkages between the different components of the urban transport system. The workshop will be preceded by a 5-week self-learning phase, from participants’ work locations, during which they will need to go through a self-learning course, based on materials provided to them. The self study phase will involve about 24 hours of self paced learning (approximately one hour a day), and will cover topics ranging from land use and transport planning to environmental and social issues in urban transport planning. The workshop will seek to bring all the pieces together through case studies and group work, and will cover aspects such as:

• Diagnosing the key problems being faced by a city
• Systematic approach to Integrated Mobility Planning
• Corridor Management
• Public Transport Planning and Evaluating Alternatives
• Role of Government
• Financing and PPP

Participants profile

Ideal participants would be policy-makers and planners from national, state and city level governments who are responsible for “putting the pieces together”. Participants from civil society, consultants and professional staff of consulting companies would also find the program very useful. Potential faculty from local training institutions would also gain from this program.