Workshop report – Public transport markets in development
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2010
Subject Area
organisation - competition, organisation - contracting, mode - bus rapid transit, organisation - structures, organisation - regulation, mode - other, mode - paratransit, mode - bus
Keywords
Public transport, Developing countries, Public transport strategies, Competition and ownership issues in developing countries, Public transport challenges, Barriers to implementation, Appropriate solutions
Abstract
Developing countries and countries in transition represent between 85% and 90% of the world’s population and face unique public transport challenges that are not necessarily present in developed countries. Issues such as the affordability and accessibility of public transport, funding support and capacity to implement are some of the challenges these countries face. Barriers to strategy implementation in these countries could be a failure to understand the broader business and social environment, poor leadership, a lack of inter-disciplinary and inter-implementer collaboration, and weak monitoring and feedback loops. Weak institutional frameworks are evidenced in inappropriate structures often resulting in institutional inertia and conflict. Over-promising of potential impacts and benefits together with a failure to develop sustainable funding mechanisms often lead to a lack of implementation. The workshop argued that different competition and ownership solutions are needed for a range of factors. This poses a challenge to the THREDBO community as it could mean that the traditional concepts are either not relevant or not usable in the majority of the world’s developing countries, or that the traditional approaches are relevant in many respects but need to be substantially extended and adapted to be applicable and usable in the rest of the world.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Finn, B., & Walters, J. (2010). Workshop report – Public transport markets in development. Research in Transportation Economics, Vol. 29, (1), pp. 354-361.
Comments
Research in Transportation Economics Home Page: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/07398859