Making urban mobility in Peruvian cities sustainable and climate-friendly

Context

In Peru, ongoing urbanisation has led to the expansion of a number of cities into metropolitan areas. This applies not only to the capital Lima, which now has a population of around 10 million, but to other cities as well – so-called secondary cities – such as Trujillo, Piura and Arequipa. However, urban infrastructure development has failed to keep pace with this rapid growth. In particular, local public transport – in which there is competition between numerous private companies –faces a number of challenges, including slow travel flow, poor safety standards and high emissions.

Improving bus traffic flow, which is the main source of transport for people in the cities, and establishing an integrated and efficient local public transport system are key elements in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and costs while improving quality of life in urban areas. In this context, the Peruvian Government has developed a series of measures to transform the urban transport sector. One of the prioritised areas of these efforts highlights the need to support local governments to improve their transport sector.

Objective

Mobility in secondary cities and conditions for the development of a more sustainable, low-carbon urban transport have improved.

Approach

The Sustainable Urban Mobility in Secondary Cities (DKTI) project is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in partnership with Peru’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC), working closely with selected local authorities. The measures include the establishment of a national urban transport programme called Promovilidad, which supports medium-sized cities (100,000 to two million inhabitants) in designing low-emission and more sustainable urban transport systems. Promovilidad provides technical advice to cities in the following fields: institutional and capacity building, planning and monitoring of investment projects, as well as support for city administrations and civil society in the development of sustainable urban mobility plans. Activities in the fields of technological cooperation and communication are also being implemented. 

Among other things, the project provides advisory services tailored specifically to mobility strategies and works closely with Peruvian and German universities.

Results

The Ministry of Transport developed the national urban transport programme Promovilidad in 2019. It promotes sustainable urban mobility and coordinated public transport systems in up to 30 cities. The programme focuses on improving mobility services in cities by providing technical and financial support to municipalities. 

Efficient Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems are cutting inner-city journey times, introducing coordinated structure to public transport services while reducing particulate emissions along the routes travelled by more than 90 per cent of the cities’ inhabitants.

In Peru, CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 56,826 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually by implementing transport and mobility plans. 

The Government of Peru has increased its funding – from 0 to 400 million euros –for the preparation and implementation of studies in the field of sustainable transport development for the cities of Trujillo, Arequipa, Piura, Cusco and Chiclayo.