Sustainable Design of Urban mobility in Medium-Sized Metropolitan Regions (SMMR)
Project description
Title: Sustainable Design of Urban Mobility in Medium-Sized Metropolitan Regions (SMMR)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Countries: ASEAN region
Partner: ASEAN through the ASEAN Land Transport Working Group (LTWG)
Overall term: 2018 to 2021
Context
The urban population of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to increase by around 90 million people by 2025. While the majority live in metropolises such as Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila, medium-sized cities of between 200,000 and 2 million residents, such as Phnom Penh, Vientiane and Can Tho, are also experiencing strong growth.
With this rapid urbanisation, ASEAN’s cities are increasingly confronted with challenges such as congestion, overstretched infrastructure and air pollution, as well as social inequality and a lack of access to mobility. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that traffic congestion costs Asian economies 2-5 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) due to lost time and higher transport costs. In the ASEAN region, transport accounts for between 19 and 32 per cent of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Road transport causes 80-90 per cent of these emissions and contributes significantly to air pollution, especially in cities.
Objective
ASEAN member states have mainstreamed strategies and concepts for sustainable mobility in their planning and administration.
Approach
The project is active in four areas:
Cross-border working groups in partner metropolitan regions to coordinate transport planning
The project is facilitating the set-up of cross-border working groups linking cities, neighbouring municipalities, provinces and national authorities. The working groups’ objective is to promote the conclusion of cooperation agreements to improve urban transport.
Integrated, cross-border plans, measures and projects
The project is supporting the working groups in developing ready-to-implement pilot measures for sustainable mobility in the metropolitan regions. The measures include a financing concept and an implementation plan.
Regional knowledge exchange for capacity development
The project is supporting knowledge building and the exchange of experience via regional conferences, workshops, training courses and seminars. It also publishes knowledge resources and disseminates these using existing platforms such as the ASEAN Smart Cities Network and the ASEAN Mayor Forum. This will improve the capacities of the actors involved in managing urban traffic and transport planning.
Implementation of the ASEAN Transport Strategic Plan
In cooperation with the ASEAN Land Transport Working Group and the ASEAN Secretariat, the project is contributing to implementation of the Kuala Lumpur Transport Strategic Plan (KLTSP). To this end, it elaborates policy recommendations for designing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and managing urban transport (Metropolitan Transport Executives, MTEs) as concrete and effective tools for implementing the Avoid-Shift-Improve approach in the urban transport sector.
Results
The project has performed an extensive needs analysis and defined pilot projects for each of the three metropolitan regions. All three metropolitan regions have set up cross-border working groups that are now working on concrete solutions for overcoming the challenges facing urban transport in their region.
Last update: January 2021
