[Comments on] Joint Knowledge Sharing Event on Transport, Urban and Energy Nexus Opportunities for Low Carbon Development

The Transport, Urban and Energy Sector Groups, in collaboration with the Climate Change & DRM Thematic Group, organised a Joint Knowledge Sharing Event on Transport, Urban and Energy Nexus Opportunities for Low Carbon Development. The event took place at LRC 3, ADB Headquarters last 20 October 2015, 12:00 - 1:30 pm.

Presentation 1
The first topic on Waste-to-Fuel Technologies was presented by Nawon Kim (EAEN). She discussed that she and other participants visited Korea's mature waste-to-fuel technologies and learned a lot from this ADB-funded week-long training. Interestingly, we can actually generate fuel from our waste and use it for vehicles. Wastes can potentially benefit us when we turn them into good use as such! Would these waste-to-fuel technologies be adopted in other countries? Let's hope and and see that these technologies will gain much traction in the region.

Presentation 2
Keiichi Tamaki (SAUW) discussed Electric Vehicle-based Public Transportation. He presented electric vehicle-based transport in Nepal and how this has been increasingly used in other Asean countries.

Presentation 3
The last topic on Integrated Mass Transit Corridors was energetically presented by duo David Margonsztern (CWUW) and Lloyd Wright (SDAS). Cities across the region would benefit from lesser congestion and carbon emissions when integrated mass transit corridors are developed. This introduces new paradigm in conceptualizing projects to be cross cutting in different subsectors and able to deliver better services.

Skylab or Habal-habal

“Skylab” or also locally known as “habal-habal” is an informal mode of transport common in Mindanao which serves as taxi specially in going to remote areas. This is a motorcycle but with parallel wooden planks attached on both sides of the vehicle in order to accommodate more passengers. Drivers of such have excellent balancing skills whilst traversing rocky, hilly, watery or muddy paths. To see high resolution of the photo, click the following link:

http://photosbyeinjel.blogspot.com/2015/05/habal-habal-or-skylab.html

Urban Road Safety Workshop

ADB Transport Forum 2014

Urban Road Safety Workshop

18-19 September 2014, 14:00-17:30

B. Urban Road Safety

Day 1

The keynote on unique challenges of urban road safety was given by Ben Welle (Senior Associate, Health and Road Safety, World Resources Institute). The challenges mentioned include: (a) very dense and mixed traffic prominent in developing cities, and (b) who is in charge of road safety or the institutional set-up. Recommendations on how to improve urban road safety are: (a) improving basic design of streets; (b) making pedestrians safer; (c) making cyclists safer; (d) reducing and restricting vehicle travel (e.g. Electronic Road Pricing in Singapore); (e) moving people through mass transport; and (f) conducting road safety audits for cities. In conclusion, safety determines the quality of life.

Jaehoon Sul (Senior Research Fellow, Department of Transport Safety and Highway Research, Korea Transport Institute) presented a systematic approach to urban road safety based on Korea’s Transport Safety Action Plan. Their road safety management and transportation safety planning systems were very comprehensive and covered the following safety aspects: road safety policy, safety zone program, school zones and child accidents, drunken driving, speeding, seat-belt wearing, safety education, and emergency rescue.

M.A.N. Siddique (Secretary, Roads Division, Ministry of Communications, Bangladesh) discussed success stories and challenges in urban road safety in Bangladesh.

For the group work, participants were organized into three groups and asked to brainstorm on how to develop the right policy mix in their countries. Concrete priority policies/measures were developed.

Day 2

Road safety audit and how it is done in an urban setting was discussed by Greg Smith. Some examples of urban road safety audits in the PRC and Korea were also presented.

Jae Hoon Sul (KOTI) emphasized the importance of focusing on vulnerable road users – children in Korea. Through research, government policies and initiatives, Korea’s road safety measures for children resulted to 95% reduction of child traffic fatalities.

The initial plan to do a walk-about of the vicinity of ADB was cancelled due to bad weather. Instead, a video clip of road-vehicle-people interaction taken in Indonesia was shown and participants were asked to give recommendations to improve road safety.

Road Asset Management Workshop

ADB Transport Forum 2014

Road Asset Management Workshop

18-19 September 2014, 9:00 to 12:30

Highlights of the Workshop:

Day 1

Theuns Henning (Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland) discussed road asset management with subtopics on data collection and the requirements, and monitoring strategy framework. Illustrative examples were presented on bridge prioritization and trend monitoring. Asset management decision making requires balancing the level of service (demand and capacity, functional performance) and the resources (available funds/investment) by managing risks using decision tools and financial analysis. Risk-based decision making was emphasized to create opportunities to save lives and costs.

Day 2

Theuns Henning showed the timeline of significant developments in New Zealand on road asset management. The government’s policy statement established the three key requirements: (a) economic growth and productivity; (b) value for money and; (c) improve safety towards better road asset management. Several ideas such as adapting business models, advanced asset management, and improved procurement process were also presented.

Pyeong Jun Yoo (Highway Research Division, Korea Institute of Construction Technology) presented their locally developed road asset management system in the Republic of Korea.

Nenita Jimenez (Planning Division, Department of Public works and Highway, Philippines) and Peter Knee (Philippines National Road Improvements and Management Program Phase 2 Consulting Team) presented an advanced road asset management in the Philippines wherein asset data are already in the web for deeper appreciation and easy access by engineers assigned in the tasks across the country. Also, issues in implementing road asset management such as sustainability of data collection, and resources for road asset management were discussed.