[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.

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.