Thank you for joining us for Day 2. Here is a summary of the day's highlights
Event 1: Data and Digital Transformation in Transport
This session focused on how digital data analytics are being used throughout developing Asia to create smarter, safer, more efficient, and more inclusive transport systems. The moderator, Thomas Abell, introduced the session by speaking on how Big Data is being harnessed to monitor and manage transport networks, and MDBs are now stepping up their capacity to support developing countries in using Big Data, especially for urban areas and Asian megacities.
• Cornie Huizenga introduced ADB's Asian Transport Outlook as a major new database and how it marked a change from transport data gathered via surveys, to data gathered from digital sources including open-source street maps, satellite maps, and more. The Asian Transport Outlook was originally created to help ADB with its own transport planning but has since been made publicly available for wider benefit.
• Alex Ramirez shared his experiences in delivering a digital twin to support port project construction in Nauru during the pandemic. Despite limitations in access and on-site visits, the digital twin enabled the construction to progress through the input of information from deployment of drones. He also spoke on the benefits of digital twin systems for reducing emissions from construction rework as a digital twin system can reduces mistakes in construction, and provide transparency in projects.
• Ben Dorsey and Clara Grilo spoke on digital tools and models to support sustainable transport projects in ecologically sensitive areas, and the web-based apps used to navigate and sift through the data drawn from such sources including real time satellite tracking and GPS. Ben Dorsey described the amount of data available as a living atlas of information, one which can be used to derive findings on ecosystems, infrastructure, human activity, vast arrays of species specific data including down to tracking specific animals that have been tagged by scientists to allow better decision making for transport projects.
• Kate Vyborny presented a number of examples of transport data focusing on gender issues, drawing on projects that emphasized how women experience transport and mobility in extremely different ways from how men do, with many decisions guided not only by accessibility but by safety. These data points were gathered through a range of innovative options, from crowd sourced apps to Google maps tracking data, shared freely. These cases underline the impact of safety concerns on women’s mobility and how safer options affected not only personal mobility but educational and employment opportunities.
• Louise Ribet presented on harnessing advanced technology to map informal transit systems, and the benefits of high technology data collection methods to obtain granular data on transport users, particularly in last mile situations where para transit becomes the only option. Through a purpose built app utilized by data collecters, their project enabled mapping of transit routes that are not formally recognized but critical for a majority of urban dwellers in Asian cities.
Session 3: Pathways to Accessible, Safe, and Inclusive Transport
The session brought in a range of perspectives and country experiences to enlighten the many pathways being taken across Asia and the Pacific to make transport accessible, safe and inclusive. Moderator Wendy Walker noted that the span of topics was vast as the definition of accessible, safe and inclusive is similarly vast – presenters spoke on macro view regional scale planning in line with SDG targets, improving data collection and closing knowledge gaps for better decision making, and specific initiatives at local and even community level.
• Weimin Ren presented on UNESCAP's action plan for Asia and the Pacific to attain the Sustainable Development Goals and how this ties into making transport accessible, safe and inclusive. He noted that safe and inclusive transport requires greater political visibility and making make policy makers understand inclusivity, whether this is for persons with disabilities or in order to mainstream gender issues, and improving road safety interventions.
• Mark Stevenson spoke on the expansive research that the Transport, Health and Urban design research lab had conducted in terms of finding what transport modes, and land use planning had on public health. One of their research’s most noteworthy findings was that more compact cities – where density is greater but distances are shorter – are healthier, especially as mobility shifts to active transit (walking, cycling) and easily accessible public transport.
• Gabby O'Neill, representing the Asia-Pacific Road Safety Observatory, spoke on how regional road safety observatories contribute towards improved road safety as data hubs and by closing the knowledge gap for policymakers stating that government approaches a problem by considering the scale of a problem and the cost of a solution, and that an issue must be measurable if it wants a credible policy response. The global road safety observatories with the Asia-Pacific Observatory being the newest one, all work to improve the measurement and accuracy of road safety data towards creating better interventions and solutions.
• Wei-Shiuen Ng presented on the ITF’s gender analysis toolkit for transport policies which looks at women as transport users and transport workers and considers a broad number of gender indicators including economic opportunities (wages and hiring opportunities by gender), health (when medical services are too far to travel too), civic engagement (accessibility of voting places) and safety of women in public spaces. She stressed that improving gender inclusive transport needs gender disaggregated and gender sensitive data, and that the various organizations working in the space have much to learn from each other in terms of scoring systems, checklists and case studies.
• Solene Baffi spoke on paratransit, and its accessibility and level of inclusion. She noted that paratransit can be a complementary system or it can be the only transport that is accessible, with the world’s most fast growing cities having a greater share of paratransit as traditional systems cannot keep up with demand. Even when paratransit is an essential sector it still generates negative externalities, such as pollution, congestion, and the sector itself is a complex ecosystem of power relationships and financial flows which resists reform due to vested interests. Due to those factors, it is difficult to mitigate the negative externalities of paratransit, though she brought up examples of change that was made possible through close collaboration with paratransit stakeholders, especially owners and operators because of this. These reforms included more sustainable behaviors, better services for users, and quality jobs.
• Emma MacLennan presented on experiences from Eastern Europe on making safe, sustainable and inclusive streets, by working at the ground level with communities and persons with disabilities. She described how the organization takes care to to define “exclusion” in countries where they operate, especially as this relates to people with disabilities attempting to use public transport. Linked to this, efforts to create “inclusive” mobility requires a deep understanding the obstacles to participation, especially as many obstacles are not physical but can be such details as signal change timing (of crossing signals). She stressed that efforts for inclusivity require stakeholder engagement in order to learn about them and their specific needs, in order to avoid the implementation of inappropriate interventions.
Session 4: Accelerating Innovations in Transport
Moderator Maruxa Cardama introduced this session, which focused on recent developments and concrete and actionable measures for transforming transport, by recognizing that certain questions kept on being asked with regards to innovation in transport including "What is meaningful innovation?", “What is preventing it from deployment at scale?” and “Are we successfully harnessing innovation of informal transport?” in order to lead into speakers that would answer these questions from their viewpoint.
• Katja Schechtner gave a presentation on highly advanced technology being implement by MIT, though she stated that these technologies would be widespread within a decade or earlier. These included an advanced planning tool that can bring all stakeholders together (experts, policymakers, citizens), new innovations in transport logistics and goods and informal transport of the future. The interactive planning tool was the most advanced, developed by the MIT Media Lab and called “Cityscope” it involves small models of actual cities or areas of cities tied to software that models simulations of changes in the city through data visualization. This allows intuitive interaction between experts, policymakers and citizens and shows the immediate impact of planning decisions, the potential conflicts and helps to solve them. Additionally, she spoke on the potential of autonomous rickshaws as an agile mobility solution for last mile travel, being smaller and lighter vehicles that use similar autonomous driving tech as cars, making them safer.
• Fayyaz Khan presented on the Pakistan’s Peshawar BRT project which is the country’s most innovative transport project and recognized internationally as a Gold Standard rated BRT. The Zu-Peshawar BRT contains numerous innovations that make it the first of its kind in the country, being an integrated transit oriented development that uses hybrid electric buses, works to phase out older buses running the route, and maintains an integrated bicycle sharing system. The BRT is also innovative for its ridership as it boasts 20% female ridership (compared to 2% in other public transport), which was encouraged by providing a safe and secure environment through an anti-harassment campaign and by educating its female ridership on their rights and options in case of harassment. The ridership inclusivity extends to children, who are encouraged to travel because of the system’s safety and even for the city’s most vulnerable groups: persons with disabilities and transgender persons who are afforded full access.
• Francois Davenne gave his remarks representing the International Union of Railways (UIC), where he stated the railway sector needed to accelerate its own innovation, and encourage a great modal shift to rail as it was already a highly energy efficient, low emissions form of transport. He noted that this shift would have to take place for both passengers and freight, and pointed to the strong development of metro rail in urban areas in ASEAN and South Asia as an encouraging sign. He noted further opportunities in collaborations between private rail networks and public transport systems, but stated that the greatest challenge was policy based and the lack of pricing on negative externalities of non-rail transport.
• Sylvain Haon’s remarks also focused on the modal shift for public transport, describing a race to deliver the services that people deserve and expect and confirm to them that public transport is the best solution. He noted that mass transit is often large and transformational and serves as way to structure a larger transport environment, and in that way public transport needs to seek partnership with other actors in the city-space, and leveraging the strength of connectivity. He closed by saying that technology is part of the solution but cannot be the only solution, and new technology must be deployed with a government framework in place for passenger centric services and accessibility.
• Sasank Vemuri shared that digitalization and electrification are at the vanguard of innovation in urban transport, with Asia leading the way. He emphasized, however, that innovating to improve the attractiveness of walking, cycling, and paratransit services is also essential to achieve net-zero cities of the future. He shared experiences from MobiliseYourCity geographies showing how Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and National Urban Mobility Plans (NUMPs), can identify opportunities for both incremental innovations within specific projects as well as more transformative innovations at the city systems levels.