Background Note
Traffic Management and Parking Policy
How can we better share the public space?
Prepared by Gabriel Jodar, Formaplan, Barcelona
Economic development in emerging countries will reinforce urban growth and increase the level of motorization. Consequently, the number of trips and the distance traveled will continue to increase in years to come forecasting a relentless degradation of traffic conditions if no major measures are envisaged.
Policies that encourage middle classes to own private vehicles in present conditions of manifest degradation of the public transport supply will lead to congested road networks, particularly in large urban centers, and will intensify social exclusion for the very poor who are deprived of access to services, infrastructure, and work.
Issues related to increasing levels of urban mobility may be described as unbalanced supply and demand problems. When the demand for urban transport is excessively high in relation to the public space offer and the available infrastructure, the system becomes dysfunctional and generates the familiar traffic congestion, parking problems, fuel over-consumption, noise, pollution, dangerous roads, deterioration of living conditions, etc.
A more balanced utilization of the public space is needed in view of the strong pressure of the automobile on the public road system, often designed and managed for the benefit of private vehicles without really taking into consideration public transport, pedestrians, or two-wheelers —particularly bicycles. Each transport mode should have a permanent, safe, and comfortable network so that access to the city is guaranteed to all transport modes.
In general, transport planning and multimodal management is inadequate in emerging countries where there are no parking policies either, one of the key tools to manage transport demand.
International experience, particularly in emerging countries, has shown that it is not possible to satisfy the increasing demand of private vehicle transport by adapting its infrastructure only. The solution must necessarily involve the implementation of a balanced, effective, comprehensive, and sustainable urban transport policy capable of meeting the increasing demand for urban transport and of providing the population with an alternative to private vehicle ownership.
Moreover, fragmented and scattered responsibilities as well as institutional deficiencies in the skills required for traffic and parking management, and more generally those related to urban transport, limit their intervention capacity for urban transport planning, operations, follow-up, and control.