A Collection of Theses on Sustainable Public Transport

Edited by Saba Anwar

in PIDE Books from Pakistan Institute of Development Economics

Abstract: Preface: The analysis of transport institutions in Pakistan suggests that transportation solutions predominantly stem from the dissemination of knowledge from developed nations to developing ones, mainly facilitated by international development organizations. In the absence of any local research, this dissemination led to a discrepancy between imported transport policies and local requirements (Imran, 2010). This necessitates local research aimed at formulating policy interventions to address the escalating rates of car ownership and the declining air quality index. To fill the research gap within the transportation domain, this publication consolidates dissertations focusing on public transportation services in twin cities, encompassing impact evaluation of existing infrastructure, discussing requisite regulatory frameworks and recommending some alternative sustainable solutions like shared bus services to the highly budgeted metros. The proposed recommendations offer valuable insights applicable to any transportation policy framework. In recent years, in several major cities, billions of rupees were spent on transport infrastructure such as roads, highways and motorways. The severity is evident as almost 80.35 % of the PSDP comprised of infrastructure projects alone in 2020 (Haque et al, 2020). And this expenditure was not aligned to the accessibility view of urban transport planning. Resultantly, no city in Pakistan provides citywide bus service (Haque and Rizwan, 2020). Recently the Bus based Rapid Transit was introduced in some major cities with huge budgets of around PKR 40 billion, exceeding the total transport budget of that city, and catering to mere 5-10 % of the population. Travelling in those elevated and air-conditioned buses one wonders was this the best solution, what was the professional assessment of the possible alternative solutions for public transport and does this solve the accessibility issues at all for a resource constraint economy (Haque and Rizwan, 2020). Now the local governments are grappling with the sustainability of these motorways and escalated infrastructures as the economic feasibility of these projects is tied to huge governmental subsidies. The subsidy per rider is around PKR 54.19 against the ticket of PKR 20 in case of Metro Bus Service (MBS) amounting to PKR 2 billion annually. With an overall focus on the impact of the MBS on female mobility in Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Tayyeba Khalil explored female experience (before and after the provision) of PMBS related to accessibility, tangibility, affordability, safety, reliability, and change in social and economic activity. The overall finding of this research indicates that the metro bus service in Islamabad- Rawalpindi has brought an improvement in the service quality of public transportation for female passengers of all the three groups - working women, students and casual travelers, leading to ease in mobility of the female population which was absent previously.

Date: 2024 Written 2024 Originally published 2024.
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