Mobility for the majority

gate No. 3 / 1998 July - September

Preface

Homepage gate No.3/1998 Contents

Dear readers,
Millions of people in the developing countries spend hours carrying essential goods or walking to work every day. Clearly, their lot could be improved by some form of transport. Access to markets to sell produce is another area that immediately calls for transport solutions.

Mobility for the majority, the Focus of this gate edition, is not about jetting around the world business class. Nor is it about the high-speed rail links some would argue are so vital to boost economic growth in countries like China. True, more and more planes and high-speed trains are carrying more and more people the world over. While these developments - along with the never-ending discussion of automobile proliferation and road congestion - grab the headlines, we can easily forget that vast numbers of the world's population rely on walking to get around and that even cycling represents a great leap forward.

Mobility for the majority is about people's very basic needs and their livelihoods. Our Focus section is not intended to pit motorised against non-motorised transport. This would be cynical in view of the immense benefits cars and lorries can offer in longer distance transport and the advantages of trains and buses in terms of public mobility. And while non-motorised transport presents a viable alternative in a large variety of contexts, there are clearly many cases where motorisation brings huge advantages for local communities.

Sustainability is a crucial but complex issue in the mobility debate, especially when it comes to securing people's livelihoods. The track record of road and railway building in the developing countries leaves much to be desired in this respect. The inevitable failure of many an ill-conceived railway system in the past can be put down mainly to colonialism and farfetched illusions about "opening up regions". Also, it is evident that there has been overinvestment in highways by the World Bank and other international organisations. Roads for cars and lorries in the developing countries are an issue that immediately calls for an participation of the local people both at the planning, construction and maintenance levels. And before anything is planned, there has to be clarity about who will benefit from car-centred infrastructures and what alternatives there are to motorised transport. At any rate, in terms of the environmental impact of fossil fuel, non-motorised forms of transport would appear to be preferable wherever they are appropriate.

This gate Focus presents various facets of mobility for the masses. Our contributions stress a needs-oriented approach which mainly involves non-motorised and intermediate transport initiatives but also look at projects involving motorisation strategies. We include a selection of transport technologies from or for developing countries, and our gate discussion with transport experts Professor John Howe of Delft University and Dr. Gerhard Metschies of GTZ brings out some of the key issues at stake in the mobility debate.

Michael Gardner

gate stands for German Appropriate Technology Exchange and was founded in 1978 as a special division in the government-owned Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), German Technical Cooperation.

gate defines "appropriate technologies" as those which appear particularly apposite in the light of economic, social and cultural criteria. They should contribute to socioeconomic development whilst ensuring optimal utilisation of resources and minimal detriment to the environment. Depending on the case at hand a traditional intermediate or highly-developed technology can be the "appropriate" one.

gate offers a free information service on appropriate technologies for all public and private development institutions in developing countries.

gate is provided by the
Information and Advisory Service on Appropriate Technology (ISAT) and the Building Advisory Service and Information Network (BASIN).
These two projects are enhanced by the Small-scale Project Fund (KPF) which aims to support pilot solutions.