Connections

57 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22293

Connections is a weekly series of knowledge notes from the World Bank Group’s Transport & Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Global Practice. It covers projects, experiences, and front-line developments.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 15

Better Crash Data Can Improve Road Safety

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-09) Krambeck, Holly ; Job, Soames ; Sultan, Sara

Low- and middle- income countries typically lack adequate systems for collecting road crash data. This limits their capacity to monitor, effectively advocate for, manage, and efficiently improve road safety. While many cities, states, and countries have adopted or developed proprietary systems for recording crash data, they are often developed in isolation, limiting the ability to share data among users. These systems may also be expensive - and unable to support road safety delivery and advocacy. They usually lack a seamless, global, real time, and georeferenced crash repository: a basis for monitoring the scale of the challenge. Data for road incident visualization evaluation and reporting (DRIVER) -a data collection system developed and now operating in the Philippines, answers this challenge, and offers an effective road safety support solution. DRIVER offers important opportunities for improved road safety data in many national and subnational jurisdictions, and its code is available free on the World Bank GitHub open source code repository. DRIVER is likely to become more widespread as the World Bank and the global road safety facility (GRSF) support its use in other countries and cities.
Time for a Tailored Approach to South African BRTs :

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06) Munoz-Raskin, Ramon ; Scorcia, Harvey

Johannesburg and other cities in South Africa are rolling out integrated rapid public transport networks as part of an overall effort to address significant urban mobility challenges and to increase the use of public transport.The initial phases of these networks used a traditional Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) trunk and feeder approach, patterned after the successful Latin American systems developed in the 2000s. The Rea Vaya BRT in Johannesburg is South Africa’s first such system, with 43.5 km of trunk bus corridors in operation by 2016. But the results in ridership and operating cost recovery from fares were approximately one-third of initial estimates. Urban form and travel demand patterns for transport in South African cities differ greatly from those in Latin America. South Africa’s national government, with World Bank support, has been examining these differences to reassess how South African metropolises could interpret and rethink their rapid transit operations, services, and finances.
Low-Cost Technology to Improve Aviation Safety and Efficiency: Investment Program Brings Modernized Aviation Information Technology to Pacific Islands

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-02) De Serio, Christopher ; Giovannitti, Aldo

The World Bank’s Pacific Aviation Investment Program (PAIP) is bringing state-of-the-art air traffic management and satellite-based ground communications to airports and small aircraft operators in seven Pacific island countries and territories. These advances, coming online in 2017, will vastly improve the safety and efficiency of South Pacific aviation and further its global integration. The air traffic surveillance equipment, known as ADS-B, surpasses the abilities of radar to locate aircraft en route and does so at one-tenth the cost. ADS-B increases the safety of flying and improves search and rescue operations; it also enables more efficient flight routing, which saves fuel and reduces greenhouse gases. The installation of the surveillance equipment at ground stations in five Pacific island countries, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, and in smaller aircraft will significantly broaden the coverage of aviation activity across the region. A new satellite-based ground-to-ground communications network will link those five countries plus Cook Islands and Niue. The network will be resistant to natural disasters, thus improving emergency preparedness and response. More broadly, strengthening aviation-related communications in the Pacific will help integrate the Asia-Pacific region with global developments in air traffic information systems.
Open Data for Sustainable Development

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-03) Petrov, Oleg ; Gurin, Joel ; Manley, Laura

The “open data” principle is becoming an increasingly important part of the data revolution, which is recognized worldwide as a key engine for achieving the post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Open data—publicly available online information that can be used for any purpose at little or no cost—represent one of the most underutilized key assets of modern government. Open data initiatives are often directed at converting open data into formats that can be reused for private sector development, jobs creation, economic growth, and more effective governance and citizen engagement. A 2013 study estimated that using open data in seven sectors of economic activity could create $3 trillion to $5 trillion annually in economic value worldwide. The direct, annual economic value of public governmental data has been estimated at up to €40 billion for the European Union and £2 billion for the United Kingdom. Numerous examples illustrate how the use of open data can give significant support to achieving the post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Will the Digital Revolution Help or Hurt Employment?: Adaptation a Key to Realizing Job Gains

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-02) Raja, Siddhartha ; Ampah, Mavis

What will technological change deliver in the coming decades? And what can we do to determine the outcome? Technological change in any given society is never smooth and always negotiated. Although both perils and opportunities await, the ultimate result depends on our choices today. Governments, businesses, and individuals have shown that adapting to changing circumstances can alter the consequences of apparently ‘inevitable’ changes. And developing countries can be profoundly affected by changes seemingly limited to the advanced economies; they must adapt to what is actually a global technological playing field. The World Bank’s recently issued World Development Report 2016: digital dividends focuses on strengthening the ‘analog complements’ of the digital economy, including adapting skills to get the most out of the digital revolution. Countries whose governments can facilitate innovation, strengthen education and skill building, and build up the social safety net may be the most likely to benefit from the coming changes.
ICT at COP21: Enormous Potential to Mitigate Emissions

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12) Gallegos, Doyle ; Narimatsu, Junko

The transformational potential of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) was on display in Paris at the Twenty-First Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. ICTs, including the Internet, mobile phones, geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imaging, remote sensing, and data analytics, could reduce yearly global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) 20 percent by 2030, thus holding them at their 2015 level. Moreover, ICT emissions are expected to decrease to 1.97 percent of the global total by 2030, from 2.3 percent in 2020, while emission reductions attributable to ICT will be nearly 10 times greater than those of the ICT sector. ICTs are also critical for climate change adaptation, providing vital tools for all phases of the disaster risk management cycle. Although the opportunities for ICTs to support the climate change agenda are enormous, much work remains in order to realize them. Governments of developing countries must be further encouraged to include ICTs in their national climate change policies. And the international development community will have to make significant efforts, particularly in low-income countries, to develop ICT infrastructure as well as the institutional capacities and skills to implement and sustain these solutions.
Real-Time Passenger Information: Getting It Right

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-11) Pulido, Daniel ; Canales, Diego

The widening use of smartphones, high urbanization rates, and the rapid evolution of technologies are driving the expansion of real time passenger information (RTPI) systems for urban transport services. RTPI provides accurate information on actual departure and arrival times and service disruptions, enabling passengers to plan more-efficient trips. Such public information systems can also create an extra incentive for the transit agency to maintain or improve performance. The market potential for RTPI systems includes installations in existing systems as well as new infrastructure. Traditionally sold as part of a larger vehicle management system that is controlled by a chosen vendor, conventional RTPI systems are a challenging expenditure in the developing world and, given the latest technologies, the conventional systems represent an increasingly outdated model. The new technologies can allow cities to obtain more economical and more adaptable RTPI systems, and government officials should consider these new developments when designing transit projects and procurement processes.
Advances and Challenges in 'Intelligent Transportation': The Evolution of ICT to Address Transport Challenges in Developing Countries

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-11) Wang, Winnie ; Krishnan, Raman ; Diehl, Adam

Transport efficiency and safety in the advanced economies have long benefited from information and communication technology (ICT). However, these ICT applications have typically been high-cost, customized infrastructure systems. Now the era of the Internet, digital mobile communication, and ‘big data’ analysis has created a new global potential for less costly and more powerful ‘intelligent transport systems’ (ITS). The World Bank is supporting client transport agencies in deploying these new tools, including cloud-based services, open data standards, and smartphone applications, to more efficiently manage transportation assets and improve road safety. In the process, such projects have also demonstrated improvements in the traveler’s experience and the attractiveness of public transit. Moreover, the greater potential of the new technologies to reduce congestion and travel times means that the new era has also strengthened the potential of ITS to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, realizing the potential of ITS in developing countries depends on improvements in assessment practices to find what works best and in the data capabilities of domestic institutions. Significant improvements in these areas are critical to the success of ITS.
A New Measure of Rural Access to Transport: Using GIS Data to Inform Decisions and Attainment of the SDGs

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10) Iimi, Atsushi ; Diehl, Adam

In rural areas of the developing world, where the majority of the poor live, good transport connectivity through road infrastructure and transport services is an essential part of the enabling environment for sustainable growth. A lack of detailed nationwide data has limited previous efforts to develop measures of access to roads in rural areas that would guide policy and investment. The World Bank, with support from DFID, has been piloting a methodology that exploits advances in digital technology to assess population distribution and infrastructure location and quality. The resulting Rural Access Index (RAI) may serve as a useful and cost effective tool for governments planning their rural transport programs and as an indicator of progress towards the achievement of several of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets.
Advance Funding for Infrastructure PPPs: Cautions from Two Road Projects in Peru

(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2015-03) Kerf, Michel

Public private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure projects require substantial initial funding that private operators in developing countries can rarely obtain in the domestic market. In 2005, in the context of two important road projects, the government of Peru introduced a financial innovation with two goals: improve the access of the projects’ concessionaires to the international financial markets and book government support as an operating expense rather than debt. The innovations offered distinct advantages to the concessionaires while imposing a significant burden on the government, which has since stopped using them. Nonetheless, the new approach can still be useful in carefully limited instances to help solve the funding problem.