Connections
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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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Publication Assessing Country Progress Towards Digitization(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-02) Melhem, SamiaToday, almost all developing nations’ public administrations are going digital, leveraging disruptive technologies for better service delivery and improved efficiency. The question countries ask most frequently is where do we start?, and while the answer may seem daunting, the key to success is not where to start, but how to sustain what has most certainly already started.Publication Better Crash Data Can Improve Road Safety(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-09) Krambeck, Holly; Job, Soames; Sultan, SaraLow- 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.Publication How China's Transport Sector Can Contribute to Carbon Reduction(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06) Zhou, WeiminThe Chinese government, based on its commitment to carbon reduction in the Paris Climate Agreement,laid out its intention to achieve peak CO₂ emissions by 2030, and to make its best effort to peak as early as possible. It committed to lowering CO₂ emissions per unit of GDP by 60–65 percent of their 2005 levels, and to increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to about 20 percent. Although these targets were set up for the country as a whole, it is essential for decision makers and practitioners to understand the contribution the transport sector can make if its development path is aimed at sustainability.Publication The Cost of Inaction: Can We Afford Not to Invest in Road Safety?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-05) Bose, Dipan; Marquez, Patricio V.; Job, SoamesRoad crashes are among the most significant public health issues of the century; they account for 97 percent of deaths across all modes of transport. The latest WHO estimate of 1.34 million road crash deaths and up to 50 million injuries per year reflects a slight increase in deaths over previous years, with 90 percent of these deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries. Further road injury disproportionately affects young adults 15–29 years old: it is the lead cause of death during their most productive years. Along with the unquantifiable loss of life, and pain,grief and suffering, there is a direct burden to society from disabilities, deaths, and the economic hardships they bring. The devastating impact is not only felt by the victim’s family, where the disability or death of a breadwinner can drive a household into poverty; it also affects the overall economy. Overall productivity and quality of life is affected when otherwise healthy individuals are disabled or die. Crashes also place a burden on emergency response, medical treatment, and rehabilitation services in addition to loss of labor productivity, affecting the quality of life of the overall population.Publication Efficiency: Why Efficiency Matters for Sustainable Mobility(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12) Wyrowski, Lukasz; El-Hifnawi, BaherEfficiency is one of the four global goals framing sustainable mobility in the Global Mobility Report (GMR). The GMR posits that efficiency is crucial to ensure that transport demand is met effectively at the least possible cost. Because efficiency cuts across multiple aspects of mobility, the GMR arbitrarily defines the scope of the efficiency goal from a macro-economic perspective. Putting in place a transport system that is efficient would mean achieving, among other things: (i) seamless integration across transport modes; (ii) optimal traffic volumes that reduce congestion and delays at borders; and (iii) minimal use of energy for moving people and goods. This would be done at the macroeconomic level—including sub-country, country, region, and world—with all actors optimizing resources such as space and energy, adopting adequate technologies, and making use of regulations and institutional capacity. Given that demand for the transport of goods worldwide is projected to triple between 2015 and 2050, the GMR claims that transport infrastructure and services will have an ever-greater role to play in meeting additional demand. Therefore, addressing inefficiencies must be a priority across the entire system of interconnected roads, railroads, ports, and airports, in any given area.Publication Green Mobility: Why Green Transport Interventions Matter for Sustainable Mobility(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12) Dalkmann, Holger; Fischer, Alyssa; Peet, KarlAs one of the four global goals framing sustainable mobility in the Global Mobility Report (GMR), green mobility aims to reduce both air and noise pollution from transport, and to address climate change in the transport sector through mitigation and adaptation. Transport currently contributes to 23 percent of global energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 18 percent of all man-made emissions in the global economy. In one projection, energy related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are expected to grow by 40 percent between 2013 and 2040.1 Air pollution—both ambient (outdoor) and household (indoor)—is the biggest single environmental risk to health; ambient air pollution alone kills about three million people each year. In addition, evidence from several countries suggests that traffic noise has the second biggest environmental impact on health.Publication Universal Access in Urban Areas: Why Universal Access in Urban Areas Matters for Sustainable Mobility(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12) Mason, Jacob; Turner, Philip; Steriu, MirceaAs one of the four global goals framing sustainable mobility in the Global Mobility Report (GMR),universal access in urban areas is the ability for people to reach the destinations necessary to lead productive and fulfilling lives. But transport infrastructure and services are rarely distributed equitably, and ensuring equity of access is of paramount importance. By 2050, the world’s urban population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion people, reaching 66 percent of the total global population. Most urban growth is projected to take place in developing countries inAfrica and Asia. As economic activity continues to shift from mature economies toward these emerging markets, the number of daily trips made by people in urban areas could increase by 50 percent between 2005 and 2025. The GMR positioned access to economic and social opportunities for everyone as a key goal for achieving sustainable mobility, regardless of income, gender, age, disability status, and geographical location. The Global Tracking Framework (GTF) proposes indicators to measure progress toward that goal. This work supports Sustainable Development Goals 9 and 11 and the Habitat III New Urban Agenda.Publication Safety: Why Safety Matters for Sustainable Mobility(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12) Job, Soames; Gomez, HildaSafety is one of four global goals identified in the Global Mobility Report (GMR)—along with universal access, efficiency, and green mobility. The safety goal is aimed at curbing the human pain, suffering, loss, grief, and economic costs of transport-crash-related injuries and deaths. The scale of the safety problem is profound across all transport modes, including air, rail, road, and water. Safety efforts need to be focused on Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMICs), where 90 percent of the 1.4 million transport crash deaths occur each year. The inclusion of road safety in the Sustainable Development Goal targets has created opportunities for an increased global commitment. Nevertheless, to date there has been no overarching effort to set an overall target for safety of mobility and to collect reliable global data on transport safety across all modes. To increase the momentum, the GMR sets targets for global transport safety aimed at setting a unified transportation safety goal.Publication Tracking Sustainable Mobility: A New Way to Assess Transport Sector Performance to 2030 and Beyond(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11) Alam, Muneeza; Powell, JulieIn 2015, the world embraced the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, and agreed on a framework of targets and indicators for tracking progress across multiple economic sectors. Because of the cross-cutting nature of the transport sector, several transport-related targets and indicators are reflected in the SDGs. But in contrast to the health, education, water, and energy sectors, there is no single SDG dedicated exclusively to transport. The sector is also scant in direct targets, indicators, and direct data collection. To address this, the Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All) initiative—a multi-stakeholder partnership acting collectively to help transform the transport sector—has developed a Global Tracking Framework (GTF) for transport, complementing the targets and indicators in the SDGs. This Global Tracking Framework is featured in the GlobalMobility Report which provides the first-ever assessment of all modes of transport across theglobe. The framework will provide crucial information and tools to inform transport policy and investment decisions, and provide a baseline for measuring progress toward sustainable mobility.Publication Framing Sustainable Mobility: How to Ensure that Today's Mobility Needs Are Not Met at the Expense of Future Generations(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11) Vandycke, Nancy; Kauppila, JariIn its crucial role, transport fosters development as it connects people to goods, services, social, and economic opportunities. But today’s data shows social exclusion linked to accessibility gaps in transport services—in rural areas, women, and the elderly—, high costs tosociety from poorly integrated transport systems, road fatalities, traffic congestion, air pollution, and environmental degradation. The question for global and country transportdecision-makers is how to meet the mobility needs of people and goods now, while preserving futuregenerations? The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identify an important and rich array of characteristics that define a sustainable world. Those characteristics, along with those identified in the economic literature, can be used to frame“sustainable mobility” around four global goals, which should address more than access. Formobility to be sustainable, it should have four attributes—equitable, efficient, safe, and green. In this way, mobility can benefit both present and future generations.