Transport Notes

53 items available

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The goal of Transport Notes series is dissemination of recent experiences and innovations in the World Bank Group’s transport sector operations.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 22
  • Publication
    Accessibility of Urban Transport for People with Disabilities and Limited Mobility : Lessons from East Asia and the Pacific
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04) Babinard, Julie; Wang, Wei; Bennett, Christopher R.; Mehndiratta, Shomik
    Accessibility of transport is not always a priority in transport planning and implementation. There can be barriers in the physical environment and delivery of services that render transport inaccessible. The principle of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD) brings new momentum to ensuring accessibility in the delivery of transport infrastructure and services. The CRPD recognizes that obstacles and barriers to indoor and outdoor public facilities and buildings and the physical environment should be removed to ensure equal access by people with disabilities and all members of society. This note summarizes the analysis done of the accessibility features of recent transport projects in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region. It seeks to highlight good practice in national laws, policies and project implementation to improve the welfare of transport users across projects. The overarching objective is to suggest how to improve the implementation of accessibility features in transport projects for people with disabilities and people with limited mobility. Mobility and access requirements of people with disabilities should be considered by planning and designing barrier- free transport systems. This implies an understanding and identification of the circumstances that create barriers for people with disabilities. Many countries have made progress in reducing barriers in the transport environment, particularly in high income countries. Countries have implemented regulation and design guidelines which explicitly consider accessibility for people with disabilities.
  • Publication
    World Bank Gender Transport Surveys : An Overview
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09) Babinard, Julie
    Between 2008 and 2010 the transport sector initiated several country surveys to measure road transport needs and the constraints of both men and women, and more specifically how transport is facilitating or constraining access to resources, markets, and employment. These surveys were conducted as part of a lending operation or Economic Sector Work (ESW) with financial support from the Gender Action Plan (GAP), which seeks to advance women's economic empowerment and accelerate the implementation of the Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG3), promoting gender equality and women's empowerment). A report that reviews the methodology used for each country GAP-funded survey, the design and content of the questionnaires and the likely effect on the analysis shows that women tend to have access to a wider range of social and economic opportunities when transportation is available, safe and secure. The main recommendation of the analysis is that a standardized approach should be promoted for collecting and evaluating gender data in transport and the possible creation of a questionnaire module to be easily adaptable for future surveys to collect and report gender-disaggregated data that can meaningfully inform transport policy. Substantial background work in the transport sector was done to develop a transport module to be used in nationally representative surveys. This work could be expanded upon to focus on gender and transportation.
  • Publication
    Geohazard Management in the Transport Sector
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-03) Muzira, Stephen; Humphreys, Martin; Pohl, Wolfhart
    Geohazards can result in significant loss of human life as well as cause extensive damage to infrastructure. The magnitude and frequency of geohazard events ranges from earthquakes and tsunamis to landslides and flash floods. In the most severe cases involving the low frequency but more intense geohazards like earthquakes or tsunamis, the primary concern, ex ante, is on the minimization of the potential loss of life and property, damage to infrastructure, and ensuring continuity in the functionality of public and private services. In the higher frequency, lower impact, geohazards, such as landslides, flash floods, and rock fall, proper planning remains vital, but is often overlooked in transition and developing economies. In the transport sector, proper planning for this category of geohazards can realize significant savings in construction costs, avoiding cost over-runs, repair costs and costly delays, and subsequent maintenance costs. This technical note provides a summary of the typology of geohazards, prospective mitigation measures, and current practices in managing geohazards. It also outlines some key recommendations to facilitate improved management of geohazards in the transport sector.
  • Publication
    Improving Secondary and Local Roads in Albania : Lessons from a Programmatic Approach
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-03) Humphreys, Martin; Guxho, Artan; Ishihara, Satoshi
    Albania has made considerable progress since transition in overcoming the legacy of nearly forty years of autarky. But despite significant progress and some of the fastest rates of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in South East Europe, it remains one of the impoverished countries in Europe, with the majority of the population, and the majority of the poor, living in rural areas. These areas, despite the acknowledged links between infrastructure provision and poverty reduction, are currently poorly served by infrastructure, with the majority of the secondary and local road network in poor condition, and often impassable in inclement weather. Accordingly, in 2006, the Prime Minister established a task force to prepare a program to improve a significant proportion of the secondary and local network and requested the assistance of the World Bank to prepare, and contribute to the financing, of such a program. This transport note summarizes the experience of the World Bank and details the key factors underpinning what has became a very successful program, together with the main lessons learned.
  • Publication
    Improving Local Roads and Creating Jobs through Rapid Response Projects : Lessons from Armenia Lifeline Roads Improvement Project
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-02) Ishihara, Satoshi; Bennett, Christopher R.
    In late 2008 the Republic of Armenia requested the Bank's assistance to mitigate the impact of the global financial crisis. This technical note describes how the Lifeline Road Improvement Project (LRIP) was prepared and implemented as a Rapid Response Project, prepared in only six weeks. This project saw over 150 km of roads improved and almost 12,000 person-months of employment generated during an eight month period between May to December 2009. The lessons learned may guide other projects with similar objectives.
  • Publication
    Planning and Implementation of Road Use Charging : Options and Guidelines
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-11) Jung Eun, Oh; Vukanovic, Svetlana; Bennett, Christopher R.
    Road use charging is used by agencies for activities ranging from revenue collection, through demand and environmental management. It is applied on individual road segments, such as an expressway, or over geographic areas, such as zones in a city or even an entire country. When a government is considering implementing a road use charging system, it needs to consider four broad issues: (i) the technology to adopt; (ii) how it will be operated; (iii) how compliance will be enforced; and (iv) the social impact of the system. This transport note addresses each of these four issues, and presents guidelines towards implementing a successful road use charging scheme.
  • Publication
    Assessment of Road Funds in South Asia Region
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-12) Guillossou, Jean-Noel; Stankevich, Natalya
    Sustaining an adequate level of resources for road maintenance has been a continuous issue worldwide, including in South Asia. Since the late 1990s South Asia has developed different models of Road Funds (RFs), at the national level, or in the case of India at the state and local level, to improve sources of financing for road maintenance and development. The World Bank South Asia transport team has carried out a review of RFs in the region to draw lessons learned from the past experience. The review provides the analytical underpinning for advising governments on how to improve the performance of existing RFs or how to establish new RFs for road maintenance, and for providing guidance to the World Bank for revising its transport sector strategy in relation to road policy reforms in the South Asia region.
  • Publication
    Railways in Development : Global Round-Up 1996-2005
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-09) Amos, Paul; Thompson, Lou
    This Transport Note has been prepared as an adjunct to the 2006-07 updating of the World Bank's Railways Databases. It uses the databases for inferences on aggregate trends as well as other Bank documents and sources of policy information. It provides a high level view of traffic and policy developments. Particular emphasis is given to the Bank's six regions of operations at a time when the Bank's Transport Strategy is being updated with the intention of increasing the attention given to the role of railways in development. For completeness, important policy developments in the higher income countries are also summarized. The Note has been prepared by Paul Amos, Transport Adviser to the World Bank and Lou Thompson, Railway Consultant, and formerly Railways Adviser to the World Bank. While the content has drawn upon the broad experience and expertise of the Bank in the railway sector, any views expressed herein are strictly those of the authors.
  • Publication
    Railways in Development : Global Round-Up 1996-2005
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-09) Amos, Paul; Thompson, Lou
    This Transport Note has been prepared as an adjunct to the 2006-07 updating of the World Bank's Railways Databases (www.worldbank.org/railways). It uses the databases for inferences on aggregate trends (and so subject to the caveats provided in the Explanatory Note cited) as well as other Bank documents and sources of policy information. It provides a high level view of traffic and policy developments. Particular emphasis is given to the Bank's six regions of operations at a time when the Bank's Transport Strategy is being updated with the intention of increasing the attention given to the role of railways in development. For completeness, important policy developments in the higher income countries are also summarized.
  • Publication
    Success Factors for Improving Logistics in a Middle-Income Country
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-10) Bellier, Michel; Raballand, Gaël; Arvis, Jean-François
    This note presents the main lessons drawn from an analytical and sector work on trade logistics in Morocco. Public and private counterparts recognized the positive impact of the World Bank's report to catalyze and accelerate reforms' pace and to facilitate cooperation between public and private parties involved in logistics reforms. A careful preparation process and a strong buy-in from public and private stakeholders involved in logistics in Morocco made this Economic Sector Work (ESW) successful. To achieve this outcome, the Bank team based efforts on a tailored approach to commission background studies, knowledge dissemination during preparatory work and a detailed action plan in order to create a rapid and positive impact on improving logistics. The Moroccan example also demonstrates that, in a middle-income country, detailed and relevant action plan under a strong political willingness and commitment to reform can achieve rapid and significant results.