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 17
  • 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
    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
    Transport as a Factor in the Investment Climate
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-08) Aoki, Naomi; Roberts, Peter
    This Note shows how, through a process of consultation between the World Bank Transport Sector and Private Sector Department, some focus on transport has been introduced into the Global "core" module of the Investment Climate Survey. The Note also shows the scope for achieving much more focus on specific transport constraints in Investment Climate Assessments for countries where these are expected to be particularly important. Examples are given of questionnaires which have been developed to complement the "core" module and specifically to meet the needs of two Regions, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, where different aspects of transport have been identified as significant considerations for investors. For Africa the focus is on the availability of suitable transport services. For Latin America the emphasis is rather on the role of transport in influencing the location of enterprises. Application of these revised questionnaires will provide more data on the contribution of transport to doing business in different countries.
  • Publication
    Why Road Maintenance is Important and How to Get it Done
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06) Burningham, Sally; Stankevich, Natalya
    Roads, and means of transport, make a crucial contribution to economic development and growth and bring important social benefits. Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility, significantly raise vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates and their associated human and property costs, and aggravate isolation, poverty, poor health, and illiteracy in rural communities. This Note highlights the economic and social importance of regular road maintenance and recommends ways to achieve sustainable road maintenance with scarce public resources. Its audience is not specialists but rather people who need to understand road maintenance enough to discharge their responsibilities effectively: government policy-makers, mayors, ministry staff, new World Bank staff and staff in sectors such as rural development and social funds. The reference section offers sources providing more detailed information.
  • Publication
    Regulation of Taxi Markets in Developing Countries : Issues and Options
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-02) Gwilliam, Kenneth M.
    Taxis perform an important function in urban transport markets in both developed and developing countries. Because of the perceived vulnerability of passengers to exploitation by operators, entry to the market and fares have been tightly regulated in many industrialized countries. This has typically produced high premium values for licenses, implying some monopoly profit for operators at the expense of users. Curiously, however, total deregulation has often increased fares. This note considers the reasons for increased fares despite deregulation, the regulatory options available, and the relevant considerations in applying this experience to developing countries.
  • Publication
    Valuation of Accident Reduction
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-01) Mackie, Peter; Nellthorp, John; Laird, James
    The objective of this note is to advise on a desired and workable method that can be used to place values on accident reduction. The first section of this note identifies the need to categorize accidents if accidents are to be valued, and suggests a method of categorization. Following, it identifies the components of cost that make up total accident costs, while further sections suggest methods that can be used to value casualty related costs, and incident related costs. Other Sections discuss how accident valuation may vary between modes, and suggest that accident valuations are consistent with those utilized in other Bank projects (e.g. health projects). Final Sections discuss the manner that accident costs vary with time, and the relationship between the valuation and the accident prediction m model. The final Section summarizes the principal recommendations of the note.
  • Publication
    Notes on the Economic Evaluation of Transport Projects : Fiscal Impacts
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-01) Mackie, Peter; Nellthorp, John; Laird, James
    The Economic Evaluation Notes are arranged in three groups. The first group (TRN-6 to TRN-10) provides criteria for selection a particular evaluation technique or approach; the second (TRN-11 to TRN-17) addresses the selection of values of various inputs to the evaluation, and the third (TRN-18 to TRN-26) deals with specific problematic issues in economic evaluation. The Notes are preceded by a Framework (TRN-5), that provides the context within which we use economic evaluation in the transport sector. Transport projects have an impact not only on citizens and businesses, but on governments - central, regional and local. Financing and managing the project will place demands on the government's capital and current accounts. Whether these demands are greater or smaller, and how they are phased over time, will depend on the financing mechanisms used and the extent to which the public sector is involved. Alternative approaches for private finance and management are described in the World Bank's 'Public-Private Options' toolkit. In this note, we consider how the appraisal should take the financial effects into account, and how they fit within the appraisal results, as described in the Framework.
  • Publication
    Relationship Between Financial and Economic Evaluations for Different Types of Project
    (Washington, DC, 2005-01) World Bank
    Appraisal can be undertaken from different perspectives, depending on the objectives of the commissioning body. The key choices are: Business case - requires a commercial perspective; and, Appraisal for Government - usually considers both the social perspective, and the fiscal perspective. A commercial or financial appraisal focuses on the gains and losses to one organization, typically a firm or an agency of government. Social appraisal is the broadest, and can be used to show how the (narrower) appraisals for business, government and citizens aggregate up to the social level. The fiscal perspective focuses on the project's impacts on government expenditure and receipts. It can be thought of as a commercial appraisal from the perspective of Government. The items in a financial appraisal are money flows to, and from the organization concerned. In contrast to the social cost-benefit analysis, external costs and benefits are omitted. The principle of 'comprehensiveness' does not apply; it is replaced by a commercial focus on matters which concern the organization itself, and not the wider world.
  • Publication
    Evaluation Implications of Sub-Optimum Pricing
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-01) Mackie, Peter; Nellthorp, John; Laird, James
    The note focuses on three specific ways in which sub-optimal pricing can impact on project benefits: 1) through congestion and overcrowding (Section 1); 2) through overpricing and loss of user benefits (Section 2); and 3) through financial deficits which have implications for the rest of the economy (Section 3). Sections 1-3 of the Note seek to give practical advice on each situation, including how to approach the economic analysis of the situation, and the key implications for project appraisal. If pricing policy is not known with certainty at the time of the appraisal, then alternative pricing policies must form part of the risk and uncertainty analysis. This is covered in Section 4. Conclusions are given in Section 5.
  • Publication
    Treatment of Maintenance
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-01) Mackie, Peter; Nellthorp , John; Laird, James
    Maintenance is an often overlooked aspect of appraisal. The effective treatment of maintenance within an appraisal is, however, fundamental to informing the decision regarding the optimum investment strategy. This is because the nature of the maintenance strategy can have direct implications on operating costs and other benefits (e.g. travel time savings). As such the impact of maintenance within an appraisal extends far beyond a simple consideration of its financial cost. The first Section of this Note introduces the importance the correct treatment of maintenance has with respect to an economic appraisal. Following Sections present the primary components of maintenance costs, and introduce the notion of whole life costing and the fact that there is a risk that maintenance may not occur. Next, the Note discusses the issues associated with deriving future maintenance costs, and further discuss the need for inclusion within the appraisal of, first, delays to transport users during maintenance works, and second, of the amount of induced and re-assigned traffic. The final Section presents a summary of the key points that should be borne in mind with respect to the treatment of maintenance within an economic appraisal.