Publication: The Kingdom of the Bicycle: What Wuhan Can Learn from Amsterdam
Loading...
Files in English
426 downloads
Date
2017-06
ISSN
2352-1465
Published
2017-06
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
China used to be called “the Kingdom of the Bicycle,” but this is no longer the case. Bicycle use in China has been marginalized over the past 30 years. In contrast, the Netherlands has seen bicycle use grow since the 1970s. This paper—through a comparative analysis of data from Wuhan and Amsterdam—explores the reasons why the two countries have gone in different directions. Although these cities have different socio-demographics they experienced similar issues. This paper suggests lessons that Wuhan can learn from Amsterdam. However, these are one-way as it is considered that Amsterdam has little to learn from the decline of bicycle use in Wuhan.
Link to Data Set
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
- Cited 14 times in Scopus (view citations)
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Achieving Energy Savings by Intelligent Transportation Systems Investments in the Context of Smart Cities(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-04-28)Faced with the challenge of providing adequate transport services with limited resources, cities have, for several decades, been investing in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). ITS utilize Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to make more efficient use of existing transport infrastructure with the aim of improving transport services and reducing congestion, accidents, and air pollution. In the past two decades, with the rapid advancement of ICT and intensive advocacy from big technology vendors, the concept of ‘smart cities’ has gained great popularity and many cities have started to undertake a more holistic approach to improving urban services using technology in the name of smart city initiatives. Section two introduces these themes, which serve as the analytical framework to understand how smart mobility investments lead to energy savings. The comparison in the search for similarities among the case studies and interviews helped us develop a conceptual model, emphasizing cause and effect and presented in section three, of how ITS deployment and operation in the context of smart cities leads to energy saving benefits. This conceptual model is presented with detailed discussions of institutional, technological, and physical conditions at each step in the model. Section four focuses on energy savings with quantitative evidence of energy saving potential of ITS investments collected from literature and case studies. Section five links the results of this study to the Wuhan Integrated Transport Development Project and how the knowledge has been incorporated into project design. To further explore the energy efficiency potential of Wuhan and to mainstream ITS and smart transport solutions as a source of achieving energy efficiency using results of this study, a TRACE analysis was also completed as part of this research effort. This analysis focused on the passenger transport sector. Finally, policy recommendations on the major conditions under which ITS investments in the context of smart cities achieve energy savings are summarized in Section 6 with specific implications for cities in the developing countries.Publication Achieving Energy Savings by Intelligent Transportation Systems Investments in the Context of Smart Cities(Elsevier, 2017-07)Investments in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are beginning to take place in the context of smart city initiatives in many cities. Energy efficiency and emissions reduction are becoming essential rationales for such investments. It is important, therefore, to understand under what conditions investments in ITS in the context of smart cities produce energy savings. We reviewed existing literature, conducted case studies and interviews, and found that the smart cities context has transformed traditional ITS into “smart mobility” with three major characteristics: people-centric, data-driven, and powered by bottom-up innovations. We argue that there are four main steps for smart mobility solutions to achieve energy savings and that several institutional, technical, and physical conditions are required at each step. Energy savings are achieved when users change their behavior and result in less travel, modal shift, and reduction of per-km energy consumption in the short term. Smart mobility solutions also enable other energy saving policies or initiatives, which would otherwise not be feasible. In the long term, users’ lifestyles could change and lead to further energy savings. For cities in developing countries with lower motorization, less-developed infrastructure, less financial resources, and less institutional and technical capacity, our recommendations to achieve benefits from smart mobility investments are: (1) involve all public and private players in a collaborative and transparent setting; (2) develop the technical capacity to procure and monitor information services; and (3) focus on basic infrastructure, including a coherent road network and basic traffic management measures.Publication City Energy Efficiency Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-08-01)As a result of rapid development, cities in China are experiencing everincreasing levels of energy consumption that is forcing them to consider and plan their development in a sustainable manner. Transport, one of the most energy dependent sectors, accounted for 37 percent of petroleum consumption in China in 2013. Wuhan is a rapidly growing metropolitan area. Amid extensive construction of infrastructure and ongoing development, the city is seeking strategies to achieve optimal energy efficiency. The World Bank team analyzed energy efficiency across the city, including in the transport sector.Publication Decarbonizing Cities by Improving Public Transport and Managing Land Use and Traffic(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10)Urban transport is a significant contributor to climate-warming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in cities, with most urban transport emissions coming from cars. More than seventy percent of global carbon dioxide emissions come from cities, making mitigation efforts at the local level an important contributor to decarbonization. Urban transport also plays a fundamental role in the economic activity and welfare of urban citizens. Therefore, developing cities must find a way to continue to improve accessibility, while decoupling growth in travel demand from growth in GHG emissions. Affordable, safe, and convenient urban passenger mobility systems are critical for the welfare of urban residents, connecting people to jobs, education, health care, and recreation. This paper argues that cities in developing countries have a unique opportunity to preserve and encourage sustainable urban passenger mobility by building on their existing modal shares in public transport, walking, and biking the low carbon modes. Section 2 of this paper provides additional detail on key mobility and land use challenges that developing cities are facing. Section 3 outlines strategies to overcome the challenges. Section 4 summarizes the high-level takeaways and suggests a way forward for the international community to support city governments in providing better transport infrastructure, services, and enabling environments to ensure their long-term financial and environmental sustainability.Publication From Sidewalk to Subway(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06)This brief talks about achieving sustainable financing for urban transport in developing countries. The state of urban travel in many developing countries is grim. Congestion and low-quality infrastructure, including limited network coverage and poor roads and sidewalks slow travel times, which slows economic development. Lower-income residents rely the most on public transport and bear a disproportionate share of the burden of its failures. The low quality of urban public transport systems in developing countries indicates a chronic financing gap, underfinancing for capital investments, operations, and maintenance. Though urbanization is an important ingredient in poverty reduction, it inevitably strains urban transport, so it is widening the financing gap. World Bank research released this year has pinpointed sources of the financing problem and proposed a response based on the concept of, "who benefits, pays." By tapping into innovative revenue sources that promote efficient pricing, increase overall revenue, and strengthen all elements of sustainable transport, urban areas in developing countries can fund a wide variety of urban transport projects in a manner that will ensure their sustainability. To conclude, by combining appropriate financing instruments and focusing on the “Who benefits, pays” principle, overburdened urban transport systems can be revived with wise and sustainable investments to cover capital, operation and maintenance of all parts of a transport system,“from the sidewalk to the subway.”
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Choosing Our Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-04)Education can propel faster and better climate action in two crucial ways. First, education can galvanize behavior change at scale - not just for tomorrow, but also for today. Second, education can unlock skills and innovation to shift economies onto greener trajectories for growth. At the same time, education needs to be protected from climate change. Extreme climate events and temperatures are already eroding hard-won progress on schooling and learning. Climate change is causing school closures, learning losses, and dropouts. These will turn into long-run inter-generational earnings losses putting into jeopardy education’s powerful potential for spurring poverty alleviation and economic growth. Governments can act now to adapt schools for climate change in cost-effective ways. This report outlines new data, evidence, and examples on how countries can harness education to propel climate action. It provides an actionable policy agenda to meet development, education, and climate goals together, recognizing that tackling climate change requires changes to individual beliefs, behaviors, and skills – changes that education is uniquely positioned to catalyze.Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.Publication Unlocking the Power of Healthy Longevity(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-12)Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are among the major health and development challenges of our time. Every year, about 41 million people die due to NCDs. This makes up about 74 percent of all deaths globally, the majority of which are in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Countless more people live with NCDs every day. Yet, NCDs are largely treatable and preventable. The risk of developing NCDs and deaths from them can both be lowered with appropriate attention to prevention and treatment. However, weak health systems and limited access to affordable care and information, especially in LMICs, contribute to lapses in seeking and receiving appropriate and timely care. This compendium is a compilation of 18 chapters, each exploring a different but related topic in the nexus of NCDs, human capital, and productivity. It is based on a series of analytical work taken up by the World Bank to support the Healthy Longevity Initiative (HLI) - a collaborative effort between the World Bank, the University of Toronto, and key academic and development partners including the Harvard University and the University of Washington. The HLI presents one of a growing set of efforts to increase the urgency of policy response to NCDs across the world.Publication World Development Report 2004(World Bank, 2003)Too often, services fail poor people in access, in quality, and in affordability. But the fact that there are striking examples where basic services such as water, sanitation, health, education, and electricity do work for poor people means that governments and citizens can do a better job of providing them. Learning from success and understanding the sources of failure, this year’s World Development Report, argues that services can be improved by putting poor people at the center of service provision. How? By enabling the poor to monitor and discipline service providers, by amplifying their voice in policymaking, and by strengthening the incentives for providers to serve the poor. Freedom from illness and freedom from illiteracy are two of the most important ways poor people can escape from poverty. To achieve these goals, economic growth and financial resources are of course necessary, but they are not enough. The World Development Report provides a practical framework for making the services that contribute to human development work for poor people. With this framework, citizens, governments, and donors can take action and accelerate progress toward the common objective of poverty reduction, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals.Publication Finance and Prosperity 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-29)While financial sector risks in the larger and higher per capita countries are moderate, half of lower-income countries face significant risks over the next 12 months. Nearly 70 percent of countries facing high financial sector risks are currently not adequately prepared to handle financial stress. The report also identifies a particular risk facing financial sectors in several countries: a large and growing exposure to sovereign debt. This exposure surged to its highest level in the past decade. Finally, the report looks at how countries can enable more climate finance through the banking sector without compromising on the important goals of financial sector stability and inclusion for underserved people.