How transport affects poor people - United Nations

Poverty and sustainable transport

How transport affects poor people

with policy implications for poverty reduction

A literature review

Paul Starkey

Consultant in integrated transport

John Hine

Consultant in transport planning

October 2014

The views in this paper are those of the authors and they do not necessarily reflect the views

of UN-Habitat, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) or SLoCaT

Table of Contents

Acronyms and abbreviations ............................................................................................ 3

1

1.1

1.2

1.3

2

Executive summary ............................................................................................. 4

Background.................................................................................................................. 4

Rural transport and poverty ........................................................................................ 4

Urban transport and poverty ...................................................................................... 7

Introduction ....................................................................................................... 9

2.1 Background.................................................................................................................. 9

2.2 Research methodology .................................................................................................... 9

2.2 Research questions ................................................................................................... 11

2.2.1

2.2.2

2.2.3

3

Supply-side ................................................................................................................ 11

Demand-side ............................................................................................................. 11

Externalities............................................................................................................... 11

3.1

3.2

3.3

Literature review: sources and issues ................................................................ 12

Poverty and transport focus...................................................................................... 12

Poverty and economic growth .................................................................................. 12

A caveat: the origins of reviewed literature and authors ......................................... 13

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

4.10

Rural roads ....................................................................................................... 14

Poverty, access and isolation .................................................................................... 14

Agricultural production ............................................................................................. 15

Access to health care ................................................................................................ 16

Access to education .................................................................................................. 17

Non-equal benefits .................................................................................................... 18

Long-term benefits and negative consequences ...................................................... 19

Policy implications ..................................................................................................... 19

Measurability of pro-poor benefits and investment priorities ................................. 20

Involving rural people in road construction and maintenance................................. 21

Concluding observations on rural roads ................................................................... 22

5.1

5.2

Rural transport services and intermediate means of transport (IMTs) ................ 24

Access, proximity and mobility ................................................................................. 24

Intermediate means of transport (IMTs) .................................................................. 24

4

5

1

5.3

5.4

5.5

6.1

6.2

6.3

6.4

6.5

6.6

6.7

6.8

Motorcycle taxis and three-wheelers ....................................................................... 25

Animal-drawn carts and two-wheeled tractor-trailers ............................................. 26

Rural bus services, taxis, minibuses and passenger trucks ....................................... 26

Poverty, urban transport, urban growth and employment ................................. 29

The challenges of urbanisation ................................................................................. 29

Decreasing urban density and its implications ......................................................... 29

Urban traffic congestion ........................................................................................... 31

Road condition, construction and resettlement issues ............................................ 32

Public transport ......................................................................................................... 33

Employment and opportunities for the poor in urban transport construction ........ 36

Direct employment opportunities in providing urban transport services ................ 37

Participation in urban transport planning to address poverty issues....................... 37

7.1

7.2

7.3

7.4

7.5

7.6

Poverty and urban access .................................................................................. 40

Access to transport services, employment and other urban facilities ..................... 40

Access to basic facilities ............................................................................................ 40

Walking and cycling ................................................................................................... 41

Affordability of public transport ............................................................................... 42

Trip distances, and travel time and the journey to work .......................................... 43

Urban transport for women and disadvantaged groups .......................................... 44

8.1

8.2

8.3

8.4

Urban transport externalities and the poor ....................................................... 46

Road crashes ............................................................................................................. 46

Transport-induced air pollution and the effects on health and poverty .................. 48

Effects of traffic congestion on the poor .................................................................. 49

Displacement of the poor resulting from transport projects ................................... 49

6

7

8

9

Implications for pro-poor urban transport policies ............................................ 52

10

References cited and bibliography .................................................................... 53

2

Acronyms and abbreviations

ADB

AFCAP

AIDS

BRT

CBD

COHRE

DFID

eg

EPWP

FAO

GDP

GIS

GIZ

GRSF

HDM4

HIV

h

ICT

ie

IFRTD

ILO

IMT

IRAP

IT

km

LAMATA

LGED

m

MDB

MDG

MUIP

MUTP

NGO

NO2

OECD

ODI

PM10

Asian Development Bank

African Community Access Programme

Acquired immune deficiency

syndrome

Bus Rapid Transit

Central Business District

Centre on Housing Rights and

Evictions

Department for International

Development, UK (UKaid)

for example

Expanded Public Works Programme,

South Africa

Food and Agriculture Organisation of

the United Nations, Rome

Gross domestic product

Geographical information systems

Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨¹r

Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH

Global Road Safety Facility

Highway Development and

Management Model

Human immunodeficiency virus

hour

Information and communication

technologies

that is to say

International Forum for Rural

Transport and Development

International Labour Organisation,

Geneva

Intermediate means of transport

Integrated rural accessibility planning

Intermediate technology (although IT

Transport is now a name not an

acronym)

kilometre

Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport

Authority

Local Government Engineering

Department, Bangladesh

million

Multilateral development bank

Millennium Development Goals

Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project

Mumbai Urban Transport Project

Non-governmental organisation

Nitrogen dioxide

Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development

Overseas Development Institute

Particulate matter up to 10

micrometres in size (¡®coarse¡¯)

PM2.5

PMGSY

RED

RTS

RTSi

SLoCaT

SO2

SPARC

Particulate matter up to 2.5

micrometres in size (¡®fine¡¯)

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojan

(Indian road programme to connect all

villages)

Roads Economic Decision (software)

Rural transport services

Rural transport services indicator

Partnership on Sustainable Low

Carbon Transport

Sulphur dioxide

Society for Promotion of Area

Resource Centres

SSATP

Sub-Saharan Africa Transport Policy

Program, World Bank, USA

STAR

Sustainable Transport Appraisal Rating

TRL

Transport Research Laboratory, UK

Tsh

Tanzanian shilling

UITP

International Association of Public

Transport (Union internationale des

transports publics)

UK

United Kingdom (of Great Britain and

Northern Ireland)

UN

United Nations

UN-Habitat United Nations Human Settlement

Program

UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund

USA

United States of America

USD

United States Dollar

VOC

Vehicle operating costs

WHO

World Health Organisation, Geneva

3

1

1.1

Executive summary

Background

This review of the poverty implications of urban and rural transport was requested by the

Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), contracted by UN-Habitat and

implemented by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) with funding from UK Department of

International Development (DFID). The research questions concerned the extent to which the poor

can participate in the transport sector, benefit from transport, and be adversely affected by

transport externalities. About 360 documents were reviewed, most in English. A significant

proportion of the documents were produced by, or in association with, a relatively small number of

international and ¡®northern¡¯ development agencies, including multilateral development banks

(World Bank and ADB) and DFID-supported research programmes.

1.2

Rural transport and poverty

Importance of connecting rural people to reduce the poverty of isolation

Many of the world¡¯s poor people live in rural areas isolated by distance, terrain and poverty from

employment and economic opportunities, markets, healthcare and education. Lack of basic

infrastructure (paths, trails, bridges and roads) and access to transport services makes it difficult for

poor people to access markets and services. There is clear evidence that rural isolation is associated

with low agricultural productivity (linked to poor market access and low use of fertilizers and

modern agricultural technologies). It is also linked with poor health (for example unnecessarily high

peri-natal mortality) and low school enrolment. Rural isolation can imprison the elderly and people

with disabilities.

Twenty years ago, little attention was paid to the poverty implications of transport investments: it

was assumed that investments in urban and rural roads stimulated economic growth and social

development. Recent research has shown that transport investments tend to benefit the ¡®non-poor¡¯

most, and that investments must be consciously designed to avoid further impoverishing poor

people. Where transport investments have stimulated economic growth, the poor have often

benefitted only marginally ¨C in many cases, they have not had the resources to take advantage of

the opportunities afforded by better access. Good transport infrastructure is a necessary condition

for economic growth and poverty alleviation, but transport investments alone cannot address the

problems of the poorest households.

The main way rural people access markets and services is through roads that connect rural

communities to market towns (in some regions waterways are also important). Many people live

more than two kilometres from the nearest road, and have to walk for over thirty minutes to reach

it. In remote areas, communities may be more than a day¡¯s walk from a road. There is much

evidence that building roads (and/or trails and footbridges) to connect rural communities to the

road network provides numerous benefits and reduces the numbers of people in extreme poverty.

Trails and roads enable safer and faster access to markets and services. They also make it more likely

that service providers (for example health workers and teachers) are able to reach isolated rural

areas.

There is strong evidence that providing basic road connectivity to rural villages can generate

significant social and economic benefits. Evidence from Ethiopia, Ghana, Nepal, Uganda and

elsewhere shows that upgrading footpaths to basic motorable roads provides much greater benefits

than upgrading existing rural roads to all-weather quality. Analyses from China showed that the

greatest returns to investments came from the construction of basic (low-volume) rural roads. The

investment in such roads had a greater influence on poverty reduction and national GDP than

investments in better-quality, higher-volume roads. Investment in rural roads, particularly to provide

initial connectivity, leads to greater school enrolment (evidence from many countries including

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