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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