WRI’s Center for Transport and the Environment (EMBARQ)—founded in 2002 to act as a catalyst for socially, financially, and environmentally sound solutions to the problems of urban mobility in developing country cities—is making significant progress in its partner cities of Mexico City and Shanghai and has started several new initiatives in Asia and Brazil.
In May 2002, EMBARQ agreed with Mexico City authorities to create and implement an integrated strategy to address the city’s transport-related problems. The agreement created the Center for Sustainable Transport (CST), EMBARQ’s local representative in Mexico City, and committed the city to developing bus rapid transit (BRT).
In December 2004, construction began on the BRT project. By the end of 2005 this corridor will stretch 20 kilometers along one of Mexico City’s most prominent and heavily traveled streets, Avenida Insurgentes. This will help save travel time for riders and is expected to help decrease street congestion, lower air pollution, and reduce CO2 emissions from ransportation.
The Mexico City project also includes testing of emissions and other characteristics of new buses. An ambitious pilot effort to retrofit 20 diesel buses with advanced emissions control technology will reduce particulate emissions and other pollutants, and should reduce respiratory diseases.
In 2003, EMBARQ launched the Shanghai Sustainable Transport Partnership (SSTP) in collaboration with the Shanghai city government. The partnership has focused on creating a set of sustainable transport indicators to develop, test, and implement transport and air quality policies, and to design an innovative mass transit system emphasizing bus rapid transit. Shanghai authorities have embraced the key concepts of BRT and are now engaged in planning and designing such a BRT system.
In June 2004, WRI and the Asian Development Bank—with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida—announced plans for the Partnership for Sustainable Urban Transport in Asia (PSUTA). The project will review existing experience and transport capacity in Asia, draw up a set of key indicators for selected cities, and create a strategic framework for sustainable transport strategies. EMBARQ conducted case studies of sustainable transport in Pune, India; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Xian, China.
EMBARQ is rapidly expanding into new cities. In October 2004, EMBARQ joined forces with local experts in Brazil to help them develop a combined BRT and urban development initiative in Porto Alegre. Discussions are under way with Istanbul, Turkey regarding future collaboration.
