Transport for development

Robin Lovelace

EWB-UK, University of Leeds

1st Nov. 2013

What I'm going to talk about

1.What is development?

2.Transport interventions– Infrastructure– Vehicles– Policies – Project design

3.Engineering in context and the design challenge

A bit about me

• Interested science-policy interface• Geography in Bristol & Salamanca• Dissertation in Honduras• MSc in Environmental Science at York• Focus on energy -> PhD in Sheffield• 4 years on EWB Sheffield committee • EWB UK work• Now researching transport, Uni. Leeds

1. What is developent?

• Choose the transport-related image that best fits with your idea of development

1 - Young women with bikes in an urban area. Source: BEN Namibia

2 - Local participation in road building, rural AfricaSource: Peter Bentall

3 - 'Megaproject' construction scheme: upgrading of the Panama CanalSource: CNN

Discussion

• "Development" is contested

• Community or national scale?

• Bottom-up or top down?

• Social, environmental or economic?

• Who and where benefits?

• Intra-national inequalities

• Are we overdeveloped? (Illich, 1974)

Development usually includes:

• Poverty alleviation• 'Sustainability'

– Environment– Society– Economy

• Long-term benefit• Fairness

• Economic growth?• Integration in global economy?

How can transport -> development

• Economic– transport of goods and services– finding employment, commuting– direct impacts: tourism, construction,

mechanics• Social

– transport system impacts health– community cohesion– connectedness of nation

• Environmental

2. Transport interventions

• This is where engineers come in!

• Two main pathways of change– Infrastructure– Vehicles

• Engineers have many additional impacts– Project design, longevity, lifecycle– Feedback into policy making process– Placing engineered solutions in context

2.1 Infrastructure

• Cars, buses, motorbikes and trucks are increasingly ubiquitous

• But they can only work well on good roads

• Infrastructure also influences transport modes and society

What is transport infrastructure?

• Roads (often earth or gravel)• Railways• Bridges• Air and boat ports• 'Active travel' pathways• 'Ancillary assets' such as pavements, road

signs and drainage• Parking spaces

Infrastructure considerations

• Usually operate on a BIG scale - involvement of central government

• But some community and NGO projects

• Maintenance is critical

• Strategic thinking in where to place roads needed - now easier with better data

• Long time-scales - can 'lock in' certain types of transport - e.g. UK roads policy.

Impact of infrastructure• Implications for user safety: should separate

motorised/non-motorised traffic

• Road deaths: 2nd cause of death of 5-29 yr olds worldwide.

• Disproportionate impact on the poorest

Simple, tested solutions often best

• Good design can save lives

• Often best practice is not regulated for - engineer's responsibility

EWB experience in infrastructure

• Limited due to the scale of projects

• Typically involve road maintenance and rehabilitation in rural areas

• Many interrelated skill needed– Surveying– Land clearance– Earthworks– Project management– Communication!

Bridges get kids to school

• Existing bridge was damaged by flooding• EWB placement - 10 weeks coodination• New foundations and anchorage blocks• Standard, robust bridge design used• Main impact: increased school attendance

Footbridge: lessons learned

• "Engineers are most effective when acting as a broker of technical advice rather than a provider of solutions" (Daniel Gallagher, EWB volunteer, 2013)

• Safety regulations • Engineers must be humble and recognise

the limits of their knowledge and skills

• Career opportunities: Dan now works for World Bank

2.2 Vehicles - Introduction

• Bicycles, walking, buses and motorbikes are common modes for world's poor

• Not cars: status symbol, drives inequality (Illich, 1974)

• Higher turnover due to smaller size and lower cost: shorter-term impacts

• Easier to make substantial impact quickly

Vehicles: considerations relative to infrastructure projects

1. Higher turnover due to smaller size and lower cost: shorter-term impacts

2. Usually faster to implement, more room for experimentation

3. Vehicles are mobile, so impact can spread rapidly from place to place

4. Ownership: private - incentive to fix

Pros and cons of different modes: "Horses for courses"

Source: Starkey (2001) - freely available here

The boda-boda

Energy use

• Energy: critical in era of fossil fuel depletion and climate change (Lovelace et al. 2011)

• Should favour low-energy modes

• Health benefits

Example 2: Bicycle Ambulance - Michael Linke, Namibia

• Developed using trial and error, designed based on intuitive understanding

• Medium-scale production (100 units)

• Use: transporting HIV patients and others

Source: Bicycle Empowerment Namibia

Example 3: Bamboo rickshaw

• Final year Mech.

Eng. project

• Tackled issues of weight and sustainability

• But is there really a need for this?– Not tested properly– Motivation from student, not local community– Steel is not an unsustainable resource

• Take-away message: don't re-invent wheel

Example 4: Bicycle trailers - UK

• Sustainable development needed worldwide - issues in rich nations too

• Asked community groups for input• Project manager:

– Design– Materials – Build

• Lessons to learn• "Eco-technology"

Bicycle trailers - technical aspects

• After long discussion, L-section aluminium chosen as basic material: light, adaptable and widely available

• Solidworks used for design

• Hitch was major challenge (redesign)

• M6 bolts + nylocks

• Testing before use

Bicycle trailers - images

Bread trailer

3. Engineering in contex

• Engineering for development requires understanding of 'Big Picture'

• Built on social and economic foundations:

Engineering as problem solving

• But who sets the problems?• Set your own problems• Listen to others (local community)

• My top 3:– How can technology encourage good health?– How to we live without fossil fuels?– How can technology reduce inequalities

• Think and research into these topics for yourself

Appropriate technology

• Has the following features (Greer 2009):

• Simple and resilient• Modular • Open source• Scalable

What are these technologies. Are they appropriate?

Example 5: mobiles in Africa

• Common: "If you have a phone it is nothing. In the olden days it meant you were the richest man in the meeting" [boy 16y, Ghana, owns smart phone]

• Used to make travel more intelligently • Provides lifeline of accessibility to older

generation• Used in combination with boda-boda

drivers• Source: Dr Gina Porter (talk)

Engineering as magic

• Imagine you are an apprentice magician

• Your skills can change the world

• But be warned: can be used for good or ill

• How do you decide where to direct your magic?

• Sustainability begins at home

The design challenge

• Housekeeping - important pre-requisites– Teamwork + peer evaluation– Task A (concepts) -> report (2,500 w max)– Task B (design) -> report (2 + solutions)

• Things to think about– do solutions address the real problem?– timescale of solution– local context + feasibility

• Constraints– financial/economic– cultural/political– technological/environmental

Pecha Kucha talk 6th December

East Timor: Transport system

• "about 2,600 km of the network is bitumen paved, 500 km is gravel, and almost 3,000 km is earth-formed" (World Bank)

• "While the road network is extensive, road standards are generally poor. Pavements are generally narrow (3.5 to 5.5 meters) and require vehicles to move off the pavement to pass other vehicles. Vertical and horizontal alignments are poor, limiting travel speeds and sight distance. Inadequate drainage exacerbates road damage."

• Car ownership is low - 60 per 1000 people in Indonesia

Possible transport projects for Timor Leste:

• Identified by community organisations– Cheap alternatives to petrol for fuel supplies– Cheap form of transport for students to take to

get to school– Training program for mechanics to fix cars

• Other possibilities– More intelligent bus/taxi services– Mapping for development– Training of bicycle mechanics and usage

Thanks for listening

You are all in an amazingly privileged position with the world at your feet. Don't forget that YOU control your own destiny. Follow you best instincts and you can have a real impact on people around you. Slides available from www.robinlovelace.net.

Recommended reading

Starkey, P. (2001) Local Transport Solutions People, Paradoxes and Progress Lessons Arising from the Spread of Intermediate Means of Transport. The World bank. http://tinyurl.com/m3mqh5h

Petts, R. (2012) Handbook of Intermediate Equipment for Road Works in Emerging Economies. Intech Associates

McLoughlin, A. and Lovelace, R. Transport in

Development, Chapter (in progress) in EWB's Engineering in Development book. See here.

Resources on Timor Leste

• Timor Leste Road Climate Resilience Project (World Bank)

• ROADS FOR DEVELOPMENT (R4D), Timor Leste road project (Ausaid)

• Timor-Leste: When a short road makes a huge difference (International Labour Org.)

• Boosting Cycling in Timor Leste (SportImpact)

• Timor Leste Strategic plan (gov.tl)

ReferencesGreer, J. M. (2009). The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak

World. Aztext Press.

Illich, I. (1974). Energy and equity (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row. Retrieved from http://www.ridemybike.org/energyandequity.pdf

Lovelace, R., Beck, S. B. M., Watson, M., & Wild, A. (2011). Assessing the energy implications of replacing car trips with bicycle trips in Sheffield, UK. Energy Policy, 39(4), 2075–2087.

Wilson, D. G., Papadopoulos, J., & Whitt, F. R. (2004). Bicycling science (p. 477). MIT Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=0JJo6DlF9iMC&pgis=1