Strategy

Cities on the Move: A World Bank Urban Transport Strategy Review

Periodically, the Urban Transport Thematic Group carries out a retrospective / prospective study of its urban transport policies and activities. The findings of such a study and a re-statement of the Bank’s urban transport strategy are published and made available externally. The most recent such publication is entitled Cities on the Move (2001). Hard copies of the book can be ordered from The World Bank InfoShop.

It is important to see “Cities on the Move” against the background of past Bank reports of this kind. The series started with "Urban Transport - Sector Policy Paper" (World Bank, 1975). This report stressed the linkages between transport systems and urban growth, and made a strong case for focusing Bank lending operations on the poor communities and transport modes that serve them. The second version, "Urban Transport" (World Bank, 1986) stuck closely to a neo-classical economic paradigm, emphasizing efficient management and pricing of existing transport capacity, discouraging subsidies, recommending competition with minimal regulation, and setting high-bar economic criteria for new investments in urban expressways, metros and other capital-intensive public transport systems.

"Cities on the Move" builds on and expands the multidisciplinary approach used in the preceding documents, while intensifying the focus on poverty alleviation. A strong underlying theme of the report has to do with an observed paradox, that increased affluence in many cities appears to have reduced the quality of travel, at least for poor people. Poverty is defined not only in terms of low   income, but also in terms of the broader dimensions of social exclusion associated with a lack of  accessibility to jobs, schools, health facilities, and social activities. The report anticipates the growth-with-equity debate, calling for wider use of social analysis tools to a process traditionally dominated by economic and financial concerns.  While the cautionary remarks regarding investments in large-scale urban transport systems remain from previous strategy papers, “Cities on the Move” takes a more positive approach to new transport capacity, grounded in a decade of empirical research on the links between infrastructure investments and economic growth.

In addition to seeing “Cities on the Move” as a part of a continuing process to define Bank thinking in urban transport, it is also useful to place it in the context of Bank strategies for its two “parent” sectors – transport and urban development. The most recent transport sector strategy paper, "Sustainable Transport" (World Bank, 1996)" (PDF, 6,678KB) emphasized the integrity of economic, social, and environmental dimensions of a sustainable transport policy. The latest urban development strategy paper "Cities in Transition" (World Bank, 2000, PDF, 11.9MB) stressed that the success of cities depends on their being economically competitive, financially sustainable, well governed and managed, and conscious of social and environmental aspects.