Sustainable Urban Transport Project

Policy-makers are facing demands to meet the changing mobility needs of citizens in ways which are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

The Sustainable Urban Transport Project (GIZ-SUTP) aims to help developing world cities achieve their sustainable transport goals, through the dissemination of information about international experience, policy advice, training and capacity building.

Cycling in Pune is dangerous. However, for many people it is the only affordable transport mode. They depend on a minimum standard of cycling infrastructure. But the situation in Pune becomes worse every day. This is the driving idea behind the 'The Invisible Cyclist' initiative of the Indian NGO Parisar, which captures the life of some of the cyclists who cycle in the city everyday with videos and an attractive booklet.

Whereas the Rio+20 Conference laid the foundation and charted the overall course for the desirable and needed policy action towards “The Future We Want”, the challenges ahead lie in rapidly and effectively implementing the above mentioned decisions. The Berlin High-level Dialogue on Implementing Rio+20 Decisions on Sustainable Cities and Urban Transport will coincide with the first anniversary of the Rio+20 Conference. The Berlin High-level Dialogue will also coincide with the 2013 Global Forum on Human Settlements and Awards Ceremony (GFHS).

The main objectives of the dialogue are to (a) highlight proven sustainable urban planning and transport policies and measures, (b) identify good and best practices in this regard, and (c) facilitate capacity building through national and international exchanges of information and experiences among relevant practitioners, experts and policy makers, in particular from developing countries. Whereas the High-level Dialogue is not a formal inter-governmental meeting, it provides a forum for national, regional and global information exchange and consultations among stakeholders, experts and decision makers.

"Exactly 150 years ago, with the first underground railway, London established itself as a world leader in city transport. Since then, TfL and its predecessors have been at the forefront of every major development in the field.

In urban transport, cycling is now at the cutting edge. Across the western world, from Paris to New York, from Edinburgh to Dublin, forward-thinking cities are investing hundreds of millions of pounds in the bicycle, knowing that well-designed schemes can deliver benefits far greater than their relatively modest costs. Because transport is not just how you get around. It is part of what shapes a city, for good and for ill. Cycling shapes a city – for all its people, cyclists or not – in ways that are almost always good."

(Foreword from Sir Peter Hendy, Commissioner Transport for London)

For this reason, Transport for London (TfL) will spent 913 million pounds over the next ten years to improve London´s cycling infrastructure and close the gap to the big cycling cities of Amsterdam or Vancouver.

The key outcomes of the new London cycling strategy are:

1. A Tube network for the bike. London will have a network of direct, high-capacity, joined-up cycle routes. Many will run in parallel with key Underground, rail and bus routes, radial and orbital, signed and branded accordingly: the ‘Bakerloo Superhighway’; the ‘Circle Quietway’, and so on. A ‘bike Crossrail’ will run, substantially segregated, from west London to Barking. Local routes will link with them. There will be more Dutch-style, fully-segregated lanes and junctions; more mandatory cycle lanes, semi-segregated from general traffic; and a network of direct back-street Quietways, with segregation and junction improvements over the hard parts.