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The PPIAF-sponsored public transport planning workshop is making its way around the globe. Since last fall it has been delivered in Colombia, Morocco, the Philippines and Washington, DC.
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The February session welcomed transport professoinals from the Philippines. | The workshop aims to build on the success of the Urban Bus Toolkit, a PPIAF-sponsored guide to introducing market-based reforms in urban bus systems. Disseminating the toolkit is one goal. But the two-day sessions also provide broader training in sustainable transport planning and good practices in transport service. Participants share knowledge on such topics as reforming the bus industry, designing networks and routes, and carrying out cost analysis and financial planning.
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Participants learn through lectures,
discussion and one-on-one interaction. |
Participants Taking Lessons Home
In Colombia, officials studied issues tailored to their local environment and took the lessons back to their home cities. Robert Vargas, a Panamanian attending the workshop in Colombia, said that interacting with Colombian and Peruvian officials helped him “reassess the scope of the reform process” already under way at home. He said the workshop showed participants that transport planning “is more than a mere change from old buses to new, but also changes in infrastructure, traffic lights, parking lots, roads, and urban mobility—and especially in the culture of both users and operators.”
High Ratings for the Workshop
Participants everywhere have given the workshop high ratings. A planning officer from the City of Davao attending the Manila workshop in February 2008 called the course “very informative,” saying that there were “lots of insights and . . . topics . . . very relevant for city planners like me who have minimal transport planning background.” Almost 90 percent of participants in the Rabat, Morocco, workshop in January 2008 gave it a positive rating for overall quality. And 85 percent rated the information they received as highly useful. The Washington workshop engaged a Bank audience with the lessons gathered at earlier workshops in other parts of the world. Over 90 percent of attendees gave the Washington workshop an overall high rating.
A Diverse Group of Participants
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Participants gather at the close of the Manila session. | In this round the workshop is targeted to policy makers and mid- to upper-level managers of public sector transport enterprises. In Manila, targeting a Philippine audience, the workshop attracted more than 50 participants from academia, civil society, the private sector, transport-related agencies, and local government units. In Morocco the workshop drew more than 30 participants, including Jordanian and Syrian officials and the Palestinian vice minister of transport.
A Local Feel
The PPIAF funding has made it possible to adapt the course material to the host environment, giving the sessions a local feel. In addition, the course material has been translated into French and Spanish and is awaiting translation into Chinese. And local presenters often share country-specific knowledge. In Manila the workshop included a presentation by the Philippine Department of Transportation and Communications. Department officials described their urban transport strategies and led an open discussion on how those strategies relate to lessons from the workshop.
The next session will be held in Ghana.
Click here for Presentations from the Morocco Workshop
Click here for the Urban Bus Toolkit |
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