PUBLIC TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT IN THIRD WORLD CITIES

Public transport in third world cities consists of a wide assortment of modes ranging from traditional man-powered rickshaws and horse-drawn carts to the conventional bus, tram and rail systems of the industrialised world. While it is dangerous to generalise, it is probable that the state of development of public transport in different cities is intimately connected with city characteristics such as prosperity, size and the nature of the road network. It is particularly difficult to quantify many of these characteristics for third world cities, but this paper brings together available information, largely for a cross- section of Indian cities, to suggest possible relationships between city characteristics and public transport development. Appreciation of the course of past urban public transport development in the third world assists speculation about the future. The number of the covering abstract of the conference is TRIS no 368448. (TRRL)