IF the Kota Kinabalu Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning is news, it looks like it is a copy of the Sustainable Mobility in Metropolitan Regions in Asean (SMMR).
Here, we try to provide some insight into the background of the Phnom Penh based SMMR project, in order to let readers understand what Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) is in the process of doing.
SMMR is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GFA Consulting Group and partners on behalf of Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zussammenarbeitt GmbH (GIZ), according a SMMR report.
Plotting feedback on ‘How did you come here (Gaya Street) today?’.
SMMR’s objective is to support quest of Asean Member States to mainstream strategies and concepts for integrated, sustainable mobility into their planning and governance practices.
In support of this initiative, SMMR is developing Green Papers and Webinars on the following topics:
- Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP)
- Metropolitan Transport Executives (MTE)
- Smart & Open Traffic Management
- Hubs – intermodal interchanges
An Asean problem: Car-centric rapid urbanisation
SMMR also supports four metropolitan regions in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in their efforts to create metropolitan mobility planning procedures.
So, the following is the Asean context in which SMMR purposes itself.
The 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) has a population of more than 630 million.
Asean has grown to become the sixth –largest economy in the world.
It is projected to further grow by 5.2pc every year over the next decade.
The region’s demographic is 60pc of its population is below 35 years of age – and economic growth is leading to rapid urbanisation.
By 2025, 75pc of Asean populations is expected to live in the urban areas, much of this is expected to be in the medium size urban centres with 200,000 to 2 million.
So far, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Nong Khai and Can Tho are SMMR partners.
But it looks like Kota Kinabalu has joined the fray at this juncture.
Why?
With rapid urbanisation, transport challenge increase, such as congestion pollution and social inequality in access to mobility.
The lost time and higher transport cost of traffic congestion reportedly cost Asian economies 2-5pc of their GDP.
(Left pic): Citizens casting votes on ‘visioning scenarios’ for Gaya Street, watched by Azarel (left) and architect. (Pic on the right): A mother guides her daughter at the ‘Visioning scenarios’ station for Gaya Street at the Citizens’ Dialogue.
The urban sprawl beyond administrative city limits adds a further level of complexity to the economic and environmental challenges on a metropolitan scale.
Lack of coordination between different governmental bodies leads to bottlenecks in infrastructure and weak transport services, which in turn stimulates private car ownership.
It is estimated the sales of passenger cars in Asean will double between 2015 and 2025 to over 3 million vehicles sold per year.
This will put additional pressure on already congested cities.
Besides Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, others (like Kota Kinabalu) benefit indirectly through regional products and events, supported and organised by the SMMR project.
