The authors make the case for the return of regulation in the organization of urban bus services in developing countries. During the past three decades urban public transport policy has gone through several phases. The 1980s and 1990s were characterized by liberalization of the sector from...

The author explores 20 criteria for a good road pricing system and presents case studies illustrating the costs, revenues, and benefits of alternative congestion charging mechanisms. The author finds that manual tollbooths are not suitable for congestion charging because they are land-, labor-,...

Roughly 16,000 buses serve the 16 million inhabitants of the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Region; 12,000 of them serve the Sao Paulo municipality itself, where 8.5 million people live. Congestion is heavy at peak travel times, and traffic signal timing logic favors the flow of automobiles. Bus...

Using a nested multinomial logit model of car ownership and personal travel in Beijing circa 2005, this paper compares the effectiveness of different policy instruments to reduce traffic congestion and CO2 emissions. The study shows that a congestion toll is more efficient than a fuel tax in...

In an earlier paper (Policy Research Working Paper 1546), the authors described a pioneer initiative of Sao Paulo's municipal and state governments, to give the private sector a concession on building and operating a number of"trunk"busways. At the time, the Sao Paulo Municipal Government had...

This paper describes the role of public transport and the nature and incidence of transport subsidies in Mumbai, India. Mumbai has an extensive rail and bus network, and public transport is used for over 75 percent of all motorized trips in Greater Mumbai. Both rail and bus fares in Mumbai are...

The authors describe how Sao Paulo State granted a 20-year concession for operating a busway, one requirement for which was that the concessionaire replace the diesel bus operation with electric traction (trolleys). This was not a"greenfield concession"but is probably the only"busway"concession...

This paper develops a simple framework to analyze various pollution control strategies that have been used or are proposed in the urban passenger transport sector. The context is the declining quality of air in urban areas, which is among the serious problems associated with the rapid...

Road transport has long been the dominant form of transport for freight and passenger movement throughout the world. Because most road projects require investments with long amortization periods and because many projects do not generate enough demand to become self-financing through some type of...

The author describes a bold effort by the state government to increase private sector participation in Rio de Janeiro's urban transport sector, reduce heavy operating subsidies, and establish a foundation for making the sector sustainable. This effort was undertaken with the help of three World...