Urban Transport and the Environment in the Asia-Pacific Region

Across the entire globe, motor vehicle usage has increased tremendously. One result is that many areas of the world have been experiencing serious motor vehicle pollution problems. To deal with them, significant motor vehicle pollution control programs have become increasingly common, leading to tremendous advances in petrol car control technologies. At present, similar technologies are under intensive development for diesel cars and trucks and significant breakthroughs are starting to appear with production diesel vehicles.

The purpose of this paper is to survey what is presently known about the transportation related environmental problems in Asian cities, to summarize the adverse impacts which result, to review actions underway or planned to address these problems, and to estimate future trends. Potential strategies for ameliorating transportation related environmental problems will be assessed.