At the moment these news bulletins go out by e-mail only. However, some active participants in the network (and potential participants) do not yet have access to e-mail. It is too expensive to use international fax to reach these participants. So we are now looking for volunteers who would be willing to fax each bulletin to a small number of nearby SUSTRAN participants (hopefully within your local phone call zone). This will help us to keep everyone informed and in closer touch with the network. If you are willing to help, please contact me and I will let you know if we need to fax to anyone near you.

The Sri Lanka Forum on Rural Transport Development (SLFRTD) plans to host a seminar and exhibition on Intermediate Means of Transport (IMTs) for providing rural transport services. The Forum is seeking to contact organisations and people who research, promote and/or use IMTs in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia. The seminar and the exhibition will be held in March 1998 in Colombo be followed by an exhibition and IMT parades in two selected districts outside Colombo. It is hoped that two participants from each country will attend.
[For more information contact: Sri Lanka Forum on Rural Transport Development (SLFRTD), c/o. ITDG, 5 Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha, Kirulapone, Colombo 5, Sri Lanka. Fax: (94 1)856188, E-mail ranjith@itdg.lanka.net].

Competitions can be a useful method of raising public awareness. The Bangkok Post newspaper recently ran an essay contest called, "Let's Get Bangkok Moving" to give people the chance to offer their ideas on solving the city's notorious transport problems. There were 118 entries sent in between December 18 and January 15. One of two winners in the "innovative" category was Pornpetch Yinatsawaphan, who suggested a series of measures to promote cycling and walking. His suggestions included: appointing a non-motorised transport officer; establish land-use plans compatible with bicycle and pedestrian traffic; enactment of right-of-way requirements for a complete bicycle route system; workplaces be required to provide secure storage for bicycles and showers for those who cycle. [Source: Nancy Kasama Panswad, Thailand Cycling Club, fax: +662 278 3750]

On 20 April 1997, Radio Australia's Peter Meyers reported from Hanoi on the proposal for a second north-south highway in Vietnam. The highway is planned to follow the route of the wartime Ho Chi Minh trail and is strongly backed by the Prime Minister. The proposal has apparently provoked an unusual level of public debate among Vietnamese decision makers with some quarters casting serious doubts over the need for the highway and its viability.

An overemphasis on motorised private transport may be an important factor in increasing urban flash-flooding and ground water depletion which are increasingly serious problems in this region. This is because of the large areas which must be paved over to accommodate car travel and parking. Tom Schueler, Executive Director of the Center for Watershed Planning in the United States said recently that cars are the most intrusive factor in loss of watershed recharge. He said that in the US, 10 parking spaces are created for each automobile produced. In a typical American developed area, 65% of impervious cover is due to the automobile - roads, parking lots, driveways, etc.
[Source: Mobilizing the Region #123, weekly bulletin of the New York-based Tri-State Transportation Campaign].

Assoc. Prof. Harry Owen of Flinders University of South Australia and the Bicycle Institute of South Australia (BISA) has made us aware of a new report and some of its implications for transport. The report "The Global Burden of Disease" has been produced by the World Health Organisation, the Harvard School of Public Health and the World Bank. The report considers disease, disability and death. These 'three Ds' can be combined in DALYs or disability adjusted life years lost to ascertain how changing patterns of disease will affect inhabitants of Earth.

In 1990 the three greatest killers were: In first place lower respiratory infections and followed by diarrhoeal diseases and conditions arising close to childbirth. In 2020 these will have slipped to 4th, 6th and 9th, an apparent triumph for medicine but, unless we change the way we are going, in 2020 the top three killers on the globe will be : Number 1, Ischaemic heart disease (IHD), Number 2, Road traffic accidents and Number 3, Stroke.

Harry notes that the most prevalent risk factor for IHD is physical inactivity. Regular walking and/or cycling for transport are easy ways to integrate a healthy level of activity into a daily routine. High levels of private motor vehicle use are also generally associated with high road death rates. The implication? Promoting walking and cycling for transport (integrated with good public transport) and constraining car use, especially in urban areas would dramatically reduce the amount we need to spend on health care in the next century.

The IRF is an organisation whose members include a large number of the world's road building and road related companies. It has been lobbying for several years to promote "a modern highway link" with tolls along the route of the ancient Silk Road between China and Europe. IRF is planning a major international conference in October to advance the proposal. The Conference is being jointly organised by the IRF and the Government of Turkmenistan, with official support from Turkey. IRF is apparently trying to interest multilateral and EU development agencies in this project. The IRF estimates that financing the rehabilitation and/or extension of the 5,000 kilometre route will cost between $US10-20 billion but it claims that this investment could more than be recovered within a concession duration of 10 to 20 years.

This project appears to be seeking support for a massive investment in long-distance roading. The transport and access problems of the Central Asian region are certainly real. However, SUSTRAN participants will be keen to ensure that all possible approaches to addressing these problems are evaluated in a fair way, with full regard to environmental and social issues rather than focussing on one particular road-based "solution".
[Sources: IRF announcement and subsequent comments made on the alt-transp discussion list. The IRF is on the web at http://web.eunet.ch/irf ].