Cross-Sector Metropolitan Coordinating Body for Urban Transportation in Developing Countries

Metropolitan areas in developing countries especially in emerging countries are facing chronic traffic congestion in conjunction with low service level of public transportation. On the other hand, the recent transportation policies such as a bus rapid transit (BRT) could be a breakthrough even though coordination of several governmental agencies is prerequisite. This paper proposed the theoretical framework of the metropolitan coordinating body in urban transportation, mainly for developing countries, and identified issues in the process of formulating the body. Based on the examples from throughout the world, three directions of coordination; consolidation, independence and comprehensiveness are identified. Taking the level of autonomy and the impact of transportation issues into account, the appropriate level of consolidation, independence and the number of participants shall be chosen. As almost all the developing countries are facing typical problem of lack of financial and human resources, unsound institutional framework and unstable political conditions etc., the points of coordination in developing countries such as an institutional framework, coordination with urban planning, infrastructure development, transportation demand management, funding scheme and operation of public transportation were examined. Finally, the metropolitan transportation coordination scheme, issues of establishing the coordinating body were clarified utilizing the example in Jakarta metropolitan area. It was revealed that both continuous meetings and political support were required to build consensus of more than 30 organizations.