NON-MOTORISED VEHICLES IN ASIA - IELTS Reading Answers & Explanations

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 26-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

NON-MOTORISED VEHICLES IN ASIA

A NMVs (non-motorised vehicles) offer low cost private transport, emit no pollution, use renewable energy, emphasize use of labour rather than capital for mobility, and are well suited for short trips in most cities regardless of income, offering an alternative to motorised transport for many short trips. Thus, they are appropriate elements in strategies dealing with poverty alleviation, air pollution, management of traffic problems and motorization, and the social and economic dimensions of structural adjustment. NMVs have a most important role to play as a complementary mode to public transportation.

B Cities in Asia exhibit widely varying modal mixes. Non-motorised vehicles, which include bicycles, cycle rickshaws and carts, continue to play a vital role in urban transport in much of Asia. NMVs account for 25 to 80 per cent of vehicle trips in many Asian cities, more than anywhere else in the world. Ownership of all vehicles, including NMVs, is growing rapidly throughout Asia as incomes increase.

C However, the future of NMVs in many Asian cities is threatened by growing motorization, loss of street space for safe NMV use, and changes in urban form prompted by motorisation. Transport planning and investment in most of Asia has focused principally on the motorised transport sector and has often ignored the needs of non-motorised transport. Without changes in policy, NMV use may decline precipitously in the coming decade, with highly negative effects on air pollution, traffic congestion, global warming, energy use, urban sprawl, and the employment and mobility of low income people.

D As cities in Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and several other European nations demonstrate that the modernization of urban transport does not require total motorization, but rather the appropriate integration of walking, NMV modes, and motorised transport. As in European and Japanese cities, where major shares of trips are made by walking and cycling, NMVs play an important role to play in urban transport systems throughout Asia in coming decades.

E Transport investment and policy are the primary factors that influence NMV use and can have an effect on the pace and level of motorisation. For example, Japan has witnessed major growth of bicycle use despite increased motorisation, through programmes providing extensive bicycle paths, bicycle parking at rail stations, and high fees for motor vehicle use. Denmark and the Netherlands have reversed the decline of bicycle use through similar policies.

F China has for several decades offered commuter subsidies for those people bicycling to work, cultivated a domestic bicycle manufacturing industry, and allocated extensive urban street space to NMV traffic. These strategies reduced the growth of public transport subsidies while meeting most mobility needs. Bicycles have largely replaced buses as the principal means of urban vehicular transport in Tianjin. Buses are generally slower for the same trip made by bicycle. Today, 50 to 80 per cent of urban vehicle trips in China are by bicycle and average journey times in China's cities appear to be comparable to those of many other more motorised Asian cities, with much more favorable consequences on the environment, petroleum dependency, transport system costs, and traffic safety.

G Bicycles should be encouraged as the most efficient transport mode for short trips in cities of all types, particularly for trips too long for walking and too short for express public transport services or where travel demand or economics do not permit high frequency public transport services. Bicycles are most important for personal transport since they can also be used to accommodate light goods, being capable of carrying loads of 100-180 kilograms.

H Cycle rickshaws are not as efficient as bicycles for personal transport, but should be encouraged as a complementary mode to motorised goods transport and as a passenger transit mode, particularly in countries where low wages and surplus labour are substantial features of the economy. Where they are in use, they should be accepted as a useful part of the transportation system rather than as a nuisance or a barrier to transport system modernization. Even in high-income, motor-vehicle dependent cities, there are opportunities for appropriate use of cycle rickshaws for short-distance movement of persons and goods and as the basis for small businesses providing goods and services at dispersed locations. They find greatest utility where slow modes of transport are allocated road space separate from motorised traffic, in neighborhoods where the majority of people go from one place to another on foot or in central areas with slow traffic speeds, in large factories and shopping districts, and areas where private automobiles are restricted.