Use of GIS-T for traffic planning in developing countries

It is widely recognised that developing countries face huge problems regarding traffic and infrastructures. This is not only the case in rural areas - the traditional focus of develop-ing projects - but also in the urban areas. The traffic con-gestion causes that large resources in form of manpower, vehicles and goods are tied up in the traffic. This in turn results in less econ-omic development, prohibitive pollu-tion and a high rate of traffic acci-dents. If the traffic planners had better and more accessible tools for analyzing impacts of different pro-ject proposals, the scarce means in the developing coun-tries could be used more efficiently. However, the existing research in traffic models mainly addresses issues and travel patterns in industrial countries. Due to among other things differences in standard of infrastruc-ture, types of modes, economy, driving behaviour, available data, these models cannot directly be used in developing countries.
The joint research programme between IFP, DTU and Bandung Institute of Technology, ITB, will contribute to the devel-op-ment of such models. IFP has had a long-term relationship with ITB. The City of Bandung, Indonesia (5 mil. inhabitants) has so far been used as case for the work.