Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
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for buses. This often means that operators provide services of different standards and fares, affecting
the overall customer experience. In addition, when the private sector is not operating based on a
common framework, there is often lack of balance in provision, with services available and even
overlapping on profitable routes and low or no availability on least profitable routes and areas. The
example of TfL proves how important it is to limit the levels of deregulation of the transport sector, in
order to provide higher levels of services. London is one of the very few cities in the United Kingdom,
where bus services are not entirely privatised, with TfL defining vehicle and operation standards and
managing the concessions of services in a competitive environment. As a result, unlike other cities in
the UK, it has been easy for TfL to establish fare structures and a ticketing system that spans across
most all modes in the city, and wide coverage real time information. In the case of London, central
management is crucial for better providing coordination of services, complimentarily of modes and
seamless multimodal travel for all passengers.
Except for managing transport operations and the development of strategies, monitoring and
evaluation are also very important, in order to assess the successes and failures of programmes during
their implementation. Although monitoring and evaluation procedures are not always followed as
they should, or even neglected in some cases following the implementation of a plan or a project,
efforts to ensure that assessment is taking place are increasing. There are still significant limitations
in the sharing of lessons learnt from the successes and the failures of schemes between authorities of
different megacities in the developed world. Pre-existing political agendas or limited willingness to
adapt policies to local conditions are still obstacles to sharing best practices.
Finally, one of the future challenges for transport authorities in the developed world cities and
megacities is the increasing involvement of the private sector in the provision of transport services,
mostly through internet applications. The rise of peer-to-peer innovation, where people offer services
to their peers such as lifts, groceries shopping and running errands, is challenging the structure of
traditional governance systems. For example, the rise of internet taxi services such as Uber, changes
the geographies of cities as people now are able to access more rapidly and easily areas that they may
otherwise not visit, such as busy nightlife areas where taxis are difficult to find. Such services change
the levels of availability of mobility in the city, stretch the operating hours of services and long
standing urban standards such as car ownership. It is expected that car ownership levels will drop
even in traditional car dominated countries such as the United States which has a direct impact on
parking standards for housing, focus of infrastructure and location of new development. Should this
social and capital transformation be successful, transport authorities will need to adapt their
strategies and standards in order to adapt to the changing markets and demands.
3.7.3. Institutions and organization in developing world megacities
The institutional structure of transport planning authorities in developing world megacities is usually
less clear than that of the developed ones. The fragmentation of responsibilities is a key issue causing
problems and inconsistencies among different authorities and organizations responsible for different
aspects of transport and spatial planning. This is often the reason why cities and megacities in
particular megacities of the developing world lack a global vision which in turn enhances the freedom
of organizational authorities and the private sector to act without collaborating. The lack of control
over the activity of the private sector in particular, leads to economic losses for both local authorities
and operators themselves as competition is uncontrolled and in many cases unfair.
However, it should be noted that private public transport operators are often the first to respond to
the needs of the population where there is new demand or lack of provision by the local authorities.
In addition, monitoring and evaluation are a very big challenge for the authorities of the developing
world megacities. The size and interconnected challenges in the urban environment require a robust
database for the management for the collection of the necessary information to be used for
monitoring. However, the lack of monitoringmechanisms and consistent data collection is a significant
barrier to understanding the quality and quantity of transport problems in the city. As a consequence,
the evaluation of policies and projects is becoming extremely difficult to conduct. Except for the