Urban Transportation Mode Choice and Carbon Emissions in Southeast Asia

Cities are growing differently across the world, even within the same region, and presenting different transportation trends and challenges. Existing transportation services and travel behavior are some of the key variables shaping future transportation trends and carbon emissions projections. This study uses five developing cities in Southeast Asia to illustrate how different policy scenarios can help cities achieve more sustainable transportation development. Cities in Southeast Asia encompass distinctive characteristics, such as a wide range of transportation alternatives, often in the form of informal transit, and although they are not growing as rapidly as Chinese or Indian cities, their levels of transportation emissions have been increasing consistently. This study examines how different policies and measures will affect transportation mode choice and carbon emissions through the construction of mode choice models and the application of three policy scenarios. Carbon emissions can be reduced by as much as 93% in 2050 if cities implement a combination of land use planning changes, public transportation development, and economic policies for a modal shift to more energy efficient mode choices. Such policies and measures will therefore be able to contribute to city level climate goals or national climate targets.