I picked the case study Mobility As Driver for Economic Development featured Dar es Salaam because in quite interesting. Dar es Salaam is one of the fastest growing cities in Sub-Saharan African 3.7 million (in 2007) population at 4.3% growth rate. The economy and the industrial market is growing rapidly as well, hence placing pressure on the existing transportation system that cannot keep up with the demand for mobility. Hence it is resulting into longer journey times, serious congestion, increased vehicle related accidents, pollution and reduced mobility opportunities for the disadvantaged. This study is a thorough review on the mobility needs of Dar es Salaam and examined different solutions. Given the importance of mobility to Dar es Salaam and Tanzania’s neighboring countries it is necessary to implement road management through proper maintenance of the current roads and construction of new roads, improve city planning, strengthen law enforcement and an efficient mass transit system, decentralizing key services and activities into satellite areas. This case study of Dar es Salaam mobility as a proponent of economic development is an example of several cities in the developing world. From this case study sustainable mobility and development is a need plus its improvement will have a major impact on surrounding countries and their economies.
For the second section of the assignment I selected the case study ’Air pollution in Delhi: Its Magnitude and Effects on Health’ by SA Rizwan, Baridalyne Nongkynrih, and Sanjeev Kumar Gupta. This paper is focused on the human health issues and the air pollution in Delhi. Studies reported in 2011 that the air in Delhi exceeds maximum particulate matter PM10 by ten times. Results from monitoring the air in Delhi indicates that the two main contributing factors to the air contamination are vehicular emissions and industrial activities. Furthermore two thirds of the air pollution is caused by vehicles, which grows as the economy increases every year. Hence the deterioration of air quality in large cities are burdens of economic development. Also as the air pollution increases so does the respiratory health issues rise. These respiratory illness are asthma, dry cough, wheezing, chest discomfort plus other non-respiratory ailments like skin irritation, eye irritation and chronic headache were recorded. This depiction of this case study is a clear representation of what is happening in large cities today, particularly in the developing world. To increase the air quality in Delhi the government shutdown several toxic industries, established policies on vehicles and industries. Since implementation of these government policies there have a reduction of respiratory illness and a gain in disability-adjusted life-years.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3612296/
I currently live in Joppa Maryland approximately thirty minutes outside of Baltimore City. From my observation regarding mobility, there is a need of improvement in the mass transit system. Since I lived in a big city before (Washington DC), Joppa’s mass transit system and alternative sustainable transportation is minimal to non-existent. There are some patterns of sustainable development that could be improved. The development downsides like air pollution as discussed above are prevalent in my neighborhood. There are several semis passing through one of the main roads not too far from our house, major air pollution culprits. In addition through observation, quite a large percentage of the community have pickup trucks and / or SUVs. As the population grows, so will vehicle ownership. The forecast for air quality in Joppa will deteriorate if the county government and the community don’t take action to implement sustainable solutions. The developed world and the developing are at different stages of growth, nonetheless there are some similarities in their current states like problems from economic development.