The Project for Comprehensive Urban Transport Plan in Phnom Penh Capital City Final Report 7 PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM 7.1 Planning Approach The Mission of the Urban Transport Master Plan for Phnom Penh is 1) to shift from a private-oriented urban transport system to a well-balanced system of public and private transport and a combination of road, public transport and traffic management for improving the mobility of citizens and 2) to materialize the urban potential of Phnom Penh Capital City (PPCC). In general, the urban transport policy aims at securing people’s mobility need and rationalizing urban transport systems. To secure people’s mobility need is implemented by providing both accessibility and mobility to urban facilities necessary for their daily life. This mobility should be guaranteed as much as possible for all people. The trip area of people becomes much wider today than that of previous times when walking was the only means of transport because of the popularity of motor vehicles such as motorcycles and cars. However, cars might not be available for all the people and occasionally even car drivers are unable to use their own cars due to specific reasons. This is the first reason why public transport is needed. From the viewpoint of rationalization of urban transport systems, cars are a system which broadly occupies urban roads that are most precious urban spaces, emits exhaust gas and noise to surrounding area and mostly is not energy-efficient. Above all, cars might be an important transport means in the urban area, but its performance is very limited under a high-density urban environment. For PPCC, which is a medium-sized city with its historically developed structure, it is necessary to decrease car trip demand coming into its center due to the low road capacity and difficulty in eliminating spatial constraints in the center district. Thus, an efficient public transport system is necessary to promote the modal shift and encourage the shift from car trips. 7.1.1 Focal Points of Public Transport Plan (1) Focusing on Multi-Modal Transport Aspect in Urban Mobility Needless to say, a significant feature of the current urban transport situation in Phnom Penh is that it lacks a formal public transport system such as a bus system, although the motodop and the motorumok are substantially served as public transport. Basically, people’s transport needs are served by individual transport modes, and this implies that people lacking own transport /driving skill might not be guaranteed to have good mobility. There are many kinds of stakeholders expected for this urban transport project. Obviously, there are those who either own or do not own individual transport means. The transport plan should be arranged for such groups. This analogy is also adaptable for outside residents who may occasionally visit Phnom Penh with no available transport means. Convenient and smooth urban mobility should be secured for all of the people including aged / disabled persons, and smooth intermodal connection between different transport modes should also be secured under the present urban transport plan. These concepts, so called multi-modal transport principle, would be applied to the formulation of the public transport plan. (2) Introduction of Trunk Public Transport System Introducing a public transport system will contribute to the increase of urban mobility and the effective use of limited urban roads in the dense Phnom Penh city center. It will also have positive impacts on urban development as activities are directed along the public transport corridor and transit-oriented development in the center of mode interchange areas such as stations and terminals. (3) Broad Integration of Public Transport Means and Related Countermeasures To achieve the above objectives, it is mentioned that the public transport system should be integrated 7-1 The Project for Comprehensive Urban Transport Plan in Phnom Penh Capital City Final Report between trunk transport and feeder transport, and smooth connection between public transport and individual private transport means should be established as well. In this connection, it is also mentioned that related soft policy measures like Traffic Demand Management (TDM), parking control and building control measures along major arterial roads should be closely coordinated with implementation of the public transport plan. (4) Integrating with Landuse Plan As indicated by past urban transport projects, there is a strong interaction between urban transport development and landuse changes. For example, a combination of mass transit route and linear development of high-density residential areas in the suburbs, so called Transit Oriented Development (TOD), is recognized to be a strategy in which urban development side expects location advantage by high quality service of mass transit, and simultaneously mass transit side expects sufficient transport demand by high-density residential development. In downtown area with mixed land use by dense business zone/commercial district/ amusement center, it is preferable to provide people with comfortable pedestrian spaces coupled with a convenient public transport system. Likewise, it is desirable that the urban transport network and facilities are formulated by area so as to meet the urban mobility expected from respective land use plans designated to each area. (5) Close Linkage with Tourism Development Phnom Penh is one of the tourist destinations in Cambodia and tourism is an important industry contributing to the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) of Phnom Penh. As for the future development of tourism, it is very important to provide convenient rapid access transport from/to regional transport connecting points such as the Phnom Penh international airport, long distance Bus terminals and the central railway station if available. In addition, several sightseeing transit services connecting between popular touring spots and major hotels are necessary in order to upgrade tourism activities, particularly for foreign tourists. A public transport system can provide a solution to some extent for the requirement above, and it is important to make necessary coordination with tourism development plans. 7.1.2 Basic Policy of Public Transport System Development Needless to say, there is presently no formal public transport system existing in Phnom Penh except for such para-transit modes as the motodop and the motorumok modern (tuk-tuk) that are popularity used as public transport. In this master plan, final output of this public transport proposal is the formulation of mass transit system in the long term. However, taking into account the specific Target mode share preparation period in developing a More than 30% trunk public transport system and transport alternatives for the transition process, it is necessary to make an intermediate public transport plan focusing on the short For Short and For Long term, Medium-term, Rail Transit Transport and medium terms as shown in Bus Transport Figure 7.1-1. Source: PPUTMP Project Team Figure 7.1-1 Image of Public Transport System Development 7-2 The Project for Comprehensive Urban Transport Plan in Phnom Penh Capital City Final Report Corresponding with this concept, a bus network development plan is discussed as a short and medium-term transport plan and then a mass transit transport plan is discussed as a long-term transport plan. The 2035 public transport system needs to meet 10% (of total trips excluding walk trips is about 450 thousand trips) of the public transport demand in 2020 considering the expected 2035 public transport demand (30% of total trips excluding walk trips is about 1,750 thousand trips). Assuming that the number of buses in 2020 is about 200, based on the result of the 2nd public experiment and the 2020 bus route length, to be discussed in 7.1.2, the number of bus passengers/bus/day is 2,250. This figure is the possible daily bus ridership. 7.2 Bus Transport Plan 7.2.1 Basic Considerations for the Bus Transportation Plan Bus system is the trunk public transport system for the short- to medium-term planning in PPCC. Basic considerations of the bus transport plan in short- to medium-term are as follows: a) Starting point of the bus transport plan is the 2nd public experiment (city bus operation), which is one route along Monivong with 7.2 km and about 1,550 daily passengers; b) The 2035 public transport demand (30% of total trips excluding walk): c) The planning and facility criteria such as population/location of facilities and minimum road width of bus route (8 m)/interval of bus stops (300 m - 500 m); d) Major transport corridors, future population and urban structure in 2020; and e) Staging, basically, for short term, covering the north-south and east-west transport corridors and medium term, covering the urbanized area in 2020 7.2.2 Medium-term Bus Network Proposal before Introduction of Rail Transit System Taking into consideration current public transport demand, the following 3 types of bus route groups are proposed, namely, 1) type 1= routes covering north-south corridor (radial bus lines connecting between CBD and suburbs in north-south direction), 2) type 2= routes covering east-west corridor (radial bus lines connecting between CBD and suburbs in east-west direction), and 3) type 3= ring routes covering city center and its peripheral area in 2020 (circular bus lines connecting the fringe area of CBD). Total number of routes is 10. For intermodal service with long distance transport and private transport