There is a widespread belief that urban public transport must be subsidized in order to allow the poor to get to work. But public transport subsidy is only actually of benefit to the poor if it is well targeted to them. This requires considerable knowledge both of the distribution of public transport usage by income group and of the alternative ways in which identified poor groups can be assisted. It is also important to ensure that the mechanisms of subsidy are such as to allow service to be maintained. Return to top of document Environmental Issues .
Environmental issues are a primary concern in most large cities.
Public transport vehicles themselves can be significant polluters requiring effective regulation and control. Transport commercialization can also have potentially harmful effects insofar as it leads to increases in fares and hence a shift to the more environmentally damaging automobile. Hence it is necessary, within a comprehensive urban transport strategy to ensure that the mechanisms of commercialization and regulatory reform are designed to avoid environmentally damaging spin-off effects. More generally, the emphasis should fall on the identification, monitoring and enforcement of environmental standards and on the design of the franchising system to reward environmentally preferable operations.