Those confined to walking or cycling to work have more restrictive opportunities for employment. In most large cities in the region, public transport services are affordable thus increasing employment opportunities. However while affordable fares are essential, this often results in a loss by the transport service provider and heavy levels of subsidy. Freeing up the public transport services from congestion would make the operation more efficient and make the existing vehicle fleets able to carry more passengers in the same time period. Air pollution from motor vehicles has become a significant health problem in the region with people, in some cities, spending three hours a day travelling to and from work in the polluted road environment.
Most pollution is caused by diesel and petrol driven motor vehicles.
The threat to health has significant economic and social consequences. Cities must have a balance of services to meet the demand for trade and commerce, education and recreation. There needs to be a balance in traffic flows and to achieve this there has to be a strong emphasis on land use planning. There are techniques being developed that might reduce some travel demands in cities by use of modern communications techniques although so far these are limited. These could easily be replaced by latent demand for other trip purposes with no reduction in total demand.