Abstract: decentralized unitary state planning powers in principle lie with the municipalities. In practice, provincial and national authorities have a lot of say in local planning. Since the establishment of provincial and national planning agencies in 1942, provincial structure plans and national planning reports have started to appear at frequent intervals. This has not totally reversed the balance of power, since extensive consultation precedes the adoption of national and provincial plans. However, once adopted, these plans cannot be ignored by the municipalities, and thus form a source of power for the central authorities. Even then, provincial and national authorities always depend on the municipalities to implement their plans. More important than centralization has been the process of suburbanization. Suburbanization around Amsterdam

Abstract: Over the last fifty years Mexico City has grown from a pleasant city with a population of a million people to a sprawling megalopolis of almost twenty million. This has brought many problems of which one of the most important is that of transport. The metropolitan area extends across parts of two distinct, self-governing, administrative areas (the Federal District and the State of Mexico). Whilst these are physically contiguous they have very different policies and resources leading to different standards, costs and varieties of transport. Dealing with the economic, environmental and transportation problems of continuing population growth, with severely limited resources, is the major challenge for the management of the metropolitan area of Mexico City.

Abstract: brought with it many of the ills associated with city living. In many places, traffic heads the list of city-like menaces. As business offices, retail malls, sports centres, health clubs, and theme parks migrate to America's suburbs, so does the nation's traffic. Throughout America, traffic has swamped suburbia, causing unprecedented delays not only during commuting hours, but often at noon, evenings, and weekends as well.

Abstract: With an estimated 350,000 work hours a day lost in traffic jams and major financial and logistical problems surrounding the maintenance and building of roads and bridges, for the New York Metropolitan Region the concept of a vast metropolis served principally by the automobile and expressway is long past! But how does a region so complex both in terms of geography and jurisdiction solve its transportation problems?

Abstract: The result has been increasing strain. Traffic speeds, which had tended to rise or at least stabilize through improved traffic management techniques, have often shown sharp deterioration. Highways systems, built in the 1950s and 1960s, have proved incapable of meeting the demands placed on them. Traffic management has reached some kind of limit, at least temporarily, and in many cities enforcement systems are almost ineffective. Older subway systems, typically dating from the turn of the century, have suffered from a combination of increased patronage, deteriorating physical condition, and need for comprehensive renewal. Of course, there are shining individual exceptions: new subway systems, built in the last twenty years, in Mexico City and Hong Kong; refurbishment of an old system, and creation of a totally new express network, in Paris; metro extensions in Moscow; breakthroughs in transit provision, including para-transit in Hong Kong and contracting for bus services in London; interesting experiments in electronic traffic management in most cities, including an experiment in full electronic road pricing, unhappily not pursued, in Hong Kong; involvement of the private sector in financing transit improvements in London, New York and Tokyo. But these have barely kept pace even in the cities where ideas and money have been most forthcoming. Everywhere, the twentieth century equivalent of the man on the Clapham omnibus is convinced that things have got a lot worse; and almost certainly he or she is right. This overview paper looks first at some of the causes; then at some of the possible responses.

Abstract: Hong Kong's transport system has, to a large extent, developed in response to the density of population, employment distribution and Hong Kong's compact size The vast majority of people travel by public transport which creates enormous demands during peak-hours These are met reasonably well, but ever-increasing trip demand whether by public or private transport presents a major challenge to transport planners and administrators

Abstract: government, education and commerce. As transport improved with the building of Underground railways and tramways, followed by the the development of electric trolley and internal combustion engined bus services population spread outwards in search of more agreeable living conditions and the population of the urban area began to fall. In the first quarter of the century this was confined to the centre but between the two World Wars this decline in numbers