To determine the viability of using transit service information databases that used the general transit feed specification (GTFS) as a low-cost first step toward addressing common transit system issues in developing countries, a team from the World Bank undertook GTFS pilot programs in Manila, Philippines; Haiphong, Vietnam; and Zhengzhou, China. These cities represented a diverse cross section of local conditions and challenges. Through these pilot activities, the World Bank team learned two things: (a) GTFS databases did have the potential to help developing cities overcome, for the first time, challenges that they faced for many years and (b) GTFS databases were very difficult to establish and maintain in developing countries. To support practitioners seeking to undertake GTFS programs in developing countries, this paper walks readers through the steps undertaken to design and implement the pilot activities, citing both successes and specific lessons learned throughout.

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Deployment of an adaptive area traffic control system is expensive; physical sensors require installation, calibration, and regular maintenance. Because of the high level of technical and financial resources required, area traffic control systems found in developing countries often are minimally functioning. In Cebu City, Philippines, for example, the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System was installed before 2000, and fewer than 35% of detectors were still functioning as of January 2015. To address this challenge, a study was designed to determine whether taxi company GPS data are sufficient to evaluate and improve traffic signal timing plans in resource-constrained environments. If this work is successful, the number of physical sensors required to support those systems may be reduced and thereby substantially lower the costs of installation and maintenance. Taxi GPS data provided by a regional taxi-hailing app were used to design and implement methodologies for evaluating the performance of traffic signal timing plans and for deriving updated fixed-dynamic plans, which are fixed plans (with periods based on observable congestion patterns rather than only time of day) iterated regularly until optimization is reached. To date, three rounds of iterations have been conducted to ensure the stability of the proposed signal timings. Results of exploratory analysis indicate that the algorithm is capable of generating reasonable green time splits, but cycle length adjustment must be considered in the future.

D i r e c t i o n s i n D e v e l o p m e n t Environment and Sustainable Development Energizing Green Cities in Southeast Asia •

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