Motorization Management for Development: An Integrated Approach to Improving Vehicles for Sustainable Mobility

Across the developing world, countries are experiencing rapid growth in urbanization and motorization. While high motorization rates potentially mean that more people will be able to claim the benefits of improved accessibility to goods and services because of enhanced mobility, there are questions about the sustainability of this future. From a development impact standpoint, the nature of a country’s motor vehicle stock and how it grows affects three key and tangible outcomes. First, the quality of the motor vehicle stock affects road safety outcomes—that is, the number of people killed or seriously injured in motor vehicle crashes. The characteristics of vehicles and their fitness or roadworthiness can affect fatality and serious injury outcomes.

The quality of the motor vehicle fleet affects air quality, particularly in cities. Motor vehicles are a key source of harmful air pollution, including carbonmonoxide (CO), fine particulates (PM2.5), sulfur oxides (SOx), and ozone precursors (oxides of nitrogen and various hydrocarbons), and the amount of these pollutants they emit is directly related to how the vehicle was built and how well it is maintained.