The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted passenger transport in Asian cities. It is accelerating the growth of private car and motorbike use and diminishing the viability of public transport as the backbone of sustainable urban development across Asia in the long run. Yet the pandemic also offers opportunities to reconsider transport planning and work towards greater environmental sustainability, social inclusivity and resilience in transport across Asian cities. This policy brief summarises ways in which these goals can be realised. It distinguishes between short-term interventions to be implemented until the pandemic is officially declared over, and longer-term initiatives which will help to achieve those goals in the two subsequent decades. Particular emphasis is placed on combining different kinds of intervention into comprehensive packages, on action across multiple policy domains beyond transport alone, on involving all relevant stakeholders in carefully designed participatory governance processes, and on tailoring the recommendations to local circumstances in a given city.
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