Neither of these outcomes provides much reason for optimism. Yet in stating this, there are also many opportunities for halting the present trajectory, and redirecting urbanisation towards a brighter future with help with a clear vision founded
on principles of equity and social justice, environmental sustainability, and climate change resilience. We strongly believe that this is achievable, but requires immediate action.
Such action should consider four key areas:
1. Building public awareness and participation
It is striking that the general public awareness around urbanisation remains limited, and the topic rarely appears in the media or on the public policy agenda. In each of the secondary cities, there is a sense among citizens and local government
of wanting to avoid an urban future that would be similar to the development history of Bangkok. Even so, in each of the cities, the patterns of urbanisation appear to be remarkably similar.
Despite these trends and trajectories in each of the cities, there is remarkably little public demand for alternative urban futures; issues of public green space or access to public transport have not yet appeared on the political agenda in any of
the cities. It seems that there is not yet the basis of alternatives that could allow for a public process of shared visioning in
the cities.
2. Addressing land use planning
Despite the lack of general understanding around urbanisation itself, there is growing awareness and debate around land use planning and the history of failures. This came to the fore in the widespread loods of 2011. However land use
planning has been highly ineffective in shaping patterns of urbanisation. In each of the cities, and in Bangkok itself, the
ability of vested political and commercial interests to shape such plans – and the overall inability to follow plans on the ground, is widely acknowledged.
3. Mobility
The design of cities has been shaped around private modes of transport. With public transport in most urban centres virtually non-existent, there is a high degree of dependence on private transport in order to make employment and access
to basic social services viable. This has created a high degree of path dependency. As roads become more congested, the only policy solution offered is the construction of more roads. Unless this degree of dependency is broken, efforts towards
building more compact cities with access to viable public space will be undermined. There are some success stories, but even these must be presented with caveats. For example, the Bangkok Mass Transit
System, also called the BTS Skytrain, as well as the Metropolitan Rapid Transit [MRT] subway in Bangkok have been widely welcomed. Both mass transit systems have made an enormous contribution to reducing congestion along main
transport routes in and around the city. However, these transport systems also represent dualistic systems. For instance, ticket fares are simply beyond the inancial means of a large number of Bangkok citizens and residents. The more
accessible forms of public transport are buses. The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority has had some success in introducing
free or heavily subsidised bus routes. When planning future mobility within and around cities, it is essential to ensure that transport systems are equitable and
accessible for a wide range of people of different economic status.
4. Housing and shelter
