About UsThe Years of ITDP

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) was founded in 1985 to promote environmentally sustainable and socially equitable transportation worldwide. We work with city governments and local advocacy groups to implement projects that reduce poverty, pollution, and oil dependence. Below is a brief history of ITDP and how our work has developed.

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1980s | 1990s | 2000s

The Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) is founded as an umbrella organization for several worldwide peace and development initiatives and advocacy efforts. ITDP’s largest campaign is Bikes Not Bombs, a movement begun in 1984 to send bicycles to health and education efforts in Nicaragua.. The first shipment of several hundred bikes arrives in Nicaragua during the war with the Contra guerillas.

ITDP releases a seminal paper by Michael Replogle entitled ‘Sustainable Transport’, which laid out the fundamental principles of ITDP.

ITDP organizes a new task force on non-motorized transportation in developing countries under the sponsorship of the Transportation Research Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Organizing annual meetings dedicated to promoting innovation and progress in transportation through research, this new task force soon grows into a full committee with a unique emphasis on integrating the economic, social, and environmental issues of the developing world into transportation planning.

ITDP reaches its goal of sending over 10,000 bicycles to Nicaragua, which are used to finance a new local bicycle assembly industry there. ITDP wins budget language in the Congress that helps spur U.S. bicycle programs, including convincing the Peace Corps to put its volunteers on bicycles rather than motorcycles.

ITDP helps establish the Campaign for New Transportation Priorities (CNTP). CNTP is a coalition of 37 environmental, labor and citizen groups from across the United States working toward efficiency and environmental priorities in domestic transportation policies. ITDP & CNTP draft four transportation policy papers that play a key role in the creation of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), a bill that passes in 1991.

ITDP writes a seminal paper, Non-Motorized Vehicles in Asian Cities, for the World Bank’s Asia Transport Sector Study, identifying strategies to protect and strengthen cycling in modernizing cities.

Click here to download Gender Issues in Transportation: A Short Introduction (pdf)

The Transportation Alternatives program, which works on multilateral policy reform, is launched. ITDP and allies, including the EPA, Friends of the Earth, and IIEC, convince the US Treasury to call on the World Bank to draft a formal transport policy consistent with environmental and poverty alleviation goals.

ITDP establishes the ‘Laboratwa Esperance’ at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, Haiti. The facility trains local people to assemble, repair, design, and fabricate non-motorized vehicles for use in the hospital and community organizations in the area.

ITDP’s review of a European Investment Bank (EIB) highway in Hungary helps initiate efforts to make EIB more accountable.

ITDP chairs a transport caucus at UN Habitat II in Istanbul, Turkey in June. Habitat II focus on the dual objectives of adequate shelter for all and sustainable cities. UN Habitat II also marks the first time official dialogue sessions with NGOs, like ITDP, are incorporated into the conference. ITDP Executive Director Walter Hook is the primary dissident to World Bank paper, ‘Sustainable Transport’ which focuses on privatization as solution to poor quality transit and ignores motorization as an issue.

Click here to download Sustainable Transport

ITDP leads efforts to refocus guidelines of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) transport program, opening up millions of dollars for BRT and non-motorized transport projects around the world.

Click here to download Instrument for the Establishment of the Restructured Global Environment Facility

In 1998, ITDP coordinates the second General Assembly in Manila for Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and Pacific (SUSTRAN), a network of organizations dedicated to transport policies and investments that foster social equity, ecological sustainability, health, and safety. This conference initiates sustainable transport campaigns in Jakarta, Manila, New Delhi, Penang, and Calcutta.

ITDP launches Afribike in South Africa, which helps distribute hundreds of bikes to poor communities and healthcare workers.

ITDP co-organizes an international conference on Transportation and Air Quality in Jakarta, Indonesia, which recommends the banning of leaded fuel in Indonesia and the introduction of bus lanes. These actions set the stage for the Jakarta BRT system.

TransMilenio, Bogot´'s BRT system, opens in December and further expands in August. The system, created and developed by then-Mayor Enrique Peñalosa and influenced by ITDP papers on the benefits of non-motorized transport, is the first state of the art BRT system in the world. In its first year, TransMilenio moved approximately 550,000 people per day, making it the world’s busiest BRT system. Involvement with TransMilenio catalyzes ITDP’s work in promoting BRT and providing technical support to projects.

ITDP grows presence in Asia, working with the cities of Guangzhou, China, and Jakarta, Indonesia, to develop BRT systems. Funded in part by a United States Agency for International Development grant (ITDP’s first), this marks a significant advancement in regards to urban transport in Asia.

ITDP launches the California Bike Coalition, an initiative to design a high quality and affordable bicycle to be used by rural households, while also promoting bike transport as something ‘cool and fun’ to African youth.

In February, hundreds of transportation planners and policy experts gather in Bogotá, Colombia for the International Seminar on Human Mobility. During the four-day seminar, participants experience the new TransMilenio BRT system, its 241-kilometer (150-mile) network of bicycle routes, and take part in the city’s fourth annual car-free day. Technical workshops during the conference educate visitors on how to plan and implement similar interventions in their own cities.

In January, Jakarta, Indonesia unveils Asia’s first Bogotá-inspired BRT system built outside of Latin America, TransJakarta. ITDP is a key technical advisor on the project. Implemented in an unprecedented 9 months, TransJakarta has new, enclosed stations, pre-paid ticketing, high levels of security, and comfortable, air-conditioned buses, revolutionizing perceptions of bus-based travel in the country.

ITDP co-sponsors a conference with the National Urban Development Ministry in India, which leads to a new urban transport policy and qualifies BRT projects for government funding. This results in the approval of new BRT systems in Pune, Indore, Jaipur, and Bhopal.

Given the increase in ridership on TransJakarta to over 120,00 per day, it is expanded and now is a system running approximately 97 kilometers (60.3 miles) and serves 39 million people.

ITDP and the city of Guadalajara, Mexico announce plans to develop a 367-kilometer (228-mile) bicycle network for the 2011 Pan American Summer Games.

After four years of planning and construction, Janmarg (‘The People’s Way’ in Hindi), the Ahmedabad BRT system opens in August. ITDP serves as a lead technical advisor to the city in developing the system. It is the first BRT integrated system in India with 50 buses and an anticipated 90-kilometer (56-mile) network. Janmarg is also the first BRT system in India to have a control center that employs GPS systems to help staff monitor bus locations and maintain regular schedules.

Rea Vaya BRT opens in Johannesburg, South Africa after a two-year planning and construction process. ITDP was a lead technical advisor to the city in developing the system. This innovative BRT connects the township of Soweto to the central business district, becoming the first real public transit system implemented since the end of apartheid. ITDP, together with local authorities, begins working with taxi operators to help transform the industry and launch BRT operating companies.

BRT opens in Guangzhou, China’s third largest city, on February 21 after a lengthy planning and construction process; the 22.5-kilometer (14-mile) BRT system is a system of firsts for Asia and globally. It is the first BRT to directly connect to a metro system, the first BRT system in China to include bike parking in its station design, has the world’s highest number of passenger boarding at BRT stations, the highest BRT bus frequency, and the longest BRT stations. ITDP serves as the lead technical advisor to the city in developing the revolutionary system.

Rea Vaya expands, further integrating the previously segregated areas with downtown Johannesburg.

Janmarg expands another 18 kilometers (11 miles), making the total operational corridor 25.5 kilometers (15.8 miles) long with 38 bus stops.

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