Exploring the Share of Sustainable Transportation Sector in Municipality Development Planning, the Case Study of Shiraz Municipality

Several actions such as widening roads، developing freeways and building huge interchanges and parking’s have been often taken in response to declining traffic problems and preventing more congestion in recent decades. However، the success of such measures as a strategic approach to reduce traffic congestion in the longer term is doubtful as many evidence showed so far. On the other hand، technical، social and environmental grounding for developing public transportation systems and encouraging non-motorized modes of travel، such as walking and cycling are regarded as a more sustainable way، now being received ancillary attention in both developed and developing countries. Sufficient infrastructure provision for public transit and non-motorized travel requires allocating enough funds by both local and national governments. In this way، urban transportation is one of the main chapters listed in the five-year plan of municipalities. This paper reviewing relevant documents investigates comparatively the part of budget allocation in previous financial plans of Shiraz Municipality in order to discover the importance of sustainable travel in financial planning. The results showed that public transport، walking and cycling have been considered as minor modes receiving little attention. On contrast، the major share of budget has been denoted to car-related facilities such as road widening and highway development in hope of reducing traffic concerns. Therefore، a paradigm shift is required to modify the current trend. In this way، a set of policy measures in both budget allocation and project planning areas is suggested.