Mongolia : Improvement of Urban Mobility in Ulaanbaatar

Transport / Urban roads and traffic management

Mongolia had an urbanization rate of 57% in 1989, just before its transition to a democratic, free market economic, and the urban population remained relatively stable until the end of the 1990s. However, the large loss of livestock following dzuds (a succession of droughts and severe winters), resulted in large unplanned migration from rural areas to urban areas with Ulaanbaatar the destination for most of these internal migrants. The largest migrations happened after the dzuds in 2000-2001 and in 2010 but this rural-urban migration has become a permanent feature of Mongolia in the past twenty years with worsening conditions in rural areas.

By 2020, 70% of Mongolia's population lived in urban areas. Ulaanbaatar's population has reached 1.54 million people, accounting for almost 50% of Mongolia's total population of 3.3 million as well as 66% of the urban population and 63% of gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Statistics Office, it is projected that the population of Ulaanbaatar will reach more than 2 million by 2035, outpacing national population growth. As urban growth was not followed by adequate investments, urban systems have exceeded their planned service life or deteriorated, becoming inefficient and undersized to meet present needs and planned future growth. This has led to major infrastructure gaps with only 40% of Ulaanbaatar households living in apartments and serviced houses, while the rest live in ger areas. In Ulaanbaatar, ger areas represent 840,000 residents among the 1.54 million capital population, or 30% of the entire country's population. Most roads in the ger areas are unpaved, and as a result, buses cannot access many of these areas. The paved roads that do exist are often missing pedestrian footpaths and other safety features such as signage, speed bumps, and safe crossings.

In addition to the steep rise in the population of Ulaanbaatarthe population growth rate averaged 5.6% per annum during 2015-2019vehicle registration increased 13.4 times from 2000 to 2019 but the urban road network only expanded 2.5 times in the same period. Public transport is available in Ulaanbaatar, with 21 bus companies operating on 75 main routes, but quality and coverage are poor, which has encouraged private vehicle use and informal taxis servicesthe predominant use of private cars and the poor state of the roads has resulted in a highly polluting transport system in Ulaanbaatar. Women in Ulaanbaatar face serious safety concerns, including gender-based violence, in public spaces and on public transport. The urban road network has also deteriorated as a result of the high traffic volume, funding gaps in maintenance, and flooding. These factors, combined with inadequate zonal planning and lack of enforcement of zoning regulations, poor traffic engineering design, and disregard for traffic laws contribute to heavy traffic congestion and long transit times. Road safety is another concern with pedestrians in Ulaanbaatar where they accounted for 60% (1,616) of road-related injuries and 67% (88) of road-related fatalities recorded in 2019.

Resolving urban traffic congestion, strengthening public transport, improving road safety, and greening urban transport are all identified as priorities by the government in Vision 2050 and in the Government Action Plan, 2020-2024. The government has developed policies and strategies to manage the rapid urban expansion; however, there is no comprehensive urban transport masterplan. As a result, interventions in urban transport have been piecemeal, and implementation has had a mixed record of success.

ADB has provided support in the past on urban transport focusing on intelligent transport systems and urban transport development, in addition to broader transport sector interventions covering road development and maintenance and road safety. ADB has ongoing support to improve transport services in the ger areas and has a planned $100 million loan for Traffic Management Improvements. Furthermore, concurrent to this TA, ADB is preparing a Small Expenditure Financing Facility for Board consideration in 2021 with the first activity under this facility to ensure project readiness of the upcoming loan. This proposed TA will complement these ongoing activities and is being processed by the same team leading these other operations. In addition to ADB, the World Bank is providing a loan to finance street network infrastructure for selected transport corridors and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency is undertaking several traffic studies with plans to follow this with potential lending. As identified below, the proposed TA will contribute to improved policy, financing and development partner coordination.

urban mobility in Ulaanbaatar improved

The outcome will be Urban transport management and planning for Ulaanbaatar improved.

Recommendations on public transport options finalized.

Knowledge and skills of government and municipality staff on implementing urban mobility solutions improved.