Pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles (NMVs) such as bicycles do not pollute the air. In many of the developing countries in Asia, NMVs are a major mode and source of employment. With rising income, the view often prevails that NMVs are an inferior mode and degrade that particular society's image. Attempts are often made to ban or severely restrict NMV use.

NMVs and pedestrians often fare badly when new roads are constructed or existing roads are widened. The space they formerly used for movement and parking is often allocated to traffic without any consideration of how to mitigate this displacement. Good planning requires that essential NMV movements are catered for with well-designed, safe and convenient facilities.

But NMVs often cater to a high proportion of daily urban area trip making (local school and shopping trips) and for freight transport particularly in old town centers with narrow streets. In most cities with high NMV use there is still ample space to cheaply segregate NMVs and provide integrated NMV networks thus achieving high economic returns.

In several Asian cities, it has been demonstrated that schemes to promote non-motorized transport are both cost effective and also have a positive environmental impact.

NMVs should be treated as a mode whose potential should be enhanced. Planning for NMVs should also desirably be integrated with overall transport planning.

Unfortunately, transport planning models applied in many Asian cities often do not include NMVs in the vehicle types they consider. Traffic flow models and their parameters are normally not designed and calibrated for use for Asian mixed flow traffic conditions. Improvements to these models and their handling of NMVs and other indigenous modes is crucial to good decision-making.

Low cost investments to enhance pedestrian movements are similarly very beneficial. Policies that mandate the accessibility of public transport to housing areas and upgrade connecting links support public transport use.