International Experience and Best Practices - Clean Air Initiative

With regard to the service sector, vehicle manufacturers are often willing to provide
training and policymakers should seek their involvement capacity-building in the service
sector. SIAM plays this role in India. Policymakers should also work with manufacturers
to address quality assurance for spare parts.
5.3. Political Resources: Ensuring Popular Support
Popular support is a resource that policymakers must also cultivate if an I/M program is
to succeed. This is distinct from the level of compliance discussed in Chapter 4, which
concerns whether an individual driver conforms to the rules. Here the focus is on
collective political support for the whole I/M program. In its early stages, a phased-in I/M
program may target only one or two classes of vehicles, and large numbers of drivers
may not be affected. But gradually, more and more vehicles will be required to pass
inspection, and standards will be tightened. Broad public support is critical at all stages.
Even if only a small number of vehicles is targeted at the outset, policymakers may find
strong opposition by a powerful interest group (e.g., truck drivers, bus drivers, or taxi
drivers). For example, in Central America, private bus companies are often organized as
cooperatives with many small owners of just one to three buses. They form a powerful
interest group to deal with. 195
Experts agree that policymakers should build support in part by educating the public on
the health benefits of an I/M program. If I/M is coupled with safety inspections, they can
treat the environmental and safety aspects as a package deal and note the dual benefits.
Environmental and public health NGOs should be enlisted in the effort. An Asian
Development Bank study stated the need this way:
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Public perceptions regarding the effectiveness and transparency of I/M
systems will heavily influence the willingness of the general public to cooperate
with I/M regimes. To ensure a positive public perception it is important that the
public understand the public health need for the program and believe that it is
fair and effective…. [P]olicymakers should develop a strong and ongoing public
awareness component that routinely informs the public of the need for an I/M
program, its achieved benefits and overall performance 196
In cultivating political support, policymakers should recognize that public opinion may
diverge from scientific opinion. As noted earlier, studies indicate that visible smoke is
far less dangerous than fine particulate matter emissions, and that the two are largely
uncorrelated. However, policymakers may want to pursue both. As one expert noted:
In the eyes of the public, no I/M program is successful if smoke-belching
vehicles stay on the road. 197
Policymakers can build support in the early stage of I/M policy design by conducting
a dialogue among key stakeholders (relevant government agencies, police, vehicle
195 Jon Bickel, personal communication.
196 Asian Development Bank, op. cit., 2003, p. 24.
197 Jon Bickel, personal communication.