[sustran] RE: SUSTRAN News Flash #26

[Thomas Walton]

          A short note on your piece about banning non-motorized
          vehicles in Calcutta, which I certainly agree is a step
          backwards from sustainable transport.  I recently returned
          from a short trip to Solo (Surakarta) a city of about 500,000
          in Central Java.  There the principal in-city mode of public
          transport is the becak, a two-passenger, three-wheeled,
          pedal-driven vehicle, with the operator behind.  Solo, in its
          wisdom, has created becak/bicycle lanes on both sides of its
          main streets, separated from the automobile lanes by dividers,
          many of which have trees on them.  The effect and the
          efficiency are wonderful.

          Contrast this with Jakarta, which banned the becaks from the
          city at least 6 years ago.  Apparently (I was not living here
          at the time), part of the government's becak phase-out policy
          was to dump a large number of them in the sea.  The disruption
          to the families who depended on becak ownership for their
          livelihood was significant -- there are stories of suicides by
          becak owners who could not afford the price of the replacement
          vehicle, the bajai (familiar in India where it originated, as
          the bajaj).  Now, Jakarta is phasing out the bajai in favor of
          mini-buses.  Already banned from the central business district
          and many of the main arteries, they are still numerous in the
          outer parts of Jakarta.  Their disappearance would be great
          for air quality, since they are driven by primitive two-stroke
          engines, but it will be bad for traffic which is already
          approaching Bangkok or Manila congestion levels.

          It seems to me that about 4 years ago, there was talk in
          Shanghai of a law that would ban bicycles from the city center
          "to reduce congestion"??  I wonder what happened to that?

          Tom Walton