[sustran] Re: World Bank supporting motorization at the cost of environment and pedestrian safety

[Alan P Howes]

"A city is not civilised until it offers freedom to walk about" - I
like that. Few (in fact probably no) civilised cities in the Gulf
then.

Isn't it amazing how unwilling people are (even well-educated
professionals) to learn from experience elsewhere.

On Sat, 23 Feb 2002 11:47:59 +0530, kisan mehta <kisansbc at vsnl.com>
wrote to sustran-discuss <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>:

>Dear Sustran Colleagues,
>
>The following article appeared  in the Times of India,
>Mumbai edition of 19 Feb 2002 exposes the preference
>of the authorities for more carriageways by removing or reducing pavements.
>The World Bank is now busy
>extending loan to the Mumbai authorities for the MUTP
>which includes constructing of pavementless six lane carriageways in
>predominantly residential areas. One
>road abuts Powai Lake, a water source for Mumbai.  After admitting  that
>Mumbai has very high SPM
>levels and many of the roads of Mumbai do not have
>pavements the authorities with the World Bank
>backing have rejected outright a citizen proposal to
>allocate Rs 2 billion out of estimated cost of Rs 60
>billion for constructing  pavements.  The Bank supports motorisation through
>road construction while paying lip
>service to environment protection and citizen
>convenience.
>**********************
>A city is not civilised until it offers freedom to walk about,
>says architect
>By Vidyadhar Date Times News Network
>
>The way some people see it, the local residents opposition
>to the planned Pedder Road flyover is hindering Mumbai's
>traffic flow.   That is not quite true, said Austrian architect,
>Peter Schreibmayer, who was in Mumbai recently.  He
>said the trend around Europe is not only to halt
>construction of flyovers, but to actually reduce width of
>existing roads to discourage the flow of vehicular traffic.
>
>The result is that European cities and towns are far more
>livable than cities in the automobile-dominated U.S., he
>said.  The width of roads is being reduced in various ways, including
>creating gardens on some portions.  More
>streets are completely closed to cars.  This has greatly enhanced civic
>life.  About one-third of journeys in
>European cities are made on foot.  Cities are not civilised
>until there is freedom to walk about, said Mr Schreibmayer,
>who was in Mumbai to deliver the keynote address at a conference on humane
>habitat.
>
>According to former minister of state for urban development
>and resident of Pedder Road for nearly 40 years,  B.A.
>Desai the entire area from Haji Ali to Colaba should not tampered with
>because it has some of the finest buildings
>in the country, he said.  He claimed that with the Bandra-Nariman Point
>freeway coming up, there would be little
>need for the Pedder Road flyover.  What the area really
>needs is low-cost solutions, like proper footpaths and a
>more humane traffic management, said President of the
>Pedder Road Residents Association and former
>chairperson of the Mumbai Local History Society, Veena Singhal.
>
>Several people in the area have been injured in the last
>few years because of lack of proper footpaths and
>inadequate traffic management.  Nalanda Building alone
>has seen two of its senior citizens, Pushpa  Vakil, 57
>and H. L. Dhruv, 68, die in road accidents.  A college
>student Punit Kumar, was lucky to survive an injury
>some time ago.  But Ramnik Shah, a resident in the neighbouring  Jeweller
>Apartment, was killed in another
>incident.
>
>The municipal corporation's callousness towards
>pedestrians is inexcusable, environmentalist
>Kisan Mehta pointed out to a World Bank team during
>its recent visit to consider the Mumbai Urban Transport
>Project (MUTP).
>
>"It is hazardous to cross Pedder Road because very
>often signals are switched off, resulting in an endless
>flow of traffic," said president of Nalanda Cooperative
>Housing Society Amul Shah.  During peak hours,
>pedestrians are confronted  by vehicles coming from
>the wrong side as an additional lane is opened to
>vehicular traffic.
>
>The authorities should much rather seek low-cost,
>people-friendly solutions like improving public transport,
>said Ramesh Singhal, a company executive. Mr Singhal,
>who worked for several years in the U.K. recalled that
>even senior executives travelled to work by underground railway.  They left
>their cars some distance away and
>used public transport to reach their offices.
>
>The municipal corporation is using double standards.  It
>is not performing its basic task of constructing footpaths
>and is even destroying existing ones.  Yet, it wants to
>acquire land to widen roads for cars, complained Mr
>Mehta.  The latest move is to acquire a stretch  of  land  belonging to St
>Stanislaus School in Bandra.  This has
>met with strong opposition from citizens.
>
>******************
>Priya Salvi and Kisan Mehta

-- 
Alan Howes, Dubai, UAE (Otherwise Perthshire, Scotland)
alaninthegulf at yahoo.co.uk
Professional website   (Needs Updating!): 
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/alanhowes/