[sustran] studies on use of public space

[Regina Manzo]

Hello All -

I've been trying to get information on the different ways public space is 
used in different countries - especially India and China, though any 
information would be useful.  If anyone knows of any studies or information 
on the topic I would appreciate hearing about them.

Best regards,
Regina Manzo, AICP
Singapore

reginamanzo at hotmail.com
regina_therese_manzo at ura.gov.sg

ph +65 6476-7604
mobile +65 9733-1006





From: "Ranjith De Silva" <RanjithS at itdg.slt.lk>
Reply-To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport 
<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
To: "Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport" 
<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
Subject: [sustran] Re: Innovative approach to transport which no 
publicauthoritywould follow
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 09:11:42 +0600

Thanks Kishan.

It is encouraging to hear that the Bogota example is now being replicated in 
Cape Town (S.Africa) and in few other cities. A programme for the city of 
Colombo is also at the planning stage.

With regards to your important point on "environment improvements" I think 
we need to initiate a strong advocacy programme targeting  the donours.  The 
domination of motorised traffic strengthens every day with the increased 
influx of privately owned vehicles on to the roads of cities in the 
developing countries as a result of so called free economy. This seems to be 
the opposite in the developed countries where use of NMT and public 
transport is encouraged and practiced. As per your statistics on road 
deaths, this motor domination has extremely negative impacts on the 
livelihoods of the poor communities, where their safe mobility and the right 
to breathe unpolluted air are seriously threatened.

Ranjith
-----Original Message-----
From: Kisan Mehta [mailto:kisansbc at vsnl.com]
Sent: Wednesday 03 September 2003 12:42 PM
To: Sustran discuss; Kush
Cc: Vispi Jokhi; Ajit Shenoy
Subject: [sustran] Innovative approach to transport which no public 
authoritywould follow

Dear Colleagues,

<http://www.enn.com/index.asp> Read the following article on Bogota. It is 
interesting. Do our authorities take this view ever? After
the World Bank having supported motorisation in Mumbai through generous loan 
for the Mumbai Urban
Transport Project (MUTP) in Mumbai, it is now encouraging the authorities to 
come up with another more
ambitious programme in Mumbai for building elevated roads and for widening 
roads passing through
crowded by removing pavements. The programme is unashamedly named as Mumbai 
Environmental
Improvement Project (MEIP).  The Bank has not objected to the MEIP and shown 
inclination to extend
further assistance to a programme designed for increasing motorisation.

Mumbai has the highest population density in the world and also has the 
highest road accident rate
in the world, in which the World Bank study shows that 95% of victims are 
pedestrians.  This is how
we are providing better transport to the common man and irredicating 
poverty.   Best wishes

Kisan Mehta
Save Bombay Committee
620 Jame Jamshed Road, Dadar East,
Mumbai 400014
Tel: 00 91 24149688

*************************
<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?bannerid=1&zoneid=1&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.enn.com%2Fnews>

<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?n=a3129dad>
<http://www.enn.com/aboutenn/advertising.asp>
<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?bannerid=2&zoneid=2&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.enn.com%2Fpostcards>

<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?n=ac08e7de>




<http://www.enn.com/index.asp>
<http://www.enn.com/news/index.asp>
<http://www.enn.com/indepth/index.asp>

<http://www.enn.com/index.asp>
<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?bannerid=1&zoneid=1&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.enn.com%2Fnews>

<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?n=a3129dad>
<http://www.enn.com/aboutenn/advertising.asp>
<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?bannerid=2&zoneid=2&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.enn.com%2Fpostcards>

<http://adserver.enn.com/adclick.php?n=ac08e7de>




<http://www.enn.com/index.asp>
<http://www.enn.com/news/index.asp>
<http://www.enn.com/indepth/index.asp>
<http://www.enn.com/interact/index.asp>
<http://www.enn.com/marketplace/index.asp>














Bogotá Designs Transportation for People, Not Cars



 >From World Resources Institute
Tuesday, September 02, 2003

When Enrique Peñalosa became mayor of Bogotá, Colombia in 1998, he asked a 
question that is changing the way people all over the world think about 
cities: "In Bogotá, where 85 percent of the people do not use cars for their 
daily transport, is it fair that cars occupy most of the space on the 
streets?"

The answers he came up with have reshaped Bogotá, home to 7 million people, 
into a city so easy to negotiate by public transportation that people 
actually voted in favor of outlawing cars in the city during rush hour by 
2015. In just a few short years, the city has become a success story that 
cities around the world - from Mexico City to Shanghai - are aiming to copy.

For decades Bogotá has been inundated by urban problems typical of a major 
city in a developing country. Pollution from cars and buses shroud the city, 
much of it trapped by the surrounding mountains. The city's population has 
boomed?more than 140,000 people move to Bogotá each year. About half of them 
migrate from the countryside, many displaced by Colombia's civil strife. 
Rampant crime and corruption have hampered past reform efforts. Rising 
incomes have lead to more cars and more gridlock. About 70,000 new cars hit 
the roads in this old colonial city every year.

"Once everyone could afford to have a car, no one could get anywhere because 
of the traffic," said Peñalosa, who is now a visiting scholar at New York 
University. Traffic congestion and transport is a major problem in Latin 
America, the most urbanized region in the world. More than 75 percent of its 
people live in cities. Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Buenos Aires, 
Argentina rank among the world's 10 largest cities.

After taking office Peñalosa implemented a number of simple measures 
designed to make living in the city easier. He built schools, paved roads, 
ran sewers to poor neighborhoods, repaired parks, and instituted policies to 
restrict automobiles. "At first, I was almost impeached for getting cars off 
sidewalks," he said.

But Peñalosa pressed ahead with his transportation reforms. And as the city 
became easier to navigate, support for his efforts grew. The city built 70 
miles of bicycle routes and closed several streets to cars and converting 
them into pedestrian malls. More drastically, the city began to restrict car 
use during rush hour, banning each car in the city from the downtown area 2 
days a week, based on the license plate number. The results were dramatic: 
the average commute time dropped by 21 minutes, and pollution was reduced 
significantly.

And then came the TransMilenio. The city had been debating a multi-billion 
dollar subway system for decades. But Peñalosa decided to copy the 
significantly cheaper rapid transit bus system that had turned Curitiba, 
Brazil into a model city for effective public transportation.

The initial $350 million, 38 kilometer TransMilenio system was up and 
running in less than two years. The buses, running in separate lanes down 
the center of the city's main arteries, are able to carry 780,000 people a 
day at an average speed of 26 kilometers per hour ? considerably outpacing 
cars and private buses. Estimates have found that the system saves people an 
average of 300 hours of commuting time annually.

Unlike expensive subways or elevated trains, the TransMilenio actually runs 
at a profit. And the city plans to add a number of new lines to the system 
by 2015, so that 85 percent of residents will live within 500 meters of a 
bus station.

Not only is Bogotá now easier to travel around, Peñalosa's reforms have 
helped make the city considerably safer. Since 1998, crime rates have 
dropped dramatically. For instance, seven years ago there were 84 homicides 
per 1,000 people; today the rate has dropped to 30. In comparison, 
Washington, DC had 52 homicides per 1,000 people in 2002.

"The transformation in Bogotá is providing important cues for other cities 
around the world," said Dr. Lee Schipper, co-director of EMBARQ, the World 
Resources Institute's Center for Transport and the Environment 
(http://embarq.wri.org) "The growth of population in cities has outpaced all 
attempts to provide for roads, mass transit, and other forms of public 
transport."

Three years ago, 14 of the world's 19 megacities (cities with populations of 
more than 10 million) were in developing countries. And that number is 
rapidly increasing as developing-country cities are expected to receive most 
of the world's population growth in the next quarter century.

There are already about 292 cities in the developing world with populations 
of more than a million. These cities are not only saddled with the problem 
of how to move their people around, but also how to reduce air pollution. 
Transport is the primary source of air pollution in Latin America and third 
in Asia.

Peñalosa attributes his success in Bogotá to focusing on improving the lot 
of people, not their cars. "All over the developing world resources are used 
to help the affluent avoid traffic jams rather than mobilizing the entire 
population," he says. People ask him why this is not done everywhere, if it 
is so simple and inexpensive. "I tell them the only issue is a political 
one. They don't want to take space from cars and give it to buses, 
bicyclists, and pedestrians," Peñalosa said. (WRI Features)

-30-

By Curtis Runyan (features at wri.org), managing editor of WRI Features, a 
monthly international news features service on environment and development 
issues.






For more information, contact:

Curtis Runyan
Managing Editor, WRI Features
World Resources Institute
features at wri.org


Web site:

http://newsroom.wri.org/wrifeatures.cfm







<http://www.groupstone.com/>
















<http://www.enn.com/interact/index.asp> 
<http://www.enn.com/marketplace/index.asp>

















  <http://www.enn.com/direct/pics/transparent.gif>



<https://cw.groupstone.net/>



  <http://www.enn.com/direct/pics/transparent.gif>
<http://www.groupstone.com/>

_________________________________________________________________
Get 10MB of e-mail storage! Sign up for Hotmail Extra Storage.  
http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es