[sustran] Flyovers (Elevated Roads)

[Sujit Patwardhan]

22 January 2005



Dear Friends,

As a group advocating Urban Sustainable Transport, we have been opposing 
the policy of needless road expansion and building of flyovers for 
"reducing congestion and air pollution". However old habits die hard and 
policy makers continue to have blind faith in continuing to build flyovers 
in cities (almost all medium and large cities fall in this category) that 
are experiencing an explosion of personal auto vehicles (two and four 
wheelers) , even when the cost of flyovers are astronomical, they destroy 
the cityscape,  create hurdles in the path of public transport buses, 
encourage greater use of personal auto vehicles and thereby increase road 
congestion and pollution even more.

We would like to know from friends in SUSTRAN if you could direct us to any 
case studies, reports, or research on the effect of flyovers (elevated 
roads) on traffic congestion and air pollution in urban areas.
We are not opposed to the concept of flyovers. Where appropriate (to cross 
a railway line or to save heritage/core city areas from being cut up by 
roads etc., but we question the effectiveness of flyovers in reducing air 
pollution and road congestion especially in Asian cities where the latent 
demand for auto vehicles is very high, and auto vehicle growth is over 10% 
per annum, because any increase in road surface immediately results in 
greater "use" of personal vehicles which is made worse by "generated traffic".

Will appreciate your inputs.

With regards,
--
Sujit Patwardhan
Parisar/PTTF
Pune
India






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Sujit Patwardhan
PARISAR
"Yamuna", ICS Colony,
Ganeshkhind Road,
Pune 411007
Telephone: +91 20 255 37955
Email: <sujit at vsnl.com>
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Sustainable Urban Transport
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Sujit Patwardhan
Member

PTTF
Pune Traffic & Transportation Forum,
c/o Parisar, "Yamuna",
ICS Colony,Ganeshkhind Road,
Pune 411 007

Tel: +91 20 25537955
Cell: +91 98220 26627
Email: contact at pttf.net, sujit at vsnl.com
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