[sustran] Re: Incident on the National Highway of India

[Sujit Patwardhan]

8 May 2006

Lee,

I thought as a regular visitor to India you know why! Numerous highways are
either under construction or repairs. When this is happening, one side of
the road is closed to traffic and vehicles from both direction use half of
the full width. This need not be a problem if people take extra care while
using this stretch by avoiding overtaking, stopping and over speeding. But
unfortunately the reality is quite different. They not only over-speed,
overtake and stop as and when they feel like it, but some drivers also
continue driving along the half that is under repairs.

Poor signage, poor enforcement (highway police are never around) and badly
constructed edges makes the roads even more dangerous. The poor pedestrian
or the cyclist (near villages) is not even in the picture when these grand
highway schemes are planned and although big promises are made about
environmental factors, there's hardly a highway one can name, that didn't
massacre hundreds of grand old roadside trees. A slight realignment of the
road could save many trees (by bringing them in alignment with the road
dividers) but roads and high profile expressways are designed in air
conditioned officices in Delhi or Mumbai by engineers who don't understand
nor care for silly things like birds and the trees that environmentalists
seem to worry about more than human lives.

It is precisely these kind of articles (like the one published by Guardian)
that help to worsen the situation because they are written from the point of
view of Mr Poonawalla's brand new Rolls Royce
rather than the majority who have to use the highways out of compulsion of
getting from point A to point B, preferably alive and in one piece.

Exactly the same attitude prevails in cities where flyovers and roadwidening
(for the personal auto vehicle) always gets priority over the needs of
Public Transport buses, pedestrian paths and safe cycle tracks.
-
Sujit






stuck in traffic






On 5/8/06, Lee Schipper <schipper at wri.org> wrote:
>
> whoops. Why are they driving on the US Side? That aside, this is EXACTLY
> what Mayor Penalosa and I observed in Dec. 2004 driving from Delhi to
> Agra. People running
> across the road, 18 wheelers running camel drivers across the road,
> etc.
>
> >>> eric.britton at ecoplan.org 05/07/06 4:05 PM >>>
> We were talking about images of the reality of the road of India just
> the other day, and as I result I went into out Gender, Equity and
> Transport site at http://www.gatnet.net/ to take the first small steps
> to build up photographic evidence. Here you have image number 4 in
> this
> collection.  Sadly.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Three burnt alive in road accident in A.P.
>
> Staff Reporter
>
> CHOWTUPPAL: Three persons, including a two-year-old boy and his
> mother,
> were killed in a road accident when a speeding lorry ran over two
> motorcycles near Khaitapuram village in Chowtuppal mandal on the
> National Highway No. 9 on Saturday morning. Two others were also
> critically injured in the accident.
>
> The lorry carrying a load of onions from Hyderabad to Vijayawada was
> totally destroyed in the fire that erupted after it hit the
> motorcycles
> and dragged them along for over a distance of 70 feet. The impact was
> such that sparks flew as the motorcycles were dragged and the petrol
> tanks burst and soon fire engulfed the lorry.
>
> As the morning traffic on the busy highway screeched to a halt and the
> passengers watched in horror, bodies of three motorcyclists caught
> fire.
> The lorry crew have fled. Fire engines brought the fire under control.
>
>
> Source:
> <http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/07/stories/2006050704360600.htm>
> http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/07/stories/2006050704360600.htm
>
>
>
>
>
> ================================================================
> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
> equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
> (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is
> on urban transport policy in Asia.
>



--
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Sujit Patwardhan
sujit at vsnl.com
sujitjp at gmail.com

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