[sustran] People centered urban transport - around the world

[Eric Britton]

The following notice just in via Sustran from Sujit Patwardhan. I thought
that the Pune case was so interesting that I just went in and cut and pasted
it just below to bring it even more immediately  to your attention.
Congratulations Sujit and team on a fine job.

And congratulations too is very much due to the UNDP and the Global
Environmental Facility GEF Small Grants program behind this, which I would
draw to your attention at
http://sgp.undp.org/index.cfm?module=ActiveWeb&page=WebPage&s=AboutGEF
<http://sgp.undp.org/index.cfm?module=ActiveWeb&page=WebPage&s=AboutGEF>  .

Here is an idea that comes to mind, concerning which I would be interested
to have your comments and suggestions. What about seeing if we can encourage
the GEF team to underwrite a cycle of “living case studies” which will look
at one or two dozen similar citizen based projects in as many places,
building on the Pune experience and perhaps taking it further in several
respects.

*	First, I would like to see how we in our various working combination might
be able to put our heads together to develop a guiding “template” for these
various case reports, not so much to tie the hands of the authors and the
groups concerned, but rather to give them our best ideas about a reporting
format that they can themselves take, build on and improve for their own
purposes.


*	Second, I would like to see them brought on line and developed in
iterations, with feedback from these and other groups and fora who can
perhaps help strengthen not only the case reports themselves, but also and
far more impotent I believe the mechanisms that they are working with in
their own cities. In this way it becomes a kind of collaborative group
learning process, not all that different from what we already do here.

Your thoughts?

Eric Britton

 - - - -
>From Sujit:


Environmentally Sustainable Transport and Climate Change: Experiences and
lessons from community initiatives
This publication is a result of a review of 65 sustainable transport
community projects funded by the GEF Small Grants Programme. Lessons and
experiences documented in the publication demonstrate that community
initiatives play an important role in testing new approaches, raising
awareness of new ideas, piloting innovative strategies, and informing and
stimulating policy dialogue in a cost-effective way.
For instance, community initiatives with local civil society organizations
in Pune, India, prompted a policy shift by the city towards supporting bus
rapid transit and the development of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.
In Chiang Mai, Thailand, the municipal government is re-allocating a portion
of its transport funds towards non-motorized transport infrastructure. In
other cases (e.g., Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Jordan, Egypt, and
Lithuania), sustainable transport community projects have resulted in
government policy shifts and stimulated commercial activities, leading to
sustainable strategies for addressing local transport challenges while
benefiting the global climate.
The publication was first published and launched at the twelfth session of
the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP-12) and
second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP-2) in Nairobi,
Kenya, 6-17 November 2006
<http://sgp.undp.org/img/GEF_SGP_Sustainable_Transport_and_Climate_Change.pd
f> Environmentally Sustainable Transport and Climate Change: Experiences and
lessons from community initiatives
<http://www.undp.org/sgp/download/GEF_SGP_Sustainable_Transport_and_Climate_
Change.pdf>  (PDF, 1.44 MB)


Report editors
Editorial support: Marie Khan
Copy editor: Rosemarie Philips
Technical support: Espen Beer Prydz


Experiences and lessons from community initiatives

Case study contributors
Neda Leonaviciute & Inga Ringailaite, GEF SGP, UNDP Lithuania
Poonsin Sreesangkom, GEF SGP, UNDP Thailand
Nirandorn Potikanond, Chiang Mai Sunday Bicycle Club, Thailand
Sujit Patwardhan, Parisar Samrakshan Samvardhan Samstha, Pune India
Omar Kaba, GEF SGP, UNDP Mali
Przemek Czajkowski, GEF SGP, UNDP Poland
Sodhi Prabhjot. GEF SGP, UNDP India.
Shireen Samarasuriya, GEF SGP, UNDP Sri Lanka
Ibrahim Togola, Mali Folkecenter, Mali
Emad Adly, GEF SGP. UNDP, Egypt
Nehemiah Murusuri, GEF SGP, UNDP, Tanzania
Livinus Manyanga. KAKUTE Ltd, Tanzania
Adam Friedensohn, Himalayan Light Foundation. Nepal
Yadav Gurung, Himalayan Light Foundation. Nepal



Case Study 2:
India: Environmentally Sustainable,
People-centred Urban Transport, Pune

Project Overview
Pune is a burgeoning city in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
With a vibrant industrial sector as well as a growing
IT sector, the population of the Pune metropolitan area
has grown from 800,000 in 1971 to its current 4.5 million.
This rapid development has outpaced public transit services,
and unplanned neighbourhoods have sprung up
in areas poorly served by the Pune Municipal Transport
(PMT) bus network. As public transit has come under
increasing strain and the price of motor vehicles has come
down, motorization has exploded, polluting the air and
making walking and cycling increasingly dangerous.

Since the 1960s, Pune’s road network has increased by
a factor of 5, while the number of vehicles has increased
by a factor of 87. Formerly known as the ‘cycle city of India’,
Pune now experiences over 300 road fatalities per year
and the fifth worst air pollution in Asia. The drive towards
motorization has made transport less affordable and
more burdensome for the poor while spewing greenhouse
gasses and large amounts of toxic air pollution.

The grantee, Parisar Samrakshan Samvardhan Samstha
(Parisar), is a Pune-based environmental NGO. Parisar
mobilized a diverse network of stakeholders from a
variety of sectors, NGOs, and communities throughout
the city into the Pune Traffic and Transportation Forum
(PTTF), which lobbies for, raises awareness about, and
crafts policy for sustainable transport, traffic demand
management, and non-motorized transport in the city.
Acting simultaneously as a pressure group, a think tank,
and a policy watchdog, the grantee and its partners have
been instrumental in persuading the city to implement
(beginning in 2006) several NMT and BRT policies and
projects.

Implementation
Parisar has been active in urban transport in Pune for a
number of years, lobbying successive city administrations
for improvements in the PMT. Although most were
reluctant to address politically sensitive issues such as
traffic demand management, or were not particularly
receptive to civil society organizations, Parisar gained
experience during those years in municipal traffic and
transport advocacy, developed networks of partner
organizations representing various stakeholders, and
developed a suite of policy recommendations for the
city. With a new, more sympathetic administration taking
charge in June 2004, the grantee was offered an opportunity
to present its case for NMT, BRT, and TDM to the
administration.

Several presentations, seminars, and informal discussions
were held between the PTTF and city officials during
the second half of 2004. While city officials were broadly
supportive of some sustainable transport measures,
they required considerable convincing in many areas,
including adding sidewalks to Pune’s narrow streets, the
continued relevance of bicycles in an age of increasingly
available motor vehicles, and the utility of bus-only lanes.
Initially, the view of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)
was that traffic was too heavy for these measures. Using
examples from sustainable transport accomplishments
in Singapore, Bogotá, London, and Curitiba, the grantee
slowly shifted the view of the PMC towards recognition
that certain forms of traffic restrictions actually speed
traffic rather than restrict it while also benefiting the
environment, improving public safety, and increasing
the mobility of the poor.

As city officials became increasingly receptive, outside
experts were brought in and administrators from the
PMT were included. Holding a seminar entitled ‘One Right
Turn: Critical Issues in Urban Mobility for Developing
Countries for Coming Decades’, the grantee attracted
participants from noted NGOs such as the Delhi-based
Centre for Science and Environment, transit officials from
Delhi and Mumbai, other noted Indian advocates for
BRT systems, and officials from the Central Institute of
Road Transport. The seminar was well-received by officials
and garnered a lot of media attention, catalyzing
popular support. A major publication on sustainable
transport came out of the seminar; combined with an
appearance by Enrique Peñalosa and his flagging-off of a
major cycle rally (~4500 cyclists), it went a long way in
persuading the PMC to take a more sympathetic
approach to NMT, BRT, and TDM.

In early 2005, PMC hired a consulting firm to help
develop a transport action plan, with the grantee being
given a role in the oversight of their work. The consulting
firm’s recommendations were largely auto-centric and
failed to take account of the progress of the past year.
The grantee engaged the consultants and successfully
persuaded them to revise the document. For unclear
reasons, however, the recommendations were not
accepted by the PMC, casting doubt on future progress.

The 2006 municipal budget allayed these worries,
however, when it made significant financial commitments
to sustainable transport development, including:
*	upgrade of Pune’s citywide cycling network, including several kilometres
of cycling tracks,
*	initial funding for a multi-million dollar BRT system, including
construction of two initial routes, and
*	mandated footpaths for all public roads in the city.

These provisions represent outstanding successes and
pave the way for further progress in the future. Parisar
and its partners continue to lobby for sustainable transport
and serve as policy watchdogs, monitoring city
policy and ensuring continued improvement.
Results and Impacts

a) Environmental Benefits

Global: By encouraging infrastructural changes to promote
modal shifts in transportation systems, this project is
contributing to greenhouse gas emission reductions now
and into the future. By changing perceptions of policymakers
and establishing the beginnings of NMT, BRT,
and TDM programmes, the project has also set the stage
for continued reductions and emissions prevention into
the future.

Local: Reduction in the numbers of motorbikes, autorickshaws,
cars, and trucks has the potential not only
to significantly improve the air quality of Pune and its
environs, but also to improve quality of life by reducing
noise and congestion and to reduce the threat to the
city’s environmental assets from auto-centric development.

b) Livelihood Benefits

Safety: With motorbikes in the bicycle lanes, poor road
discipline, and extreme congestion, Pune’s current transport
infrastructure is considered unsafe by many people.
Increased investment in public transit, improved infrastructure,
traffic calming measures, and a general reduction
in the use of motorized vehicles should improve the road
safety situation and entice more people to walk or ride
bicycles where they previously feared for their safety in
doing so.

Gender: Women in Pune are less likely to operate motor
vehicles than men, and are more likely to walk or take
public transit. Many women in Pune would cycle, but for
their perception that the activity is unsafe. Improving the
safety of traffic will make cycling a more acceptable activity
for increasing numbers of women. Also, since the majority
of pedestrians and users of public transport are women
(whereas men are more likely to cycle or take a motorbike),
improvements in these modes will directly affect
the welfare of women.

Marginalized and Vulnerable: Transportation represents
a higher proportion of total household income for Pune’s
poor and middle-income households than it does for
Pune’s high-income households. Making public transport
more effective, making it reach neighbourhoods that it
currently does not, and making cycling and walking
more viable will improve the mobility of lower-income
households, giving them greater access to education,
opportunities, markets, and services, while reducing the
proportion of their income that is spent on transportation.

Reduced Congestion: Reducing traffic congestion benefits
Pune’s economy by improving worker productivity by
reducing traffic-related tardiness and absenteeism. The
situation has grown so bad that several large employers
in and around the city currently charter private busses to
shuttle their workers to and from their shifts. Reducing
traffic congestion can improve Pune’s business climate
and quality of life simultaneously.

Lessons Learned

a) Barrier Removal
Information/Awareness: The project began with awareness
raising, placing the issue of sustainable transport into the
forefront of the minds of policymakers who had previously
not considered bicycling, mass transit, and traffic
demand management to be viable or progressive options.

Experiences and lessons from community initiatives 27
Institutional: Over the past few decades, Pune’s approach
to transport development has been largely limited to
widening roads and constructing flyovers. This makes
cycling and walking less viable and has led to increasing
numbers of motor vehicles. The grantee sought to remedy
this through citizen involvement, working with both
sympathetic officials and citizenry to develop a constituency
for sustainable transport infrastructure that will
hopefully guide how the city develops into the future.

b) Project Approaches
This project achieved remarkable policy success in part
because it leveraged social capital by mobilizing coalitions
of stakeholders, including low-income residents, environmentalists,
journalists, former bureaucrats, and good
governance campaigners. The grantee also effectively
used outside expertise, exploiting national and global
networks of sustainable transport professionals from
other Indian cities and NGOs, as well as foreign experts
who have implemented successful programs elsewhere.
Each of these project participants brought different
strengths to bear on the project and represented different
and complementary constituencies and interests.

The policy advocacy approach of the grantee uses GEF SGP
funding to support not implementation or procurement,
but efforts to make the city redirect transport resources
from increasing road building to sustainable transport
development. This represents an excellent return in both
local and global environmental benefits to GEF funding,
while the localized implementation of the advocated
activities ensures increased local ownership of the project,
improved prospects for economic and social sustainability,
and high potential for replicability in other cities
and regions in the country.

c) Scaling Up
The grantee remains committed to sustainable transport
development in Pune and continues to press to see the
city’s commitments properly implemented and expanded.
The PTTF now has a life of its own; it is expected that it
will be registered as a trust and has become a major and
growing force in Pune civil society.

Sources Consulted

Astrop, A. et al.1996. ‘The urban travel behaviour and
constraints of low income households and females in
Pune, India’. National Conference on Women’s Travel
Issues, Baltimore Maryland, October 23-26.
Boralkar, D.B. ‘Action Plan for Control of Air Pollution at
Pune’. Powerpoint Presentation. Available from:
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/SAR/sa.nsf/Attachments/
PresPuneAP/$File/Action+Plan-Pune.ppt.
Accessed July 2006.
Parisar Website. www.parisar.org.
Patankar, P.G. 2006. ‘Concept Note for a Comprehensive
Transport Policy for the Pune Metropolitan Region:
Vision, Policy and Recommendations’.
Patwardhan, Sujit. Parisar Samrakshan Samvardhan
Samstha. 2006. Email Communication (July).
PTTF. 2005. ‘Pune Declaration: Citizens’ Recommendations
for a Saner, Safer and Sustainable Urban Mobility in Pune’.
PTTF. 2004. ‘Pune Traffic: It’s Time We Act
’ Pamphlet.
SGP Database. Project no. SGP/GEF/IND/OP2/03/MS13.
www.undp.org/sgp.
Sodhi, Prabhjot. GEF SGP India. 2006.
Email communication (July).
PTTF Website. www.pttf.net.
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