[sustran] Re: Right to Walk and Pollution in Hyd: Interesting read

[Kanthi Kannan]

Dear all

 

When I mentioned in my earlier mail that we need to look at both short term
and long term measures, I think that I was not very clear with my statement.

 

What I meant was that have goals that are achievable in the short term. 1.
Like getting pedestrian crossings done at a few selected locations. 2. Get a
few footpaths cleared for use if not completely at least give enough access
space. When we are talking about short term, the time frame is about 4 to 6
months. 

 

In our campaign unless, we are able to show some concrete progress people
will not be willing to join our campaign. That is the reason for our
concrete doables. We would ideally like to achieve all this and more as soon
as possible.

 

What Sri. Sujit ji has mentioned comes in our long term measures and hence
goals. 

 

I agree that we need to look at the whole picture and not just at smaller
parts and let the authorities not really put any thing into action. 

 

The major issues in Hyd are

 

1.	Parking by Corporates: This is a Major issue in Hyd since even the
larger Retail Outlets ( Reliance Fresh, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance
Communications, Vodaphone, MORE to name a few) do not have any parking place
for customers and the vehicles are parked on the footpaths. We are shocked
because these corporates talk so much about Social Responsibility and yet
seem to be neglecting the basic pedestrian safety issue. 
2.	Lack of manned Pedestrian Crossings: There are many zebra lines
drawn at various locations on each road but there is very little probability
of any vehicle stopping at these places because of various reasons. Chief
among them is the lack of implementation of the rule. 
3.	Height of Road dividers: The road dividers are pretty easy to cross
and hence people jump over them and then run across the road. We are trying
to get the authorities to make the road dividers higher so that people
cannot cross the road where ever they want. 

 

Of course like all other Indian Cities, we have our quota of temples and
mosques etc that take away our walking space and make us easy targets of the
motorised drivers. 

 

Regards

Kanthi

 

The Right to Walk Foundation

www.right2walk.com <http://www.right2walk.com/> 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  _____  

From: Sudhir [mailto:sudhir at cai-asia.org] 
Sent: 21 August 2008 10:14
To: Sujit Patwardhan
Cc: Kanthi Kannan; Walter Hook; Global 'South' Sustainable Transport;
NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [sustran] Re: Right to Walk and Pollution in Hyd: Interesting
read

 

 

Dear all,

 

Any argument which brings better pedestrian infrastructure is fine with me.
:-) (capacity, congestion .. if it gets the results).

 

1-2 decades back it was small isolated flyovers and now its elevated roads
and in  future......

 

(I would dream of best pedestrian and cycle infrastructure integrated with
eco-friendly mass transport systems implemented in cities :-))...

 

Cheers

Sudhir


 

 

On 21/08/2008, Sujit Patwardhan <sujitjp at gmail.com> wrote:


in response to Kanthi Kannan's mail

I don't see much difference between short term measures and the long term
ones. Basically whether in the short term or long we need:-

-- radically improved adequate, efficient and affordable Public Transport 
-- safe, attractive and adequately wide pedestrian footpaths (not the same
as Skywalks) 
-- safe, comfortable (good surface) and citywide bicycle paths. These need
not be exclusive or protected ones on all the streets, ie in congested areas
sharing the street with motor vehicles should be possible provided traffic
calming is introduced and rigidly enforced. City bike scheme like Velib in
Paris after thorough planning
-- appropriate TDM measures to discourage use of personal auto vehicle use
at least during peak hours - the usual options are tighter parking control,
higher parking charges, congestion charging, auto vehicle-free areas,
pollution taxes etc 

One should avoid talking in terms of short term and long term strategies as
this gives too wide an option to an administration that isn't really keen to
do anything for sustainable transportation/new mobility but seems to be
pre-programmed to build more and more facilities to reduce the problems for
the auto vehicles. As a concrete example the Comprehensive Mobility Plan for
Pune has a Trojan horse in form of a statement "flyovers may be built as an
interim measure in view of many more people with higher incomes wanting to
buy cars". In one of the meetings we asked the consultants if they were
"interim" would they be demolished in a couple of years? The answer was of
course a very uncomfortable smile (or a smirk)?? !!!!!

Rest of the Mobility Plan talks the language of the National Urban Transport
Policy (which said "People not vehicles" will be at the centre of mobility
planning. It also said personal vehicles need to be discouraged and public
transport pedestrians and cyclists given a boost).

It's time to stop our city bosses from getting away with this kind of
sabotage.

--
Sujit Patwardhan
Parisar
Pune








On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 7:37 AM, Kanthi Kannan <kanthikannan at gmail.com>
wrote:




http://www.epa.gov/ies/pdf/india/iesfinal_0405.pdf


The study in the link given above is a well documented effort by a US agency
and an Indian agency about the various facets of pollution control.
Throughout the Study one of the major pollution reduction strategies
suggested is Separation of Vulnerable Road Users (Provision of Footpath).
I quote: "The intermixing of vehicles and pedestrian movements in the
absence of footpaths results in reduced speeds and increase in number of
accidents. The provision of footpaths and pedestrian crossings and can
reduce these conflicts to a great extent and increase the average speed."
The statistics given in support of the suggestion is interesting to check.

In Hyderabad, the Right to Walk Foundation is trying to check with the
Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) as to whether any of these
recommendations have been adopted?

Needless to say that widened roads are replacing the existing footpaths
because the authorities feel that widened roads are the solution for all
traffic problems.

We definitely need to take a few short term measures and a few long term
strategies so that our city does not have the tag of the most polluted metro
in the country.

Kanthi Kannan

The Right to Walk Foundation

www.right2walk.com <http://www.right2walk.com/> 






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

"Yamuna", 
ICS Colony, 
Ganeshkhind Road,
Pune 411 007
India
Tel: +91 20 25537955
Cell: +91 98220 26627
-----------------------------------------------------
Hon. Secretary:
Parisar
www.parisar.org <http://www.parisar.org/> 
------------------------------------------------------
Founder Member: 
PTTF 
(Pune Traffic & Transportation Forum)
www.pttf.net <http://www.pttf.net/> 
------------------------------------------------------
 




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Sudhir Gota
Transport Specialist
CAI-Asia Center
Unit 3510, 35th Floor, Robinsons-Equitable Tower,
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Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
Tel: +63-2-395-2843
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