[sustran] Re: Traffic Congestion in Bangalore

[Puchalsky, Chris]

I would like to echo some of the comments about the undercounting of pedestrian trips.  I strenuously question the 0.07 pedestrian trip rate cited below. In the greater Philadelphia area, one both wealthier and more sprawling (~500/km2) than Bangalore, we have a pedestrian trip rate for the region nearly 10 times as large (~0.61).  The pedestrian trip rates for the urban area are even larger.  The survey that we used to estimate this trip rate was very deliberate on counting non-motorized travel.  Any such similar survey done in Bangalore will surely find rates of non-motorized travel much greater than those cited below.


Christopher M. Puchalsky, Ph.D.
Senior Transportation Engineer
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
190 N. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106-1520
P: 215.238.2949
F: 215.592.9125





Message: 1
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:33:18 +0530
From: "Sudhir" <sudhir at secon.in>
Subject: [sustran] Traffic Congestion in Bangalore
To: "Sustran Resource Centre" <sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org>,    "Global
        'South' Sustainable Transport" <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>,
        <cai-asia at lists.worldbank.org>, "Ethan Arpi" <EArpi at wri.org>
Message-ID: <001101c8897e$8c46e480$d607a8c0 at Domain.secon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear All,

Please find the news regarding the Traffic Congestion in Bangalore on Today's "Times of India"  Edition (link enclosed).
It is very surprising that no one has mentioned footpaths, cycletracks, NMT etc.
It is generally reported that people want and desire mobility. Is mobility more important than accessibility in an urban area?
Bangalore has seen rapid motorisation in recent years (increase from 178 to 361 within a decade) yet 39% of households does not own any vehicle.
Average salary of a two wheeler owner is only Rs4469. ( it is to be noted that Bangalore has the highest petrol rate at 52Rs/L). Average Trip length is nearly 10.57 km.
Thus an average two wheeler owner spends 22% of his salary on his Transportation.
Bangalore has approximately 7 million population yet it has pedestrian trip rate of 0.07 (total daily pedestrian trips of 523597) or in other words thirteen persons contribute single pedestrian trip per day !!!!
Nearly 30% of households have bicycles but yet contribute only 2% trip modeshare.
Yesterday's edition carried an article indicating that the authorities are planning elevated inner core ring road at an estimated cost of 700 million Rs. per KM.
We have done some research on Pedestrian Infrastructure and our estimates indicate that complete pedestrian infrastructure (considering current nil infrastructure) can be improved with an investment of 2000 million Rs, yet no concrete proposals.

Link of Paper

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAwOC8wMy8xOSNBcjAwMTAx&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom


Regards
Project Engineer,
Highways Div.
SECON Pvt Ltd.
147, 7B Road, EPIP,
Whitefield, Bangalore 560066
Ph: 080-41197778 (413)


Christopher M. Puchalsky, Ph.D.
Senior Transportation Engineer
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
190 N. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106-1520
P: 215.238.2949
F: 215.592.9125