[sustran] Re: Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his concept of a developed city

[Dr Adhiraj Joglekar]

I agree with the overall direction suggested but feel there has to be a move
towards using a broader term instead of BRTS. Many take a rather purist
approach on this matter. If its late for London and NY, its late for many
cities in the developing world. Mumbai for instance will struggle to
implement a Bogota style BRT (only the Western and Eastern Highways in
Mumbai have the width to consider such models). Just like Mumbai, I know
Pune well enough to say its another city which does not have roads with the
desired width. Many in Bangalore feel its an issue their too (and I won't be
surprised if it becomes a problem in Karachi as well).

I prefer Bus Priority (as used in UK) as an all encompassing term over and
obove BRT . In fact Mumbai's BEST does phenomenally well. The basics are
there and a huge number of Mumbai roads can accomodate the bus lane strategy
of London without spending anywhere near what a BRTS will cost (leave aside
costs of a Metro).

What is practically implementable and logically appropriate is oft left
aside when proponents of one model try to score over the other (LRT Vs BRT
Vs MRT etc). In all these heated debates, that small cities could do very
well with a solid basic traditional bus based public transport model, is
unfortunately a neglected fact.

Pune plans to implement BRT on roads where total numbers (for all modes)
commuting are less than 5k per hour. The basis of selection of the corridors
is not defined by *need *rather by *width *of roads.

One may find number of pictures of crowded BRT buses in Delhi (this link
http://flickr.com/photos/8754860@N02 with a number of pics was sent to me by
someone hoping to excite me about Delhi BRT). But how is one to define
success of such ventures? Were the buses not crowded before the BRT on this
stretch? The success to me should be defined by how many switch to buses -
The question asked should, have the number of personal vehicles in use gone
down? When one sees the pictures (in the above link) of Delhi BRT - it is
sad to see the narrow width of footpaths (infact pedestrians are being
forced on to cycle paths). One will hope that the vision is to succeed with
the BRT, get people out of their personal vehicles and thus expect even
larger numbers of people on foot and hence have walkways double the size one
finds currently. It seems the compromise has been to pave way for
Win-Win-Lose solution and all effort has been made to not hamper personal
vehicles - the ultimate winners thus are a showcase BRT and the personal
motorised vehicles lobby while the pedestrians are as usual the loosers.

While Pune, the other city in India to implements pilot BRT is yet to
provide footpaths and cycle tracks, one can see the constraints caused by
lack of width - it will be impossible to make way for pedestrians crosswalks
or subways when the footpath width is so narrow. The effect has been to get
pedestrians to mix with the vehicles at junctions - effectively increasing
stop times at traffic light cycles. It also means bus stops are close to
junctions thus ensuring they remain at their rudimentry best (very unlike
BRT stations elsewhere) and I worry the proximity probably removes the
chance of implementing smart signals prioritising buses (as one will hope
they are 20-30 seconds away and in motion approaching junctions to trip the
traffic lights to change and give them priority.

The message thus should be use every cosy-effective method (and not just BRT
in its pure form), look at other models and more significantly do something
to cause an effective shift from 2/4 wheelers to buses and sustain it by
removing subsidy on fuel, introducing paid parking, congestion charging
(travel on 2 wheels is cheaper than bus tickets in India). Without managing
demand a BRT is not very different from redundant models of building
flyovers, elevated roads and the rest. If exsisting 2/4 wheele users move to
BRT, they leave behind space which will be taken up in no time by the ever
increasing middle class of India (growing by 10% every year).

Would I like BRT in Pune? Sure, but it still covers (even when all 120km is
in place) only 10% of Pune roads. With no centralised CBD and people moving
in all directions, the demographics do not favour a typical BRT by itself to
succeed. One should consider every method (London is great in that respect)
to spread the web of prioritising buses to every corner of a city.

I am oft misunderstood as being anti-BRT. Its the opposite. My message to
BRT crusaders is when giving advise, go beyond the pure model, expand the
scope of buses and offer advise regarding implementing bus priority rather
than just BRT.

Cheers

Adhiraj





On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 4:00 AM,
<sustran-discuss-request at list.jca.apc.org>wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his concept of a developed city
>      (Eric Britton)
>   2. [NewMobilityCafe] Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his concept of a
>      developed city (Eric Britton)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:16:08 +0200
> From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>
> Subject: [sustran] Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his concept of a developed
>        city
> To: <NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com>,
>        <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
> Cc: 'Oscar Edmundo Diaz' <diazoe at gmail.com>
> Message-ID: <01f401c91990$be28a6d0$3a79f470$@britton at ecoplan.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
>
>
> Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his concept of a developed city
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/images/shim.gif
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/images/shim.gif
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/images/shim.gif
>
>
> Wednesday, September 17, 2008
> By our correspondent -
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=136333
>
> Karachi
>
> What makes a difference between a developed city and a backward city is not
> the quality of expressways, highways or flyovers but that of pedestrian
> streets, bicycle tracks, public parks, water fronts and bus ways for mass
> transit, says Enrique Penalosa, a world renowned urban strategist and
> former
> mayor of Bogota, Colombia.
>
> Penalosa said this during his presentation in a seminar on organised
> "Sustainable Urban Development & Mobility" which was organised by the City
> District Government Karachi (CDGK) in collaboration with the Clinton
> Climate
> Initiative (CCI), a programme of the Clinton Foundation, and SHEHRI-CBE at
> a
> local hotel on Tuesday. The objective of this seminar is to provide key
> stakeholders an opportunity to hear about a different and more socially
> inclusive and efficient urban vision, which would improve the quality of
> life and make our cities more competitive.
>
> Penalosa who was the main speaker at the seminar discussed in detail the
> vision of a developed city and gave several practical examples from the
> west
> and parts of Asia on how that vision can be materialised.
>
> Public parks, pedestrian streets, bicycle tracks and water fronts are
> crucial for a city to be developed, he said. These are the things that
> please people that make them happier and improve the quality of their
> lives,
> he added.
>
> What makes a difference between a developed city and a backward city is not
> the quality of highways or elevated expressways but the quality of public
> places, pedestrian streets, and bicycle tracks linked with busways.
>
> "A developed city is one where rich uses public transport. A good city is a
> city for the poor, elderly and children," said Penalosa. He adds, "20th
> century would be remembered as a disaster in urban history since giving the
> cities to cars is the biggest mistake we ever made." He further said that
> the developed cities in Europe realised that building roads for cars was a
> big mistake. It was not what they wanted therefore, they built pedestrian
> streets stretching up to hundreds of kilometres.
>
> Giving an example of some developed cities, he said most of the advanced
> cities have demolished their highways and expressways. In Boston a highway
> built at a cost of US $24 billion was demolished to construct a waterfront
> and pedestrian and bicycle tracks at both sides of it. He also gave an
> example of an expressway in Seoul that was built with a cost of US $7
> billion and that too had to be demolished to finally convert into a
> beautiful waterfront with wide pedestrian tracks on either side. He also
> mentioned of a 23 km bicycle path in Columbia that is used by thousands of
> people.
>
> He also proposed for 1000 km pedestrian network in Karachi and said it
> would
> improve people's life and they would be happy. "It would save them some 30
> per cent of their income and people would love to use bicycles to get to
> bus
> stands, he said. "In fact New York and London too would love to build
> bicycle tracks but it is too late for them. However, for Karachi it is not
> very late and they can think about it now," he added.
>
> He proposed to build side ways for pedestrians as wide as possible
> especially in the areas near schools. "Cars parked everywhere when there is
> no space for pedestrians is not what you call development;" he criticised.
> "This is not a democratic thinking," he added. There is huge lack of
> political will and it is telling the poor that the people in cars are more
> important than those on feet or bicycles," he commented.
>
> Building pedestrian streets, bicycle tracks and side ways for the citizens
> coupled with a good public transport system that provide mass transit will
> discourage the use of cars. "Building high velocity roads and elevated
> expressways won't solve the problems of Karachi," he said. "Rapid Bus
> Transit (RBT) is the only solution and is perfectly possible in Karachi,"
> he
> proposed. Exclusive busways are needed for mass transit, RBT is more
> flexible than subways and it can be built with low cost, he said.
>
> A good public transport is one with low cost and high frequency, the main
> problem of public transport in Karachi is 'the income of bus owners/drivers
> depend on per passenger. This is why these buses have created all this mess
> as they run behind each and every single passenger, pick and drop them
> where
> they want. Under RBT the owner is paid on the basis of per kilometre
> therefore the driver doesn't bother whether the bus operates empty or full
> and they do not stop everywhere for passengers thus abide by their timing
> and run at a decent speed. As a result of that the quality of public
> transport service improves.
>
> Penalosa further said that TransMillenio has earned great success not only
> in the West but also in Asia. This is the only possibility for Karachi as
> this system can carry 50,000 passengers per hour per kilometre per
> direction. "There can be modern stations where people will pay for their
> tickets at the station so that they can get into and off the bus in seconds
> and on one ticket they can change two to three buses," he elaborated.
> "Similarly there should be feeder buses to carry people to RBT stations,"
> he
> continued. He said that in Karachi the government might have to demolish
> some buildings to construct busways and pedestrians' sideways but it is
> worth it.
>
> Replying to a question he said, this was perfectly possible in Karachi and
> the problem was not of technology or finance. In fact there were managerial
> problems and lack of political will.
>
> Following the presentation by Penalosa, Oscar Diaz, Sr Director, Institute
> for Transport and Development Policy (ITDP) delivered a talk on "Issues and
> Challenges of Public Transport and Mobility in Developing Countries". He
> also proposed ways to reduce use of cars from the road. "There should be
> car
> free days, additional taxes on gasoline and licenced plates for vehicles
> that will help reduce the number of cars from the roads in peak hours," he
> said.
>
> Talking to journalists, Director General Mass Transit Malik Zaheer Ul Islam
> said that they had already adopted RBT for Karachi and were working on the
> project on priority basis. The work on first three corridors of RBT is
> likely to begin this December, however, according to Penalosa a lot of
> planning and work needs to be done before the launching of RBT or it can
> meet the same fate as it did in Delhi India and thus result in a failure if
> launched without proper planning.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/share/dot.gif
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:16:08 +0200
> From: "Eric Britton" <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>
> Subject: [sustran] [NewMobilityCafe] Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his
>        concept of a    developed city
> To: <NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com>,
>        <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
> Cc: 'Oscar Edmundo Diaz' <diazoe at gmail.com>
> Message-ID: <01f401c91990$be28a6d0$3a79f470$@britton at ecoplan.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
>
>
> Ex-Bogota Mayor presents his concept of a developed city
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/images/shim.gif
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/images/shim.gif
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/images/shim.gif
>
>
> Wednesday, September 17, 2008
> By our correspondent -
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=136333
>
> Karachi
>
> What makes a difference between a developed city and a backward city is not
> the quality of expressways, highways or flyovers but that of pedestrian
> streets, bicycle tracks, public parks, water fronts and bus ways for mass
> transit, says Enrique Penalosa, a world renowned urban strategist and
> former
> mayor of Bogota, Colombia.
>
> Penalosa said this during his presentation in a seminar on organised
> "Sustainable Urban Development & Mobility" which was organised by the City
> District Government Karachi (CDGK) in collaboration with the Clinton
> Climate
> Initiative (CCI), a programme of the Clinton Foundation, and SHEHRI-CBE at
> a
> local hotel on Tuesday. The objective of this seminar is to provide key
> stakeholders an opportunity to hear about a different and more socially
> inclusive and efficient urban vision, which would improve the quality of
> life and make our cities more competitive.
>
> Penalosa who was the main speaker at the seminar discussed in detail the
> vision of a developed city and gave several practical examples from the
> west
> and parts of Asia on how that vision can be materialised.
>
> Public parks, pedestrian streets, bicycle tracks and water fronts are
> crucial for a city to be developed, he said. These are the things that
> please people that make them happier and improve the quality of their
> lives,
> he added.
>
> What makes a difference between a developed city and a backward city is not
> the quality of highways or elevated expressways but the quality of public
> places, pedestrian streets, and bicycle tracks linked with busways.
>
> "A developed city is one where rich uses public transport. A good city is a
> city for the poor, elderly and children," said Penalosa. He adds, "20th
> century would be remembered as a disaster in urban history since giving the
> cities to cars is the biggest mistake we ever made." He further said that
> the developed cities in Europe realised that building roads for cars was a
> big mistake. It was not what they wanted therefore, they built pedestrian
> streets stretching up to hundreds of kilometres.
>
> Giving an example of some developed cities, he said most of the advanced
> cities have demolished their highways and expressways. In Boston a highway
> built at a cost of US $24 billion was demolished to construct a waterfront
> and pedestrian and bicycle tracks at both sides of it. He also gave an
> example of an expressway in Seoul that was built with a cost of US $7
> billion and that too had to be demolished to finally convert into a
> beautiful waterfront with wide pedestrian tracks on either side. He also
> mentioned of a 23 km bicycle path in Columbia that is used by thousands of
> people.
>
> He also proposed for 1000 km pedestrian network in Karachi and said it
> would
> improve people's life and they would be happy. "It would save them some 30
> per cent of their income and people would love to use bicycles to get to
> bus
> stands, he said. "In fact New York and London too would love to build
> bicycle tracks but it is too late for them. However, for Karachi it is not
> very late and they can think about it now," he added.
>
> He proposed to build side ways for pedestrians as wide as possible
> especially in the areas near schools. "Cars parked everywhere when there is
> no space for pedestrians is not what you call development;" he criticised.
> "This is not a democratic thinking," he added. There is huge lack of
> political will and it is telling the poor that the people in cars are more
> important than those on feet or bicycles," he commented.
>
> Building pedestrian streets, bicycle tracks and side ways for the citizens
> coupled with a good public transport system that provide mass transit will
> discourage the use of cars. "Building high velocity roads and elevated
> expressways won't solve the problems of Karachi," he said. "Rapid Bus
> Transit (RBT) is the only solution and is perfectly possible in Karachi,"
> he
> proposed. Exclusive busways are needed for mass transit, RBT is more
> flexible than subways and it can be built with low cost, he said.
>
> A good public transport is one with low cost and high frequency, the main
> problem of public transport in Karachi is 'the income of bus owners/drivers
> depend on per passenger. This is why these buses have created all this mess
> as they run behind each and every single passenger, pick and drop them
> where
> they want. Under RBT the owner is paid on the basis of per kilometre
> therefore the driver doesn't bother whether the bus operates empty or full
> and they do not stop everywhere for passengers thus abide by their timing
> and run at a decent speed. As a result of that the quality of public
> transport service improves.
>
> Penalosa further said that TransMillenio has earned great success not only
> in the West but also in Asia. This is the only possibility for Karachi as
> this system can carry 50,000 passengers per hour per kilometre per
> direction. "There can be modern stations where people will pay for their
> tickets at the station so that they can get into and off the bus in seconds
> and on one ticket they can change two to three buses," he elaborated.
> "Similarly there should be feeder buses to carry people to RBT stations,"
> he
> continued. He said that in Karachi the government might have to demolish
> some buildings to construct busways and pedestrians' sideways but it is
> worth it.
>
> Replying to a question he said, this was perfectly possible in Karachi and
> the problem was not of technology or finance. In fact there were managerial
> problems and lack of political will.
>
> Following the presentation by Penalosa, Oscar Diaz, Sr Director, Institute
> for Transport and Development Policy (ITDP) delivered a talk on "Issues and
> Challenges of Public Transport and Mobility in Developing Countries". He
> also proposed ways to reduce use of cars from the road. "There should be
> car
> free days, additional taxes on gasoline and licenced plates for vehicles
> that will help reduce the number of cars from the roads in peak hours," he
> said.
>
> Talking to journalists, Director General Mass Transit Malik Zaheer Ul Islam
> said that they had already adopted RBT for Karachi and were working on the
> project on priority basis. The work on first three corridors of RBT is
> likely to begin this December, however, according to Penalosa a lot of
> planning and work needs to be done before the launching of RBT or it can
> meet the same fate as it did in Delhi India and thus result in a failure if
> launched without proper planning.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/share/dot.gif
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ================================================================
> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
> equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
> (the 'Global South').
>
> End of Sustran-discuss Digest, Vol 61, Issue 13
> ***********************************************
>