[sustran] Re: PMC's feeder service plan get WB boost

[Madhav Badami, Prof.]

Dear Vinay,

Thanks very much for your posting. It certainly is important to ensure easy and safe pedestrian access to BRT and public transit. And indeed, there might be certain situations in which a pedestrian over-bridge or under-pass may be called for. However, I fear a trend toward over-bridges and under-passes or subways as the means to provide pedestrian access in Indian cities.

What we need is not a few pedestrian over-bridges or subways, at such phenomenal expense, but for pedestrians (and cyclists) to be able to cross roads conveniently and safely, at grade, at tens of thousands of places, and to make it possible for them to do so at low cost. This is precisely how this end is achieved in Montreal, where I happen to live, by means of the simple expedient of the zebra crossing and the traffic light. I am in fact having a hard time trying to recall where the pedestrian over-bridges are in this city (there are no more than a handful).

Apart from the unattractiveness and very limited utility -- from the point of view of pedestrians -- of a small number of pedestrian over-bridges or subways (which is what you would get with the meagre budgets allocated for "pedestrianization"), there is a more fundamental issue -- underlying the notion of pedestrian over-bridges and subways is the assumption that automobile traffic is primary (and something which pedestrians should not disrupt). 

What we need most of all is to begin to think of feet (the standard fitment with which all of us come into the world) as the most important travel mode, and walking as the fundamental basis of urban transport (or more precisely, accessibility) policy, and not merely as a "feeder" service for BRT or whatever, or even as merely "non-motorized" transport; and finally, to stop being spellbound by needlessly fancy and expensive technological means to achieve simple ends.

Cheers,

Madhav


************************************************************************

"As for the future, your task is not to foresee, but to enable it."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
 
Madhav G. Badami, PhD
School of Urban Planning and McGill School of Environment
Associate Director of Graduate Affairs, McGill School of Environment
McGill University
Macdonald-Harrington Building
815 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, QC, H3A 2K6, Canada
 
Phone: 514-398-3183
Fax: 514-398-8376; 514-398-1643
URLs: www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning
www.mcgill.ca/mse
e-mail: madhav.badami at mcgill.ca




-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+madhav.g.badami=mcgill.ca at list.jca.apc.org on behalf of Vinay Baindur
Sent: Wed 25/02/2009 12:07 PM
To: Hasiru Usiru
Subject: [sustran] PMC's feeder service plan get WB boost
 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/PMCs_feeder_service_plan_get_WB_boost/articleshow/4185283.cms

PMC's feeder service plan get WB boost
25 Feb 2009, 0118 hrs IST, TNN


   PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation's plans to provide feeder services
of non-motorised transport towards the pilot bus rapid transit routes
received a boost with the World Bank agreeing to provide the PMC's share of
funds for the project.

The project, which is an initiative of the central government for which Pune
is chosen as one of the demonstration cities, was to be implemented with Rs
117 crore from the World Bank and additional share funds from the PMC.

Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi told TOI: "Considering the budget
deficit that the PMC is facing, the WB will now be funding Rs 200 crore for
the project, which is a significant support to the civic body."

The civic officials also proposed to the WB delegation that visited PMC on
Tuesday to fund some of the pedestrian overbridges that have been proposed
on the BRT routes in the city.

"We have identified at least 20 critical spots where overbridges are a must.
We have proposed to the WB that if they can fund at least 10 such bridges at
the highly congested junctions," an official said.

He added that the PMC has come up with a new design for the pedestrian
bridges to ensure that they don't remain unutilised. "We have made an
attractive design with steps not more than six inches high."

The World Bank delegation is also on a three-day visit to Pimpri-Chinchwad
to negotiate a soft loan for implementing the bus rapid transit system
(BRTS) project in the area.

Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma said: "The five-member
delegation will return to Pimpri on Wednesday after a visit to Pune. The
decisions taken during the discussions would be known on Wednesday." PCMC
officials said the delegation gathered information about the BRTS projects
to be implemented in the municipal limits under Jawaharlal Nehru National
Urban Renewal Mission. The delegation will also visit the BRTS sites.

The PCMC plans to implement BRTS on four routes, namely, Pune-Mumbai
highway; Aundh-Ravet road; eight-kilometre-long corridor from Nashik Phata
to Wakad and 11.2-kilometre-long corridor from Kalewadi Phata to Dehu-Alandi
road.