[sustran] Re: China straddling bus - a car-freindly bus?

Sujit Patwardhan patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
Sat Aug 14 02:32:06 JST 2010


I'm not trying to prove you wrong but I feel buses will not be stuck in
congestion if they have a dedicated lane for "buses only". Once they have a
lane for their smooth flow, it should not be a concern for the majority if
the minority users of cars wish to get stuck in congestion of their own
making. If the ROW is inadequate for bus lanes AND cars, the preference
should naturally be for buses not cars.

And at the top level I feel that the central focus should be a better city
for all human beings than smart traffic technologies that "WOW" the
audiences, which is why in some sense I have serious reservations about
expensive and massive infrastructure projects (usually elevated
roads/flyovers, multistory parking lots but also expensive and massive
public transport systems rather than the simpler more humane options
including cycling, walking and para-transit.)

Perhaps we are looking at the Straddling Bus from different perspectives,

Regards,
--
Sujit





On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 9:37 PM, Lewis Thorwaldson <dobozban at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear Sujit and others,
>
> I agree with the basic premise that we need to focus on the true point of
> our work, moving people and improving accessibility, rather than spending
> all our time and money on congestion reducing schemes. However, I am not
> sure I agree that this bus system is of the latter. While it does indeed
> move buses out of the way of cars, and that seems to be how it is sold, the
> actual grit of the concept is that it prevents the bus from being affected
> by the cars without having to use additional ROW, which may not exist.
> Since
> people are willing to put up with a lot of congestion, it is not going to
> disappear soon, and buses will be stuck in it if we cannot find space to
> give them a lane of their own. This technology gives them that. How is this
> any different from building a subway, light rail or a dedicated bus lane?
> We
> should definitely be focusing on policy to reduce auto use, such as
> pricing,
> reduced parking, and all those things we already know about, but part of
> reducing auto use is improving public transit options, and this is exactly
> what this does.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Lewis Thorwaldson
> National Transit Institute
> 120 Albany Street
> Tower Two, Suite 250
> New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2163
> P: (732) 932-1700 x239
> F: (732) 932-1707
>
> From: Sujit Patwardhan <patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com>
> To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
> >;
> PTTF General <pttfgen at googlegroups.com>
> Cc: William Ross <wr1408 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Sat, 7 August, 2010 10:24:58 AM
> Subject: [sustran] Re: China straddling bus - a car-freindly bus?
>
> 7 August 2010
>
>
>
> This is just another idea to try and solve congestion without attacking the
> root problem which is the ever growing number of personal auto vehicles.
> The
> rate at which this segment can grow will make any "compatible solution"
> (solution that does not have strong TDM) ineffective in less than 3-5
> years.
> Money would be spent but we would be as far away from the solution as we
> currently are under our present car dominated vision.
>
> Solutions exist even today - in form of cities with low personal auto
> vehicle ownership (though they need far better public transport and NMT
> facilities) and cities that have kept car domination under control like
> Amsterdam, Copenhagen and many more. But strangely man is dazzled by
> technological extravaganza, no matter how precariously we live today, in
> the
> age of climate change, post oil peak and growing inequity around the globe.
>
> If only we could grow up.
>
> --
> Sujit Patwardhan
> Parisar,
> Pune
> India
>
> www.parisar.org
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>



-- 
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*“..each million we invest into urban motorways is an investment
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Mayor Hans Joachim Vogel
Munich 1970

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