[sustran] Re: Pedestrian Budget

[Sudhir]

Dear Sujit,

Coming from Bangalore, a city of flyovers which has just started massive
pedestrian crossings in the air .. i cannot agree more. But i would also
suggest that if you can have a context sensitive design in place.. it may
work in few places as shown in Makati in Manila. One  cannot just retrofit
staircases everywhere.

We are about to complete a project for ADB which looks extensively at the
issues pertaining to walkability. We are looking at around 10 cities. We
partnered with local universities and local NGO's from CAI partnership in
taking this challenge and doing small scale walkability surveys which
includes infrastructure assessment and pedestrian interviews ( we have
approx 2000 Asians suggesting their requirements as to what they need from
policymakers) . We hope to keep this alive with annual surveys and media
campaign and you would be seeing more local level pressure being exerted in
coming days.

we would circulate more in coming weeks...

lets hope for the best..

thanks
Sudhir

On 7 March 2010 17:55, Sujit Patwardhan <patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com> wrote:

> 7 March 2010
>
>
>
> Dear Sudhir,
> We are doing an analysis of the PMC Budget - passed a few days back. The
> percentage of all Pedestrian and non motorised infrastructure is very small
> though by including totally unnecessary and horrendous structures like the
> Sky-Walk (another name for Pedestrian Over bridges where pedestrians are
> made to climb up many steps) under the head -  "pedestrian facilities"  the
> budgets gives a misleading picture. These Sky-Walks just like most Flyovers
> are nothing but opportunities for high kick backs and white elephant
> projects for the agencies and contractors apart from acting as one more stab
> in the back for pedestrians whose miserable life (having to walk on most
> roads with poor condition of pavements) is already so painful that it is not
> right to make him climb up many steps just to make the road free for auto
> vehicles. In fact the impetus for the sky-walks comes from two sources -
> first is corruption, and the second from the belief that roads are meant
> mainly for auto-mobiles and getting the pedestrians off the roads is a good
> idea for improving traffic.
>
> We feel auto vehicles must stop as often and as long as necessary for the
> pedestrians to cross roads at grade. If on account of the high number of
> pedestrians the timing for cars to stop is too long  - that is a proof that
> the road is ripe for pedestrians only treatment. The automobile then needs
> to be banned or severely restricted through TDM measures.
>
> As usual I have been liberal in answering your question but I thought one
> could get a wrong picture by taking too narrow a focus while looking at the
> budget.
> We will share our findings about the Pune Municipal Corporation Budget with
> you. Should take about three weeks I guess.
>
> With warm regards,
> --
> Sujit
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 9:52 AM, Sudhir <sudhir at cai-asia.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> We are searching for % of Budget allocated for pedestrians in our cities
>> and
>> unfortunately could not find many Asian cities.
>>
>> Do you know how much % of money authorities are planning  to invest on
>> pedestrians in your city?
>>
>> thanks,
>> Sudhir Gota
>> Transport Specialist
>> CAI-Asia Center
>> Unit 3510, 35th Floor, Robinsons-Equitable Tower,
>> ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City
>> Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
>> Tel: +63-2-395-2843
>> Fax: +63-2-395-2846
>> Visit our new portal: www.cleanairinitiative.org
>> Skype : sudhirgota
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>
>
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> “..each million we invest into urban motorways is an investment
> to destroy the city“
>
> Mayor Hans Joachim Vogel
> Munich 1970
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Sujit Patwardhan
> patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
> sujitjp at gmail.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Yamuna, ICS Colony, Ganeshkhind Road, Pune 411 007, India
> Tel: +91 20 25537955
> Cell: +91 98220 26627
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>


-- 
Sudhir Gota
Transport Specialist
CAI-Asia Center
Unit 3510, 35th Floor, Robinsons-Equitable Tower,
ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
Tel: +63-2-395-2843
Fax: +63-2-395-2846
Visit our new portal: www.cleanairinitiative.org
Skype : sudhirgota