[sustran] Re: Bangalore is a city that cares for cars, and not you

Cornie Huizenga cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org
Sun Sep 25 13:05:31 JST 2011


Dear Vinay  and others,

I was struck by the sentence: *“Pedestrians are mostly people who cannot
afford cars* and have no voice when compared with the urban elite. Like a
class of urban poor, which is voiceless and not organised enough to express
its concerns, the pedestrians have not been able to shake or move the civic
bodies to improve the conditions of the footpaths in the city.”

Being Dutch I grew up in a country where rich and poor are pedestrians in
cities. Over the last 30 years I have lived about 20 years in Asia.  Out of
these 20 years I had a car for 5 years from 1986-1991 in Pakistan. After
that I have managed without.  Admittedly I do rely a lot on taxi's but I do
think that I do walk a lot (and cycle).  Walking in Shanghai where I live
now is a lot easier than in Manila where I lived for 11 years.

Unlike the poor mentioned in the article, I do feel that I have rights and I
generally am not shy to claim those on pedestrian crossings etc.  I am still
struck by what was said a couple of years ago by the Minister of Urban
Development in India who said that Transport Planning in India had been
guided by class interest and that 90% of the road space was given to 10% of
the users.  This was at a conference on technology choice for public
transport in India (rail or BRT). The fascinating thing was that 90% of the
participants in the meeting came to the Meridien hotel by private vehicles.
Can people whose mind set is dominated by private vehicles really plan for
those of us who prefer to travel on foot, by bicycle or by public transport?

Compare this to large parts of Europe where a majority of transport users,
planners and decision makers share the view that cities are nicer and more
pleasant if cars play a secondary role compared to walking, cycling and
public transport.  This is very much a historical tradition.  We should not
forget that even in Europe we went through a phase in the '60s - 70s where
NMT was in danger and where we saw a willingness to give over the cities to
cars. Somehow, however, there was a realization (including by planners and
decision makers) that this affected their own quality of life.

Ultimately, the future of transport in Asian cities will depend on whether
it is possible to bring the 10% who owns the cars on board of the
sustainable transport agenda. Why is it that this same 10% is happy to
travel to Paris, London and Amsterdam to enjoy the shared public spaces
formed by streets, squares and side walks.  They are so pleasantly surprised
to see cars stop at pedestrian crossings (even if there is no stoplight),
yet when they are back home they immediately revert to their traditional
behavior.

It appears that what is needed is a political movement to reclaim the cities
for people, rather than cars.  Yet, the way that local government politics
operate in most of Asia it seems that there is little appetite to make
transport planning an election issue. Where are the Asian Penalosa's and
Lerners?

I wonder whether the Indian initiative described yesterday in this Listserv
on involving the courts through a public interest case to ban vehicles from
city centers, or the case of the Philippines where an environmental lawyer
is invoking the Local Government Code to have a more fair distribution of
road space (http://roadrevolution.ph/2011/06/statement-of-attorney-oposa/)
can help to tip the balance in favor of a more balanced approach in
transport planning. Is this the way forward and should we aim to launch a
series of coordinated civil suits in Asian countries where we demand that
the interests of the majority dominate decisions on the way in which Asian
cities are developed and functioning?

One of the reasons, I think, that the European experiment to give more space
to cars in the cities in the '60s and the '70s did not continue was the
strength of civil society. The Cyclists Union in the Netherlands (
http://www.fietsersbond.nl/english-info) has 130 branches and 35,000 members
and is a force to be reckoned with at the national level as well as at local
level.  See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb0QjASuuqI&feature=player_embedded for a
great video how 5 million people in Holland make an estimated 14 million
bicycle trips daily).

I would be interested to hear from others how we can best overcome the class
divide in transport planning in Asian cities.

best regards,
Cornie

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 2:46 AM, Vinay Baindur <yanivbin at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_bangalore-is-a-city-that-cares-for-cars-and-not-you_1590963
>
>
>
>
> Bangalore is a city that cares for cars, and not you
> DNA / Merlin Francis / Saturday, September 24, 2011 11:17 IST
>
> There is nothing new about the poor condition of footpaths in Bangalore,
> but
> what stirs the mind is the silence of the pedestrian who is exposed to all
> kinds of dangers, thanks to the bad pavements or the lack of it. *DNA
> *takes
> a look at why a Bangalorean remains a silent observer.
>
> Most people in the city are oblivious to the fact that by its very
> definition, a road is incomplete without a proper footpath and that the
> pedestrian is an important stakeholder in the footpaths and also has the
> sole right to use them. The municipal corporation has failed to disseminate
> information that a common man could use to voice his concerns.
>
> Kathyayani Chamraj of CIVIC says, “Pedestrians are mostly people who cannot
> afford cars and have no voice when compared with the urban elite. Like a
> class of urban poor, which is voiceless and not organised enough to express
> its concerns, the pedestrians have not been able to shake or move the civic
> bodies to improve the conditions of the footpaths in the city.”
>
> Hasiru Usiru is one of the few groups actively organising programmes
> expressing concerns and dangers that the pedestrians are exposed to.
> Sridhar
> Raman, who has been conducting a programme ‘Come Cross the Roads’ to
> inculcate the righteousness of the pedestrian, says, “The biggest reason
> pedestrians aren’t voicing their anger is their failure to understand their
> rights. The public, be it pedestrians or motorists, assumes that all road
> infrastructure is meant first for vehicles. Pedestrians are assumed to come
> much lower in the pecking order,” said Sridhar Raman.
>
> He continues, “We see pedestrians scared to step down on to the road and
> cross at a zebra-crossing, even though the right of way is with the
> pedestrian. We see pedestrians giving way to motorists riding even on
> footpaths; a vehicle has no right to be on the pavement. This lack of
> awareness is the biggest reason behind the pedestrians not getting the
> attention they deserve.”
>
> If the public is made aware that the road and the footpaths belong to the
> pedestrian first and foremost, more pedestrian voices will rise, added
> Raman.
>
> “City municipal corporation should have made ward committees for ordinary
> pedestrians. Right now, it is not clear as to who should one complain to
> about the ill-maintained footpaths—the ward officer, the corporator or the
> engineer?” says Vinay Sridhar from Hasiru Usiru, an environmental group.
>
> J Sreenivasan of Koramangala Matters echoed similar sentiments. “Who should
> a pedestrian complain to? The BBMP? Forget it, it’s a waste of time. All
> the
> pedestrian can do is to vent his anger and frustration and go back to
> fending himself,” he says.
>
> He also pointed out that Bescom’s structures are the next biggest hurdle on
> Bangalore roads, with low-lying transformers and electric poles erected
> bang
> in the middle of what may pass as a footpath. “There are helplines where no
> one answers the call,” Sreenivasan says.
>
> In defence to the flak concrete pavements draw, the BBMP’s engineering
> chief, BT Ramesh, says, “We had laid the pavements with the interlocking
> slab system about eight years ago. But after receiving complaints from
> people, we started laying concrete pedestrian walkways.”
>
> Meenakshi Bharat, a citizen activist from Malleswaram, says, whatever is
> left of pavements, is being taken away by civic officials. “Huge areas are
> being dug around the tree to ‘water’ them.”
>
> A bigger nuisance is people turning every foot path into ‘pee land’. The
> stench is so unbearable that people prefer walking on the road.
>
> Manvel Alur, of the RWA in Koramangala says, “Where are pedestrian
> crossings
> or pavements ever planned in the larger scheme of things? Koramangala,
> Vasanthnagar, Adugodi, Vivek Nagar, Commercial Street are some areas where
> there is hardly any footpath.”
>
> “Motorists are given importance in our country and pedestrians are
> forgotten, in spite of walking being a healthier, more energy and
> environment-friendly option. The RWAs should work towards this in a big
> way,” she adds.
> *URL of the article:*
>
> http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_bangalore-is-a-city-that-cares-for-cars-and-not-you_1590963-all
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-- 
Cornie Huizenga
Joint Convener
Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
Mobile: +86 13901949332
cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org
www.slocat.net


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