From operations at velomondial.net Sun Jan 1 01:03:49 2012 From: operations at velomondial.net (Pascal van den Noort) Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:03:49 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Happy New Year with a Pas-Port to Mobility in 2012 Message-ID: <55a921c3e2567a4acf8b6f330017542b@velomondial.net> Dear Colleague and Friend, Velo Mondial wishes you a sustainable and ?Happy New Year?with lots of safety and security while on the road! ? Pascal van den Noort operations@velomondial.net http://velomondial.blogspot.com ? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 25281 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20111231/f47fa308/attachment.png From operations at velomondial.net Sun Jan 1 03:20:16 2012 From: operations at velomondial.net (Pascal van den Noort) Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:20:16 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Happy New Year with a Pas-Port to Mobility in 2012 Message-ID: <539498baeea06c7ec44e91f9001b7c19@velomondial.net> Dear Colleague and Friend, Velo Mondial wishes you a sustainable and ?Happy New Year?with lots of safety and security while on the road! ? Pascal van den Noort operations@velomondial.net http://velomondial.blogspot.com ? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 25281 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20111231/9a273f1b/attachment.png From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Sat Jan 7 20:07:22 2012 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric britton) Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 12:07:22 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Equity: An Equity Based Transport System Message-ID: <00de01cccd2c$899721a0$9cc564e0$@britton@ecoplan.org> http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/276934_230969273645093_1454463836_n.jpg >From World Streets: Equity: An Equity Based Transport System An open, collaborative exploration of the concept of equity as the guiding principle and foundation for transportation and access for day to day lives of all, with particular reference to how people get around in cities and also smaller rural communities. 7 Jan. 2012: Look. this is just getting started today. You are invited to drop in, have a look (though the walls are still pretty bare), and, if equity is your taste, join in. I have a hunch that this is going to be the most important initiative we have ever launched. The opening shot on this new project is on Facebook today at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Equity-An-Equity-Based-Transport-System/230969273645093?v=wall ________________________________________ World Streets Eric Britton, Editor / Managing Director World Streets / New Mobility Partnerships / Sustainability Seminar Series 8, rue Jospeh Bara 75006 Paris France Tel. +331 7550 3788 | editor@newmobility.org | Skype: newmobility P Avant d'imprimer, pensez ? l'environnement -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 8549 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20120107/3b29ee2d/attachment-0001.jpe From navdeep.asija at gmail.com Sun Jan 8 18:55:05 2012 From: navdeep.asija at gmail.com (Asija, Navdeep) Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 15:25:05 +0530 Subject: [sustran] =?windows-1252?Q?Fast_lane_in_Corbusier=92s_Chandigarh?= Message-ID: Gautam Dheer *Broad, swanky roads meandering along impeccable lush green gardens and finely landscaped roundabouts in French architect Le Corbusier-designed Chandigarh provides a glimpse into what epitomises this city?s fondness for good surface driving and public transport.* Chandigarh?s well-laid out public transport system, commended as one of the finest in the country, is envy of all, despite the perplexing, albeit factual, contradiction of sorts it lives with. Here?s why. With nearly 8.5 lakh registered vehicles for a population of about 10.5 lakh, Chandigarh has the highest motor vehicle ownership in India, arguably an indicator of a ?deficient? public transport system anywhere. But the city defies this rationale. Its public transport system is equally in vogue. Much of this is because the number of passengers per bus at 2,239 persons is the lowest in India. The figure leaves much to mull for states like Bihar, which is at rock bottom on the charts among other competing states on this count. Chandigarh?s bus occupancy ratio is scoring high at 92 per cent, its fleet is the youngest and the city synergies put public transport on a fast track. In fact, notwithstanding criticism at times from certain avant-garde planners and architects, Le Corbusier?s master plan for Chandigarh effectively denote the significance of public transport system. Corbusier?s plan puts in place a matrix of bus stops on grids at barely 200 meters from the roundabouts so as to serve the four pedestrian entrances into a sector in the city. *Why better off? * So what is it that makes this Union Territory?s public transport model stand out among the rest? Chandigarh is one of the few cities, if not the lone one in the country, which is designed on a ?grid-iron road? pattern, Navdeep Asija, an IIT Delhi graduate and an expert in road and transport engineering, said. ?Roads here run on a grid system, often parallel to each other. The design provides a effectively functional transport system where the average trip for passengers is short and consumes much less time,? he said. Chandigarh?s transport fleet of 417 buses is the youngest in India. The average age of a bus is three years, something which must hurt Gujarat?s much exhibited development model given that the average age of a bus in Modi?s state capital Ahmedabad is seven years. Bangalore is closest to Chandigarh as far as age and health of a bus goes. A recent comprehensive study on city?s public transport system, conducted by Navdeep Asija ? the man credited for launch of eco-cab rickshaws in Punjab - brings out more about its numero uno status. Chandigarh has the best ?walk-to-bus? concept, he said. ?A walk of 500-metres or less is often considered favourable for use of public transport. If more, it is considered discouraging. Chandigarh on an average leaves passengers to walk barely 300 metres,? Navdeep said. The study reveals that nearly 25 per cent of the city prefers public buses. Notwithstanding the fact that some of the well-cushioned air-conditioned buses in Chandigarh provide cheap hotspot ?dating-on-wheel? options for teenagers, a high of 50 per cent passengers use this mode of transport for office purposes. ?An encouraging 17 per cent use it for fulfilling educational pursuits?, the study said. The efficient public transport system in Chandigarh comes as a dampener for autorickshaw drivers. The study says that the auto share in dispersing passengers is just about 12 per cent. So how does Chandigarh cope with this dichotomy of sorts of side-by-side growth of both the public transport system and private transport, including many high-end luxury cars in a city that boasts of the highest per capita income in the country. The answer, says Navdeep, lies in the high usage of public transport by residents of city?s satellite townships. ?Against 12 cars per 1000 persons in India, Chandigarh has around 800 cars per thousand persons, fast closing up to the figure that exists in the US. At the same time, public transport enjoys considerable support. Its large subscribers are people who commute from many neighbouring townships,? he opined. Certain bus stops on the grid system offer electronic public display systems which spell out handy information like time of arrival of next bus at the stop. A top official of the UT administration said more ways to reduce pressure on the city roads are being worked out, including an aggressive plan to have multiple modes of transportation like the metro rail for which preparation of a detailed project report is underway. Dedicated lanes for movement of traffic is also being planned, he said. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/217536/fast-lane-corbusiers-chandigarh.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Chd_PT.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 40683 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20120108/60807d36/Chd_PT.pdf From sguttikunda at gmail.com Sun Jan 8 20:44:31 2012 From: sguttikunda at gmail.com (Sarath Guttikunda) Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 17:14:31 +0530 Subject: [sustran] India's blind love for cars (The Hindu) Message-ID: The Hindu, January 6th, 2012 *India's blind love for cars * http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true *The energy and environmental effects of too many automobiles have not been addressed.* * * * * * * The Auto Expo reminds us that it is hard to imagine an urban middle-class nuclear family without a car. It establishes their middle class identity, and demarcates them from the press of the masses in crowded trains and buses. Cars seem safe, comfortable and ? what holds the key to the middle-class psyche ? dignified. The Hamara Bajaj family of four miraculously perched on a scooter would earlier evoke an indulgent smile; now, in an age of double-income families and car loans, it is a horror to be avoided for its risks and its sheer gracelessness. A family with an entry-level car like Nano or Alto, like Hamara Bajaj in the pre-reform days, is indisputably middle-class in the eyes of society. Cars are about both physical and social mobility; but there is also a caste system within the world of cars that is becoming intricate by the day. So, even within a small car segment, there are players who promote style and the ?sensuous experience' of driving over the convenience of having a car. These subjective features, or ?auto aesthetics' if you like, become more dominant as one goes up the price ladder. Hence, designers are crucial to the industry for their ability to lure the consumer. Helping them out on the showroom or exhibition floor are glassy models that wrap themselves around cars in impossible body angles. So, post-reform India has also been The Great Automobile Experience ? not just for the consumer forever looking to upgrade his ?auto caste', but for society at large. It has redefined the sharing of urban spaces: Those with cars control the public space, with the backing of the state. Yet, after two decades of our love affair with cars, society and government have been unmindful of its effects on the environment and energy consumption. ROAD TO NOWHERE Let's begin with social attitudes. It is remarkable how our main city roads are cluttered with cars right through the day, yet people driving cars complain about the worsening traffic, as though an extraterrestrial hand or some inherent tendency towards chaos were the cause. And, those sweating it out in buses cannot wait to buy their Nano or Alto on easy instalments! Some thousand new cars hit the roads of Bangalore or Delhi each day, yet the government or society isn't alarmed. Roads are widened, and trees, pavements, shops, houses and pedestrian paths make way for cars ? and more cars. This seems like the normal thing to do, and is, in fact, regarded as a sign of good governance. When this space runs out, and it does very soon, there are flyovers and elevated expressways. Then, driving becomes pleasure, a cruise where no cows or slum-dwellers (who are below the expressway) can intervene. Distance is measured in minutes, not kilometres. So, when the road is great, you could be just ?30 minutes away from the city centre?, even if you are 30 km away. This promise of a silken smooth drive raises valuations of properties in distant suburbs. It also means that for some people, the cost of fuel does not matter much. If this is what ?urban infrastructure? is all about, we are on a road to nowhere. COMATOSE GOVERNMENT The government is unperturbed, even as cars are rendering our cities dysfunctional by the day. Politicians and bureaucrats are sanguine about the emergence of India as an auto production and export hub. They wear a satisfied look, of presiding over a country that has ?arrived', when they visit auto factories and expos. The Draft Approach Paper to the Twelfth Plan affirms this sense of unconcern. Its chapters on energy and transport merely talk about creating a mass rapid transit system in cities, without even a whisper on the distortions caused by the auto boom. Programmes like the JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana have nothing critical to say about urban infrastructure as it is currently conceived. It's obvious that no one wants to take on the auto lobby. It has become a barometer of industrial activity; such is its grip on the minds of policymakers. At a broader level, the document seems to generally look upon rapid urbanisation as an inevitable and desirable consequence of high growth (in itself, a problematic notion), without saying anything on how urbanisation can deepen our energy problems. It could have observed that by promoting expressways and cars, the government and banks are encouraging energy inefficiency, not just through higher direct consumption of petrol and, worse still, diesel, but also through needless use of primary energy to make steel, cement and tar for flyovers, and longer and wider roads. India's supposed ?right to grow', consume energy, and spew carbon compounds seems a specious argument in the context of the transport sector. Transport accounts for approximately 11 per cent of our energy use, but this is likely to increase rapidly if we are to continue with our present ways. ANOTHER APPROACH How do we break out of the present combination of shoddy thinking and dubious intent? A cosmetic approach of insisting on fuel-efficient vehicles is to evade the basic problem ? too many cars on the road. That buses and trains are more energy-efficient is a no-brainer. But to ensure that they ? along with the much-maligned and energy-efficient auto-rickshaw ? get a lion's share of the road space, there must be policies in place to limit use of cars. Cars should be heavily taxed, more so diesel ones. Banks should go easy on car loans as part of long-term energy and environment management. Business and central districts in a city should ramp up their parking rates, as in places like London. And, we should ensure that our cities don't grow too large. The ideal city is one where we can cycle from one place to another, like some of the prettier European towns. The aesthetics of such an existence would outdo that conjured up for us by auto design gurus. By the way, how come the cyclist does not figure in our energy and transport planning? -- *Dr. Sarath Guttikunda* Founder and Analyst, UrbanEmissions.Info (New Delhi, India) Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute (Reno, USA) *Tel +91-9891315946 | http://www.urbanemissions.info* *http://www.dri.edu/sarath-guttikunda* From datar.ashok at gmail.com Mon Jan 9 02:14:05 2012 From: datar.ashok at gmail.com (ashok datar) Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 22:44:05 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Re: India's blind love for cars (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: this is brilliant. It is the business of auto industry to promote the sales of cars by means fair and foul . but that does not mean govt should go all out to support, encourage and hugely subsidize their use inspite of the fact they promote congestion, pollution and inequity in fact, encouraging more sales of automobilies or not even debiting the external costs such as congestion and pollution and energy waste is akin to subsidizing drugs , smoking and alcohol some min sharam , at least avoiding congestion which hurts even the automobile users great piece focussing in a sharp manner ashok datar On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 5:14 PM, Sarath Guttikunda wrote: > The Hindu, January 6th, 2012 > *India's blind love for cars > * > > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true > > *The energy and environmental effects of too many automobiles have not been > addressed.* > * * > * * > * * > > The Auto Expo reminds us that it is hard to imagine an urban middle-class > nuclear family without a car. It establishes their middle class identity, > and demarcates them from the press of the masses in crowded trains and > buses. Cars seem safe, comfortable and ? what holds the key to the > middle-class psyche ? dignified. > > The Hamara Bajaj family of four miraculously perched on a scooter would > earlier evoke an indulgent smile; now, in an age of double-income families > and car loans, it is a horror to be avoided for its risks and its sheer > gracelessness. A family with an entry-level car like Nano or Alto, like > Hamara Bajaj in the pre-reform days, is indisputably middle-class in the > eyes of society. > > Cars are about both physical and social mobility; but there is also a caste > system within the world of cars that is becoming intricate by the day. So, > even within a small car segment, there are players who promote style and > the ?sensuous experience' of driving over the convenience of having a car. > > These subjective features, or ?auto aesthetics' if you like, become more > dominant as one goes up the price ladder. Hence, designers are crucial to > the industry for their ability to lure the consumer. Helping them out on > the showroom or exhibition floor are glassy models that wrap themselves > around cars in impossible body angles. > > So, post-reform India has also been The Great Automobile Experience ? not > just for the consumer forever looking to upgrade his ?auto caste', but for > society at large. It has redefined the sharing of urban spaces: Those with > cars control the public space, with the backing of the state. Yet, after > two decades of our love affair with cars, society and government have been > unmindful of its effects on the environment and energy consumption. > ROAD TO NOWHERE > > Let's begin with social attitudes. It is remarkable how our main city roads > are cluttered with cars right through the day, yet people driving cars > complain about the worsening traffic, as though an extraterrestrial hand or > some inherent tendency towards chaos were the cause. And, those sweating it > out in buses cannot wait to buy their Nano or Alto on easy instalments! > > Some thousand new cars hit the roads of Bangalore or Delhi each day, yet > the government or society isn't alarmed. Roads are widened, and trees, > pavements, shops, houses and pedestrian paths make way for cars ? and more > cars. This seems like the normal thing to do, and is, in fact, regarded as > a sign of good governance. When this space runs out, and it does very soon, > there are flyovers and elevated expressways. > > Then, driving becomes pleasure, a cruise where no cows or slum-dwellers > (who are below the expressway) can intervene. Distance is measured in > minutes, not kilometres. So, when the road is great, you could be just ?30 > minutes away from the city centre?, even if you are 30 km away. This > promise of a silken smooth drive raises valuations of properties in distant > suburbs. It also means that for some people, the cost of fuel does not > matter much. If this is what ?urban infrastructure? is all about, we are on > a road to nowhere. > COMATOSE GOVERNMENT > > The government is unperturbed, even as cars are rendering our cities > dysfunctional by the day. Politicians and bureaucrats are sanguine about > the emergence of India as an auto production and export hub. They wear a > satisfied look, of presiding over a country that has ?arrived', when they > visit auto factories and expos. The Draft Approach Paper to the Twelfth > Plan affirms this sense of unconcern. Its chapters on energy and transport > merely talk about creating a mass rapid transit system in cities, without > even a whisper on the distortions caused by the auto boom. Programmes like > the JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana have nothing critical to say about urban > infrastructure as it is currently conceived. It's obvious that no one wants > to take on the auto lobby. It has become a barometer of industrial > activity; such is its grip on the minds of policymakers. > > At a broader level, the document seems to generally look upon rapid > urbanisation as an inevitable and desirable consequence of high growth (in > itself, a problematic notion), without saying anything on how urbanisation > can deepen our energy problems. It could have observed that by promoting > expressways and cars, the government and banks are encouraging energy > inefficiency, not just through higher direct consumption of petrol and, > worse still, diesel, but also through needless use of primary energy to > make steel, cement and tar for flyovers, and longer and wider roads. > > India's supposed ?right to grow', consume energy, and spew carbon compounds > seems a specious argument in the context of the transport sector. Transport > accounts for approximately 11 per cent of our energy use, but this is > likely to increase rapidly if we are to continue with our present ways. > ANOTHER APPROACH > > How do we break out of the present combination of shoddy thinking and > dubious intent? A cosmetic approach of insisting on fuel-efficient vehicles > is to evade the basic problem ? too many cars on the road. That buses and > trains are more energy-efficient is a no-brainer. But to ensure that they ? > along with the much-maligned and energy-efficient auto-rickshaw ? get a > lion's share of the road space, there must be policies in place to limit > use of cars. Cars should be heavily taxed, more so diesel ones. Banks > should go easy on car loans as part of long-term energy and environment > management. Business and central districts in a city should ramp up their > parking rates, as in places like London. > > And, we should ensure that our cities don't grow too large. The ideal city > is one where we can cycle from one place to another, like some of the > prettier European towns. The aesthetics of such an existence would outdo > that conjured up for us by auto design gurus. By the way, how come the > cyclist does not figure in our energy and transport planning? > > -- > *Dr. Sarath Guttikunda* > Founder and Analyst, UrbanEmissions.Info (New Delhi, India) > Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute (Reno, > USA) > *Tel +91-9891315946 | http://www.urbanemissions.info* > *http://www.dri.edu/sarath-guttikunda* > -------------------------------------------------------- > To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit > http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, > equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries > (the 'Global South'). > -- Ashok R.Datar Mumbai Environmental Social Network 20 Madhavi, Makarand Society, S.V.S.Marg, Mahim-400 016 98676 65107/0222 444 9212 see our website : www.mesn.org * I hear, then I forget. I see, then I remember. I do, then I understand.* From cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org Mon Jan 9 10:56:03 2012 From: cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org (Cornie Huizenga) Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 09:56:03 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: India's blind love for cars (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks for sharing - Did you see the keywords used by the Hindu. Keywords: Auto Expo , Cars , urban middle-class , nuclear family , car loans , social mobility , Narrow roads , traffic jam Interesting to see the sequence which ends with narrow roads - traffic jam. It appears as if the person doing the key words is somehow caught in the same blind love as is being described in the article. It is interesting to see that the Indian press is coming up with an increasing number of opinion pieces questioning the sustainability of the current motorization trends in Indian cities. But it seems that the emphasis is still very much on (re)stating the problem. Only towards the end a brief outline is given of what is called: "another approach":* there must be policies in place to limit use of cars. Cars should be heavily taxed, more so diesel ones. Banks should go easy on car loans as part of long-term energy and environment management. Business and central districts in a city should ramp up their parking rates, as in places like London.And, we should ensure that our cities don't grow too large. The ideal city is one where we can cycle from one place to another, like some of the prettier European towns. The aesthetics of such an existence would outdo that conjured up for us by auto design gurus. By the way, how come the cyclist does not figure in our energy and transport planning?* If we would like to see *another approach *towards motorization in India I think that we need to do more than restating the problem. We need to present the decision makers with more detailed alternative approaches on how India and Indian cities can develop economically and socially without sacrificing the city to the car. Singapore and Shanghai generally are seen as two of the more successful cities in terms of economic development strategy. Both cities are considered examples of modern urban development. Yet, these are the two cities which against the then current thinking 15 years ago imposed severe restrictions on the growth of private motorization. Generally, the more attractive cities are the ones with a high modal split in favor of public transport, walking and cycling. What it boils down to according to me is a discussion on whether government has a duty to provide each citizen with the access to goods and services in support of economic and social advancement or whether it needs to provide citizens with the required road space to use their own cars. Or, can we restrict the freedom of choice when it comes to the way in which people move. I think that it is by now generally accepted that government through planning ordinances can restrict the freedom of people to live in nice New Delhi bungalow style houses (although that is what the majority of people would want) and impose density requirements which result in the building of apartment complexes. Similarly, while 30 years ago rules and regulations were in favor of those who wanted to smoke, there is now general acceptance that the rights on the non-smokers should prevail over those of the smokers. Environmental and developmental organizations have a joint task to educate decision makers on the lack of sustainability of current motorization. They also have a joint obligation to explain to decision makers what the alternative should be. Part of this is a discussion with citizens on what they can and can not expect as part of the growth and development of their cities. Cornie On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 7:44 PM, Sarath Guttikunda wrote: > The Hindu, January 6th, 2012 > *India's blind love for cars > * > > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true > > *The energy and environmental effects of too many automobiles have not been > addressed.* > * * > * * > * * > > The Auto Expo reminds us that it is hard to imagine an urban middle-class > nuclear family without a car. It establishes their middle class identity, > and demarcates them from the press of the masses in crowded trains and > buses. Cars seem safe, comfortable and ? what holds the key to the > middle-class psyche ? dignified. > > The Hamara Bajaj family of four miraculously perched on a scooter would > earlier evoke an indulgent smile; now, in an age of double-income families > and car loans, it is a horror to be avoided for its risks and its sheer > gracelessness. A family with an entry-level car like Nano or Alto, like > Hamara Bajaj in the pre-reform days, is indisputably middle-class in the > eyes of society. > > Cars are about both physical and social mobility; but there is also a caste > system within the world of cars that is becoming intricate by the day. So, > even within a small car segment, there are players who promote style and > the ?sensuous experience' of driving over the convenience of having a car. > > These subjective features, or ?auto aesthetics' if you like, become more > dominant as one goes up the price ladder. Hence, designers are crucial to > the industry for their ability to lure the consumer. Helping them out on > the showroom or exhibition floor are glassy models that wrap themselves > around cars in impossible body angles. > > So, post-reform India has also been The Great Automobile Experience ? not > just for the consumer forever looking to upgrade his ?auto caste', but for > society at large. It has redefined the sharing of urban spaces: Those with > cars control the public space, with the backing of the state. Yet, after > two decades of our love affair with cars, society and government have been > unmindful of its effects on the environment and energy consumption. > ROAD TO NOWHERE > > Let's begin with social attitudes. It is remarkable how our main city roads > are cluttered with cars right through the day, yet people driving cars > complain about the worsening traffic, as though an extraterrestrial hand or > some inherent tendency towards chaos were the cause. And, those sweating it > out in buses cannot wait to buy their Nano or Alto on easy instalments! > > Some thousand new cars hit the roads of Bangalore or Delhi each day, yet > the government or society isn't alarmed. Roads are widened, and trees, > pavements, shops, houses and pedestrian paths make way for cars ? and more > cars. This seems like the normal thing to do, and is, in fact, regarded as > a sign of good governance. When this space runs out, and it does very soon, > there are flyovers and elevated expressways. > > Then, driving becomes pleasure, a cruise where no cows or slum-dwellers > (who are below the expressway) can intervene. Distance is measured in > minutes, not kilometres. So, when the road is great, you could be just ?30 > minutes away from the city centre?, even if you are 30 km away. This > promise of a silken smooth drive raises valuations of properties in distant > suburbs. It also means that for some people, the cost of fuel does not > matter much. If this is what ?urban infrastructure? is all about, we are on > a road to nowhere. > COMATOSE GOVERNMENT > > The government is unperturbed, even as cars are rendering our cities > dysfunctional by the day. Politicians and bureaucrats are sanguine about > the emergence of India as an auto production and export hub. They wear a > satisfied look, of presiding over a country that has ?arrived', when they > visit auto factories and expos. The Draft Approach Paper to the Twelfth > Plan affirms this sense of unconcern. Its chapters on energy and transport > merely talk about creating a mass rapid transit system in cities, without > even a whisper on the distortions caused by the auto boom. Programmes like > the JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana have nothing critical to say about urban > infrastructure as it is currently conceived. It's obvious that no one wants > to take on the auto lobby. It has become a barometer of industrial > activity; such is its grip on the minds of policymakers. > > At a broader level, the document seems to generally look upon rapid > urbanisation as an inevitable and desirable consequence of high growth (in > itself, a problematic notion), without saying anything on how urbanisation > can deepen our energy problems. It could have observed that by promoting > expressways and cars, the government and banks are encouraging energy > inefficiency, not just through higher direct consumption of petrol and, > worse still, diesel, but also through needless use of primary energy to > make steel, cement and tar for flyovers, and longer and wider roads. > > India's supposed ?right to grow', consume energy, and spew carbon compounds > seems a specious argument in the context of the transport sector. Transport > accounts for approximately 11 per cent of our energy use, but this is > likely to increase rapidly if we are to continue with our present ways. > ANOTHER APPROACH > > How do we break out of the present combination of shoddy thinking and > dubious intent? A cosmetic approach of insisting on fuel-efficient vehicles > is to evade the basic problem ? too many cars on the road. That buses and > trains are more energy-efficient is a no-brainer. But to ensure that they ? > along with the much-maligned and energy-efficient auto-rickshaw ? get a > lion's share of the road space, there must be policies in place to limit > use of cars. Cars should be heavily taxed, more so diesel ones. Banks > should go easy on car loans as part of long-term energy and environment > management. Business and central districts in a city should ramp up their > parking rates, as in places like London. > > And, we should ensure that our cities don't grow too large. The ideal city > is one where we can cycle from one place to another, like some of the > prettier European towns. The aesthetics of such an existence would outdo > that conjured up for us by auto design gurus. By the way, how come the > cyclist does not figure in our energy and transport planning? > > -- > *Dr. Sarath Guttikunda* > Founder and Analyst, UrbanEmissions.Info (New Delhi, India) > Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute (Reno, > USA) > *Tel +91-9891315946 | http://www.urbanemissions.info* > *http://www.dri.edu/sarath-guttikunda* > -------------------------------------------------------- > To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit > http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, > equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries > (the 'Global South'). > -- Cornie Huizenga Joint Convener Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport Mobile: +86 13901949332 cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org www.slocat.net From sguttikunda at gmail.com Mon Jan 9 11:42:18 2012 From: sguttikunda at gmail.com (Sarath Guttikunda) Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 08:12:18 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Re: India's blind love for cars (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Cornie and Co., To quote Sujit Patwardhan - *"Most of our newspapers write more often about the new big flyover built by the city presuming that traffic congestion will disappear once the flyover is up and running. Actually the opposite happens and the Hindu should be congratulated for exposing this myth." * Following the Auto-Expos, we saw a number of articles published on the new car models, interviews with the likes of Ratan Tata, and interviews with the celebrities promoting various brands, but only 1 or 2 talked about the buses at the show. In the middle of all these articles, this piece stands out for raising an important issue, though for us, it looks like they are merely restating the problem. >From the article - "*generally look upon rapid urbanisation as an inevitable and desirable consequence of high growth (in itself, a problematic notion), without saying anything on how urbanisation can deepen our energy problems. It could have observed that by promoting expressways and cars, the government and banks are encouraging energy inefficiency, not just through higher direct consumption of petrol and, worse still, diesel, but also through needless use of primary energy to make steel, cement and tar for flyovers, and longer and wider roads*." This is much better than an article we saw in September, following a presentation by Joshua Apte (from University of Berkeley) on the exposure rates for passengers traveling in 3-wheelers. The title for that piece was "AC Cars May Keep You Fit" (Times of India) http://urbanemissions.blogspot.com/2011/09/exposure-to-particulate-pollution-in.html With regards, Sarath -- *Dr. Sarath Guttikunda* Founder and Analyst, UrbanEmissions.Info (New Delhi, India) Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute (Reno, USA) *Tel +91-9891315946 | http://www.urbanemissions.info* *http://www.dri.edu/sarath-guttikunda* On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 7:26 AM, Cornie Huizenga < cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org> wrote: > > Thanks for sharing - Did you see the keywords used by the Hindu. > > Keywords: Auto Expo > , Cars > , urban middle-class > , nuclear family > , car loans > , social mobility > , Narrow roads > , traffic jam > > Interesting to see the sequence which ends with narrow roads - traffic > jam. It appears as if the person doing the key words is somehow caught in > the same blind love as is being described in the article. > > It is interesting to see that the Indian press is coming up with an > increasing number of opinion pieces questioning the sustainability of the > current motorization trends in Indian cities. But it seems that the > emphasis is still very much on (re)stating the problem. Only towards the > end a brief outline is given of what is called: "another approach":*there must be policies in place to limit use of cars. Cars should be > heavily taxed, more so diesel ones. Banks should go easy on car loans as > part of long-term energy and environment management. Business and central > districts in a city should ramp up their parking rates, as in places like > London.And, we should ensure that our cities don't grow too large. The > ideal city is one where we can cycle from one place to another, like some > of the prettier European towns. The aesthetics of such an existence would > outdo that conjured up for us by auto design gurus. By the way, how come > the cyclist does not figure in our energy and transport planning?* > > If we would like to see *another approach *towards motorization in India > I think that we need to do more than restating the problem. We need to > present the decision makers with more detailed alternative approaches on > how India and Indian cities can develop economically and socially without > sacrificing the city to the car. Singapore and Shanghai generally are seen > as two of the more successful cities in terms of economic development > strategy. Both cities are considered examples of modern urban development. > Yet, these are the two cities which against the then current thinking 15 > years ago imposed severe restrictions on the growth of private > motorization. > > Generally, the more attractive cities are the ones with a high modal split > in favor of public transport, walking and cycling. > > What it boils down to according to me is a discussion on whether > government has a duty to provide each citizen with the access to goods and > services in support of economic and social advancement or whether it needs > to provide citizens with the required road space to use their own cars. Or, > can we restrict the freedom of choice when it comes to the way in which > people move. > > I think that it is by now generally accepted that government through > planning ordinances can restrict the freedom of people to live in nice New > Delhi bungalow style houses (although that is what the majority of people > would want) and impose density requirements which result in the building of > apartment complexes. Similarly, while 30 years ago rules and regulations > were in favor of those who wanted to smoke, there is now general acceptance > that the rights on the non-smokers should prevail over those of the > smokers. > > Environmental and developmental organizations have a joint task to educate > decision makers on the lack of sustainability of current motorization. They > also have a joint obligation to explain to decision makers what the > alternative should be. Part of this is a discussion with citizens on what > they can and can not expect as part of the growth and development of their > cities. > > Cornie > > -- > Cornie Huizenga > Joint Convener > Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport > Mobile: +86 13901949332 > cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org > www.slocat.net > From patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com Mon Jan 9 14:37:19 2012 From: patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com (Sujit Patwardhan) Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 11:07:19 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Re: India's blind love for cars (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: 9 January 2012 Sharath, Thanks for pointing this out and for showing us the blog. Often statements made by well meaning people are misquoted by our media. I remember when Lee Schipper had made a statement that there are too many cars on Pune's narrow roads, the Indian Express promptly wrote "Expert recommends wider roads in Pune". Lee was livid but his clarification was never published. - Sujit On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 8:12 AM, Sarath Guttikunda wrote: > Dear Cornie and Co., > > To quote Sujit Patwardhan - *"Most of our newspapers write more often > about the new big flyover built by the city presuming that traffic > congestion will disappear once the flyover is up and running. Actually the > opposite happens and the Hindu should be congratulated for exposing this > myth." > * > > Following the Auto-Expos, we saw a number of articles published on the new > car models, interviews with the likes of Ratan Tata, and interviews with > the celebrities promoting various brands, but only 1 or 2 talked about the > buses at the show. In the middle of all these articles, this piece stands > out for raising an important issue, though for us, it looks like they are > merely restating the problem. > > >From the article - "*generally look upon rapid urbanisation as an > inevitable and desirable consequence of high growth (in itself, a > problematic notion), without saying anything on how urbanisation can deepen > our energy problems. It could have observed that by promoting expressways > and cars, the government and banks are encouraging energy inefficiency, not > just through higher direct consumption of petrol and, worse still, diesel, > but also through needless use of primary energy to make steel, cement and > tar for flyovers, and longer and wider roads*." > > This is much better than an article we saw in September, following a > presentation by Joshua Apte (from University of Berkeley) on the exposure > rates for passengers traveling in 3-wheelers. The title for that piece was > "AC Cars May Keep You Fit" (Times of India) > > http://urbanemissions.blogspot.com/2011/09/exposure-to-particulate-pollution-in.html > > With regards, > Sarath > > -- > *Dr. Sarath Guttikunda* > Founder and Analyst, UrbanEmissions.Info (New Delhi, India) > Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute (Reno, > USA) > *Tel +91-9891315946 | http://www.urbanemissions.info* > *http://www.dri.edu/sarath-guttikunda* > > > > On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 7:26 AM, Cornie Huizenga < > cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org> wrote: > > > > > Thanks for sharing - Did you see the keywords used by the Hindu. > > > > Keywords: Auto Expo< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > , Cars< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > , urban middle-class< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > , nuclear family< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > , car loans< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > , social mobility< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > , Narrow roads< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > , traffic jam< > http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article2780985.ece?homepage=true# > > > > > > Interesting to see the sequence which ends with narrow roads - traffic > > jam. It appears as if the person doing the key words is somehow caught > in > > the same blind love as is being described in the article. > > > > It is interesting to see that the Indian press is coming up with an > > increasing number of opinion pieces questioning the sustainability of the > > current motorization trends in Indian cities. But it seems that the > > emphasis is still very much on (re)stating the problem. Only towards the > > end a brief outline is given of what is called: "another > approach":*there must be policies in place to limit use of cars. Cars > should be > > heavily taxed, more so diesel ones. Banks should go easy on car loans as > > part of long-term energy and environment management. Business and central > > districts in a city should ramp up their parking rates, as in places like > > London.And, we should ensure that our cities don't grow too large. The > > ideal city is one where we can cycle from one place to another, like some > > of the prettier European towns. The aesthetics of such an existence would > > outdo that conjured up for us by auto design gurus. By the way, how come > > the cyclist does not figure in our energy and transport planning?* > > > > If we would like to see *another approach *towards motorization in India > > I think that we need to do more than restating the problem. We need to > > present the decision makers with more detailed alternative approaches on > > how India and Indian cities can develop economically and socially without > > sacrificing the city to the car. Singapore and Shanghai generally are > seen > > as two of the more successful cities in terms of economic development > > strategy. Both cities are considered examples of modern urban > development. > > Yet, these are the two cities which against the then current thinking 15 > > years ago imposed severe restrictions on the growth of private > > motorization. > > > > Generally, the more attractive cities are the ones with a high modal > split > > in favor of public transport, walking and cycling. > > > > What it boils down to according to me is a discussion on whether > > government has a duty to provide each citizen with the access to goods > and > > services in support of economic and social advancement or whether it > needs > > to provide citizens with the required road space to use their own cars. > Or, > > can we restrict the freedom of choice when it comes to the way in which > > people move. > > > > I think that it is by now generally accepted that government through > > planning ordinances can restrict the freedom of people to live in nice > New > > Delhi bungalow style houses (although that is what the majority of people > > would want) and impose density requirements which result in the building > of > > apartment complexes. Similarly, while 30 years ago rules and regulations > > were in favor of those who wanted to smoke, there is now general > acceptance > > that the rights on the non-smokers should prevail over those of the > > smokers. > > > > Environmental and developmental organizations have a joint task to > educate > > decision makers on the lack of sustainability of current motorization. > They > > also have a joint obligation to explain to decision makers what the > > alternative should be. Part of this is a discussion with citizens on > what > > they can and can not expect as part of the growth and development of > their > > cities. > > > > Cornie > > > > -- > > Cornie Huizenga > > Joint Convener > > Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport > > Mobile: +86 13901949332 > > cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org > > www.slocat.net > > > -------------------------------------------------------- > To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit > http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, > equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries > (the 'Global South'). > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. * - J. Krishnamurti ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sujit Patwardhan patwardhan.sujit@gmail.com sujit@parisar.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yamuna, ICS Colony, Ganeshkhind Road, Pune 411 007, India Tel: +91 20 25537955 Cell: +91 98220 26627 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blog: http://motif.posterous.com/ Parisar: www.parisar.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From datar.ashok at gmail.com Tue Jan 10 17:57:09 2012 From: datar.ashok at gmail.com (ashok datar) Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:27:09 +0530 Subject: [sustran] (no subject) Message-ID: It is important that we know what is the taxation, reg fee, license fee etc . all put together on purchase of cars what I know is that in Singapore , it is 120% duty on purchase In addition , u have to buy number plate from the existing user who will sell it to make money by surrendering his right to won a car I understand that it varies between $3000 to $4000 In addition there is an annual tax and then there are parking charges and congestion pricing as u pass crowded roads In Sri Lanka, they have lowest import duty of 50% on hybrid cars such as Prius and very high duty on large diesel cars at 250% and others come in between these two . This enourages people to buy low emission cars similarly, it would be help to know what is the total pricing for a car in china that govt authorities collect one time as well as every year I understand that reg fee in Shanghai is 55% of purchase value , In Mumbai it is 7% for individuals and for corporate buyers it is 11% one time at the time of purchase -- Ashok R.Datar Mumbai Environmental Social Network 20 Madhavi, Makarand Society, S.V.S.Marg, Mahim-400 016 98676 65107/0222 444 9212 see our website : www.mesn.org * I hear, then I forget. I see, then I remember. I do, then I understand.* From pooja.sanghani at itdp.org Tue Jan 10 18:34:53 2012 From: pooja.sanghani at itdp.org (Pooja Sanghani) Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:04:53 +0530 Subject: [sustran] ITDP India releases manual on 'Better Streets, Better Cities' In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi group, I'm pleased to share ITDP India's latest publication *'**Better Streets, Better Cities'*, a guide to designing streets in urban India. The guide is available for download at *www.itdp.org/betterstreets*. Comments and suggestions can be submitted to india@itdp.org. Please feel free to share. More about the guide below. Current street design practice in India is often based on a vision of high-speed motorized mobility that does not take into account the variety and types of activities that actually take place in Indian streets. While streets are often designed from the centerline outward, Better Streets, Better Cities urges planners to explore an alternate approach that prioritizes the needs of pedestrians and cyclists. The guide begins with a discussion of sixteen street elements, such as footpaths, cycle tracks, medians, and spaces for street vending, covering the importance of each element as well as implementation challenges and design criteria. While existing NMT infrastructure in Indian cities is implemented with good intent, design shortcomings resulting from a failure to account for the practical needs of pedestrians and cyclists often mean that these facilities remain unused. The guide indicates how these pitfalls can be avoided. Next is a library of design templates for various rights-of-way, followed by sample intersections. The final section describes the process of street design?from data collection, surveys, and analysis to the preparation of final plans?using a real-world example of an urban intersection to explain methodological issues. Twitter: http://twitter.com/itdpindia Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itdpindia Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/itdpindia Thanks, -- Pooja Sanghani (Ms.) | Program Officer, Our Cities Ourselves Institute for Transportation & Development Policy 301, Paritosh, near Darpana Academy, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad, India Office +91 79 40069227 | Mobile +91 9879897959 | www.itdp.org *Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide* From edelman at greenidea.eu Tue Jan 10 20:52:09 2012 From: edelman at greenidea.eu (Todd Edelman) Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:52:09 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Smuggling of China Made Bicycles Kills Pakistan Industry Message-ID: <4F0C2669.2020109@greenidea.eu> Smuggling of China Made Bicycles Kills Pakistan Industry http://www.bike-eu.com/news/smuggling-of-china-made-bicycles-kills-pakistan-industry-5553.html *ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Pakistani bicycle production is under heavy pressure facing a huge overcapacity. In 2011 the total production declined by more than 25% to 284,865 units related to 2010. In 2006 the Pakistani bicycle industry still had an output of 449,400 units while the total capacity is 1.45 million bicycles per year.* The downturn in bicycle production is a result of a trend to use more motorcycles instead of bicycles in Pakistan. According to local retailers people prefer light motorcycle over bicycles, even for a short distance. As claimed by the retailers the mass smuggling of very cheap Chinese bicycles is another reason for the decline in production. They urged the government to take appropriate measures to save the indigenous bicycle industry. Although Pakistan is still regarded an important manufacturer of bicycles the usage per capita is very low as compared to countries like India and China. Only 20 years ago it was common to have at least one bicycle in every household. At that time children used bicycles for school going, and for the purpose of distributing al sorts of products. In the last decade people shifted to motorcycles. This resulted in a sharp decrease in demand of bicycles across the country and ultimately the production of the bicycles dropped sharply, especially during the last decade. -- Todd Edelman Green Idea Factory / SLOWFactory Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081 edelman@greenidea.eu www.greenidea.eu Skype: toddedelman https://www.facebook.com/Iamtoddedelman http://twitter.com/toddedelman http://de.linkedin.com/in/toddedelman Urbanstr. 45 10967 Berlin Germany From pooja.sanghani at itdp.org Wed Jan 11 15:41:24 2012 From: pooja.sanghani at itdp.org (Pooja Sanghani) Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:11:24 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Re: ITDP India releases manual on 'Better Streets, Better Cities' In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The link doesn't work in some cases as it was formatted to bold style. Here's the link- www.itdp.org/betterstreets Best, On 10 January 2012 15:04, Pooja Sanghani wrote: > Hi group, > I'm pleased to share ITDP India's latest publication *'**Better Streets, > Better Cities'*, a guide to designing streets in urban India. The guide > is available for download at *www.itdp.org/betterstreets*. Comments and > suggestions can be submitted to india@itdp.org. Please feel free to share. > More about the guide below. > > Current street design practice in India is often based on a vision of > high-speed motorized mobility that does not take into account the variety > and types of activities that actually take place in Indian streets. While > streets are often designed from the centerline outward, Better Streets, > Better Cities urges planners to explore an alternate approach that > prioritizes the needs of pedestrians and cyclists. > > The guide begins with a discussion of sixteen street elements, such as > footpaths, cycle tracks, medians, and spaces for street vending, covering > the importance of each element as well as implementation challenges and > design criteria. While existing NMT infrastructure in Indian cities is > implemented with good intent, design shortcomings resulting from a failure > to account for the practical needs of pedestrians and cyclists often mean > that these facilities remain unused. The guide indicates how these pitfalls > can be avoided. > > Next is a library of design templates for various rights-of-way, followed > by sample intersections. The final section describes the process of street > design?from data collection, surveys, and analysis to the preparation of > final plans?using a real-world example of an urban intersection to explain > methodological issues. > Twitter: http://twitter.com/itdpindia > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itdpindia > Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/itdpindia > > Thanks, > -- > Pooja Sanghani (Ms.) | Program Officer, Our Cities Ourselves > Institute for Transportation & Development Policy > 301, Paritosh, near Darpana Academy, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad, India > Office +91 79 40069227 | Mobile +91 9879897959 | www.itdp.org > > *Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide* > > -- Pooja Sanghani (Ms.) | Program Officer, Our Cities Ourselves Institute for Transportation & Development Policy 301, Paritosh, near Darpana Academy, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad, India Office +91 79 40069227 | Mobile +91 9879897959 | www.itdp.org *Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide* From sutp at sutp.org Fri Jan 13 16:19:17 2012 From: sutp at sutp.org (sutp at sutp.org) Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:19:17 +0000 Subject: [sustran] GIZ-SUTP Newsletter Issue 06/11 - November-December, 2011 Message-ID: GIZ-SUTP Newsletter Issue 06/11 - November-December, 2011 ***** A PDF version of this newsletter can be downloaded from http://www.sutp.org/newsletters/NL-SUTP-NOV-DEC-11.pdf ***** ***** A html version of this newsletter can be downloaded from http://www.sutp.org/newsletters/NL-SUTP-NOV-DEC-11.html ***** In this Edition: * GIZ-SUTP concludes 2011 with 90 courses and 3500 trained professionals * GIZ-SUTP at the 6th Regional EST Forum and Urban Mobility India 2011 * Pre-Conference Master Class by GIZ at the Urban Transport World Asia 2011 Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia * SUTIP-Indonesia with the Mayor of Solo at the Car-free Day * Changing Course in Urban Transport - An Illustrated Guide * GIZ Technical Document and EST paper on "Rising Automobile Dependency: How to Break the Trend?" * Technical Document titled ?Measuring Public Transport Performance - Lessons for Developing Cities" ******************* News from the Project ******************* GIZ-SUTP concludes 2011 with 90 courses and 3500 trained professionals >From the year 2003 till December 2011, GIZ-SUTP delivered 90 courses on various topics of sustainable urban transport. Varying in duration (1-10 days), these courses have managed to capture the width and depth of urban transport issues (from broad overviews to specifics on technical issues). GIZ has trained till date over 3500 participants from all over the world, which include future trainers in India and China. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2831 ---- GIZ-SUTP at the 6th Regional EST Forum and Urban Mobility India 2011 The GIZ-SUTP team participated in various sessions of the 6th Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Forum of the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) and the 4th Annual Urban Mobility Conference cum Exhibition-2011, held in parallel in New Delhi from 3-6 December 2011.The event drew policymakers, experts, practitioners, academia and researchers working in the urban transport sector from various parts of the world. GIZ used this opportunity to release some of its new publications on sustainable urban transport and conduct a training course on Public Bicycle Schemes. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2828 ---- One-day Training course on Implementing Public Bike Share Systems On the 3rd December, GIZ-SUTP, together with ITDP and UNCRD, organized a one-day training course on Public Bicycle Sharing Schemes, as a pre-event to the Urban Mobility India 2011 Conference and the 6th Regional EST Forum. The course attracted over 30 participants from 4 countries, most of who were involved with the setting up and implementation of public bicycle schemes in their cities. The course was led by Dr. Lloyd Wright from ADB and Mr. Bradley Schroeder from ITDP. The trainers were supported by Mr. Christopher Kost, ITDP, and Mr. Santhosh Kodukula, GIZ-SUTP. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2816 ---- Transportation Demand Management Course in Bogot? GIZ-SUTP, in cooperation with Clean Air Institute, Bogot? Chamber of Commerce and with support from Slow Research, co-organized a course on Transportation Demand Management (TDM) from December 5-6, 2011 in Bogot?, Colombia. The 2-day course was taught by international experts and practitioners, who explained the key components of a TDM strategy and how to implement them. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2808 ---- GIZ-SUTP at the Bonn Symposium 2011 >From December 1-2, 2011, GIZ-SUTP contributed to the Bonn Symposium 2011 on "Mobility, Development, Culture", by delivering two workshops (?Urban Transport Challenges in Developing Cities? and a workshop on transport and health). A panel discussion on strategies to improve and implement sustainable urban transport in cities was also held. The Symposium had 50 participants from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2829 ---- Pre-Conference Master Class by GIZ at the Urban Transport World Asia 2011 Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia This workshop provided a group of almost 20 consultants, mayors, developers and urban planners, with insights into the concepts of Transportation Demand Management (TDM), Transit-oriented Development (TOD) and Traffic Impact Control (TIC). The participants were informed of the practical and plausible measures that can be implemented in their cities without having excessive infrastructure requirements. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2807 ---- SUTIP-Indonesia with the Mayor of Solo at the Car-free Day Dr. Dino Teddyputra and Mr. Manfred Breithaupt from GIZ met Mr. Jokowi, the Mayor of the Indonesian city of Solo, on November 25th, 2011 for discussions on how Solo will be furthering its efforts to reform its bus transportation system. The following day was followed by a cycle tour with the Mayor to participate in Solo's Car-free Day event. This event takes place every Sunday morning on the city's 6 km long main road. Solo is one of the four cities GIZ's Urban Transport in Indonesia Project (GIZ-SUTIP) is supporting to implement sustainable urban transport reforms. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2821 ---- 30 years of successful German-Chinese cooperation >From October 19-21 2011, the Alumni conference between the GIZ and the Ministry of Transport of the People?s Republic of China took place in Beijing. Various speeches and three working groups were held to discuss the topic of ?Green logistics for a common, climate-friendly future?. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2815 ---- Ministry of Transport (Indonesia) field visit to Germany The German Federal Foreign Office sponsored an information tour for transport officials and decision-makers to Germany from November 6 -12, 2011. Among the participants was Dr. Elly Sinaga, Director Urban Transport of the Ministry of Transport, Indonesia. She was accompanied by Mr. Ullrich Fuhrke, Principal Advisor SUTIP and Mr. Manfred Breithaupt on a combined public transport and non-motorised transport trip through Berlin. Read more http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2809 ******************* Upcoming Events: ******************* 22.01.2011, Washington D.C, USA: Transportation Research Board (TRB) 91st Annual Meeting http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=552&lang=en 26.01.2011, Washington D.C, USA: Transforming Transportation 2012 http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=564&lang=en 07.02.2011, Brussels, Belgium: Towards low/zero-carbon urban mobility in Europe http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=591&lang=en 08.02.2011, Brussels, Belgium: INTERMODES http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=581&lang=en 12.02.2011, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Urban Transport Conference 2012 http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=582&lang=en 15.02.2011, Karlsruhe, Germany: IT-TRANS, IT Solutions for Public Transport http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=590&lang=en 17.02.2011, Hong Kong: 2012 International Conference on Traffic & Transportation Engineering http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=585&lang=en 27.02.2011, Sydney, Australia: Urban Transport World Australia 2012 http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56&func=details&did=583&lang=en For a complete list of events click here http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56 ******************* Publications of Interest ******************* 'Changing Course in Urban Transport - An Illustrated Guide' ?Cities in Asia should transform their transport systems to provide growing urban populations with greater mobility while ensuring a healthy and attractive urban environment?, says a new book published jointly by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The authors are Robin Hickman, Paul Fremer, Manfred Breithaupt and Sharad Saxena. The illustrated book ?Changing Course in Urban Transport- An Illustrated Guide? highlights the transport challenges in Asian cities, including the growing trend towards motorized transport ? a major factor behind the rise in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The publication, launched at the 6th Regional EST Forum in New Delhi in December 2011, showcases low-carbon transport from around the world, which, if replicated on a large scale, could make Asian cities greener and more liveable. Download here http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2825 ---- GIZ Technical Document and EST paper on "Rising Automobile Dependency: How to Break the Trend?" Developing cities are facing the crisis of increasing automobiles and thereby the consequences such as reduced air quality, road safety and economic loss. Citing the current conditions and drawing upon best practices from various cities, GIZ has produced this document as a background paper for the 6th Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Forum in Delhi during 4-6 December 2011. The document has also been published as the GIZ Technical Document #8. Authored by Mr. Santhosh Kodukula, the document is 50 pages long with examples from Zurich (Switzerland), Copenhagen (Denmark), Muenster and Freiburg (Germany) and Curitiba (Brazil). Download here http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2827 ---- Technical Document titled ?Measuring Public Transport Performance - Lessons for Developing Cities" How can we make public transport a more attractive and viable mode of travel? What do our riders expect from our services and how can we serve them better? How can we make our cities more sustainable by increasing the modal shares of public transport? What sort of indicators shall we develop to evaluate and benchmark our existing public transport systems? GIZ?s latest technical document #9, titled ?Measuring Public Transport Performance - Lessons for Developing Cities?, describes the role that performance measurement can play in public transportation planning and management, the need for developing cities to adopt performance evaluation and the steps for initiating this. The document, authored by Chhavi Dhingra, also presents examples of performance measurement from various cities across the world and their experiences. Download here http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2826 ---- GIZ publishes "Ecomobilidade para o Brasil" Document GIZ worked with 11 authors from Brazil and abroad to produce a 102-page document entitled "Ecomobilidade para o Brasil", published in November 2011. The document also has a preface from Luiz Carlos Bueno de Lima, National Secretary of Transport and Urban Mobility for the Brazilian Ministry of Cities. The goal of the document is to provide specific tools of ecomobility for Brazilian cities, with discussions and examples from Brazil as well as case studies from cities in the developing and developed world, from which lessons can be drawn. Download (currently available only in Portuguese) http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2820 ---- Factsheet "Speeding up Cycling through Special Infrastructure" Especially for daily urban travel, riding a bicycle is a healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to using a car. One important option to promote cycling is to facilitate the use of bicycles through dedicated high-quality infrastructure. The factsheet ?Speeding up Cycling through Special Infrastructure? focuses on measures aimed at decreasing average travel times by creating new or optimizing existing cycle infrastructure. Case studies illustrated in this document show how such infrastructure improvements have succeeded in establishing cycling as a real opportunity to daily car commuting on short and even longer distances. Download here http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2818 ---- Module 5c: Noise and its Abatement updated An immense number of cars, motorcycles, trucks and other motorized vehicles criss-crosses developing cities, day and night. The resulting traffic noise poses many serious health risks, and leads to a deteriorating quality of life. The revised GIZ-SUTP Module 5c ?Noise and its Abatement? addresses these issues by summarizing negative impacts of traffic noise and illustrating remedial measures. The latter range from avoiding motorized traffic (especially in sensitive urban areas) to adjusting the road geometry and design. The 32-page, full colour document features updated data and improved illustrations of noise reducing measures adopted in the European context. Download here http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2819 ******************* News from Partners and Elsewhere: ******************* Presentations from the 6th Regional EST Forum in New Delhi from 3-6 December, 2011 are now available online The presentations shown at the 6th Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Forum, recently held in New Delhi, can be downloaded from the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) website: Download here http://www.uncrd.or.jp/env/est/index_6th_est_f.htm ---- CAI-Asia publishes the fifth issue of the Green Freight and Logistics in Asia News Digest Freight is a subject that has historically received the least attention in the transport sector worldwide, especially in Asia. Government policies tend to focus on private vehicles and public transport more than on trucks. Whether it is the introduction of cleaner fuels, fuel economy standards, tax incentives or investments in infrastructure to improve transport, the freight sector is still far behind. This is despite the huge potential to reduce fuel use and costs, and CO2 and air pollutant emissions from trucks in Asia. Prepared by the Clean Air Initiative (CAI) for Asian Cities, the ?Green Freight and Logistics in Asia News Digest? provides the latest news, information, statistics and events on green freight and logistics in Asia. Download here http://cleanairinitiative.org/portal/sites/default/files/GFLogistics_Vol.1Issue5_0.pdf For more information visit http://www.greenfreightandlogistics.org/ ---- BtG organizes COP17 Side event - Tackling Climate Change and Transport: Strategies and best practices from around the world The ?Bridging the Gap? (BtG) Initiative organised and held, in collaboration with the South African Ministry of Transport, an official 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) side event on the 6th December, 2011 in Durban. Experts from multilateral development banks joined governmental officials from Colombia, Africa and Indonesia to discuss climate mitigation strategies in the transport sector. Read more http://www.transport2012.org/transport-climate-change-news/2011-12-15,cop17-side-event-dec6.htm ---- SLoCaT Partnership pushes for Sustainable Transport In order to help shape the outcome of the "Rio+20" United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) to be held in June 2012, the SLoCaT Partnership released its call to the UN to adopt a Sustainable Development Goal. This consisted of a Press Release and a statement document. The statement is submitted for consideration as an input to the compilation document, which helps develop the zero draft of the declaration for the Rio+20 Global Conference on Sustainable Development. View Press Release here http://www.slocat.net/sites/default/files/slocatfiles/sdg_press_release_final.pdf View Submission Document here http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/241Transport%20CSD%20Submission%20SloCaTpartnership.pdf ---- WHO publishes Transport Report as part of Health in the Green Economy Series This open project from EPOMM - the The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the transport report of the series "Health in the Green Economy" at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change?s (UNFCCC) 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) in Durban, South Africa. The report suggests that low-carbon transport measures can provide "win-win" options for developed and developing countries that benefit health. The report identifies some of the "win-win" strategies that can help reduce climate change in one of the world's most polluting sectors, and generate large health benefits at the same time. More Information http://www.transport2012.org/transport-climate-change-news/2011-12-09,who-transport-report.htm ---- 2012 Sustainable Transport Award The 2012 Sustainable Transport Award will be held from 6-7:30 pm, January 24, 2011 at the International Ballroom East at the Washington Hilton Hotel during the annual Transport Research Board (TRB) conference. The finalists are: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cape Town (South Africa), Medell?n (Colombia) and, San Francisco (USA). More Information http://www.itdp.org/get-involved/sustainable-transport-award/finalists ---- New VTPI publication titled "Evaluating Public Transit as an Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Strategy" The Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI) published ?Evaluating Public Transit as an Energy Conservation and Emission Redution Strategy?. This report investigates the role that public transit improvements can play in conserving energy and reducing emissions. High quality transit service that attracts large numbers of travellers (who would otherwise drive) and supports Transit-oriented Development (TOD) can provide significant energy conservation and emission reduction benefits, plus other savings and benefits. When these factors are considered, public transit service improvements often turn out to be cost-effective emission reduction strategies, particularly if implemented as an integrated package with other transport and land use policy reforms. Download http://www.vtpi.org/tran_climate.pdf ---- Universal Access to Bus Rapid Transit: Design, Operation, and Working with The Community This publication by Tom Rickert, Executive Director, Access Exchange International, describes practical ways to accommodate people with mobility impairments in public transit system planning. It describes three composite case studies of typical experiences of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) passengers with mobility impairments. Download http://www.vtpi.org/AEI_BRT.pdf ---- EU Guidelines for a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans After recognizing the need for a common European Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), the project ?Action Plan on urban mobility? published ?Guidelines ? Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan?. The guidelines describe the essential requirements and include practical examples, tools and references. They aim to provide and transfer knowledge from different European regions and to show good planning approaches within a sustainable urban mobility planning process. Download http://www.sutp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2817 ---- Parisar publishes first-ever Commuter-centric Performance Report for a city bus service Parisar recently published a commuter-centric performance report for Pune's city bus service, PMPML. The service was graded on the following aspects: reliability, comfort, convenience and affordability. The score for each aspect was based on various parameters and used data from PMPML, Parisar surveys and a commuter feedback survey. The important point is that public transport companies conduct such surveys on their own to find where they are lagging. In this way, the can undertake targeted efforts to improve their services. More Information http://parisar.org/activities/analysesreports/137-pmpml-report-card.html ---- Cars and Carbon - Automobiles and European Climate Policy in a Global Context" ? Chapter 'Mobility Management Solutions to Transport Problems Around The World' The chapter 14 of the new book ?Cars and Carbon?, titled ?Mobility Management Solutions to Transport Problems Around the World?, describes the role that mobility management (MM) can play in meeting transport planning objectives. The chapter has been written by Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI). More Information http://www.springer.com/environment/global+change+-+climate+change/book/978-94-007-2122-7 ******************* A PDF version of this newsletter can be downloaded from http://www.sutp.org/newsletters/NL-SUTP-NOV-DEC-11.pdf A html version of this newsletter can be downloaded from http://www.sutp.org/newsletters/NL-SUTP-NOV-DEC-11.html ******************* SUTP Disclaimer: On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the GIZ through its sector project "Transport Policy Advisory Services" supports developing cities to reach their sustainable transport goals by providing technical assistance on transport projects and disseminating information regarding sustainable urban transport. This newsletter is a part of the activities of this project. The information in this newsletter has been carefully researched and diligently compiled. Nevertheless, GIZ does not accept any liability or give any guarantee for the validity, accuracy and completeness of the information provided. GIZ assumes no legal liabilities for damages, material or immaterial in kind, caused by the use or non-use of provided information or the use of erroneous or incomplete information, with the exception of proven intentional or grossly negligent conduct on the side of GIZ. GIZ reserves the right to modify, append, delete parts or the complete online content without prior notice, or to cancel any publication temporarily or permanently. The third party links are not under the control of GIZ and GIZ is not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. Links to the GIZ-SUTP homepage are admissible if the GIZ-SUTP website retrieved becomes the sole content of the browser window. Contact us: Any further queries regarding this document can be addressed to sutp@sutp.org. All the documents mentioned here are available for download from the SUTP website: http://www.sutp.org Copyright ? 2011 GIZ Sustainable Urban Transport Project. From alan at ourpeagreenboat.co.uk Sat Jan 14 23:46:28 2012 From: alan at ourpeagreenboat.co.uk (Alan Howes) Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:46:28 -0000 Subject: [sustran] Jaipur BRT - Success, Failure or something in between? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <001201ccd2cb$4cb16530$e6142f90$@co.uk> At http://www.trafficinfratech.com/jaipur_brts/ there is an article " JAIPUR BRTS; When a good idea goes off track ". The article portrays Jaipur BRT as a failure, and purports to say "What went wrong". Except it doesn't. It does give what it claims are the reasons for failure, but does not indicate WHAT is wrong with the BRT. Such as - - Are the buses not running fast enough or reliably enough? Are they not providing sufficient capacity? Are they not attracting enough passengers, or the right sort of passengers? Are the capital or operating costs out of control? Or is the problem that having taken space from the highway, there are unacceptable levels of congestion for other traffic (and who decides what is "unacceptable"?). Elsewhere (http://www.cseindia.org/userfiles/darshini_mahadevia.pdf) , I found a quote "Indian urban elites do not want to share urban resources with poor including road space. Hence it take long time for the cities to get convinced on systems like appropriate BRT Model. (e.g resistance to Delhi BRT and selection of the most convenient corridor in Ahmedabad as a pilot.)" I rather wonder if this may be the problem in Jaipur - the wrong criteria are being used for "success", and/or there are those who wish BRT to be seen as a failure. Comments, anyone? Regards, Alan -- Alan P Howes, BSc(Eng), CMILT Alan Howes Associates, Transport Consultant Dunblane, Perthshire, Scotland UK web: www.alanhowesworld.com email:?????????? alanhowesworld@gmail.com From joshirutul at yahoo.co.in Mon Jan 16 14:13:12 2012 From: joshirutul at yahoo.co.in (Rutul Joshi) Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:43:12 +0530 (IST) Subject: [sustran] Re: Jaipur BRT - Success, Failure or something in between? In-Reply-To: <001201ccd2cb$4cb16530$e6142f90$@co.uk> References: <001201ccd2cb$4cb16530$e6142f90$@co.uk> Message-ID: <1326690792.466.YahooMailNeo@web137306.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi Alan and others, Interesting queries. As a co-author of the study quoted (Indian urban elites do not want to share urban resources with poor including road space. Hence it takes long time for the cities to get convinced on systems like appropriate BRT Model), I would really like this forum to discuss our claim. What is the progress of BRT in Indian cities and more importantly, what are the bottlenecks? thanks, Rutul ________________________________ From: Alan Howes To: sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org Sent: Saturday, 14 January 2012 8:16 PM Subject: [sustran] Jaipur BRT - Success, Failure or something in between? At http://www.trafficinfratech.com/jaipur_brts/ there is an article " JAIPUR BRTS; When a good idea goes off track?". The article portrays Jaipur BRT as a failure, and purports to say "What went wrong". Except it doesn't. It does give what it claims are the reasons for failure, but does not indicate WHAT is wrong with the BRT. Such as - - Are the buses not running fast enough or reliably enough? Are they not providing sufficient capacity? Are they not attracting enough passengers, or the right sort of passengers? Are the capital or operating costs out of control? Or is the problem that having taken space from the highway, there are unacceptable levels of congestion for other traffic (and who decides what is "unacceptable"?). Elsewhere (http://www.cseindia.org/userfiles/darshini_mahadevia.pdf) , I found a quote "Indian urban elites do not want to share urban resources with poor including road space. Hence it take long time for the cities to get convinced on systems like appropriate BRT Model. (e.g resistance to Delhi BRT and selection of the most convenient corridor in Ahmedabad as a pilot.)" I rather wonder if this may be the problem in Jaipur - the wrong criteria are being used for "success", and/or there are those who wish BRT to be seen as a failure. Comments, anyone? Regards, Alan -- Alan P Howes, BSc(Eng), CMILT Alan Howes Associates, Transport Consultant Dunblane, Perthshire, Scotland UK web:? ? ? ? ? ? www.alanhowesworld.com email:?????????? alanhowesworld@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------------- To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss ================================================================ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). From kaye.patdu at cai-asia.org Tue Jan 17 14:33:21 2012 From: kaye.patdu at cai-asia.org (Kaye Patdu) Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:33:21 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Air Quality, Climate Change and Transport in Asia: 2011 in Review Message-ID: Dear colleagues As part of CAI-Asia's mission to promote better air quality and livable cities, CAI-Asia conducted an annual review of main events relevant to air quality, climate change and transport in Asia. The review, which started on 2008 and initially focused on sustainable transport, has now evolved to include air quality and climate events. It is an opportunity to look back and understand where Asia focused in the past year and foresee emerging trends in Asia in the coming years. *The main highlights for 2011 are:* - Increasing public demand for improved air quality monitoring and reporting - Transition from science to policy action regarding black carbon and short-lived climate forcers (SLCF) - Increased awareness on green freight and logistics - Successes on clean fuels and vehicles, particularly in Vietnam and Sri Lanka - Improved understanding of walkability issues - Asian cities trying a mix of transport demand management measures to address congestion, pollution *Read the ebook version here: *http://issuu.com/cai-asia/docs/2011review *You can also download the document here:* http://cleanairinitiative.org/portal/node/4029 Enjoy! -- Cheers Kaye *Kaye Patdu, Air Quality Researcher* *Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center (CAI-Asia)* *Unit 3505 Robinsons Equitable Tower, ADB Avenue, Pasig City 1605 PHILIPPINES Tel +632 395 2843 l Fax +632 395 2846 l kaye.patdu@cai-asia.org l SkypeID kaye.patdu www.cleanairinitiative.org | www.facebook.com/cai.asia Please consider the environment before printing this email. * From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Wed Jan 18 20:38:09 2012 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric britton) Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:38:09 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Op-Ed: What/who keeps holding back New Mobility reform? Message-ID: <01d801ccd5d5$a9fc0d00$fdf42700$@britton@ecoplan.org> New post on The Streets of India Op-Ed: What/who keeps holding back New Mobility reform? by Eric Britton, editor If you get it, New Mobility is a no-brainer. However, while the New Mobility Agenda is a great starting place, it is not going to get the job somehow miraculously done just because it is the only game in town when it comes to sustainable transport. There is plenty of competition for all that space [...] Read more of this post Eric Britton, editor | 18 January 2012 at 17:02 | Categories: World Streets | URL: http://wp.me/p15YEC-kO Comment See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://indiastreets.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/op-ed-whatwho-keeps-holding-back-new-mobility-reform/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com From bruun at seas.upenn.edu Thu Jan 19 22:35:51 2012 From: bruun at seas.upenn.edu (bruun at seas.upenn.edu) Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:35:51 -0500 Subject: [sustran] report on motorcycle and scooter safety In-Reply-To: <20110928105740.79095rnvb41nzco4@webmail.seas.upenn.edu> References: <1316831768.89842.YahooMailNeo@web137313.mail.in.yahoo.com> <99BF4855-911A-40C0-AFA2-C0E1B53C195E@gmail.com>, <00bc01cc7b89$a1db94c0$e592be40$@org> <49232857A143A54AAD6D08E173ED3AB704150F@exmbx2010-9.campus.MCGILL.CA> <20110928105740.79095rnvb41nzco4@webmail.seas.upenn.edu> Message-ID: <20120119083551.41606ofid0bmj707@webmail.seas.upenn.edu> > ----- Forwarded message from n.haworth@qut.edu.au ----- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:54:23 +1000 From: Narelle Haworth Subject: [ANF30] APEC Motorcycle and Scooter Safety Compendium of Best Practices [1 Attachment] To: "ANF30@yahoogroups.com" Dear Colleagues Just to let you know that the Motorcycle and Scooter Safety Compendium of Best Practices that we developed for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is available at the URL below. It has specific sections for each of the 21 APEC economies which include US and Canada as well as many Asian economies. More details in the flyer attached. http://www.carrsq.qut.edu.au/APEC/index.html Hope to catch up with many of you at TRB, Narelle Haworth From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Fri Jan 20 01:16:10 2012 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric britton) Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:16:10 +0100 Subject: [sustran] World Streets : Roads vs. Streets: Wherein the greater danger? Message-ID: <022001ccd6c5$aa271090$fe7531b0$@britton@ecoplan.org> New post on World Streets : The New Mobility Agenda Roads vs. Streets: Wherein the greater danger? by Eric Britton, editor Michael Blastland plays around with some statistics, usefully!, on roads vs. streets when it comes to accidents and safety in this article that appeared in today's BBC magazine. (Click here for his article in full and here for the often quite stinging comments that it has triggered.) Ours here is quite another focus, but it [...] Read more of this post Eric Britton, editor | 19 January 2012 at 15:38 | Categories: Cross-posted, Safety | URL: http://wp.me/psKUY-2am Comment See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/roads-vs-streets-wherein-the-greater-danger/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com From navdeep.asija at gmail.com Fri Jan 20 04:23:38 2012 From: navdeep.asija at gmail.com (Asija, Navdeep) Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:53:38 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Delhi High Court Issues Contempt Notice to the Delhi Municipal Officers in the Cycle Rickshaw Case Filed by MANUSHI Message-ID: Asian Age Report on the court hearing on Jan 13, 2012 - by Ridhima Malhotra Jan 15, 2012 : The Delhi High Court has pulled up the MCD for ?harassment? of cycle-rickshaw-pullers by imposing hefty fines on them and impounding their vehicles in violation of court orders. Asking the civic agency not to ?overstep? its ?limits?, a special bench of Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and S. Muralidhar on Friday asked the MCD to ensure that instructions given by senior officials to their juniors, on how to deal with rickshaw-pullers who break the law, are made public and a grievance redressal authority be set up for rickshaw-pullers in each zone . The bench was hearing a petition by NGO Manushi Sangathan which alleged that the bylaws are regularly flouted by MCD officials. ?While rickshaw-pullers cannot be fined in excess of `50, hefty fines are imposed on them. Their vehicles are also impounded for not being licenced, in violation of earlier court orders,? the counsel for the NGO said. As the affidavit submitted by the MCD mentioned large sums of money as fines imposed on rickshaw-pullers, the bench rebuked the agency for ?harassing poor rickshaw-pullers?. Pointing out to a particular amount of fine imposed as stated in the affidavit, the bench said, ?The figure mentioned here says `22,225 was received from 20 commuter rickshaws as fine. Why charge poor rickshaw-pullers such huge amount,? the bench said. As the NGO said that sometimes receipts for fines are not issued, the bench remarked, ?Who are these people who have the authority to fine rickshaw-pullers for violating laws? Nothing of this seems to be coming to the MCD coffers. It must be being pocketed by officers.? The court then directed the agency to ensure that the names and designations of officials empowered to issue challans and other levies are disclosed on its website and given publicity. When told that the registration and licencing of cycle rickshaws has to be done every year, the bench said, ?Do we get our cars registered every year? Registration has to be done only once. And why should they (rickshaw-pullers) have to get licences renewed every year? Licencing should be made a once in a three or four year affair.? From kaushikdeb at gmail.com Fri Jan 20 13:20:06 2012 From: kaushikdeb at gmail.com (Kaushik Deb) Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:50:06 +0530 Subject: [sustran] The role of urban mobility in (re)shaping cities: 22 to 26 October 2012 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Message-ID: http://www.codatu.org/english/services/news.htm -- _________________________________________________________________ Kaushik Deb. # 122, Building 1B, Kalpataru Estate. Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road. Andheri (East). Mumbai 400 093 Ph. +91 22 42291445 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 120112-Call for Papers Codatu XV.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 121051 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20120120/ac93fc72/120112-CallforPapersCodatuXV-0001.pdf From edelman at greenidea.eu Fri Jan 20 14:42:46 2012 From: edelman at greenidea.eu (Todd Edelman) Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:42:46 +0100 Subject: [sustran] The safer streets of Bloomberg's NYC (?): NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile body scanners on the streets Message-ID: <4F18FED6.5050905@greenidea.eu> The question I hope people ask themselves is if they should be silent about this since under Bloomberg the streets of NYC are getting safer in regards to traffic.... - Todd *** http://rt.com/usa/news/nypd-scanners-new-york-115/ *The safer streets of NYC (?): NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile body scanners on the streets* New York City's war on freedom could be adding a new weapon to its arsenal, especially if NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has his say. The head of the New York Police Department is working with the Pentagon to secure body scanners to be used throughout the Big Apple. If Kelly gets his wish, the city will be receiving a whole slew of Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners, a high-tech radiation detector that measures the energy that is emitted from a persons' body. As CBS News reports,/"It measures the energy radiating from a body up to 16 feet away, and can detect anything blocking it, like a gun."/ What it can also do, however, is allow the NYPD to conduct illegal searches by means of scanning anyone walking the streets of New York. Any object on your person could be privy to the eyes of the detector, and any suspicious screens can prompt police officers to search someone on suspicion of having a gun, or anything else under their clothes. According to Commissioner Kelly, the scanners would only be used in/"reasonably suspicious circumstances,"/but what constitutes "suspicious" in the eyes of the NYPD could greatly differ from what the 8 million residents of the five boroughs have in mind. The American Civil Liberties Union has already questioned the NYPD over what they say is an unnecessary precaution that raises more issues than it solves. /"It's worrisome. It implicates privacy, the right to walk down the street without being subjected to a virtual pat-down by the Police Department when you're doing nothing wrong,"/Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU says to CBS. The scanners also raise the question of whether such searches would even be legal under the US Constitution. Under the Fourth Amendment, Americans are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. Does scoping out what's on someone's person fall under the same category as a hands-on frisk, though? To the NYPD, it might not matter. In the first quarter of 2011, more than 161,000 innocent New Yorkers were stopped and interrogated on the streets of the city. Figures released by the NYPD in May of last year revealed that of the over 180,000 stop-and-frisk encounters reported by the police department, 88 percent of them ended in neither an arrest nor a summons, leading many to assume that New York cops are already going above and beyond the law by searching seemingly anyone they chose. Additionally, of those 161,000-plus victims, around 84 percent were either black or Latino. At the time, the ACLU's Lieberman wrote,/"The NYPD is turning black and brown neighborhoods across New York City into Constitution-free zones."/ Given the alarming statistics, many already feel that officers within the ranks of the NYPD are overzealous with their monitoring of New Yorkers, regularly stopping them for unknown suspicions that nearly nine-out-of-ten times prove false. With the installation of the Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners though, those invasive physical searches wouldn't just be replaced with a touchless, more intrusive monitoring, but will only allow New Yorkers one more reason to fear walking the streets. /"If they search you, you're not giving consent, so they can do what they want, meaning they can use that as an excuse to search you for other means. I don't think that's constitutional at all,"/New Yorker Devan Thomas tells CBS. /"There are a lot of cameras already here, so as people walk they're being filmed. And most of the time they don't know it,"/adds Jennifer Bailly. A lot is somewhat of an understatement. In Manhattan alone there are over 2,000 surveillance cameras, public and private, aimed at every passerby. That number is the same as the tally of both McDonalds and Starbucks on the island, combined, multiplied by a factor of eight. CBS News adds that the plan puts the NYPD in direct cooperation with the Department of Defense, who is working on testing the scanners to find a way to bring them to the streets. Such a joint effort opens up questions about other endeavors the Pentagon could have planned out with the NYPD in the past, and certainly doesn't mark the first time that New York's boys in blue have worked hand-in-hand with federal agencies. Last year a report surfaced linking the NYPD to the CIA, as documents became available showing a connection between the local police department and government spies installing secret agents into Muslim majority communities in New York. By using scanners such as the Terahertz Imagining detectors, however, New Yorkers will be forced to endure more than just an unknown number of eyes prying under their clothes. The consequences could be biologically catastrophic, with the scanning technique tied to problems with the human body's ability to operate. According to MIT's Technology Review, the THz waves used by the scanners/"unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication."/ -- Todd Edelman Green Idea Factory / SLOWFactory Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081 edelman@greenidea.eu www.greenidea.eu Skype: toddedelman https://www.facebook.com/Iamtoddedelman http://twitter.com/toddedelman http://de.linkedin.com/in/toddedelman Urbanstr. 45 10967 Berlin Germany From eric.britton at ecoplan.org Fri Jan 20 22:10:10 2012 From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org (eric britton) Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:10:10 +0100 Subject: [sustran] World Streets] Charina Cabrido reports on SAFA Tempos (EVs) in Nepal Message-ID: <01f301ccd774$d9fc4ab0$8df4e010$@britton@ecoplan.org> New post on The Streets of India Charina Cabrido reports on SAFA Tempos (EVs) in Nepal by Eric Britton, editor SAFA tempos or Nepali?s version of electric three wheelers are typically seen in Kathmandu?s busy streets. Running at an average speed of 60 kilometer per hour, safa tempos serve at least 127 thousand people everyday transporting individuals to their destinations. This is quite a challenge for a country that has been constantly confronted with power [...] Read more of this post Eric Britton, editor | 20 January 2012 at 18:02 | Categories: a. Pollution, Jobs, paratransit, Women, World Streets | URL: http://wp.me/p15YEC-kQ Comment See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://indiastreets.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/charina-cabrido-reports-on-safa-tempos-evs-in-nepal/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com From kanthikannan at gmail.com Tue Jan 24 12:56:39 2012 From: kanthikannan at gmail.com (Kanthi Kannan) Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:26:39 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Re: The Article in The Hindu " We should be ashamed" : Wrote to Kalpana ji : Your thoughts most welcome: Thanks Message-ID: <4f1e2c02.a1d8320a.5628.5d5a@mx.google.com> Dear all Greetings!! Yesterday I wrote to Kalapana ji in response to her article in the Hindu on Sunday Thanks Your suggestions are most welcome Kanthi Jan 23, 2012 Dear Kalpana ji Greetings!! Your article in The Hindu "We should be ashamed" could be renamed for us as "We are ashamed". The Right to Walk Foundation is a Hyderabad based NGO campaigning for pedestrian rights. We have been campaigning regarding the issue of open urination for the past 3 years and we have taken the photograph of the same place (photograph enclosed) and submitted to the concerned authorities and discussed the issue at several levels in the government. We have also filed a Human Rights petition at the AP Human Rights Commission regarding the issue of "obstruction to walking" as a human right violation at the APHRC. This was done in Aug 2009. Yet despite several hearings, there is no change in this area and almost no difference in the entire city. What makes the issue even more sad is the fact that there a 600 Crore flyover alongside these footpaths and the 600 Crore has come from the Tax Payers money. There is no toll for the flyover and this connects the city to the airport. There are two toilets on either side of these footpaths but both are charged and not well maintained. The point that needs to be discussed and surveys need to be conducted whether urination is to be charged and if so why? The argument from the authorities is that it costs a lot of money to maintain the urinals. The irony is that the flyover has an interest component of almost 5 Crores a month and the car drivers get the facility free but for the common man even the natural urge of urinating is to be charged. Of course this open defection and poor sanitation is part of the poorer areas of the city and not near the rich bungalows or the elite homes. We are therefore ashamed that we have so far not been able to change this. We have filed a request with the GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) to allow us to rebuild the footpaths in the area and also maintain the footpaths at our cost. Let's hope that we are able to do this and eradicate this open defection at least in this area. Thanks Kanthi Kannan The Right to walk Foundation www.right2walk.com THOSE WHO WALK CANNOT DECIDE AND THOSE WHO DECIDE DO NOT WALK -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: the footpaths alongside the 600 crore flyover edit.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 41584 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20120124/5dfd728f/thefootpathsalongsidethe600croreflyoveredit.jpg From navdeep.asija at gmail.com Wed Jan 25 12:59:22 2012 From: navdeep.asija at gmail.com (Asija, Navdeep) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:29:22 +0530 Subject: [sustran] A tale for many cities Message-ID: In just eight years, 2020 will be upon us. By then, our cities will be either areas of more chaos or meaningfully planned. The choice is ours. We are at a crucial junction as far as urbanism goes. The need to work vigorously on our cities and improve them is urgent and critical. Their populations have surged tremendously in the last few decades . Delhi's population increased from12.8m in 2001 to 16.3m in 2011. Bangalore grew from 5.7m to 8.5m during the same period. Our urban planners have perhaps not understood the nature of the modern city, what it takes not just to run them but to make them livable. The two key requirements of a city are: provision of basic services and social infrastructure. These need to be developed together. So what is a city? It's a dense amalgamation of buildings and people. A city must provide equity and also be sustainable. As an architect who has been closely connected with Delhi and its planning, my wish list is more about the direction we need to take so that future generations don't end up living in chaotic dysfunctional cities. The first requirement for a city is a pragmatic plan. Many of our cities such as Delhi and Bhubaneswar and even Port Blair in the Andamans have reasonably good master plans. Many also have City Development Plans which have been made an essential requirement to draw funds from the government's Urban Renewal Programme (JNNURM). But they should be updated frequently based on the changing needs of its people. And let's not forget its citizens - they need to be more pro-actively involved when evolving master plans. But often, there's lack of planning and inadequate implementation systems. This applies to all essential components of a city - streets, public transport system, traffic management , affordable housing, cars and parking , drainage, water supply, sewerage and garbage. Any deficiency in these will lead to poor quality cities which won't be able to handle the pressures of increased population and changing needs. The second requirement of a good city is good social infrastructure such as parks and places for leisure such as river and sea fronts. It needs to preserve and protect its heritage. We are a nation with a rich diversity in culture, arts and crafts and cities are great platforms for that, given the right facilities. And let's not forget good and affordable educational and healthcare facilities too. We don't have to look far. There are enough cities worldwide which have managed to radically improve the quality of life of its citizens. Take Singapore. It has managed to limit cars and has a very efficient transport system. Shanghai has wonderful footpaths everywhere. New York is actively developing cycling facilities in large parts while Holland, Denmark and other Scandinavian countries have developed cities around a bicycling infrastructure , creating a complete culture around them which is humane and ecological. There's Tokyo , the world's most populous city, which has a metro system used by 80% of the population. But a great sustainable and livable city doesn't emerge by accident and its development cannot be taken for granted. It requires hard work, cohesive planning and meticulous implementation. And high management skills. Perhaps the time has come to have an Indian Urban Service, a body of highly trained professionals who will manage the city. This could be akin to the IAS, IFS, Revenue and Forest services. There's also a need for a top-notch thinktank which develops policy and goals for urbanism. These should include the best people from various areas - town planning, urban designing, transport, energy, environment , public utilities, landscape , housing, etc. But a start has been made. JNNURM , which is some six years old, has started an ambitious development plan in many cities. The results have been encouraging. But to bring our cities to any basic level of development, many more need to be brought into its fold. More areas need to be addressed. We also need to reinvent and restructure the institutions that served us well in the past such as Town and Country Planning Organization, the DDA in Delhi and the MMRDA in Mumbai. Then, there are also research organizations such as CRRI for roads and transportation and CBRI for buildings. Reinventing them will need political will and administrative vision. *There are some glimmers of hope. I met up young Navdeep Asija who along with another colleague , began the innocuously named Graduates Welfare Association Fazilka. They are bringing about change with the mandate of citizens participation in governance and are facilitating the creation of physical and social infrastructure across 22 cities in Punjab. The have put in place a network of cycle rickshaws called Ecocabs which can be booked through a mobile phone. They are also developing car free zones, food and culture streets in these cities. All this is being done very efficiently and at a low cost. We need many such organizations. However, my ideal of a city in 2020 is not a utopian dream. It is achievable. It has streets where people walk on wide footpaths shaded by leafy trees. Streets are usually one-third of a city's area and its most democratic segment. Public space dedicated to pedestrians reduces inequality and should be accorded priority when developing cities. Adjoining the streets should be cycle lanes where bicycles and rickshaws can sail past smoothly. It'll have a great public transport system with buses, metro and taxis. Parking will be difficult and expensive so people will use public transport rather than cars. There will be parks and gardens and the air will be clean, as pollution levels will have dropped dramatically.* And then, cities will become areas of graceful living and a charmed way of life. (The writer is an architect and urban planner based in New Delhi.) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-tale-for-many-cities/articleshow/11623286.cms From edelman at greenidea.eu Wed Jan 25 23:35:32 2012 From: edelman at greenidea.eu (Todd Edelman) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:35:32 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Fwd: [carfree_cities] bio-fuel debunked, makes climate change worse Message-ID: <4F201334.2030107@greenidea.eu> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [carfree_cities] bio-fuel debunked, makes climate change worse Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:23:57 -0500 From: J.H. Crawford Reply-To: carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com To: carfree_cities@yahoogroups.com Hi All, This is a significant study: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106491 UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jan 19, 2012 (IPS) - The only green in biodiesel fuel is the money producers make from it, new research has revealed. Most biodiesel production is making climate change worse not better, studies show. Biodiesel from palm oil plantations may be the world's dirtiest fuel - far worse than burning diesel made from oil when the entire production life cycle is considered. Biodiesel made from the many palm oil plantations on Indonesia's peatlands have a "carbon debt of 200 years", said Louis Verchot, a research scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia. This means it will take 200 years of continuous biodiesel production from these palm oil plantations to pay off the "carbon debt" that results from land conversion and indirect land use changes. Verchot and colleagues' study is the first real-world look at the climate impacts of biodiesel and was published last month in the journal Ecology and Society. The study looked at biodiesel production involving palm oil, jatropha and soy at 12 sites in six different countries. "Our study shows we have to eliminate a lot of what we're trying to do in the name of protecting the atmosphere," he said. Global biodiesel production worldwide has risen by 10 times over the last eight years, topping 11 billion litres in 2010, according to the International Energy Agency. Ethanol production has risen by more than four times since 2000 and was close to 90 billion litres by the end of 2011. Those gains are being driven by government policies that mandate ever increasing amounts of biofuel be used in transportation fuels. When burned, biodiesel emits between 40 and 75 percent less climate- heating carbon than regular diesel, according to various estimates. However, in order to grow palm oil, Indonesia's peat forests have been cleared and burned, resulting in huge emissions of carbon - on the order of 200 to 300 tonnes of carbon per hectare - Verchot told IPS. In addition, these wet peatlands are drained and when exposed to air the peat decomposes and releases about 10 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year. The resulting "carbon debt" is so large it will take 200 years of continuous biodiesel production from these palm oil plantations to pay it off, he said. In other words, if palm oil was planted during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, it would still be paying off its carbon debt today. "I don't know of any place in the world where a single crop has been grown that long," Verchot said. The size of the carbon debt of biodiesel from palm oil plantations has been seriously underestimated, said Ross Morrison of Britain's University of Leicester. Morrison is co-author of an independent analysis completed before Verchot's study was published. Biodiesel from tropical peatlands emits more carbon than diesel from oil, Morrison and his colleagues reported in their analysis for the International Council on Clean Transportation. Tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia hold more carbon than tropical forests and are under steady conversion to highly profitable palm oil plantations. Conversion of these lands also has negative impacts on local peoples and results in loss of habitat for many species, including endangered orangutans and Sumatran tigers. "Projections indicate an increase in palm oil plantations on peat to a total area of 2.5 million ha by the year 2020 in western Indonesia alone ? an area equivalent in size to the land area of the United Kingdom," said Sue Page, co-author of the Leicester study. The study also concluded that biofuels grown in Europe are no better than oil-based fuels, and biodiesel made from food crops like soy and rapeseed are worse. Bioethanol or biodiesel from waste cooking oil, on the other hand, could still offer carbon savings. While palm oil plantations have long been criticised by environmentalists, Verchot's study also looked at biodiesel made from Jatropha and grown in Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania. The study found it had a 100-year carbon debt on average, although the debt could be as high as 300 years depending on where it is grown. Jatropha yields much less oil per hectare than palm oil and more land must be cultivated, increasing its carbon debt. Biodiesel made from soy grown on Brazil's dry cerrado grasslands in the state of Mato Grosso had the smallest carbon debt of the 12 study sites in six countries, at about 30 years. The main reason the carbon debt is low is because the cerrado doesn't have much biomass to begin with, Verchot said. It is unknown whether soy could actually be grown year and year for three to four decades. "We're not saying that all biofuels are bad. What we've found is that the right circumstances for growing biofuels are much more limited than people realise," he said. Verchot's study did not look at the social impacts of biodiesel production. There is very little land capable of growing food on the planet that someone is not already using. Large-scale biodiesel crops often displace small landholders and local people who often don't have formal land titles, resulting in growing numbers of conflicts over land grabbing. "Biofuels certainly create incentives for land grabbing," he says. The biofuel industry and its supporters see things very differently. One reason is that the European Union has a goal of biofuels providing 10 percent of all transport fuels by 2020. The U.S. has target of tripling biofuel use from 2009 to 2022. Other nations also have targets as well creating a very large market in need of supply. Attention is turning to Africa and its more than one billion hectares of rain-fed croplands as the next big source of biofuels. Biofuels can be Africa's next big cash crop, according to the new book "Biofuels in Africa" published by the World Bank last year. "Abundant natural resources and low-cost labor make producing biofuel feedstocks a viable alternative to traditional crops," the book says. While noting that the effectiveness of biofuels in reducing emissions is in dispute, the U.S. or Europe will have to import increasing volumes of biofuels to meet their targets. In addition, the high fossil fuel prices mean Africa will produce much more biofuel for domestic markets in the coming decade, it concludes. Governments, agribusiness, energy companies and venture capitalists have invested many billions of dollars into biofuels for at best a tiny net reduction and quite likely an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Most climate experts say biofuels are not even in the top five things that need to be done to meet the climate change challenge. "It turns out that biofuels are not the miracle crop people had hoped it would be," Verchot said. ----- ### ----- J.H. Crawford . Carfree Cities mailbox@carfree.com . http://www.carfree.com __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Switch to: Text-Only , Daily Digest . Unsubscribe . Terms of Use . __,_._,___ From mkodransky at yahoo.com Thu Jan 26 02:54:42 2012 From: mkodransky at yahoo.com (Michael Kodransky) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:54:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: [sustran] Re: The safer streets of Bloomberg's NYC (?): NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile body scanners on the streets In-Reply-To: <4F18FED6.5050905@greenidea.eu> References: <4F18FED6.5050905@greenidea.eu> Message-ID: <1327514082.15472.YahooMailNeo@web160803.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Russia Today (RT) is the propaganda mouthpiece of the Russian government. Nearly all of their reporting on issues in the US are meant to raise alarm based on speculation and conspiracy theories. This is not a credible news source. ________________________________ From: Todd Edelman To: WorldStreets@yahoogroups.com; 'Sustran List' Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 12:42 AM Subject: [sustran] The safer streets of Bloomberg's NYC (?): NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile body scanners on the streets The question I hope people ask themselves is if they should be silent about this since under Bloomberg the streets of NYC are getting safer in regards to traffic.... - Todd *** http://rt.com/usa/news/nypd-scanners-new-york-115/ *The safer streets of NYC (?): NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile body scanners on the streets* New York City's war on freedom could be adding a new weapon to its arsenal, especially if NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has his say. The head of the New York Police Department is working with the Pentagon to secure body scanners to be used throughout the Big Apple. If Kelly gets his wish, the city will be receiving a whole slew of Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners, a high-tech radiation detector that measures the energy that is emitted from a persons' body. As CBS News reports,/"It measures the energy radiating from a body up to 16 feet away, and can detect anything blocking it, like a gun."/ What it can also do, however, is allow the NYPD to conduct illegal searches by means of scanning anyone walking the streets of New York. Any object on your person could be privy to the eyes of the detector, and any suspicious screens can prompt police officers to search someone on suspicion of having a gun, or anything else under their clothes. According to Commissioner Kelly, the scanners would only be used in/"reasonably suspicious circumstances,"/but what constitutes "suspicious" in the eyes of the NYPD could greatly differ from what the 8 million residents of the five boroughs have in mind. The American Civil Liberties Union has already questioned the NYPD over what they say is an unnecessary precaution that raises more issues than it solves. /"It's worrisome. It implicates privacy, the right to walk down the street without being subjected to a virtual pat-down by the Police Department when you're doing nothing wrong,"/Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU says to CBS. The scanners also raise the question of whether such searches would even be legal under the US Constitution. Under the Fourth Amendment, Americans are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. Does scoping out what's on someone's person fall under the same category as a hands-on frisk, though? To the NYPD, it might not matter. In the first quarter of 2011, more than 161,000 innocent New Yorkers were stopped and interrogated on the streets of the city. Figures released by the NYPD in May of last year revealed that of the over 180,000 stop-and-frisk encounters reported by the police department, 88 percent of them ended in neither an arrest nor a summons, leading many to assume that New York cops are already going above and beyond the law by searching seemingly anyone they chose. Additionally, of those 161,000-plus victims, around 84 percent were either black or Latino. At the time, the ACLU's Lieberman wrote,/"The NYPD is turning black and brown neighborhoods across New York City into Constitution-free zones."/ Given the alarming statistics, many already feel that officers within the ranks of the NYPD are overzealous with their monitoring of New Yorkers, regularly stopping them for unknown suspicions that nearly nine-out-of-ten times prove false. With the installation of the Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners though, those invasive physical searches wouldn't just be replaced with a touchless, more intrusive monitoring, but will only allow New Yorkers one more reason to fear walking the streets. /"If they search you, you're not giving consent, so they can do what they want, meaning they can use that as an excuse to search you for other means. I don't think that's constitutional at all,"/New Yorker Devan Thomas tells CBS. /"There are a lot of cameras already here, so as people walk they're being filmed. And most of the time they don't know it,"/adds Jennifer Bailly. A lot is somewhat of an understatement. In Manhattan alone there are over 2,000 surveillance cameras, public and private, aimed at every passerby. That number is the same as the tally of both McDonalds and Starbucks on the island, combined, multiplied by a factor of eight. CBS News adds that the plan puts the NYPD in direct cooperation with the Department of Defense, who is working on testing the scanners to find a way to bring them to the streets. Such a joint effort opens up questions about other endeavors the Pentagon could have planned out with the NYPD in the past, and certainly doesn't mark the first time that New York's boys in blue have worked hand-in-hand with federal agencies. Last year a report surfaced linking the NYPD to the CIA, as documents became available showing a connection between the local police department and government spies installing secret agents into Muslim majority communities in New York. By using scanners such as the Terahertz Imagining detectors, however, New Yorkers will be forced to endure more than just an unknown number of eyes prying under their clothes. The consequences could be biologically catastrophic, with the scanning technique tied to problems with the human body's ability to operate. According to MIT's Technology Review, the THz waves used by the scanners/"unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication."/ -- Todd Edelman Green Idea Factory / SLOWFactory Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081 edelman@greenidea.eu www.greenidea.eu Skype: toddedelman https://www.facebook.com/Iamtoddedelman http://twitter.com/toddedelman http://de.linkedin.com/in/toddedelman Urbanstr. 45 10967 Berlin Germany -------------------------------------------------------- To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss ================================================================ SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). From edelman at greenidea.eu Thu Jan 26 06:27:00 2012 From: edelman at greenidea.eu (Todd Edelman) Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:27:00 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: The safer streets of Bloomberg's NYC (?): NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile body scanners on the streets In-Reply-To: <1327514082.15472.YahooMailNeo@web160803.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <4F18FED6.5050905@greenidea.eu> <1327514082.15472.YahooMailNeo@web160803.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4F2073A4.1010606@greenidea.eu> Hi, Sure, RT. There is a story - no, not quite the same story - about the same subject in the Huffington Post. Credible? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/18/nypd-gun-detection-device_n_1213813.html Are you speaking for yourself or representing ITDP with this comment? - T On 01/25/2012 06:54 PM, Michael Kodransky wrote: > Russia Today (RT) is the propaganda mouthpiece of the Russian > government. Nearly all of their reporting on issues in the US are > meant to raise alarm based on speculation and conspiracy theories. > This is not a credible news source. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* Todd Edelman > *To:* WorldStreets@yahoogroups.com; 'Sustran List' > > *Sent:* Friday, January 20, 2012 12:42 AM > *Subject:* [sustran] The safer streets of Bloomberg's NYC (?): NYPD > and Pentagon to place mobile body scanners on the streets > > The question I hope people ask themselves is if they should be silent > about this since under Bloomberg the streets of NYC are getting safer in > regards to traffic.... > > - Todd > > *** > > http://rt.com/usa/news/nypd-scanners-new-york-115/ > > *The safer streets of NYC (?): NYPD and Pentagon to place mobile body > scanners on the streets* > > New York City's war on freedom could be adding a new weapon to its > arsenal, especially if NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has his say. > > The head of the New York Police Department is working with the Pentagon > to secure body scanners to be used throughout the Big Apple. > > If Kelly gets his wish, the city will be receiving a whole slew of > Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners, a high-tech radiation detector > that measures the energy that is emitted from a persons' body. As CBS > News reports,/"It measures the energy radiating from a body up to 16 > feet away, and can detect anything blocking it, like a gun."/ > > What it can also do, however, is allow the NYPD to conduct illegal > searches by means of scanning anyone walking the streets of New York. > Any object on your person could be privy to the eyes of the detector, > and any suspicious screens can prompt police officers to search someone > on suspicion of having a gun, or anything else under their clothes. > > According to Commissioner Kelly, the scanners would only be used > in/"reasonably suspicious circumstances,"/but what constitutes > "suspicious" in the eyes of the NYPD could greatly differ from what the > 8 million residents of the five boroughs have in mind. > > The American Civil Liberties Union has already questioned the NYPD over > what they say is an unnecessary precaution that raises more issues than > it solves. > > /"It's worrisome. It implicates privacy, the right to walk down the > street without being subjected to a virtual pat-down by the Police > Department when you're doing nothing wrong,"/Donna Lieberman of the > NYCLU says to CBS. > > The scanners also raise the question of whether such searches would even > be legal under the US Constitution. Under the Fourth Amendment, > Americans are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures. Does > scoping out what's on someone's person fall under the same category as a > hands-on frisk, though? > > To the NYPD, it might not matter. In the first quarter of 2011, more > than 161,000 innocent New Yorkers were stopped and interrogated on the > streets of the city. Figures released by the NYPD in May of last year > revealed that of the over 180,000 stop-and-frisk encounters reported by > the police department, 88 percent of them ended in neither an arrest nor > a summons, leading many to assume that New York cops are already going > above and beyond the law by searching seemingly anyone they chose. > Additionally, of those 161,000-plus victims, around 84 percent were > either black or Latino. At the time, the ACLU's Lieberman wrote,/"The > NYPD is turning black and brown neighborhoods across New York City into > Constitution-free zones."/ > > Given the alarming statistics, many already feel that officers within > the ranks of the NYPD are overzealous with their monitoring of New > Yorkers, regularly stopping them for unknown suspicions that nearly > nine-out-of-ten times prove false. With the installation of the > Terahertz Imagining Detection scanners though, those invasive physical > searches wouldn't just be replaced with a touchless, more intrusive > monitoring, but will only allow New Yorkers one more reason to fear > walking the streets. > > /"If they search you, you're not giving consent, so they can do what > they want, meaning they can use that as an excuse to search you for > other means. I don't think that's constitutional at all,"/New Yorker > Devan Thomas tells CBS. > > /"There are a lot of cameras already here, so as people walk they're > being filmed. And most of the time they don't know it,"/adds Jennifer > Bailly. > > A lot is somewhat of an understatement. In Manhattan alone there are > over 2,000 surveillance cameras, public and private, aimed at every > passerby. That number is the same as the tally of both McDonalds and > Starbucks on the island, combined, multiplied by a factor of eight. > > CBS News adds that the plan puts the NYPD in direct cooperation with the > Department of Defense, who is working on testing the scanners to find a > way to bring them to the streets. Such a joint effort opens up questions > about other endeavors the Pentagon could have planned out with the NYPD > in the past, and certainly doesn't mark the first time that New York's > boys in blue have worked hand-in-hand with federal agencies. Last year a > report surfaced linking the NYPD to the CIA, as documents became > available showing a connection between the local police department and > government spies installing secret agents into Muslim majority > communities in New York. > > By using scanners such as the Terahertz Imagining detectors, however, > New Yorkers will be forced to endure more than just an unknown number of > eyes prying under their clothes. The consequences could be biologically > catastrophic, with the scanning technique tied to problems with the > human body's ability to operate. According to MIT's Technology Review, > the THz waves used by the scanners/"unzip double-stranded DNA, creating > bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with > processes such as gene expression and DNA replication."/ > > > -- > Todd Edelman > Green Idea Factory / SLOWFactory > > Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081 > > edelman@greenidea.eu > www.greenidea.eu > > Skype: toddedelman > https://www.facebook.com/Iamtoddedelman > http://twitter.com/toddedelman > http://de.linkedin.com/in/toddedelman > > Urbanstr. 45 > 10967 Berlin > Germany > > -------------------------------------------------------- > To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit > http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, > equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing > countries (the 'Global South'). > > -- Todd Edelman Green Idea Factory / SLOWFactory Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081 edelman@greenidea.eu www.greenidea.eu Skype: toddedelman https://www.facebook.com/Iamtoddedelman http://twitter.com/toddedelman http://de.linkedin.com/in/toddedelman Urbanstr. 45 10967 Berlin Germany From yanivbin at gmail.com Fri Jan 27 14:55:07 2012 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:25:07 +0530 Subject: [sustran] Invest more in facilities for pedestrians, State Govts told Message-ID: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/article2829036.ece Invest more in facilities for pedestrians, State Govts toldOur Bureau Funds for urban development used more for public transport Chennai, Jan. 24: Neglecting pedestrians and non-motorised vehicle infrastructure as State Governments keenly strengthen public transport systems could prove costly, according to Dr Pawan Kumar, Associate Town and Country Planner, Town and Country Planning Organisation, Ministry of Urban Development. Not placing emphasis The claim for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission funds indicate that State Governments are not placing as much emphasis on creating facilities for pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles as on public transport systems. This could prove a costly mistake as surveys indicate that in cities such as Chennai pedestrians' access to public transport facilities is a major bottleneck. ?Public transport terminals are the least accessible by walk,? say the studies, he said. Funds for such infrastructure available under the JNNURM are waiting to be utilised by cities. But in most urban centres, pedestrians, including school going children and the elderly, are largely neglected. Investments in simple pedestrian facilities such as clear walkways and tracks for non motorised vehicles, not only increase safety on roads but increase the efficiency of more expensive public transport infrastructure such as road and rail based systems, he said addressing Municipalika 2012, an international seminar on urban governance. Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad score high on facilities for pedestrians and ?walkability,' he said. Gujarat is set to extend the success of its Bus Rapid Transit System with a third phase that will cover over 120 km more, according to Mr Dilipkumar Mahajan, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Bus transport The 42-km bus rapid transit route which is into its third year of operation will be extended to 89 km by the year end in the second phase. In the next two years the third phase will also be taken up. The bus rapid transit system has been a significant success in terms of providing an affordable, efficient and comfortable public transport. With a fleet strength of 102 buses, that is to be doubled by the year end, the BRTS moves over a 1.20 lakh passengers daily and a major portion of its route is along the sections of the city that need public transport. Over the last one year the numbers of those using the BRTS has increased six times and the business is breaking even as of now, he said. From yanivbin at gmail.com Sun Jan 29 13:33:56 2012 From: yanivbin at gmail.com (Vinay Baindur) Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:03:56 +0530 Subject: [sustran] =?windows-1252?Q?=91Central_funds_=28JNNURM=29_used_to_?= =?windows-1252?Q?just_widen_Pune_roads=92?= Message-ID: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_central-funds-used-to-just-widen-pune-roads_1642975 ?Central funds used to just widen Pune roads? Published: Saturday, Jan 28, 2012, 14:02 IST By Partha Sarathi Biswas | Place: Pune | Agency: DNA Civic activist Major General (retd) SCN Jatar, who has been lobbying for proper implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Pune, has alleged that Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), had utilised funds to the tune of Rs1,500 crore released by central government for BRTS, ?to widen roads?. Using the Right to Information (RTI), Act 2005, Jatar had obtained the minutes of meeting chaired by SK Lohia, officer on special duty (OSD), urban transport (UT) department, for implementation of high quality integrated BRTS in August last year. In the minutes, Lohia had pointed out several flaws in the manner in which the project has been implemented in the city. The pilot BRTS project from Katraj to Swargate and Swargate to Hadapsar, was executed by the civic body just prior to the civic elections of 2007. Jatar and other activists had alleged that the hurry and lack of planning for the implementation of the BRTS was due to political pressure by tainted city MP Suresh Kalmadi. The total cost of the implementation of the pilot project was Rs1,24.7 crores for a distance of 12 km. The above meeting was attended by municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak, Vinay Deshpande, officer on special duty (OSD), Jawaharlal Nehru national urban renewal mission (JNNURM) cell and several other officers. During the meeting, it was pointed out that the way, several important links were ?inadvertently left out in the detailed project report (DPR), approved by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD)??. Around 9 links were identified by Lohia and the civic body was directed to submit a revised DPR, for approval under JNNURM. Six lanes which were already approved under JNNURM, were singled out by Lohia for having low demand. It was recommended that these lanes be deleted from the BRTS corridors. During the meeting, it was suggested that the civic body take sanction from the JNNURM cell for the work undertaken as part of routine road improvement. Lohia had strongly recommended that PMC goes for only dedicated corridor network. ?Since day one, we have been pointing out that the civic body had not implemented the BRTS in the city. All the money sanctioned by the state government for implementation of BRTS has been used for road widening. The Centre also did not keep a close watch on the way the funds were spent,?? said Jatar. Vivek Kharwadkar, additional city engineer PMC, was not available for comments. From cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org Tue Jan 31 00:27:00 2012 From: cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org (Cornie Huizenga) Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:27:00 +0800 Subject: [sustran] A number that takes your breath away! Message-ID: Dear All, >From time to time you come across a number that takes your breath away. I just had another one of those. The last few months we have been working on getting sustainable transport on the Rio+20 agenda. As part of this we looked at the current spending by Multilateral Development Banks on Transport projects. We were quite impressed by the total number that came up at the end: somewhere between $ 25 and $ 30 billion in 2010. Mind you this includes all transport spending, the sustainable projects and the not-so sustainable ones: the BRTs, the metro's, the rural roads and the highways. Then just now I came across the estimated advertising budget of major auto companies in 2009 in a recent EMBARQ report: $ 21 billion dollars (mind you that does not include advertising for fuel). You can see the smile on the face of the auto manufacturers and the advertising agencies when they see our efforts to promote sustainable transport :-( Cornie -- Cornie Huizenga Joint Convener Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport Mobile: +86 13901949332 cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org www.slocat.net From operations at velomondial.net Tue Jan 31 00:29:43 2012 From: operations at velomondial.net (Pascal van den Noort) Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:29:43 +0100 Subject: [sustran] Re: A number that takes your breath away! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3115B8EB-36C7-4C0D-A747-34218EEC33F4@velomondial.net> You enthuse me now in woking even harder, Cornie! Pascal J.W. van den Noort Executive Director Velo Mondial, A Micro Multi-National operations@velomondial.net +31206270675 landline +31627055688 mobile phone Velo Mondial's Blog Click above button once for information on urban mobility issues you always wanted to have On 30 jan. 2012, at 16:27, Cornie Huizenga wrote: > Dear All, > >> From time to time you come across a number that takes your breath away. I > just had another one of those. The last few months we have been working on > getting sustainable transport on the Rio+20 agenda. As part of this we > looked at the current spending by Multilateral Development Banks on > Transport projects. We were quite impressed by the total number that came > up at the end: somewhere between $ 25 and $ 30 billion in 2010. Mind you > this includes all transport spending, the sustainable projects and the > not-so sustainable ones: the BRTs, the metro's, the rural roads and the > highways. Then just now I came across the estimated advertising budget of > major auto companies in 2009 in a recent EMBARQ report: > > $ 21 billion dollars (mind you that does not include advertising for fuel). > > You can see the smile on the face of the auto manufacturers and the > advertising agencies when they see our efforts to promote sustainable > transport :-( > > Cornie > > > -- > Cornie Huizenga > Joint Convener > Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport > Mobile: +86 13901949332 > cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org > www.slocat.net > -------------------------------------------------------- > To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit > http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). From sudhir at cai-asia.org Tue Jan 31 11:09:54 2012 From: sudhir at cai-asia.org (Sudhir) Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:09:54 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: A number that takes your breath away! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Cornie, Continuing this further... The investment by cities on urban transport are many times more than the development banks. Metropolitan cities like Bangalore are seeking like 1 billion USD/year for next twenty years. Delhi invested more than 2 billion $ for 'improving' transport within 4-5 years for commonwealth games. According to the latest estimates, India is planning to invest like 15 billion USD/year on urban transport. If you scale this up for the entire Asia and look at massive investment on intercity roads... you would be looking at a very very big number. See - http://www.iutindia.org/ntdpc/draftrep_onNTUD_3rdjune11.pdf http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/city-needs-rs-125-lakh-cr-for-infra-says-gowda/454718/ How it ends up being actually used is entirely a new challenge - see http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_central-funds-used-to-just-widen-pune-roads_1642975 regards On 30 January 2012 23:27, Cornie Huizenga < cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org> wrote: > Dear All, > > >From time to time you come across a number that takes your breath away. I > just had another one of those. The last few months we have been working on > getting sustainable transport on the Rio+20 agenda. As part of this we > looked at the current spending by Multilateral Development Banks on > Transport projects. We were quite impressed by the total number that came > up at the end: somewhere between $ 25 and $ 30 billion in 2010. Mind you > this includes all transport spending, the sustainable projects and the > not-so sustainable ones: the BRTs, the metro's, the rural roads and the > highways. Then just now I came across the estimated advertising budget of > major auto companies in 2009 in a recent EMBARQ report: > > $ 21 billion dollars (mind you that does not include advertising for fuel). > > You can see the smile on the face of the auto manufacturers and the > advertising agencies when they see our efforts to promote sustainable > transport :-( > > Cornie > > > -- > Cornie Huizenga > Joint Convener > Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport > Mobile: +86 13901949332 > cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org > www.slocat.net > -------------------------------------------------------- > To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit > http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, > equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries > (the 'Global South'). > From cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org Tue Jan 31 12:00:14 2012 From: cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org (Cornie Huizenga) Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:00:14 +0800 Subject: [sustran] Re: A number that takes your breath away! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Sudhir, I fully agree that spending by countries and cities on transport is much larger than that by development banks. This was also extensively discussed last week at Transforming Transportation 2012 in Washington DC. We have often spoken about the next decade as a critical window of opportunity in which the future of transport systems in several countries will be determined. Reading the news about India this seems to be very much the case. We have a situation in which the problems *and *the solutions are clear. Continued unrestrained motorization will further clog the cities and result in the equivalent of "brown outs" to the transport system in many cities. This is also becoming increasingly clear to at least part of the decision makers for urban and transport planning. In addition there are now tested and proven solutions e.g. BRT. Metro, NMT etc. The challenge is however that the motorization process is not taking a break so that we can put in place our sustainable transport solutions. It continues at a breakneck speed encouraged by the $ 21 billion advertising machine. And transport pricing is overall still largely in favor of individual transport. The news that is coming out of India is very interesting. I see an administrative system, parts of which are starting to mobilize against the business as usual scenario. Increasing amounts of money are being mobilized in name often for sustainable mobility but in reality large parts are still in support of the old paradigm of creating additional road space for the growing number of cars (see the reports on Pune which you quote and which were very nicely documented by Parisar last year). One interesting remark by Sophie from CAI-Asia last week in Washington. "We were very happy to have over 1,000 persons at the urban mobility meeting in Delhi in December, yet the India autoshow in January attracted over 10,000 persons". Coming back to the window of opportunity argument. It is almost impossible to go a sustainable transport meeting these days which does not have scaling-up and mainstreaming as key theme of the meeting. The organizers of Transforming Transportation tried this time to go beyond the well known faces and to bring in fresh ideas in support of the scaling up required. This included for example people working on a project to bring in the sovereign wealth funds and pension funds to radically scale up sustainable transport financing. The challenge that I see for the coming years in countries like India are three fold: (a) how to re-orient urban (transport) financing to more sustainable transport systems in a manner which is quick and large enough to create an alternative transport reality which will crowd out private cars. This most likely will need and national and city funding as well as MDB funding and additional inputs from new sources of funding (think private sector). It is interesting to see that while we all speak about scaling up that estimates of required funding for (sustainable) transport systems are still relatively imprecise and a closer look in many cases will tell you that the trillions which are said to be necessary are in many cases a mixture of traditional road based infrastructure and what we label as sustainable transport infrastructure and services; (b) how to fund the sustainable transport infrastructure and services we are constructing. My view is that not having a clear understanding and policy on that actually holds back the quick roll-out of sustainable transport systems. Would you as a city administrator be go-hung on expanding a system which you are not certain how to maintain and operate? At the same time however because of current flaws in taxing and fuel pricing private motorization continues to rapidly expand; (c) how to physically restrict the growth in the number of vehicles while expanding sustainable transport infrastructure and services. This is what I would call the Beijing lesson. Beijing tried first to build its way out of congestion (it now has 7 ring roads) and after that it tried to solve the problem by rapidly expanding public transport (Metro, Bus, BRT) and lowering its price. They are realizing however now that unless you restrict the number of new vehicles coming onto the road that you will not be able to make a real difference. Similar situations can be found in other cities like e.g. Mexico where the number of trips in newly constructed BRTs are overshadowed by the rapid year on year growth in number of cars which in the case of metropolitan Mexico City is 500,000 per year. Through the SLoCaT partnership we expect to make financing of *sustainable*transport infrastructure and systems one of our focal points of activities in 2012. This in support also of two intergovernmental meetings on sustainable transport which are planned for Asia and Latin America under the umbrella of the regional EST Forums in these two continents. In addition we understand that ITF and UITP are also making (urban) transport financing one of the main themes of their flagship events in 2013. Cornie PS Can you send me the IUTINDIA report, it does not download here in China. On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 10:09 AM, Sudhir wrote: > Dear Cornie, > > Continuing this further... > > The investment by cities on urban transport are many times more than the > development banks. Metropolitan cities like Bangalore are seeking like 1 > billion USD/year for next twenty years. Delhi invested more than 2 billion > $ for 'improving' transport within 4-5 years for commonwealth > games. According to the latest estimates, India is planning to invest like > 15 billion USD/year on urban transport. If you scale this up for the entire > Asia and look at massive investment on intercity roads... you would be > looking at a very very big number. > > See - http://www.iutindia.org/ntdpc/draftrep_onNTUD_3rdjune11.pdf > > http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/city-needs-rs-125-lakh-cr-for-infra-says-gowda/454718/ > > How it ends up being actually used is entirely a new challenge - see > http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_central-funds-used-to-just-widen-pune-roads_1642975 > > regards > > > On 30 January 2012 23:27, Cornie Huizenga < > cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org> wrote: > >> Dear All, >> >> >From time to time you come across a number that takes your breath away. I >> just had another one of those. The last few months we have been working on >> getting sustainable transport on the Rio+20 agenda. As part of this we >> looked at the current spending by Multilateral Development Banks on >> Transport projects. We were quite impressed by the total number that came >> up at the end: somewhere between $ 25 and $ 30 billion in 2010. Mind you >> this includes all transport spending, the sustainable projects and the >> not-so sustainable ones: the BRTs, the metro's, the rural roads and the >> highways. Then just now I came across the estimated advertising budget >> of >> major auto companies in 2009 in a recent EMBARQ report: >> >> $ 21 billion dollars (mind you that does not include advertising for >> fuel). >> >> You can see the smile on the face of the auto manufacturers and the >> advertising agencies when they see our efforts to promote sustainable >> transport :-( >> >> Cornie >> >> >> -- >> Cornie Huizenga >> Joint Convener >> Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport >> Mobile: +86 13901949332 >> cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org >> www.slocat.net >> -------------------------------------------------------- >> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit >> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss >> >> ================================================================ >> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, >> equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries >> (the 'Global South'). >> > > -- Cornie Huizenga Joint Convener Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport Mobile: +86 13901949332 cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org www.slocat.net