[sustran] Re: the single concept of EQUITY

ashok datar datar.ashok at gmail.com
Fri Jul 27 13:37:30 JST 2012


madhav , anjali and others

you have brought some very important and meaningful concepts of equity and
ethics to the debate. but I would like to bring some basic ground realities
of Indian road use

2/3 of all cars have drivers whose job is only to drive and park
on congested arteries, there is free for all . constant anarchy. passengers
stand on road and buses in the middle blocking two cars behind. ( hence if
a bus uses discilined use of only one lane, it is even good for the cars
at the destination, there is parking anarchy
if we can achieve some migration from cars to buses - say 10 to 20% and
some reduction in the cars thru car pooling ( say 10 to 20% ) we will be
able to attain higher thruput, higher speeds, lower emissions and fuel
consumption per person km
it is a truly win win for all
but then we must also apply higher priced and restricted ( and tightly
enforced) parking rules at destination. this together with bus priority in
any appropriate form for the ground realities , will achieve some quick
wins leading to virtuous cycle
ashok datar

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 11:22 PM, eric britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>wrote:

> Madhav and others,
>
> I could not agree more. Bearing in mind that economics is in fact a branch
> of moral philosophy (True for Adam Smith and true too for us today if you
> think about it), in situations like this where some folks and schools have
> run amuck with unthoughtout mechanistic notions that confuse economics with
> a sort of indifferent plumbing, it is always a good idea to look around and
> try to figure out what really is going on.
>
> So when you talk about Chambers ("putting the last first") and Gandhi, let
> me add to your pantheon the great democrat Victor Hugo who put it more of
> less like this (my translation and memory): We must learn to replace the
> notion of charity with a far better one, solidarity.
>
> The point in all this being that if we get our ethics right, we are going
> to
> be far less likely to run into these silly and oh so harmful "traps of
> technicity gone berserk").
>
> Now back to EQUITY!
>
> Eric Britton
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Madhav Badami, Prof. [mailto:madhav.g.badami at mcgill.ca]
> Sent: Thursday, 26 July, 2012 19:14
> To: FEKBRITTON
> Subject: RE: the single concept of EQUITY
>
> Eric,
>
> I agree. If our fundamental objectives in public policy are just and
> equitable, and we put the last first, to paraphrase Robert Chambers, and
> give voice to the voiceless, including the environment, all else follows,
> as
> the night the day. As Mahatma Gandhi -- sadly forgotten in the land of his
> birth -- said, it is futile to dream up systems (and may I say, analytical
> approaches) so perfect that no one will need to be good. This is precisely
> why I said the fault is not in our analytical approaches, but in ourselves;
> and that transport policy, like all public policy (whether related to urban
> transport or public sanitation in India or health care in the USA), is
> fundamentally about ethics and politics, and only then about science,
> technology, and economics.
>
> Madhav
>
> ************************************************************************
>
> "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." --
> George
> Orwell
>
> Madhav G. Badami, PhD
> School of Urban Planning and McGill School of Environment McGill University
>
> Macdonald-Harrington Building
> 815 Sherbrooke Street West
> Montreal, QC, H3A 2K6, Canada
>
> Phone: 514-398-3183 (Work)
> Fax: 514-398-8376; 514-398-1643
> URLs: www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning
> www.mcgill.ca/mse
> e-mail: madhav.badami at mcgill.ca
> ________________________________________
> From: FEKBRITTON [fekbritton at gmail.com]
> Sent: 26 July 2012 12:53
> To: Madhav Badami, Prof.; 'Anjali Mahendra'; 'Alok Jain'
> Cc: worldtransport at yahoogroups.com; NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com;
> 'Sustainable Transport in the south'
> Subject: the single concept of EQUITY
>
> Not meaning to talk all the time about the same subject, but our position
> (my position) is that if we wisely  base all aspects of our
> transport/mobility system investments and policies on the single concept of
> EQUITY, just about all the injustices and stupidities (and heresies -- I
> liked that a lot Alok) wash right out of the system.  ( A bit on that in
> process at http://equitytransport.wordpress.com/.)
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
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>
> ================================================================
> 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.*


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