[sustran] Buses should move cities_the Hindu 27 March 2012

[Sujit Patwardhan]

27 March 2012


True to form the Times of India Delhi has been carrying on
an insidious campaign against the BRT in Delhi based on (among other
obvious reasons) the mistaken conclusion that motor vehicle lanes are being
clogged *because *of the BRT dedicated lanes.

They refuse to understand that buses (with a capacity of 50 to 70
passengers) deserve priority over individual personal transport - cars-
that carry on an average 1.2 to 1.5 persons per car. The Hindu on the other
hand is up to date on the latest thinking on transport and mobility issues
and strongly emphasises that *Buses should move cities*.

Do read this excellent editorial.
(Thank you Leo Saldanha of ESG, Bangalore for sharing this)

--
Sujit


nsc


 http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article3248186.ece

 [image: Return to frontpage] <http://www.thehindu.com/>

  Opinion <http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/>»
Editorial<http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/> Published:
March 27, 2012 00:03 IST | Updated: March 27, 2012 00:03 IST March 27, 2012

  Share<http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindu.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorial%2Farticle3248186.ece%3Fcss%3Dprint&t=The%20Hindu%20%3A%20Opinion%20%2F%20Editorial%20%3A%20Buses%20should%20move%20cities&src=sp>
    Buses should move cities

With our cities facing a severe mobility crisis, nothing could be more
perverse and unintelligent than to argue against improving public
transport. Strange as it may seem, Delhi, which is reeling under chronic
congestion, has been doing just that. Following the recent State
government's announcement to expand the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in
the city, vested-interest groups are aggressively promoting debates that
question the usefulness of bus transport, and denounce the virtues of the
proposal. They criticise the move to dedicate lanes in 38 important road
corridors exclusively for bus services because this would reduce the space
used by private vehicles. Delhi has one of the largest urban road networks
in the country, but it has not benefited from this because low-capacity
transport modes such as cars occupy a substantial part of the road. Though
the road network cannot be expanded much more, private vehicles are rapidly
growing — at the rate of 1000 vehicles a day. As a result, the roads carry
traffic volumes exceeding their capacity, leading to congestion. This has
reduced journey speeds and helped ruin the environment. The recent air
quality data shows Delhi is now the worst polluted city in the country.

Not only Delhi, other large Indian cities must radically rethink their
transportation plans. City managers need to realise that the only way to
ensure urban mobility in the long run is if more and more people make trips
using public transportation. Hence, in any future proposal, buses have to
remain as the major mode of transport. The BRTS, in particular, would play
a critical role in shifting modal behaviour because it would offer the best
door-to-door connectivity, and at relatively low cost. Realising this, the
expert group on urban transport constituted ahead of the Twelfth Five-Year
Plan has recommended an investment of more than Rs. 50,000 crore to augment
bus transport in the next five years. As the pilot BRTS project in Delhi
and the success story of Ahmedabad show, plying well-designed buses and
opening dedicated lanes alone will not deliver. Integrating other modes of
travel, installing an efficient signal system, improving travel information
and running a reliable and safe service are imperative. European cities
which have proactively invested in public transport have gone a few steps
further. Using intelligent transport systems, they have delivered smart
electronic ticketing and payment, and managed travel demand better. *Equally
important is the need to improve pedestrian paths that bring people to the
buses. This is where the future of Indian urban transport lies.*




-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*[image: Inline image 1]
*
*
*
*Parisar*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sujit Patwardhan
patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
sujit at parisar.org <sujitjp at gmail.com>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 14000 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20120327/8a982fc5/attachment.jpe
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 4458 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.jca.apc.org/public/sustran-discuss/attachments/20120327/8a982fc5/attachment.gif