[sustran] Re: Pedestrian Budget

[Syed Saiful Alam]

No footover bridges in the name of clean air!!

No footover bridges in the name of clean air!!
The World Bank, under its Clean Air Project, is building many footover (pedestrian) bridges in Dhaka. This is wrong on at least two counts. The point of footover bridges is to facilitate the movement of cars, which pollute. Meanwhile, they hinder the movement of pedestrians, who do not. Efforts to improve air quality should focus on improving the situation of non-motorized transport, including walking. It does not make sense to penalize pedestrians in the name of clean air. In fact, street-level crossings (zebra crossings or crosswalks) would help to smooth ear traffic; as it is, cars rush to the next stoplight, only to sit and wait. Most cities around the world have stopped building footover bridges and torn down existing ones, as they are extremely unpopular with pedestrians, do not reduce accidents, and do nothing to smooth traffic flow.
Second, it is the World Bank's policy that all new transport projects must incorporate Universally Accessible Design. There is no way that a person in a wheelchair, or most people with a disability, or even someone with a fairly minor problem walking, can use a footover bridge. A bridge equipped with an escalator is still unusable by a person in a wheelchair. It is obviously completely impractical to create bridges with lifts (elevators) throughout the city. Nor is there any reason to do something so wasteful and likely to land up broken and thus useless within a short period. Zebra crossings make street crossings easier for all users, and thus contribute to independent movement by all, as well as contributing to clean air.

 
 Syed Saiful Alam
+8801552442814
shovan1209 at yahoo.com

 

    On Tuesday, March 16, 2010 5:33 AM, Ian Perry <ianenvironmental at googlemail.com> wrote:
 

 Hi,

I have managed to find some information from the UK - though more a split of
how money is spent on pedestrians/road safety than for the entire budget.  I
hope this is interesting, if not useful.


In Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government's Local Road Safety Grant (2008/09)
of £313,000 to the Vale of Glamorgan council was budgeted as follows:

·      £98,500 to provide revenue for Road Safety Education Training and
Publicity.

·        £210,000 will be used for Road Safety Engineering Projects

·        £4,500 as a contingency fund.

>From the £210,000 budget, the change of a zebra crossing to a puffin
crossing in Cowbridge, cost £45,000 (£30,000 for the crossing plus an
additional £15,000 because they moved the crossing 20 metres down the road
to improve traffic flows).

http://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/our_council/council/minutes,_agendas__reports/reports/cabinet/2007/07-05-09/road_safety.aspx

nb. "some" of the budget went on consultants and employee salaries.


In Bridport in Dorset (UK), 2 years ago a Puffin crossing cost £26,000 to
install, at the same time a four way lights controlled junction was upgraded
from Pelicans to Puffins costing £85,000.  Last year the removal of a Zebra
crossing, resurfacing and installation of a Pelican crossing with pedestrian
'refuge' (caged) island cost £100,000.

For more information as to what traffic and pedestrian measures cost in the
UK, see Appendix A of:
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/item/wrap/Council/committee/2010/ne/ne003/0216_9.pdf

Shared space costs £75,000+

Zebra pedestrian crossing £15-25,000

Pedestrian ‘refuge’ island £10,000+


Infrastructure is expensive business!

Ian Perry



On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 5:22 AM, Sudhir <sudhir at cai-asia.org> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> We are searching for % of Budget allocated for pedestrians in our cities
> and
> unfortunately could not find many Asian cities.
>
> Do you know how much % of money authorities are planning  to invest on
> pedestrians in your city?
>
> thanks,
> Sudhir Gota
> Transport Specialist
> CAI-Asia Center
> Unit 3510, 35th Floor, Robinsons-Equitable Tower,
> ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City
> Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
> Tel: +63-2-395-2843
> Fax: +63-2-395-2846
> Visit our new portal: www.cleanairinitiative.org
> Skype : sudhirgota
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