[sustran] Stop building elevated corridors in the city!

[Vinay Baindur]

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/bangalore-sustainable-transport-solutions





Stop building elevated corridors in the city!

Building elevated roads is a case of needing bigger pants because one
continues to eat unhealthy food. How big can the pant be? What's the
implication of big bodies and bigger pants in the long run? asks Sathya
Sankaran.

Sathya Sankaran <http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/author/sathya-sankaran>,
07 Apr 2016 , Citizen Matters
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Elevated road on Hosur road. Pic. source : skyscrapercity.com
*What's the problem?*

Work commute is taking a hit with traffic congestion on the roads
increasing. Since the problem is on the road, the solution has been to
increase it and remove perceived obstructions like signals, pedestrians etc
from the line of sight of the car to increase speed.

One can draw an analogy to an obese person taking on too much comfort food
because it feels good and now he/she needs bigger pants. He/she fails to
notice that this is potentially fatal in the long run with illness and
diseases in the medium term.
*What are the implications?*

The implications of this road capacity journey is dire. All capacity leads
to a net addition to congestions, pollution and carbon footprint. The
capacity addition is finite and we are crossing the limits every time.
Microclimate changes including heat from motors and loss of green cover
make the surface miserable for everyone, making them get into the comfort
of closed air-conditioned places, thereby increasing the heat and polluting
compounds transferred into the atmosphere. It a vicious cycle. Bengaluru is
among the top two cities in the country affected by this.

*Call to action*

Internalise this solution. Stand for supporting it in your daily
interactions with other people,Sign the petition
<https://www.change.org/p/chief-minister-stop-building-elevated-corridors-in-the-city?recruiter=25858801andutm_source=share_petitionandutm_medium=copylink>
so
we can tell this to the powers that be.

*Experts have spoken*
*What are the potential solutions?*

*Short term:*

   -

   Build barricaded bus lanes on existing carriage way and increase
   frequency to three minutes headway on east west north south corridors so
   maximum traffic can move on them. Buy articulated buses or replace with
   Trams trains to increase carrying capacity per trip all on the surface.
   Barricaded lanes need to start with wider roads like ring roads and
   highways like Bellary, Tumkur and Airport roads which already have the
   bandwidth and carry regular commuters.

*Medium term:*

   -

   Commission suburban trains to the Airport from electronic city, along
   the IT corridor and segments like Ramanagara/Tumkur to whitefield. This can
   catalyze heavy traffic movement on tracks which have uninterrupted right of
   way and can be done on existing train tracks so the expenses and speed of
   rollout can be very less. The challenges are for the state to sit with
   Indian railways and make this happen. It requires dedication and
   commitment. All metros in India have it and are benefitting from it. Only
   Bangalore does not. Why?
   -

   Private transport disincentive Implement paid parking and let congestion
   be a natural disincentive for switch to public transport. Private transport
   disincentive is extremely critical to public transport adoption. There is
   no other alternative as proven world over.

*Long term:*

   -

   Reengineer the current at grade to have uniform carriage way and remove
   chicken necks with proper merging distances and traffic channelization
   strategies. There will be a need to address obstructions at chicken necks
   alone which may be troublesome to acquire. But if the plan is presented,
   eminent domain on smaller properties is better than spoiling the entire
   city with projects which don't solve problems.
   -

   Build sidewalks and cycle tracks on arterial corridors. It's a much
   neglected but highly beneficial infrastructure which makes everything work
   better. There is a huge population in IT cities who are young, fancy cycle
   commute and public transport but we are deliberately underinvesting in
   these and not steering it in the right direction
   -

   Buses and tram trains to areas *not* covered by commuter rail

*My city, Portland, Oregon in the United States, stopped building freeways
over 40 years ago because they are the most expensive, damaging and least
effective solution to the problems posed by growth. Portland's focus on
good transit along with inexpensive improvements for cyclists and
pedestrians has worked to reduce pollution and traffic deaths as well as
supporting a booming economy despite doubling in population during that
time.*

- Rex Burkholder, former Councillor in Portland's Metro Regional
Government, now an author and a strategic advisor for urban affairs
*What are the incentives?*

There is no incentive for long term thinking right now within the
citizenry, business and political class. Most people end up trying to solve
the pressing problem without realizing the long term impact. How do we get
to deferred rewards which are more beneficial in the long run? Who is
responsible for thinking about it and making everyone go towards it? Where
is that leadership?

Politicians give in to pressure for immediate solutions to mitigate
backlash and remain popular. Most medium and long term solutions like
public transport, pedestrian and cyclist friendly streets have taken a back
seat due to the need to fix road bandwidth issue. It has always been a
catch up.
*Why do a series of short term stop gaps end up getting done?*

Because it does feel comfortable in larger pants for a while. You will get
relief for a few years but Induced demand is a well proven concept in
transportation. The more road capacity you build the more it attracts
vehicles, new ones.  It has been shown that the added lanes get full in as
little as 5 years. Is it worth building all that for just a 5 year relief?
In fact even in the Mecca of cars, California’s Department of
Transportation (aka Caltrans) has admitted to the futility of increasing
lanes in a brief called “Increasing Highway Capacity Unlikely to Relieve
Traffic Congestion,” compiled by UC-Davis scholar Susan Handy.2  US
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx “...we now have the clarity of many
decades of hindsight,” he said on a call today. “Unfortunately instead of
connecting us to each other, highway planners separated us.”3
*What does this lead to?*

   -

   A better city with a better quality of life and sustainable transport.
   -

   Predictable and reliable commute
   -

   No road rage, swearing, stress etc.
   -

   Better health
   -

   Increased business
   -

   Better air to breathe
   -

   Walkable public spaces and active communities
   -

   Lesser dependence on fossil fuels and lower fuel import bill

*Frequently made arguments:*

*“Bangalore isn’t Amsterdam, ok?”*

   -

   *Not yet, and it's not like Amsterdam is from Venus or Mars, they are
   also people from planet earth like you and me. It's not just Amsterdam, now
   almost all countries are making the switch to sustainable modes and tearing
   down elevated highways*
   -

   *Not long ago, we wanted to make Bangalore another Singapore remember.
   We also want to mimic other countries by building fancy interchanges for
   cars like trumpet, clover leaf etc, large elevated highways, metro, bullet
   train etc, why not walking and cycling like Amsterdam?*

*“Long-term solutions take time. We need to alleviate issues now.”*

   -

   There have been no investments in long term solutions like bus lanes and
   commuter rail. There haven't even been any positive moves in that regard.
   Bus lanes and commuter rail can be deployed faster than the pillars can
   come up. Also the elevated highways aren't really solutions that can be
   considered temporary that can be used to alleviate sufferings. It takes a
   huge toll on the cityscape and environment, we are better off biting the
   bullet and making the long term and medium term solutions work. The
   construction itself will be so painful that the alleviation at the end of
   it will be useless.

*“India has tried stuff like bicycle lanes and BRT. All these projects have
failed.”*

   -

   *They take time and need to be given the proper time to mature. Also
   they have been done in small measures, these don’t work unless there is
   scale and full commitment. Also, it's not like the current road building is
   actually working. It’s failing everywhere all across the world.*
   -

   *No public transport incentive has worked anywhere without a
   commensurate private transport disincentive. Across the world, parking is
   prohibitively expensive and congestion charges are levied to get people to
   give up the car addiction. Compared to here where parking is free and you
   are being pampered with road space again and again, why would you even
   bother with public transport?*

*I get it, but I just need the jam on my way to work to clear up now*

   -

   *Sorry, it's only going to get worse if you actually try to build your
   way out of it. And the relief after the pain is going to be short-lived. If
   you don't buy that bigger pant today, you will stop eating that junk
   tomorrow. The politicians will be long gone, it's you and your kids who
   will be left holding the mess. You need to get on the public transport
   diet, the car comfort food will only get you killed the longer you stick to
   it. Why do you think cities are tearing down elevated freeways, it's not
   because they have nothing else to do.*

*Further reading:*

   -


   http://gizmodo.com/look-how-much-better-a-city-can-be-when-it-designs-for-176085971
   <http://gizmodo.com/look-how-much-better-a-city-can-be-when-it-designs-for-1760859711>
   -


   http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23466-feb-4-1974-portland-kills-the-mount-hood-freeway.html
   -


   http://gizmodo.com/6-freeway-removals-that-changed-their-cities-forever-1548314937

*References*

1
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/others/Bengaluru-and-Hyd-are-the-worst-for-commuters/articleshow/51591411.cms

2
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/11/californias-dot-admits-that-more-roads-mean-more-traffic/415245/

3
http://gizmodo.com/building-highways-through-cities-was-a-huge-mistake-but-176805007
<http://gizmodo.com/building-highways-through-cities-was-a-huge-mistake-but-1768050078>
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Sathya Sankaran <http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/author/sathya-sankaran>

Sathya Sankaran, is a founding member with Citizens for Sustainability
(CiFoS) an NGO working towards sustainable neighbourhoods, and a civic
public problem solver for the past 10 years.