[sustran] Re: FW: Traffic in India

[Alan Howes]

I'd call it making the best of a bad job.  But just try crossing the road as a pedestrian - or getting along it in a bus. Average speed of buses in Mumbai is 15 kph (off-peak, actually slower than the am peak), and getting worse.  It would be worse, but the drivers are incentivised on trips completed (i.e. paid to go fast), while the conductors are incentivised on fares collected.  The former is the reason why buses pull away from stops with people still fighting to get on.
 
The only reason a lot more people don't get killed is that the speeds are pretty low.
 
Alan
 
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Alan Howes
Associate Transport Planner
Colin Buchanan
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________________________________

From: sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org on behalf of Brendan Finn
Sent: Mon 24/04/2006 18:00
To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport
Subject: [sustran] Re: FW: Traffic in India


Dear Paul,
 
Thanks for that link, it really captures it.
 
Don't you agree that it just flows? Everyone gets through so much quicker than if there were traffic signals, and you get no tailbacks. Of course, it gives the screaming heebie-jeebies to people who must always have their cutlery properly arranged, creases in their newspapers, and everything just 'so', but to the people who are in the thick of it, they're just getting on with it.
 
As it happens, I shot a similar video last summer in Urumqi, except there's also a pedestrian crossing going through it which is freely used by the cars doing u-turns. I started to video it to show people how bad the traffic and driving was. After 10 minutes of filming I realised that it all worked rather well, and felt suitably humbled about my prejudices.
 
With best wishes, 
 
 
Brendan.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
>From Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd.   e-mail : etts at indigo.ie   tel : +353.87.2530286

	----- Original Message ----- 
	From: Paul Barter <mailto:paulbarter at nus.edu.sg>  
	To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport <mailto:sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>  
	Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 8:14 AM
	Subject: [sustran] FW: Traffic in India

	A wonderful video clip of an Indian intersection working in ways most
	traffic engineers would never imagine in their wildest dreams. If you
	have never seen traffic in South Asia then this might come as something
	of a shock. 
	
	> 
	> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM
	> 
	
	Paul
	
	
	================================================================
	SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia.
	
	


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