[sustran] Re: Sustainable transport and the medi a (in India, and Bogotá, and...)

[John Ernst]

The Jakarta busway also becomes news whenever a 
busway bus is involved in a collision, though 
this seemed to be more prominent during the first 
years.  When the police asked me about this, I 
asked them if they had compared the rate of 
collisions per passenger km involving busway 
buses versus other modes --  they had not.

Because BRT is a government-managed service, the 
BRT buses generally have much better records of 
collisions than private vehicles -- making them an easy target.

The media theme that Carlos' raises is very 
important.  Some NGO's in Jakarta feel there was 
an orchestrated campaign against the busway last 
fall.  It is perhaps not coincidental that 
Jakarta's oft-planned rail project was 
re-initiated last year.  That may be overly 
conspiratorial.  However, when ITDP was 
discussing BRT with Hyderabad, India a few years 
back, it was clear that the rail and monorail 
interests were providing the government with lot of anti-BRT arguments.

Best,
John Ernst
www.itdp.org

At 06:30 PM 2/18/2008, Carlosfelipe Pardo wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Something similar happened late last year with Bogotá and its BRT/LRT/metro
>discussion. Though plans are now underway for its phase 3, there were many
>press articles from El Tiempo (the major national newspaper) which were
>strongly lobbying building any type of rail- based solution in one of the
>trunk lines of the city. It was also linked to the campaigns of the
>candidates for mayors (Peñalosa and Moreno, the latter pro-rail). Some of us
>who normally wrote articles there suggested the newspaper to let us publish
>something to "neutralize" the very polarized debate, but no attention was
>paid to us. Instead, they provided biased information about rail projects
>from some places in the world (including the elevated rail from Medellín
>which was a financial disaster), while manipulating numbers on costs of
>trunk lines (using the highest costs of BRT vs the lowest costs of an LRT,
>which were almost the same), capacity (using the lower capacity numbers of
>BRT and comparing to the highest capacity numbers of metros) and other
>information such as "world-class cities have subways" (which could be more
>like "built, but would have rather built a BRT in some cases").
>
>The sad thing is that readers of the newspaper (i.e.  most citizens) may now
>think that BRT is a low-quality mass transit solution, while rail-based
>solutions are "that which we'll never have because of ignorance of technical
>people" or whatever.  Additional to that, those of us who were critical of
>rail-based solutions for low-demand corridors (such as the Avenida Septima,
>with 10,000 pphpd) were just told "you are with Peñalosa, so you are
>biased". Politics is deeply intertwined with transport now, especially when
>speaking of mass transit options.
>
>However, as I said, plans for the next phase of TransMilenio are underway.
>The city will now spend some (more) money on feasibility studies for a metro
>(I think it's the 15th time in 40 years, the last one being developed in
>1997 or so), since everybody wants a rail-based solution, no matter where or
>at what cost (and if possible, underground or elevated, because "it won't
>fit elsewhere"). The ideal would be that, if we have a metro, it should be
>at a reasonable cost and in the proper corridor (most probably, Avenida
>Caracas). The national government said they will support a metro only if (a)
>there is no need for subsidy and (b) there is an adequate level of demand.
>Let's hope that the result of the study is not a self-fulfilling prophecy...
>it wouldn't be the first time. In the meantime, cars are bumper to bumper
>and we still don't have the Nano here.
>
>But I don't want to divert the discussion from the issue of the Times of
>India. I just wanted to highlight the importance that the media has on these
>issues and that we need to see which are good ways to solve this. In
>Bangkok, we once sent an article to a newspaper with information on what 1
>million USD would do in mass transit options (we showed a map with the
>results for LRT, subway and BRT), plus some info on what BRT is, etc. Call
>it lobbying from the other side if you like, but it was a good experience.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Carlosfelipe Pardo
>Coordinador de Proyecto- Project Coordinator
>GTZ - Proyecto de Transporte Sostenible (SUTP, SUTP-LAC)
>Cl 93A # 14-17 of 708
>Bogotá D.C., Colombia
>Tel/fax:  +57 (1) 236 2309  Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
>carlos.pardo at gtz.de        www.gtz.de
>(carlos.pardo at sutp.org   www.sutp.org )
>
>
>
>Simon Bishop wrote:
>
>Hi Madhav,
>
>I have been following much of the Times of India polemic over the BRT
>system these last few days.  To highlight the danger of the road
>configuration they have focussed on a collision involving a grade separator
>and the death of a motorcyclist who had died at 3 a.m after a night without
>sleep and consumption of alcohol.
>
>Any road death is tragic.  Our thoughts rest with this young man's family.
>At the same time the paper can't ignore the other 85,000 road deaths a year
>in India.  Why single this death out and use it to rubbish the BRT?  Most
>road deaths occur on high speed roads where pedestrians, cyclists and the
>disabled have no facility be it crossing or pavement.  Some need to cross
>for their livelihoods, others because they want to walk or cycle (children
>especially), but all are always ignored by the traffic engineer as 'the
>elephant in the room', a problem to be designed out of existence.  By
>contrast the BRT will have crossings.
>
>I propose that the Times of India, in the pursuit of balanced reporting,
>should write about the absence of a speed control strategy, or rather the
>presence of a speed encouragement strategy with flyovers and guard
>railings, lulling the motorist into a false aspiration that his journey
>will always be unencumbered.  Where do you see guardrailings?  At the
>racecourse.  The lack of accessible pedestrian  and cycle crossings only
>adds to the lethal cocktail and forces desperate measures.  I look forward
>to the The Times of India campaign to educate drivers about the tragic
>consequences of speed and careless driving.  I also look forward to the
>Times persuading drivers that they must face more congestion sooner or
>later and lobbying for accessible crossings that follow desire lines.
>Maybe someone could work out the journey time savings for all the
>beneficiaries and build an economic case for it?!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Sustainable transport and the media in India ...
>       (Madhav Badami, Prof.)
>    2. Re: Sustainable transport and the media in India ...
>       (Madhav Badami, Prof.)
>    3. Re: Sustainable transport and the media in India ...
>       (Sujit Patwardhan)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:57:47 -0500
>From: "Madhav Badami, Prof." <madhav.g.badami at mcgill.ca>
><madhav.g.badami at mcgill.ca>
>Subject: [sustran] Sustainable transport and the media in India ...
>To: "Sustran Resource Centre" <sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org>
><sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org>
>Cc: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com, shovan1209 at yahoo.com,
>              gerardn at rhd.gov.bd
>Message-ID:
>
><45AEE06A4800AF4FAD8BEF09C433D85F06325684 at EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca>
><45AEE06A4800AF4FAD8BEF09C433D85F06325684 at EXCHANGE2VS2.campus.mcgill.ca>
>
>Content-Type: text/plain;            charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Greetings all,
>
>I thank Yasmin Chowdhury for her ?Pricing public transit:  learning from
>Bangkok?, and Saiful Alam (and Eric Britton) for posting it. Yasmin?s
>piece, and Lee?s response to it, reminded me of the attack that some
>newspapers in Delhi (chiefly The Pioneer and the Times of India) launched
>over several days on the High Capacity Bus System (HCBS), the BRT system
>being currently implemented there. The items in these newspapers not only
>criticized the implementation of the system, and its appropriateness for
>Delhi, but the very concept of BRT, besides personally attacking Dinesh
>Mohan of IIT Delhi, who, along with his colleague Geetam Tiwari, proposed
>and conceptualized it.
>
>Two of the items, titled ?Experts Order Serial Rape of Delhi Roads:
>Mindless HCBS plan derails traffic, destroys greenery, leaves city gasping?
>and ?Will somebody wake up to stop this HCBS madness??, both of which
>appeared as ?investigation? pieces in The Pioneer on November 6 and 7, may
>be accessed at:
>
>http://www.dailypioneer.com/archives2/default12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story5%2Etxt&counter_img=5&phy_path_it=E%3A%5Cdailypioneer%5Carchives2%5Cnov607
>
>
>http://www.dailypioneer.com/archives2/default12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story6%2Etxt&counter_img=6&phy_path_it=E%3A%5Cdailypioneer%5Carchives2%5Cnov707
>
>
>The Times of India, a leading English language national daily effectively
>made the same claims as in the above items, in several pieces, including
>one titled ?Buses Hog Space, Cars Squeezed Out? on November 16.
>
>Feeling compelled to respond to these items (whose titles betray their
>general tone and content), I wrote an article in which I attempted to rebut
>them point by point, and sent it off to The Hindu, another leading English
>language national daily. My article was not published as it was originally
>written, because it was felt by the editor to be ?polemical?, and too long.
>But he did publish (on December 5) a considerably condensed version in
>which I removed specific references to the pieces in the Times of India and
>the Pioneer.
>
>In the end, I was thankful for his decision, because, although it denied me
>the opportunity to directly confront various specific claims made in the
>pieces (such as, for example, that the decision to implement BRT was sold
>by a cabal of experts to decision makers who accepted it in a hurry ?
>actually, it was approved after having been debated and scrutinized at
>length in various official committees since the mid-1990s), it resulted in
>what I believe is a more carefully argued and tightly focused article,
>which may be accessed at:
>
>http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/05/stories/2007120553611000.htm
>
>Apart from arguing that BRT systems have the potential, when properly
>designed and implemented, to be low cost mass transit solutions that are
>appropriate for rapidly motorizing, low-income country cities, I placed the
>issue of BRT (and more generally, mass transit) in a larger context, by
>making the case that policies to appropriately price and curb personal
>motor vehicle use, and provide accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists,
>are important for enhancing the effectiveness of mass transit, allowing all
>modes (including cars and other personal motor vehicles) to operate more
>efficiently, mitigating rapidly worsening urban transport impacts, and
>promoting social justice on our roads.
>
>My purpose is not only to share my article (to which I welcome your
>critical comments) but also to demonstrate what we are up against in
>confronting the elite interests represented and served by the mainstream
>media (with their pro-car, highway, flyovers, and metro, and
>anti-pedestrian, NMT and bus transit prejudices), and arguing for more
>environmentally sustainable and socially equitable alternatives. It is
>little wonder that the Tata Nano has been largely applauded in the same
>media as the greatest thing since sliced bread (or, if you wish, masala
>dosa) ? including, as I recall, for the rural masses of this country, who
>ostensibly have no unmet needs other than a 1-1.5 lakh rupee car.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Madhav
>
>************************************************************************
>
>"As for the future, your task is not to foresee, but to enable it."
>Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>
>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); 514-486-2370 (Home)
>Fax: 514-398-8376; 514-398-1643
>URLs: www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning
>www.mcgill.ca/mse
>e-mail: madhav.badami at mcgill.ca
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