[sustran] Re: Bangalore is among the worst cities in India for pedestrians

[Madhav Badami, Prof.]

Eric, Vinay et al,

In late 2009, I wrote the attached article on this very topic, for the Economic and Political Weekly in India, rather than an academic journal in the West -- not that it did much good.

Here is an excerpt:

"The sorry plight of pedestrians was brought home most poignantly to me late one evening in Delhi, as I was speeding along in a taxi on Lodhi Road, when the taxi headlights caught a group of pall-bearers dashing across the road towards the crematorium, with a corpse precariously balanced on its bier. A recent example of how urban transport policy and planning is focused exclusively on motor vehicles, without any concern for people, is the largely “signal free” highway linking Yelahanka and the new BIAL airport in Bangalore, on which automobiles travel at speeds considerably above the posted limit, with the result that the highway has become a “death trap” for hapless pedestrians and area residents, with 17 road traffic fatalities and 36 injuries in the first five weeks after the highway was opened (Kurup and Gandhi 2008). There are countless other such examples, perhaps the most egregious of which is the AIIMS interchange in the nation’s capital, which is
designed as if people on foot did not exist, right in front of the nation’s premier medical institution, to which countless patients flock, many of whom have no access to motor vehicles."

The question is, how do we effectively band together and advocate to make planning for pedestrians and cyclists an integral part of urban transport policy, if not its very foundation, as I tried to argue that it ought to be?

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)
Fax: 514-398-8376; 514-398-1643
URLs: www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning
www.mcgill.ca/mse
e-mail: madhav.badami at mcgill.ca
________________________________________
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+madhav.g.badami=mcgill.ca at list.jca.apc.org [sustran-discuss-bounces+madhav.g.badami=mcgill.ca at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf Of eric britton [eric.britton at ecoplan.org]
Sent: 09 August 2011 06:46
To: 'Vinay Baindur'; 'Hu Gov'; 'Hasire Usiru'; 'CAF2'
Cc: sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org
Subject: [sustran] Bangalore is among the worst cities in India for pedestrians

A Hall of Shame for Bangalore??



Is there a good case for calling it The Worst City in India for Pedestrians -- and then set out to "prove" it one by one, step by awful step.



The angle: "citizens including people with disabilities, the visually impaired and the elderly, who face problems while walking on the roads" seems absolutely central.



If so, this would make a fine article for World Streets.



It also may be important for next year's Transed 2012 conference in New Delhi.  And the Accès Universal conference at UNESCO in January.



Does this make any sense to anyone here?



Eric britton





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