Reinventing Transport

‘Complete Streets’ are spreading rapidly in India, according to Shreya Gadepalli of ITDP India , who I interviewed for Episode 2 of the Reinventing Transport podcast.   Chennai and Pune, in particular, are improving conditions for people on foot, on bicycles and in buses. We spoke about India but her comments are relevant internationally. Highlights from our conversation are below , followed by links to relevant documents and more detail about Shreya herself.  Right at the end you can read a full transcript . To listen use the player below OR  click here  OR search for "Reinventing Transport" in your podcast app OR scroll to the bottom to watch the Youtube video version.  The need for complete street improvements in India is enormous and urgent. “Less than one percent of streets in urban India actually have footpaths. There is almost no infrastructure for cycling and the majority of space is hogged by personal motor vehicles even though they...

This diagram is from a new presentation (see below) in which I make the following claims: "New Transit Cities" are especially relevant for newly motorizing cities (such as India’s cities) Cities that are now New Transit Cities were, in the past, faced with challenging circumstances similar to those facing India’s cities today (namely a flood of vehicles causing traffic saturation at a time when they lacked significant mass transit that was immune from traffic) After flirting with accommodating cars, the New Transit Cities all resisted the idea that cars are a necessity and acted to make sure cars remained optional.  Please take a look and tell me what you think in the comments. Let me know about any corrections or omissions. Do you agree? If you can't see the embedded SlideShare version below, then download the presentation from the CSE India website  (7MB pdf). Look to the new transit metropolises from Paul Barter By the way, I presented this ...

Just how bad can walking environments get? Answer: Very bad , as demonstrated in " Where are we to walk ?" a 9 minute video from Pune in Maharashtra, India.  Parisar explains who was behind the film : The film was conceptualised and shot by Susan Michet, an American student intern during her time in Pune in May 2009. The Alliance for Global Education funded Susan's stay and work in Pune, Janwani provided the office space and infrastructure, while Parisar provided the inputs regarding the content of the film. We also acknowledge Hema Gadgil's contribution of her voice-over to the film. After watching the film, do you have any ideas for our Indian friends? What can turn this around? Do you know of a city where things got this bad but which has since created a walkable city? Do you see redeeming features of Indian cities that offer some hope and which can part of the solution? For more on (un)walkable cities in Asia (especially South Asia) see also: ...

[Update: Looking for more parking policy information?   Try Reinventing Parking. ] I left a comment at PT's Parking Blog in response to this John Van Horn item and its first comment . My comment ended up quite long. I think it is worth cross-posting here. I have been looking into parking policy around Asia. A report on it should be out next month (with luck). It is true that Mumbai and Delhi have parking chaos and are now trying to follow the conventional suburban parking policy approach of minimum parking requirements with buildings. Dhaka, with car ownership below 50 per 1000 people, is doing the same. In a situation like that, is it really a good idea to force building managers and all of their customers to subsidize the parking of the tiny elite? So far, it is not working very well (see http://reinventingtransport.blogspot.com/2010/04/parking-dramas-in-south-asian-cities.html ). Off-street parking does not magically suck cars off the streets if the streets are easy and...

Many countries control the price of motor fuels. This got their budgets into deep trouble in the first half of 2008. The high price of oil caused massive budget blowouts. Malaysia, Indonesia, China and India among various others faced the politically painful necessity of raising gasoline and diesel prices or face deep budget cuts. Yes, the parking lot is Giant too! Cheap fuel, cheap cars and cheap parking have helped create a remarkably car-dependent landscape in Malaysia's urban areas. But what should these countries do now that the price of oil is way down near US$50 per barrel? Unfortunately some are cutting fuel prices again. The Indonesian Government will cut the price of gasoline from Rp6000 to Rp5500 per litre on Monday. India probably will in late December. Malaysia has already cut the price four times since its big June price rise. Isn't this a bit short-sighted? We all know how hard it will be to raise prices again if (or when) oil prices rise again. Would it n...

{Update 26 April: Delhi's BRT seems safe for now } Bad press and teething problems seem to be putting Delhi's ambitious BRT plans in danger. Map of BRT proposals from TRIPP, IIT-Delhi Delhi's BRT pilot phase has entered a trial period since Sunday. The first 5.6 km is due to start formally on 1 May. Unfortunately press coverage of the project continues to be extremely hostile. Reading some of the articles on this in the Indian media one could be forgiven for thinking that Delhi's entire congestion problem is caused by 5.6 km of busway. All this looks worrying for Delhi's BRT. If politicians cave in and abandon the project now it would be a huge setback for public transport in India. A hasty, low-quality start in Pune didn't help either. Ahmedabad's BRT which is under construction is aiming at a much higher standard of BRT implementation than any other Indian proposal so far. It has benefited from technical assistance from ITDP . But I fear even that project...

[Update: Looking for more parking policy information? Try Reinventing Parking. ] Urban Transport News links to some troubling parking news from Guangzhou in southern China. Guangzhou • 50,000 new parking spaces for Guangzhou • 2/19/2008 • China Daily • Parking Wang Dong, director of the Guangzhou urban planning bureau, said the local government plans to build large-scale parking lots at key stations to give motorists better access to the metro service and downtown destinations. "We will increase the total number of parking spaces in the city by 150,000 between now and 2010, with 50,000 coming this year," Wang said. In addition, Wang said the urban planning authority has introduced a new ruling that stipulates all new property developments must provide one car parking space for every 200 sq m of residential accommodation. The first part is about 'park and ride' at urban rail stations. More on that ano...