Chandigarh: City for 500,000 now has 800,000 vehicles

Awaiting the necessary gathering of forces that will make India Streets a useful free-standing addition to the still far too spare sustainable transport tool kit of the Subcontinent, and since a growing number of people check in here regularly for news and views, perspective and inspiration, we are occasionally reprinting particularly thought-provoking articles from the Indian media which we feel can only benefit from a larger readership. This article on mindless car glut in Chandigarh just in from The Times of India yesterday (thanks to Vinay Baindur for the good heads-up).

Streets are for people.

Roads are for vehicles. Streets are for people.

These are people who are reclaiming their streets.

- Cairo Street scene. January 2011

No man is an island.

Sustainable transport and the modernisation of urban transport in Delhi and Stockholm

This article addresses from an Indo-Swedish perspective issues of the development of transport systems taking its examples from Delhi and Stockholm. The introduction of the first bus rapid transport corridor in Delhi and the congestion tax in Stockholm is presented and discussed in terms of modernisation and sustainable transport. The authors explore the perceptions of politicians and examine the two projects in the search for the driving forces for transport policies. Despite all the differences, some similarities in the development of their urban transport projects have been found. The paper inquires into the planning and operationalisation of transport modernisation and the politics of sustainable transport.

Reposting exceptional contributions to India Streets

India Streets has from the beginning been defined and run as an open collaborative venture. In addition to its considerable original content, the journal welcomes suggestions concerning outstanding recent articles and reports appearing in other sources, which in their view our readers would do well to know more about. After internal review and selection, we occasionally get in touch with the author or publisher of the selected piece and ask for permission to reprint. All such articles follow the same routines for preparation and publication:

Delhi Metro – A Transport Planner’s Perspective

I wonder about this Walter.

What if the idea of a Metro/BRT link is used as a tactic, fool’s bait to get the metro built? Makes sense as a business strategy for the winners, since the money coming to the metro project will way outweigh the BRT share. So in such a case we would be getting ourselves used for a greater bad.

For now in most parts of the world, at least in places where there is hyper-limited money around to fund mobility improvements, don’t we have to wave the red flag for every metro project that raises its ugly head?

Or do I have this wrong?

Once again and as we have been reminded recently. Gandhi’s: “Doing more, for less, for more.” Is the only way to go.

Eric Britton

Delhi Metro – A Transport Planner’s Perspective

On Behalf Of Walter Hook. ITDP. Sent: Sunday, 09 January, 2011 17:27

Interesting discussion. Could the money have been more wisely spent? probably. Was or is it likely? not very. We’ve had recent good experiences w/ some of the metro corps around India being quite open to developing integrated metro/BRT systems and I think this approach is showing some promise

Welcome to India Streets: a new collaborative platform for communication and cooperation among people and groups working to advance the sustainable transport agenda in cities across India . First time here? We suggest you start with the About menu.

Delhi Metro – A Transport Planner’s Perspective

At a time when the Delhi Government, politicos, media and the middle-class is raving about Metro Rail as a panacea to all traffic woes in Delhi (traffic congestion included), an objective assessment of its performance and appropriateness is highly warranted.

http://computerchamps.wdfiles.com

Built at a cost that could provide free bus-based public transport and high quality non-motorized transport facilities for years, or feed millions of destitute malnourished Indian citizens, the Delhi Metro, now in operations since 2002, seems to not be living up to its promise. Ravi Gadepalli brings us a unique insight in to the planning and workings of the Delhi Metro. How’s it fared? Let us read to know.

I/S Dispatch: The Road to Nowhere in Bangalore

To open up 2011 please find here the first in a planned new series of occasional India Streets Dispatches, to be taken from multiple sources with the goal of giving wider circulation within India and beyond to articles, emails and other outstanding contributions covering from different perspectives what the editors of I/S believe to be important matters concerning India’s streets and well-being which are worthy of both wider circulation and preservation.