Traffic Jams, the Urban Hell - India Today

[Ranjit Gadgil]

See recent article on traffic jams in India Today. As usual it mixes everything in to create a typical mess and is a reflection of the similar muddle headed thinking that pervades our public policies. No real vision, no real commitment to creating NMT and transit friendly cities, just a helter skelter approach that consists of doing everything at once in the desperate hope that somehow the problem will get solved, while thousands of crores are wasted. In reality though the policies, while paying lip-service to NMT and public transport, continue to favour the growth of private motorized vehicles (more roads, flyovers, more parking) while improvements to Public Transport, such as they are lag woefully behind. Other than a smattering of ill-executed cycle tracks which no cyclists use (the Delhi BRTS corridor being the only exception), NMT keeps getting worse.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Issue?issueId=175

Some gems from the article

In contrast, good urban planning in Chandigarh has turned it into India's model city for traffic. The survey conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development (2008) shows that Chandigarh's roads are the widest among small and medium-sized cities.

Geetam Tiwari, associate professor, Department of Civil Engineering and Transportation Research, IIT-Delhi, fleshes it out: the climbing numbers of cars and two-wheelers are responsible for the national traffic logjam. India's answer lies in building more roads. "We need alternatives- walking, bicycles, public transport- more attractive in terms of quality, time and cost," he says. But these may be impractical, given Indian weather conditions. Public services need huge funds to create acceptable substitute options.

-- Ranjit

[ashok datar]

u cant expect serious eye opening and compelling analysis from such pretentious glossies , they are part of the same mind set

traffic is burning issue, it will burn even more 

but what will trigger them to really wakeup

we are in a sad and non influential minority

ashok datar

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Ashok R.Datar
Mumbai Environmental Social Network

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