With urban transport being locked in a vicious circle of congestion,
unsafe roads, long duration of travel, and so on, Prof Holger Dalkmann,
director of World Research Institute’s Embarq programme, has said that
although there are solutions to this problem, they need to be applied at
the local level.
Speaking at the National Institute of Advanced Studies here, he said now was the opportunity to make the changes for sustainable transport.
“We have to look at it from an integrated perspective and make sure that we do not miss the window of opportunity that we have to adopt changes for sustainable transport,” he said.
He suggested the use of private transport should be avoided by developing land closest to transport hubs or bus stations, shifting to public transport and non-motorised transport by increasing civic amenities necessary for this, such as a bus rapid transport (BRT) corridor, integrated transport hubs, and so on.
Emphasising on BRT as one of the solutions for better public transport in cities, he cited examples of Ahmedabad, Rio in Brazil, and other cities that had adopted BRT successfully and were proactively thinking of expanding.
“BRT corridors can be built at a small fraction of the cost of other mass transit facilities such as Metro, mono rail or light rail. It has been shown in countries such as Brazil that BRT does not need extremely wide roads to work. It will work just as well if implemented correctly,” he said, adding that BRT also reduced road accidents drastically, not just along the corridor but in surrounding areas as well.
However, he added that BRT corridor alone could not solve problems unless it was properly implemented and monitored. While BRT had been working well in Ahmedabad, it failed in Delhi because of poor manner in which it was implemented, he said.
Speaking at the National Institute of Advanced Studies here, he said now was the opportunity to make the changes for sustainable transport.
“We have to look at it from an integrated perspective and make sure that we do not miss the window of opportunity that we have to adopt changes for sustainable transport,” he said.
He suggested the use of private transport should be avoided by developing land closest to transport hubs or bus stations, shifting to public transport and non-motorised transport by increasing civic amenities necessary for this, such as a bus rapid transport (BRT) corridor, integrated transport hubs, and so on.
Emphasising on BRT as one of the solutions for better public transport in cities, he cited examples of Ahmedabad, Rio in Brazil, and other cities that had adopted BRT successfully and were proactively thinking of expanding.
“BRT corridors can be built at a small fraction of the cost of other mass transit facilities such as Metro, mono rail or light rail. It has been shown in countries such as Brazil that BRT does not need extremely wide roads to work. It will work just as well if implemented correctly,” he said, adding that BRT also reduced road accidents drastically, not just along the corridor but in surrounding areas as well.
However, he added that BRT corridor alone could not solve problems unless it was properly implemented and monitored. While BRT had been working well in Ahmedabad, it failed in Delhi because of poor manner in which it was implemented, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment