Bangalore:
Any large-scale infrastructural projects like road widening, grade separators should be taken up only after proper planning and understanding its implications on the overall current and future mobility within the city.
This is because, implementing such projects involves huge financial burden with environmental and economic impacts. Often, those living close to such project locations are not the beneficiaries. Rather, they are the recipients of all negative impacts like increase in air and noise pollution, loss of accessibility, loss of aesthetics etc.
Going by the National Urban Transport Policy of 2006, no planner or engineer can justify projects like road expansion, grade separators etc, which are meant to primarily facilitate movement of private vehicles. Even if it is argued that we cannot altogether neglect movement of private vehicles, but how long can we justify such projects, especially when we have constraint of space and natural and financial resources?
We are currently trapped in a vicious circle of congestion that has started because of the boom in economy and income levels. Our cities, including Bangalore, are currently facing explosive growth in the number of private vehicles. This is a similar cycle that US faced way back in the 1950s and Europe in 1960s when their vehicle ownership reached a saturation level of one car per household. We cannot afford to reach such perilous situation.
On one side, we need to focus our infrastructure planning on space efficient modes mainly public transport, walking and bicycling and on the other we need to introduce policies that enable the use of private modes less attractive.
The balance of these measures should be such that the use of space efficient and sustainable modes should become a preferred (and not the forced) choice of the citizens. Just to give an example of magnitude of space efficiency that can be achieved through public transport, a two-lane road space created through expansion will provide a capacity of about 1,100 passenger car units (PCU), per hour per direction of flow, which would be approximately 1,700 persons per hour per direction, whereas if the same two-lane space is provided for two light-rail transit lines or bus rapid transit lanes (one for each direction), it can provide capacity up to 40,000 persons per hour per direction i.e., 23 times more capacity for same width of road. This would be up to 70,000 persons per hour per direction if Metro rail lines are provided i.e., 41 times more capacity for same width of road.
In a nutshell, mere road expansions for private vehicles are a huge waste of capacity.
Dr Verma is Associate Faculty (Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP)
Copyright restricted. Under license from www.3dsyndication.com
This is because, implementing such projects involves huge financial burden with environmental and economic impacts. Often, those living close to such project locations are not the beneficiaries. Rather, they are the recipients of all negative impacts like increase in air and noise pollution, loss of accessibility, loss of aesthetics etc.
Going by the National Urban Transport Policy of 2006, no planner or engineer can justify projects like road expansion, grade separators etc, which are meant to primarily facilitate movement of private vehicles. Even if it is argued that we cannot altogether neglect movement of private vehicles, but how long can we justify such projects, especially when we have constraint of space and natural and financial resources?
We are currently trapped in a vicious circle of congestion that has started because of the boom in economy and income levels. Our cities, including Bangalore, are currently facing explosive growth in the number of private vehicles. This is a similar cycle that US faced way back in the 1950s and Europe in 1960s when their vehicle ownership reached a saturation level of one car per household. We cannot afford to reach such perilous situation.
On one side, we need to focus our infrastructure planning on space efficient modes mainly public transport, walking and bicycling and on the other we need to introduce policies that enable the use of private modes less attractive.
The balance of these measures should be such that the use of space efficient and sustainable modes should become a preferred (and not the forced) choice of the citizens. Just to give an example of magnitude of space efficiency that can be achieved through public transport, a two-lane road space created through expansion will provide a capacity of about 1,100 passenger car units (PCU), per hour per direction of flow, which would be approximately 1,700 persons per hour per direction, whereas if the same two-lane space is provided for two light-rail transit lines or bus rapid transit lanes (one for each direction), it can provide capacity up to 40,000 persons per hour per direction i.e., 23 times more capacity for same width of road. This would be up to 70,000 persons per hour per direction if Metro rail lines are provided i.e., 41 times more capacity for same width of road.
In a nutshell, mere road expansions for private vehicles are a huge waste of capacity.
Dr Verma is Associate Faculty (Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP)
Copyright restricted. Under license from www.3dsyndication.com
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