NMT Times March 2013

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Clean Air Asia NMT Newsletter

Clean Air Asia’s interview with

Anumita Roychoudhury Anumita Roychowdhury is Executive Director for research and advocacy of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation for sustainable and equitable development. In a wide-ranging conversation with Faizal Khan, Roychowdhury spells out clearly the inevitability of a non-motorised transport code in India through shocking figures and revealing facts.

Q. One of the measures recommended by CSE following the Global Burden of Disease Report recently is scaling up non-motorised transport. Would you elaborate?

We cannot deal with our air pollution and public health crisis if we kill our zero emitters. Certainly not now when the new Global Burden of Disease estimates for India has shocked and stunned the world. It has ranked air pollution as the fifth leading cause of death in India. About 620,000 premature deaths a year from air pollution-related diseases virtually works out to be 80 deaths per hour! To this is added the loss of 18 million healthy years of life due to illness. Our cities are not liveable anymore.

NMT TIMES

NMT Times is a

monthly

compilation of

news, views,

features and

articles from

India and Asia

on Non-

Motorised

Transport (NMT)

The newsletter

and its detailed

articles are

available in the

walkability asia

website which is

an initiative of

Clean Air Asia.

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ISSUE IV | VOLUME I | MARCH 2013

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We are shocked but not surprised. We know from our air quality data that more than half of our urban population breathes unacceptable level of pollution. Smaller and more obscure cities are among the most polluted in the country. Walking and cycling are part of the solution. The scale of this practice is still very substantial in our cities. This is an opportunity. If this is protected, scaled up and leveraged with proper urban and transportation planning and design we can see a major turn around and contain the ill effects of motorisation.

Vehicles are the most rapidly growing source of pollution in our cities. But understand our strength on a nationwide basis, the share of walking is 16 to 57 per cent of all trips depending on the nature and size of the city. Even in the capital city of Delhi one-third of daily commuters walk to work. Delhi has the second highest numbers of walkers and highest numbers of cyclists – this is our rich but endangered legacy. Do you know there are still some stretches in Delhi where the numbers of cycle trips are higher than car trips? It is astounding that in stretches like Uttam Nagar and Subhash Nagar on Shivaji Marg, and Jyoti Nagar East etc on Loni Road the numbers of cycle and cycle rickshaw outnumber cars. This is the reality in this car manic city today. The compact design of many cities – built on a human scale, has given us this advantage. Modern urban planning and design will have to respect this legacy and carry this forward to meet the public health objectives.

To read the rest of the interview click: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/21/our-right-to-walk-is-non-negotiable/

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With a roof made of straw and seat of smoothenedbamboo, the cycle rickshaw plying on the campus of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi seems like a product straight out of a swanky designer’s stable. It is, almost. Designed and developed by the Centre for Rural Development and Technology (CRDT) of IIT, Delhi, the bamboo-made cycle rickshaw carries an aura akin to a showpiece symbol. But the eco-friendly vehicle is a cool customer on the road. “It weighs at least 4 kg less than a metal rickshaw and is more balanced towards the front,” says Ramdas Kashyap, the rickshaw driver who received the first bamboo rickshaw in IIT, Delhi three years ago.

The IIT, Delhi has two bamboo-made rickshaws in its fleet of 17 cycle rickshaws on the campus. Kashyap says the bamboo rickshaw gives him and his passengers a comfortable ride. “Peadalling on steep paths is especially less straining,” he adds. The frame of the carriage is made from bamboo, except the front portion, including the front tyre and handle bar. Another bamboo rickshaw added later increased the bamboo content using the naturalmaterial to replace the metal bar under the carriage connecting the front portion. The drivers are happy

that the frame does not heat up in the summer like the metal ones do. “The most important thing is it is run on bamboo,” says Kashyap sporting a wide grin on his face.

Read more: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/22/bamboo-cyclerickshaw-a-prized-design/

Bamboo Cyclerickshaw Innovating lighter designs

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Planning for Bicycle Share Systems Bonifacio Global City will be beneficiary of pilot scheme Residents and workers of Bonifacio Global City –(BGC), a trendy mixed use development site at the heart of Metro Manila, will be soon able to commute within the area riding Tutubi (“dragonflies” in Tagalog), the new bikes of a sharing system initiated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that may expand to the whole metropolitan region of Manila in the future. The name is a clear message against polluting transport practices in the congested capital of the South-East Asian archipelago, which result in the deterioration of the environment.

The ADB and supporting NGO Clean Air Asia hope to start a long-term revolution in the mode of transport privileged by commuters of the city, encouraging them to shift from motorized mobility to cycling. Recently developed BGC benefits from some of the infrastructural prerequisites that make it “bikeable” (adequate street lightening, safety, traffic signals, enforcement of parking rules etc.), and as such was deemed the ideal place in Manila to experiment the project and introduce it to the people. The demonstration will consist of two stations of about 10 bikes each, one located near Market-Market and the other one at the other end of Bonifacio High Street (a liveable and wide pedestrian walkway) to connect the offices to the bus drop off area notably. To read more click on: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/02/21/bike-sharing-pilot-to-be-launched-in-bonifacio-global-city/

Communicating Commuting Delhi: TOD to promote NMT and public transport

With pilot projects along four metro corridors and another pilot project near Karkardooma getting in-principal approval for the first phase of transit-oriented development (TOD), the UTTIPEC (Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Planning and Engineering Centre) kick-started its efforts to develop a vision and strategy to ensure successful implementation of its ambitious plans for a mass-rapid transport system in the Capital. Read More: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/22/tod-to-promote-mass-transport-and-nmt-in-new-delhi/

Pune: Poor quality of Cycle Tracks The Pune Municipal Corporation widened Sinhagad Road to implement the BRTS and alongwith it came the cycle tracks. However, the widened stretch instead of being used by citizens, is being used by vendors. In a survey conducted by Parisar of the 4.6-km cycle track on Sinhagad Road, PMC engineers found out that there were at least 86 hurdles on the cycle track that were causing inconvenience to users.

Read more: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/22/poor-construction-and-maintenance-of-punes-cycle-tracks/

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Bicycling

more

interesting

modes

Gurgaon: Stakeholders Join to improve NMT Stakeholders from all walks of life, from urban planners, urban developers, transport management experts, urban design consultants, to the MCG councillors, have joined hands in promoting the idea of non-motorized transportation in the city. Read More: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/22/stakeholders-plan-for-nmt-improvements-in-gurgaon/

Mumbai: 57 out of 100 deaths are those of pedestrians Fifty-seven of every 100 people who die on Mumbai’s roads are pedestrians, according to Road Safety Assessment for Mumbai, a first-of-its-kind study conducted by the traffic police and EMBARQ India, a transport think tank.The study, which analysed all road accidents in the city between 2008 and 2012, has captured trends in fatalities, classified victims and identified the vehicles that are responsible for the highest number of fatalities. Read More: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/22/57-of-accident-victims-in-mumbai-are-pedestrians/ 1.24 million people die every year in road accidents The Global status report on road safety 2013 presents information on road safety from 182 countries, accounting for almost 99% of the world’s population. The report indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths remains unacceptably high at 1.24 million per year. Only 28 countries, covering 7% of the world’s population, have comprehensive road safety laws on five key risk factors; drinking and driving, speeding and failing to use motorcycle helmets, seat-belts and child restraints. The report reveals that pedestrians and cyclists apart from 2 wheeler users form the majority of the fatality group. Over a third of the victims in low and middle income countries are pedestrians. Read More: http://www.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/78256/1/9789241564564_eng.pdf

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Catch them young

The national government has urged local government units to replicate Manila’s Children Road Safety Park to educate more children about road safety and traffic discipline.

During the recently concluded Road Safety Summit, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Corazon Jimenez encouraged local chief executives to build a park for children to learn the proper behavior of pedestrians and motorists on the road.

For more: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/26/mmda-promotes-children-road-safety/

Road Fatalities ‘unacceptably high’ in Indonesia

Traffic-related deaths have hit worrying levels in Indonesia amid an economic boom that has seen a growing number of people aspire to own a motor vehicle, a report from the World Health Organization indicates.

The Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013, released on Thursday, noted that 1.24 million people died on roads around the world in 2010, a figure it deemed “unacceptably high.”

For More: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/26/pedestrians-3rd-on-road-fatalities-list-in-indonesia/

Committee to look into NMT safety

An inter-agency committee will be set up to review safety measures on the road for pedestrians and cyclists. On pedestrian safety, the committee will pay special attention to the needs of the elderly and school children. This include possibly reducing speed limits around schools and providing additional infrastructure such as speed humps, flashing LED lights and more signage.

Road safety education will also be reviewed, with the aim ofcustomising the safety message for different groups of road users.

For More: http://walkabilityasia.org/2013/03/26/committee-to-look-into-nmt-safety-in-singapore/

Clean Air Asia India Office 1st Floor, Building No.4, Thyagraj Nagar Market, Lodhi Colony, New Delhi, 110003, India Tel +91 11 601 20260, Fax +91 11 438 50032 [email protected] www.walkabillityasia.org

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Beginning with this edition, each of the parameters of the walkability survey be described briefly PARAMETER1: WALKING PATH MODAL CONFLICT This parameter looks into the type of conflict that arises when one is walking. Conflict can occur with fast moving motorized vehicles and with slow moving modes such as cycles and rickshaws and they affect the pedestrian in various degrees. In main roads with fast moving vehicles and with no or un-walkable footpaths the chances of accidents are very high. But in certain areas conflict with slow moving vehicles or with non motorized modes occurs and the impact of injury significantly reduces. But in residential or pedestrian only streets, the conflict with motorized modes is greatly reduced or almost nil and footpaths may not be necessary.

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NMT Times March 2013