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Murali sir, if you attend this, can you post a rough report on what happened. rough bulleted list will do? especially if he makes any bangalore centric points. meanwhile i will try to look him up in the journals. the title is very interesting nano-metro. hope there are actionable insights that give you aha moments. have fun. i attended a talk by kunstler recently. radical guy. went deep into the pysche of modern societies. but most of recommendations truely un-actionable in India. move to rural societies, small scale farming, panned skyscrapers and planes, rooted for trains etc... had a talk on the sidelines. asked him about land fragmentation. he was in a hurry. his answer seemed dismissive. a chat with other attendees provided a better explanation of his position. anyways we need to find our own middle path.

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Dear Muralidhar Rao, I will respond to your messages in detail, as I promised to do. In the meanwhile, I just discovered this piece in Deccan Herald: http://deccanherald.com/Content/Mar152008/state2008031557554.asp It appears to suggest that I advocated that we should go back to bicycles; I did nothing of the sort, since that would be utterly unrealistic, and even undesirable. I should like to think that my argument last night was considerably more nuanced than that. I am considering a response to the article to make sure that my views are not misrepresented (as I believe they have been), but for now, I should like to place on record what I in fact said last night: that there is of course an important role for cars and other personal motor vehicles (and infrastructure for these modes), given the advantages of these modes, but that there is also a crucially important role for public transit, and yes, for walking and cycling (and infrastructure for these modes), if we want to mitigate the serious impacts of rapidly growing motor vehicle activity, and also given that a) walking and cycling do in fact account for a very significant proportion of all trips in Indian cities, despite their being very difficult and hazardous; b) these modes are potentially viable (and competitive with cars and even metro), for short and medium distance trips, which account for a significant share of all trips, even in very large, rapidly motorizing metropolitan regions like Delhi; c) many more people would likely use these modes -- especially over short distances -- if adequate infrastructure were in fact provided for them, access was not so severely compromised by motor vehicles and planning for them; and lastly, d) pedestrian accessibility is crucially important for the viability of public transit. Given all of this, I said, good urban transport policy should aim to restrict motor vehicles to their highest value uses, by providing a wide range of viable alternatives for a range of road users, and pricing motor vehicle use appropriately, to a) internalize their costs, b) discourage needless and avoidable motor vehicle trips (especially over short distances, caused largely by compromised access and inadequate NMT infrastructure, and inadequate pricing of motor vehicle use, primarily in terms of parking), and c) provide incentives (and funding) for more sustainable choices. I would request you to share my message with your colleagues on Praja (which seems like an awfully interesting forum). I am also attaching a copy of my presentation, with one slide added -- it will hopefully show your colleagues what exactly I said. Finally, I should like to share with you and your colleagues a leader page article I wrote for The Hindu on December 5, 2007, on BRT and the need to curb motor vehicle activity and provide for pedestrians and cyclists. This article, which was written in response to the press criticisms of BRT in Delhi, may be accessed at: http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/05/stories/2007120553611000.htm Regards, Madhav ****************************** ****************************************** "As for the future, your task is not to foresee, but to enable it." Antoine de Saint-Exupery Madhav G. Badami, PhD School of Urban Planning and McGill School of Environment McGill University Macdonald-Harrington Building 815 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, QC, H3A 2K6, Canada URLs: www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning www.mcgill.ca/mse Will see how to attach his presentation later. Muralidhar Rao

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I will definitely be there, it's going to be interesting to hear what he has to say in context to where Bangalore is in terms of its urban transport situation. While improving the Bus services, creation of the METRO etc may be solutions, I do believe that citizens need to take greater responsibility in the city's transport issue. Car pooling, greater use of public transport, discipline in lanes etc would work towards making our city a pleasure to drive in.

Anyways will look forward to his Friday's talk.

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Go back to the bicycle
Source: Deccan Herald
Will the Tata Nano, a Rs 1 lakh rupee revolution or the Rs 6,396 crore ‘Namma Metro’ solve the transportation  woes of the city? Not really, according to Prof Badami.

Prof Badami advocated going back to the humble bicycle and introduction of automobile use fee/tax by governments so as to discourage use of personalised transport.

“There has been a major public concern, when it comes to viable transportation in India, whether it is private/public mode of travel. People have an intense frustration. There is a sense of inevitability. They want more roads for their cars. Then you have the Tata’s who want to provide everybody a car. Conventional urban planning is akin to loosening your belt to cure obesity. More roads and cars could be socially destructible,” Prof Badami said.

Saying that Metro Rail too would not address the issue in totality, he said its aim should be to get more and more people out of their cars and two wheelers.

I would have loved to have attended this talk.

There are many angles to these go-back-to-cycle types of arguments, one is energy. Sri has threatened to give us the funda on peak oil one of these days cant wait.
Another attack is that even if energy was cheap and plentiful, this type of lifestyle is not sustainable.

But these mind experiments are fine, when the chappal hits the tar, people need to get where they are going conveniently, cheaply and safely and in dignity. metro might be expensive, but we pooh-pooh it at our own peril.

i am not dismissing his line, but i would love to hear his comments on the immediate and practical problem. short of a revolution, lets face it, there is no  way to implement this.

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Dr Badami had delivered the same talk at the Centre for Public Policy, IIMB, about a month back. He was talking exactly my language (please see http://bangalore.praja.in/blog/murali772/2007/12/12/better-bussing-green-bangalore), except that, while he was saying that he had no ready solutions to offer, and that his effort was to open the eyes of the public as well as the decision makers to cost-effective solutions, I was going one step further and stating that mine was the ultimate solution, given the overall Indian scenario. Through mails exchanged thereafter, I was seeking his endorsement of my policy paper, since, unless we can offer solutions, the discussions will go on till kingdom come, and the heavy weight that he is, his endorsement will give my policy paper an added weightage.

A talk definitely worth attending.

 

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