Comments on: Behind Bangalore’s Growth, A New Species Is Born: Transport Challenged People

By: Are Mumbai’s planners looking at Bangalore? | BlogHalt.com (Pre-Launch)

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:32:42 +0000

[...] Sudhir Gota’s excellent, detailed and still simple post on Bangalore (link via the sustran group) is a must-read, if only for the photos. While I’ve visited Bangalore a few times, I’ve never stayed there. Via blogs, and a couple of friends, I’d heard of the traffic chaos in the green city. I’d assumed it was because of fly-overs and such-like. But there’s clearly more to it. Read Sudhir’s post to get a sense of how bad urban planning can make life hell for it’s residents. [...]

By: Car-Centric Transport Policy Hurts India’s Informal Sector | TheCityFix.com

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:41:28 +0000

[...] a recent post here on TheCityFix.com, Sudhir Gota documented the plight of ‘Transport Challenged People’ in [...]

By: Joe Foti

Joe Foti — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:59:05 +0000

In contrast to Bangalore, it is interesting that Pune has received such a large amount of press about the use of bicycles. I am wondering if the positive benefits have filtered down to the poor and if it has had a net effect on car commuting. Here are two recent articles on bicycles in Pune from the Express and the Times, one less optimistic than the other.

http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19981230/36451854.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/19694886.cms

By: Transport Challenged People in Bangalore « Fly on the wall

Transport Challenged People in Bangalore « Fly on the wall — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:26:22 +0000

[...] 23, 2008 · No Comments Sudhir Gota writes a very interesting & thought provoking post, Behind Bangalore’s Growth, ANew Species Is Born: Transport Challenged People on The City Fix. An excerpt: Bangalore’s urban sprawl was aided by the economic boom, during which income levels of certain industries skyrocketed. The rising income combined with long travel times, poor public transportation facilities and the glamor and hype generated by the automobile industry powered the vehicular boom on the roads. The government’s efforts to make the city more car-friendly had a boomerang effect with a virtual multiplication of private automobiles on the road. In fact, the motorization index nearly doubled from 178 in 1996 to 361 in 2006. Presently, private automobiles – two wheelers, cars, taxis etc. – make up nearly 88% of the vehicles on Bangalore’s streets. Yet that accounts for just 39% of trips. Thus it can be concluded that Bangalore has high congestion not because it lacks roads– a claim that advocates of road construction routinely make – but because there are so many private vehicles moving so few people. [...]

By: Benoit Lefevre

Benoit Lefevre — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:39:14 +0000

I completely agree with your point about NMT.

I think the fact that NMT tends to be undercounted and undervalued in urban planning in general and in Bangalore in particular reflect two very dangerous trends

1) what we could name the “digital fragmentation” of the urban society in booming cities like Bangalore: the growing distance between the emerging middle class participating in the global economy and the others.

So it is dangerous not only for energy consumption and CO2 emission issues but also for social sustainability of living together in these mega-cities (Penalosa is very interesting on this subject).

The technologies exist to separate the poor and the rich facing the same issue: that’s true in transport, but also in water, electricity, etc. And this fragmentation has consequences on the way to finance the different urban services.

One borough of the used-to-be quiet city of Monterrey is building a wall to separate the rich and middle class from the dangerous-violent poor … There is a rapid deployment of the gated-community concept. And Bogota knows that you can easily rewrite the social characteristic of any territory.

2) a persistent “traffic approach” focusing on mobility.

The accessibility approach lead to street design, sidewalk, bicycle lane, and to the urban structure issue: the spatial distribution of households and activities and the transport network to facilitate the interaction between these locations.

So I think the rapid motorization has also to be seen as a consequence of deeper dynamics. I would rather said that the dangerous trends in Bangalore are : the very-rapid sprawl, specially in the south part of the city (with the participation, direct and “indirect”, of the Bangalore Development Authority), the poor transit alternative (BMTC is doing a great job but need clearly to be expanded) and the radio-concentric road network (there is a huge transit traffic through the center).

Inner Ring Road and Metro look to be a good way to reinforce the mix land-uses and the attractiveness of the center of Bangalore. But these need to be integrated with a complementary land-uses policy.

I am very interested to have updated information about the metro project.

Best regards,

Benoit

By: Transport-Challenged in Bangalore | DesiPundit

Transport-Challenged in Bangalore | DesiPundit — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:31:23 +0000

[...] Sudhir Gota, an engineer living in Bangalore comments on the state of a new kind of resident who is transport-challenged in the rapidly growing city of Bangalore. Being an urban planner, I’m only too aware of this problem in changing Indian cities and hope we address them before it is too late. [...]

By: sprawlingcities

sprawlingcities — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:16:35 +0000

I think something that we really dont understand is just how fast cities are growing. Sudhir said above that Bangalore has expanded from 175 to 560 km sq in less than 40 years. That’s simply remarkable! If there’s no urban planning based around mass transportation, its going to be impossible for a city like Bangalore not to descend into chaos.