Congestion Pricing. Photo by .KM.

A very interesting study released earlier this month counters conventional wisdom, suggesting that a clear majority of people support tolling and road pricing. As the authors of the study, which analyzed numerous national and international public opinion surveys, clearly write in the conclusion of their report, “…in the aggregate, the public supports tolling and road pricing.”

The study’s findings will come as a surprise to many policy makers and elected officials who offer the standard response that tolling and road pricing are unpopular, and should therefore not be implemented lest they defy their constituents.

Traditionally, attempts to solve congestion have focused on building new roads or widening existing ones. But it’s clear that the strategy has not worked. That’s in large part because there’s a cyclical logic to road construction: as more roads are built more people want to drive cars, which in turn, drives the demand for ever more road construction. For decades now, there have been proposals for reducing the demand for road space by charging drivers who use it. But these proposals more often than not went nowhere in large part because of politics.

One of the more important conclusions of the study is that the public needs to be informed about any road pricing project. That is to say that the value of the project needs to be clearly articulated, past examples of successful pricing projects need to be held up, and the governments use of revenue generated from the tolls needs to be justified. In the case of New York City congestion pricing scheme, one that ultimately failed for political reasons, the revenue from pricing was earmarked to fund mass transit projects.

Overall, the study provides interesting insights, and good empirical evidence and arguments to further promote demand management schemes, such as tolling and congestion charging. We already know that road pricing can reduce congestion, pollution, auto accidents and global warming, while providing funding for efficient, clean and cool alternatives: walking, biking and public transport. We now know that, with the right information, people will make the right choices. For me, the clear lesson is that “you better inform and then ask the people”.

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People In Mexico City Losing Their Sense of Smell. Produced by theEMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

Rhys Thom and I recently visited Mexico City where we met with two researchers at UNAM - Mexico’s National University - who are doing some fascinating research. Robyn Hudson, a charismatic professor, originally from Australia who has been living in Mexico City for quite some time, and her colleague Marco Guarneros, a fellow biomedical researcher, conducted a study comparing the ability of Mexico City’s residents to detect certain smells, with the ability of people living in a Tlaxcala, a neighboring town. Mexico City and Tlaxcala are similar in many respects - they share a similar culture and climate, situated high in the mountains of Mexico. But there is one crucial difference: Mexico City has much higher levels of air pollution.

When compared to their neighbors, people living in Mexico City need higher concentrations of a smell in order to identify it, a clear indication that their sense of smell is deteriorating.

Watch the movie to learn more.

Below are a few pictures we took while making the movie.

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This post is cross-posted on NextBillion.net.

File this under the eye-catching-Bottom-of-the-Pyramid-design category and add it to the list of fascinating cycle innovations intended to meet multiple needs for the poor - in this case, the challenges of water filtration and transportation.

The product is called the Aquaduct, a tricycle designed by a team of five at IDEO that stores water in a twenty gallon tank in the back of the bike’s wide, blue frame. As the user travels back home, the energy they expend pedaling is used to filter the water into a removable two gallon tank that rests in front of the handlebars.

As with any shiny new Bottom-of-the-Pyramid innovation, it’s important to remember that just because the product is inarguably cool doesn’t mean it will actually be applicable in the specific context of local consumers. Has research been done to confirm that the Aquaduct would be cost effective and functional for the BoP in different regions as compared to other available means of water filtration and transport? And I didn’t understand the idea of storing 20 gallons of water but having only two gallons filtered - is this really enough for a family? Does the user have to pedal around every time they want an additional two gallons of filtered water?

These are questions that IDEO will have to answer as the bike moves beyond its prototype status (and I’m sure they will - if they haven’t already). In the meantime, IDEO’s creation has shown promise as grand prize winner of the Innovate or Die contest for sustainable cycle design. Maybe soon, we’ll see it in use on the ground.

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Photo by Alexandra Moss.

Once known as the world’s ‘bicycle kingdom,’ China has experienced rapid urbanization leading some to declare the beginning of the end for China’s bikes. While it’s true that from 1995 to 2005, China’s bike fleet declined by 35 percent and private car ownership more than doubled, there is no evidence today that bicycles are a thing of the past on Beijing’s streets.

Increased urbanization and growing diversification of transport has only meant cycling Beijing streets is becoming a greater challenge, particularly in areas where designated bike lanes have been removed. Cycling in Beijing – let alone mastering the art of walking Beijing’s overcrowded streets brimming with buses, cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and some 18 million people – is (in a word) terrifying, yet somehow millions of Beijingers seem to cope just fine.

Helmets are nonexistent, and the agile Chinese have mastered the art of multi-tasking while cycling. Not only do people seem to cart their livelihoods on bikes, but I’ve witnessed whole families perched atop a single tandem, ladies cycling one-handed with umbrella in tow to prevent any sun exposure that would risk their pale complexions; I even saw a man with three 15” computer monitors strapped above his back wheel (and they were not flat screen). And you’ll never see a hint of the abashed – anything goes in the Beijing bike lane.

Photo by My Left Ventricle.

Aside from the physical factors that make cycling Beijing streets daunting are the very real environmental effects one feels after a short bike commute to work. Beijing’s plentitude of dust and frequent sandstorms often leave me with a mouthful of grit by the time I arrive at my destination. Any pedaling above a moderate speed leaves one gasping from all the particulate matter that takes up residence in your lungs. It’s no wonder Beijing cyclists often wear surgical face masks or full-face visors that are indeed function over fashion.

Despite what you may have heard, bicycle is still king in Beijing.

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An independent commuter survey conducted by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment found that commuters overwhelmingly support the new BRT system in Delhi. For some, the result may be surprising after the initial operational glitches and media blitz declaring the new bus corridor a disaster. While there are several things that should be improved with the new system, as with any project, the outpouring of support for the new bus corridor suggests that it would be both a strategic and political mistake to scrap the project.

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The term “Butterfly effect” was coined by Edward Lorenz based on the theory that a single flap of a butterfly’s wings in one part of world could set off a tornado in another part of world. The concept – which posits that small variations at the outset can have profound implications down the road - can be applied to transportation engineering, especially in the context of non-motorized transportation infrastructure. To understand why this is so, let’s look at the case study of Bangalore City.

In Bangalore, pedestrians and cyclists are in the minority, constituting only 8% and 2% respectively of total trips. However their small numbers obscure an important fact - they play an important role when it comes to accessing public transportation.

As part of its efforts to create a more sustainable transportation system, the government plans to unleash a whole host of public transportation improvements – a metro, monorail, bus rapid transit, general bus improvements and a commuter rail. The total Traffic and transportation budget for next 16 years is nearly $12 billion with 79% of the total investment allocated to mass transportation.

By contrast, the total investment planned for pedestrians over the next 16 years is a scant $72 million, or just 0.6% of total investment. The government plans to improve around 350 km of one-way footpaths and construct 68 grade separated crossings with the money. The proposed cross-sections of the arterial and collector roads show cycle lanes but it remains to be seen if any exclusive lanes for the cyclists would ever be built in Bangalore.

While the logic of concentrating on public transportation is good, we should not put all our eggs in the same basket. That is to say, the mass transit improvements should be accompanied by improvements for non-motorized transportation, specifically pedestrians and cyclists. It is no trade secret that access to public transportation plays a vital role when people are deciding whether to take public transportation or not. Attracting the choice riders to mass transportation may succeed by not only improving the mass transportation itself but also by providing safe and comfortable ways for people to access it. Improvements in non-motorized transportation infrastructure are cheap and have the potential of attracting a significant percentage of the traffic.

With the city accommodating a large number of “transportation Challenged” people, a small investment – say if just 3% of the Traffic and Transportation budget went to non-motorized transportation – would generate a sustainable chain reaction. In transportation engineering every action does not have equal and opposite reaction. The butterfly is waiting to flap its wings. Just a small pot of money for pedestrian and cyclists would generate benefits well into the future.

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The sun setting in Mumbai. Photo by d ha rm e sh.

Earlier this week, TheCityFix ran the first part of an interview with Krishnaraj Rao, a citizen turned activist, who now spends a significant portion of his day advocating for pedestrian rights in Mumbai. Through a movement called Sahasi Padayatri, Mr. Rao has been engaged in a variety of initiatives and non-violent agitations to improve conditions for pedestrians; he has demarcated lanes for pedestrians on streets where pedestrians compete with buses, cars and motorcycles due to the lack of walkable footpaths and he has dumped rubbish blocking pedestrian areas at the steps of local government office buildings to raise awareness of the obstacles facing pedestrians. Below is the second part of the interview.

How do you see your activities fitting into the larger environmental movement?

Sahasi Padyatri is essentially focused on creating a pedestrian-friendly and citizen-friendly environment. We believe that a preponderance of public transport and a diminished role of private transport is the way for our city to attain sustainability. We believe that public space is a precious resource that must be jealously guarded.

I set out in June 2007 as an activist against the various aspects of Economic Growthism that are causing global warming today, and addressed about 25 audiences until March on this topic at colleges, schools, Rotary Clubs etc.

In December, I met Santosh Jangam, who sells books on a train for a living. This meeting and our later association in creating the Sahasi Padyatri movement brought the realization that unless we could connect the anti-global-warming agenda to the interest of the common man, we were bound to strive in vain for a change that would stubbornly refuse to happen.

To me, the effort to render our city suitable for walking and peacefully commuting by public transport is co-terminus with making my world more energy-efficient and a cleaner, better place for all creatures and all species.

How is your organization using IT – cell phones, blogs, etc. – to organize and generate support?

For several months, I have been blogging on this issue, and on other issues related to climate change, at my blogsites. (You can read them here and here.)

I have networked furiously with several individuals and organizations late in 2007 and early in 2008. My intensity on the internet has abated only since February, when I stepped out of the cyber-world into meatspace.

I email close to a hundred concerned citizens, media persons and authorities with my communiques on pedestrian issues, and network furiously using SMS, mobile phone and phone for this purpose. I am happy that newspapers like DNA are supporting our campaign and publicizing our mobile number and email address, putting hundreds of like minded citizens in touch with us.

What is your vision for India’s streets?

I would like to see our roads become safe and convenient places for pedestrians through the following measures, which may seem harsh for private motorists and others:

• Roadside parking of vehicles to be totally banned, except for handicapped persons’ vehicles. Even parking in building compounds should be banned, as the compound space belongs to all the residents for recreational purposes, particularly children and senior citizens. Parking should only be allowed in specially-constructed parking plazas.
• Roadside and footpath hawkers to be relocated to bazaar zones.
• Pavement width on both sides of the road to be at least 6 feet on all roads, and about 12 feet on high-footfall roads such as the ones leading to suburban railway stations.
• If any road is less than 15 feet wide, then it should be declared as a no-vehicle zone, with exceptions for bicycles, handicapped vehicles, ambulances etc. Autorickshaws may be allowed entry only if holders of senior-citizens or handicapped-persons’ passes are the passengers.
• If a road is less than 32 feet wide, then it should have at least two footpaths of 6 feet width, and the remaining 20 feet may be used to ply public transport buses also.
• If a road is 45 feet wide, then auto rickshaws and motorbikes may be additionally allowed, but no private cars should be allowed.
• If a road is more than 60 feet wide, then private cars may also be allowed, but only after 10-foot footpaths and exclusive bus lanes on both sides. The overall road width allowable to private vehicles must not exceed one-third of the road, except on highways.
• Needless to say, the footpaths and roads must be faultlessly marked and maintained. There is no room for roadside debris and stray pieces of rad-furniture or rubble anywhere. Also, there is no room for squatting and vagrancy on the roads.

Are you working with other organizations? What are they and what are their roles?

Yes, our Satyagrahas are often carried out in partnership with organizations such as H-West Ward Federation, Dignity Foundation, Borivli Dahisar Jagrut Nagrik Manch (BDJNM), Citizens’ Forum of Borivli etc.

Usually, they facilitate us by putting us in contact with their members, and urging their members to participate.

Some organizations, such as BDJNM and more recently, an ALM in Orlem-Malad, take the lead in organizing the Satyagraha themselves, and require us to act in an advisory or assisting role.

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Here Pedestrians hold back traffic after painting a sidewalk on the street. Photo from Friendlyghost.

Krishnaraj Rao lives in Borivli, a suburb of Mumbai known for its famous Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and, more recently, its residents who have taken to the streets demanding that pedestrians be treated with respect. Along with Mr. Santosh Jangam, a bookseller turned activist, Mr. Rao is the head of a movement called Sahasi Padayatri which is leading a grassroots campaign on behalf of pedestrian rights in Mumbai. Through this movement he has been engaged in a variety of initiatives and non-violent agitations to improve conditions for pedestrians; he has demarcated lanes for pedestrians on streets where pedestrians compete with buses, cars and motorcycles due to the lack of walkable footpaths and he has dumped rubbish blocking pedestrian areas at the steps of local government office buildings to raise awareness of the obstacles facing pedestrians. This weekend I had the chance to correspond with him by email. Below is the interview.

How have cars and motorbikes changed Mumbai’s streets?

Cars and motorbikes – especially the former – represent the prevalence of speed, brute force and money power in our society. They represent a constant threat to those who don’t have these vehicles, and subtly divide people into haves and have-nots. By virtue of being seated in an automobile, one feels one has a divine right to make hundreds of other people scurry out of his way as he approaches. I feel this mentality needs to be curbed for the good of society.

At what point did you realize that pedestrians were being forced off the roads? Has it been a long process, or has it happened rapidly?

Personally, realization of this fact dawned only in the past year, when, because of my concern about climate change, I began increasingly to leave my car parked and go out walking or using public transport.

But I do realize that this erosion of the pedestrians’ right to walk safely has been gradual over the past two decades. I recognize now that the motorist’s ability to honk a blaring horn and to subtly threaten to run down someone who obstructs him has skewed the balance. The pedestrian, by contrast, endlessly adjusts and modifies his path, peacefully yields the centre of the road to moving vehicles and the roadside to parked vehicles etc. The pedestrian rarely protests – and this has been his undoing.

Much of your activities revolve around something called a Satyagraha. Since a lot of our audience doesn’t speak Hindi, could you provide a brief explanation of what Satyagraha means?

At a mundane level, Satyagraha may be defined as a peaceful, non-violent way of agitating against a faulty system, in order to demand a change in the system. Please note, a Satyagraha is never against a person or group of persons; it is only against faulty systems and continuing injustices.

It is necessary for such agitation to be easy for people to directly relate to, and also for the agitation to inflict some hardships on those who agitate. A key part of the non-violent approach is to avoid evoking negative emotions such as fear and anger in those against whom the agitation is aimed.

At a philosophical level, Satyagraha means SATYA + AGRAHA, which roughly translates as “Truth Force” or “Truth Command”. Indians believe in the saying that “Truth shall Prevail” (Satyam Eva Jayate) in a rather literal way. We believe that the Truth, if clearly stated without any personal agendas, has a force on the human psyche that exceeds the force of threat and violence.

Civil disobedience is closely allied with Satyagraha – the two terms mean almost the same thing. Civil disobedience means inciting civilians to act peacefully against an authority that is on the side of wrongdoing. Setting off a civil disobedience movement involves inciting citizens to peacefully but firmly disobey the laws that hold them prisoners to wrongdoing, and strengthening their self-confidence by raising the pitch of their defiance of authority.

Needless to say, Satyagraha and civil disobedience call for great strength of character, self-restraint and inherent fearlessness.

Ok, so now that we know what a Satyagraha is, could you tell us a little about some of the initiatives you are involved in and what types of things you would like to see happen on India’s streets with respect to pedestrians?

The first thing we are doing is called a Pedestrian Satyagraha: This method of agitation consists of a large number of citizens forming a half-kilometre long human chain at the road centre with a wide strip of khadi cloth, while a 6-foot lane is demarcated with white paint along this human chain. This, accompanied with picketing and distribution of pamphlets, forms our “Pedestrian Satyagraha”. (See photo above)

The second thing we are doing is a Debris Satyagraha: The municipal corporation has no mechanism for clearing stony debris and left-over concrete pipe sections from roadsides, and therefore it has not done so for years and even decades! This rubble and stony debris lying around from years of construction work degrades the quality of roads, pavements and our city as a whole. It hinders pedestrians and vehicular traffic, endangers motorcyclists and assists encroachers and anti-social elements. Therefore Sahasi Padyatri has made it a point to lift the stony debris, and peacefully deposit it in front of the gates of city offices with placards urging the city to clear the debris. We believe that by doing so, we are doing half the job of the city, that is, lifting debris from the road. Therefore, the city is required to do only the other half of the work by disposing of it.

Residents pick up an old pipe, which had been blocking pedestrian space. Photo from Friendlyghost

The third thing we are doing is called a Letter Satyagraha: We continue to inundate the authorities with large numbers of letters and signatures by selling letters and collecting signatures on trains and in public places. All these letters – written in four languages, English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati - ask for six feet of road space exclusively for pedestrians.

Since the 17th of March, we have held eight Satyagrahas of the first two kinds - one at Bombay Central, four in Bandra and three in Borivli. Our last Satyagraha was the Debris Satyagraha held at Bombay Central on Sunday, April 20th.

Read the rest of the interview here

(Special thanks to Madhav Pai for arranging this interview.)

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Photo by Monica Almeida from The New York Times.

This weekend the New York Times had an article about a neat initiative to transform bus stops in Los Angeles into something called “community living rooms” - that’s a pleasant and clean space to sit down while waiting for the bus. According to the Times, LA’s bus stops are in chronic disrepair even though 1.2 million passengers use the buses every week. Jennifer Steinhaur reports that,

…Scores of bus stops around town, especially in the areas south of Interstate 10 and close to downtown, not only are trash-strewn and barren but also offer no place to sit. Old women press heavily against their walkers, peering down the street to see if the bus is coming, and children cling to the bus stop sign, often perilously close to the street, as their mothers beckon them sharply to stand back.

But things are starting to change, at least at around 15 spots in the city. Here’s how it works:

Community leaders and residents are asked to help plan a site. Landscape architects do the drawings, and community groups get permits from the Office of Community Beautification within the city’s Department of Public Works. Experts help to cut wood and give other technical assistance to the residents, who build and finish the furniture.

The new spaces are designed to look like living rooms, creating an aesthetic that is as cool as it is kitsch.

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By walking twenty minutes each way from the metro in Atlanta to her job at the American Cancer Society, Lois Fletcher has lost more than thirty pounds. It’s a remarkable story about how tweaking your day to day routine can have profound influences on your health. But as researchers who study public health will tell, its really not all that surprising. Below are the conclusions of several studies that clearly illustrate the link between good transit and public health:

• Train commuters walk significantly more steps per day (+30%) than automobile commuters. Train commuters are also 4 times more likely than car commuters to meet the recommended standard of 10,000 steps per day.” [Environment and Behavior]
• A study conducted in Shanghai found that women who reported regular exercise and cycling for transportation were at a 20–50% lower risk for early mortality than less active women. [American Journal of Epidemiology]
• 78% of riders from three walkable New Jersey train stations met the national standard for physical activity. As a whole, only 45% of Americans meet this recommended standard. [Journal of Public transportation]
• In Colombia, people who belong to a family owning a motorcycle or automobile are more likely to suffer from obesity [Indoor and built environment]

If you know of any more studies on the health benefits of public transit, we’d love to hear from you.

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