Sustainable Transport and Suburb Development

Hi Ya
I am back again after a long gap. no excuses! just being plain lazy!

During the last decade, most of the capital cities in India including New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore etc have seen a number of (suburban) developments mushrooming on the edges and extending the city limits. All these new suburb development then require improvements to the existing highways network to increase capacity. This increase in road transport is regarded as un sustainable by sustainability experts. The increase in road transport leads to an increase in number of cars which then have a number of damaging affects on our system:
i) The continuous increase in number of cars on our roads is contributing to the depletion of a finite stock of fossil fuel. There are a number of technological developments undergoing with respect to hybrid and electric cars, however, the use of such technology is seriously hampered by any sound advancement in the battery back up of such cars and the charging processes.
ii) The increase in cars on roads due to these new suburb developments also contribute in emitting a rising amount of carbon dioxide, which in turn lead to GHG emissions.
iii) In addition to the above, the number of casualties from traffic accidents is rapidly increasing in India.
It is well known that the impacts are not limited to carbon emissions or road casualties, there are a number of indirect impacts such as noise, unsustainable land developments and hence extended long journeys.
A high proportion of the young population in India is travelling much more than their parents with respect to their work related daily trips. The landuse plans developed by our planners have not encouraged making our internal city core dense but rather promoted a number of low to medium density developments to mushroom on the city edges. This in turn then does not necesarily provide a good platform to launch public transport initiatives.

This is very important that we reserve our existing resources for the future generation in a similar way that we use them today. Therefore there is an urgent need to change the way we undertake our planning of cities in India. There is a requirement to change the mindset and bring a change to develop more sustainable transport system. This transition to a sustainable transport system will involve a combination of technological, behavioural and demand management initiatives.
continue to follow to know more on this....

Bus Rapid Transit

Hi ya

Looking thru the window in my office over the Corniche. What a scene! I love my desk and its positioning overlooking Corniche and the Marina Mall. I was asked a question today by some guy on the street ( I still have no idea who he was and why on earth he asked me this question). I guess he thought I am colour blind and therefore wanted to have fun.

The question was "what is the colour of buses in Abu Dhabi"? Wow, what an easy question to answer, you would say. But trust me, I saw some 5 buses running on Electra Street after that. But I did not have an exact answer. So tell me what do you think "Is it GREEN, BLUE, GREENISH BLUE or BLUISH GREEN".

I am 100% sure there will be no replies since no one knows that I am trying my luck on blogging to take some pressure off work. hahaha.

what an idea to ask a question in an auditorium with 5,000 seating capacity on a day when it is completely empty.

But do not worry, I will definitely figure it out some day and will let "no one - who follows my blog" know the colour of buses in Abu Dhabi.

This morning when I was doing some Internet search to find out a suitable transport system for a project that I am currently working on, I found this useful publication on the net.

http://www.nbrti.org/docs/pdf/Low%20Res%20CBRT%202009%20Update.pdf

It is a good tool to evaluate a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit). The report clearly highlights the fact and findings of running a BRT in the US and the "rest of the world". There are some interesting findings and I believe it is a very well documented story about why we should all evaluate a BRT system before finalising on what is the best public transport system for a city.

I thought of writing a definition of what a BRT system is in this post. However was not surprised to find that there are so many definitions out there that I can write one off my own and still no one will notice that I am still learning about this system. I do not know how different this system is from a simple bus based public transport system, since my research has shown that many BRT's around the world operate on a mixed traffic scenario with no dedicated bus lanes. So here I go with a definition or an explanation of my own:

" A BRT is a system that has been identified, promoted and designed to provide a more reliable and faster travel using the same buses that could run otherwise as well and provide the same service. Some of the significant differentiators are the identity and the reliability of this system as compared to a normal bus based public transport system. It is an image in the mind of the user that attracts him to this mode."

So a BRT system can be compared with what "David Hume" in 1742 wrote in one of his essays, "Moral and Political": "Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them."

In order to fight against the capital intensive rail transit, some transport planners came up with an idea of improving the image of a bus transit and hence came up with this new terminology. Since then this (BRT) system has seen a number of new initiatives e.g. dedicated bus lanes, bus lanes during peak hours, traffic signals controls in the hand od bus drivers, route and arrival info in bus stops and on our mobiles. I am sure there will be many more advances coming in the future when we start figuring out on how to make it more sustainable.

Do you think my definition and evaluation of a BRT is appropriate! Do not bother to write if you disagree! hahahah. just drop me an email.

Cheers

Why do we need Sustainabe Transport?

I was not planning to write something over a weekend when I should have been playing out with my kids. But it was too hot any way, not because of weather but because my little angel wanted to buy every toy she saw in the mall.

So here I am back in my den. Oh boy! have just spent 15 minutes on the tele and I can tell you whey we need sustainable transport! Who ever has seen "Live Free or Die Hard" or "Die Hard 4" knows how Thomas Gabriel takes control of the transportation grid and then run traffic in from both sides of the tuneel!

Well that is why we need sustainable transport. If some hackers take control of our automated transport system in the future, at least the sustainable systems would keep us moving!

Enjoy the weekend!

Sustainable Transport

Before we go any further to understand sustainable transport approaches of various organisations in Abu Dhabi, I just want to pick some brains including my own to understand :
what we actually mean by using the term Sustainable Transport?

I am sure if you have reached to this blog, you would say we all know what sustainable transport means. Anyway, I always have a habit of teaching like a well known professor( all those who are from SPA know who the professor is!), so here is a definition from the European Union Council of Ministers of Transport:

1. A transport system that allows the basic access and development needs of individuals, companies and society to be met safely and in a manner consistent with human and ecosystem health, and promotes equity within and between successive generations.

2. A transport system which is affordable, operates fairly and efficiently, offers a choice of transport mode, and supports a competitive economy, as well as balanced regional development.

3. A transport system that limits emissions and waste within the planet’s ability to absorb them, uses renewable resources at or below their rates of generation, and uses non-renewable resources at or below the rates of development of renewable substitutes, while minimizing the impact on the use of land and the generation of noise.

Now can I ask you what we are trying to achieve here in Abu Dhabi? Is it part, some or all of the above?

1. A BIG question: Are we trying to bring "equality" between various end users in this part of the world, where the difference between incomes is so huge that a significant number in this society earn less in a month than some of us make in an hour.

2. I am sure making the proposed system "affordable, efficient and reliable" for this government here will not be a problem for many many generations.

3. However, I am not fully confident that the approach to limit emissions has been seriously considered yet. I fully appreciate that one needs to have a transport system in place first and that is where all the energies are focused currently. By no means, it is an easy task and by no means I am undermining the efforts of a number of stakeholders including DoT, UPC and the Leadership. It has been a tremendous effort to reach where we are in such a short span.

However, when you have the option to choose from a number of existing sustainable modes of transport (e.g. CNG buses etc), why did we choose diesel buses at the first place.