The world’s cheapest automobile, known as the Tata Nano, debuted at the Delhi auto show in late March with the promise of bringing greater mobility independence to scores of families. Millions of new vehicles are expected to compete for space on the already congested road network in India. Sustainable transport advocates are watching closely to…
MUMBAI: Why are bicycles, which don’t pollute, take up little space, are cheap and have virtually no maintenance cost, not a popular mode of travel in Mumbai? According to activists and cycling enthusiasts, the reasons are a mindset that favours motorised vehicles and a lack of infrastructure to promote cycling in the city. These were the…
Streetsblog: What are the options for configuring BRT on First and Second Avenue? If a three-lane configuration is not politically feasible, what else might we end up with? Walter Hook: It would take a lot of political courage to take three lanes out of First and Second Avenue exclusively for buses, but the current plan, de facto,…
The participants, having met in Seoul, the Republic of Korea from 24 to 26 February 2009, for the Fourth Regional EST Forum, to draw up and adopt a statement for the promotion of environmentally sustainable transport in Asia, Noting that Asia is experiencing the fastest economic growth and by mid of this century, and at the current growth rate…
Streetsblog: What would you say are the defining characteristics of a real BRT-level system? Walter Hook: To be called BRT, a line must be a package of physical and operational components (stations, vehicles, running ways, passenger information, services, fare collection, traffic signal priority and other Intelligent Transportation System applications) that form a permanently integrated, customer-friendly, high performance…
Streetsblog: What’s your evaluation of the SBS pilot route on Fordham Road? Does it qualify as BRT? Walter Hook: The Fordham Road “Select Bus Service” pilot route was a very successful bus service enhancement—including a number of BRT elements. The city is not calling it “BRT,” though, and I think that is reasonable. A rule of thumb…
These were the words that kicked off the lecture/presentation/self-help seminar by Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, last Thursday night at the Boston Public Library. The quote was unattributed, but the idea of happiness formed the nucleus of Mr. Peñalosa’s philosophy of people-centered urbanism. Using photos and examples of projects in cities around the…
In what ended up being standing room only seating, Enrique Peñalosa gave a stirring speech last night at the Boston Public Library. Over the course of a three hour period he kept the large audience enraptured to hear about his philosophy on urban planning, and his stories of Bogota, and other cities and what they…
Till a few years ago, Bogota, the capital of Colombia (a Latin American country that has been the scene of much civil unrest for over half a century), and its nearly seven million inhabitants had a quality of life no better than that of large sections of the lower middle class and the poor in…