Copenhagenize.com - The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog: Bike Licences Are Stupid
Well, what we really need is more cycling. The lanes, debates, etc will follow. My recent trip to Delhi presented a scary vision - would hate to see Bangalore go down that path. The city exists for its roads, and getting things moving from point X to Y - and the costs for that are very very high. The Netherlands model is something far more desirable, but to start with the debate about discouraging private cars on public roads needs to be sparked.
That link above has some great reasons for cycling - from the city's point of view. The comments also bring forth a whole bunch of information that was new and illuminating to me personally. Good read.
Edit : Found a paper discussing the sprawl, the automobile and alternatives. To me its a pretty simple equation, we need to focus on getting carbon fuel powered vehicles to travel as less as possible - and the form, flow and design of the urban landscape should just follow this thought. Make it painful to travel long distances, park in crowded centres, or even drive a privately owned vehicle. The clamour for better buses, trains, cycling lanes, shorter commutes will just happen. The first requirement is to build consensus for disincentivising private transportation outside of, say, a 5 kilometre zone of one's place of residence. Parallely, develop smarter bus routes, bike lanes. Make sure its better to walk or ride or bus than drive.
Well, what we really need is more cycling. The lanes, debates, etc will follow. My recent trip to Delhi presented a scary vision - would hate to see Bangalore go down that path. The city exists for its roads, and getting things moving from point X to Y - and the costs for that are very very high. The Netherlands model is something far more desirable, but to start with the debate about discouraging private cars on public roads needs to be sparked.
That link above has some great reasons for cycling - from the city's point of view. The comments also bring forth a whole bunch of information that was new and illuminating to me personally. Good read.
Edit : Found a paper discussing the sprawl, the automobile and alternatives. To me its a pretty simple equation, we need to focus on getting carbon fuel powered vehicles to travel as less as possible - and the form, flow and design of the urban landscape should just follow this thought. Make it painful to travel long distances, park in crowded centres, or even drive a privately owned vehicle. The clamour for better buses, trains, cycling lanes, shorter commutes will just happen. The first requirement is to build consensus for disincentivising private transportation outside of, say, a 5 kilometre zone of one's place of residence. Parallely, develop smarter bus routes, bike lanes. Make sure its better to walk or ride or bus than drive.
.jpg)
2 comments:
Hey Mr.Sameer,
You came up with really very Nice debate.
What I want to stress here is that Pollution level of Bangalore is at alarming high level (Source: NDTV Pollution watch). Even bangaloreans can figure out the difference between the weather of this garden city 5years back and now.
Its high time for all of us stop the pollution levels and also start conserving the Fossil fuels for future generations.
SOLUTION No.1: Bangaloreans should start car pooling seriously!!!!
Kartik,
I can only pray that Bangalore abandons the sprawl style of development as soon as possible. We're losing too many trees and too much soul for short term solutions.
Car pooling, cycling, taking the bus will all help. At the same time, making driving within the city hurt a little more will also help drive this behaviour. I was almost sad the govt reduced petrol prices.
Post a Comment