Saturday, January 29, 2011

Mumbai!

I'm in Mumbai for a conference:

A very interesting lecture was given by Prof. Geetam Tiwari, TRIPP Chair, IIT Delhi, who talked about transporting solutions that takes into account the majority of the city dwellers - the poor, the majority of them working in the informal sector. This is her on YouTube;



Her work, especially her support for the Bus Rapid Transport System, is quite controversial. In particular, the Dehli BRT System is under intense criticism from car users who complain that the dedicated bus lanes have deprived them of valuable road capacity and have exarcebated the already bad level of congestion. In defense a supporter of Prof Geetham, Ar Faizan characterized the allocation of the exclusive bus lanes as being a more democratic allocation when taking into account the number of people in the buses compared with the people in cars.

A later presentation by an architect involved in the BRT System in Ahmedabad - a much smaller city - supports the BRT, but not one give nby Prof SM Akhtar. I'm sure this controversy will rage on.


These are links to two of her papers:
1. Public Transport Research Challenges in India
2. Towards a Sustainable Urban Transport System : Planning for Non-Motorized Vehicles in Cities