[Urbanstudy] GreenTalk: Indians fight for the right to walk, or bicycle

[Kabir Khan]

Millions more Indians travel by foot, bicycle and bus than travel by car,
but you'd never guess it from the design of India's cities or the
allocation of government funds. A handful of interesting organizations is
fighting for the rights of zero emitters, however.

The Center for Science and Environment (CSE) magazine Down To Earth reports
that a number of groups, ranging from rickshaw pullers in the Punjab to
bicycle crazy yuppies in Haryana are working to influence policy makers and
change the way India thinks about urban infrastructure.

Ecocab’s Dial-a-rickshaw service in Fazilka, Punjab, for instance, is
revamping the "outdated" bicycle rickshaw as a cutting-edge, modern form of
transportation by focusing on its naturally eco-friendly qualities. The
Manipur Cycling Club, in the northeastern state of Manipur, is
manufacturing bicycles from bamboo to simultaneously create a source of
employment and encourage eco-friendly transportation. The Namma Cycle
movement initiated by Ride-A-Cycle Foundation has made free-to-share
bicycles available around educational institutes and recreational sites in
Bangalore. And Rickshaw Bank offers a microfinance-type scheme combined
with a cheaper, lighter rickshaw designed at the Indian Institute of
Technology (Guwahati), in Assam, to free rickshaw pullers from endless
rental payments to the cartel of rickshaw owners.

It looks like a long haul, though. Down To Earth writes:

Over the past decade, laws have banned cycle rickshaws from prime areas of
many cities to make room for cars. Delhi is fighting a bitter battle to
protect its 0.6 million cycle rickshaw fleet as Delhi Municipal Corporation
(Cycle-Rickshaw) By-laws of 1960 has restricted their number to 99,000 in
ear-marked zones. The Act has also empowered authorities to confiscate,
crush and sell rickshaws if they are found plying without a licence. But
reprieve came from the Supreme Court when in its April hearing of the
public interest petition it quashed the civic body’s bid and castigated it
for taking away the right of the “weak and meek”. The apex court asked the
municipal corporation, “Are you prepared to scrap cars? Impound those
involved in drunken driving or even remove them from roads, say for a
period of 10 years?”

In 2008 Kolkata curtailed bicycles on 39 key roads following a notification
issued by the city’s police. It states that with a view to “providing safe
and uninterrupted movement of vehicular traffic, we hereby order that no
bicycle shall ply or remain standing between 9 am and 7 pm on all days”.
Activist Debasish Banerjee of Kolkata laments, “It is ironical that while
globally cities are bringing back bicycles and trams, Kolkata despite its
rich legacy is letting them decay.”

Moreover, public spending is the opposite of green:

The National Urban Transport Policy has made the right noises about
promoting walking and cycling. However its funding arm, the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), has played spoilsport.
Almost the entire booty so far has been given for roads, flyovers and
parking structures. Only a few small-scale projects in smaller cities like
Nanded in Maharashtra have seen some transformation of its footpaths and
cycling paths. Currently, the Union Ministry of Urban Development is
framing a public bicycle sharing scheme. But the Planning Commission has
already argued against it, citing lack of funds.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/india/india-walk-bicycle-green
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20120505/d5753688/attachment.html>