Education for Sustainable Mobility

Sanskriti Menon, Programme Director, Centre for Environment Education in Pune interviewed Ranjit Gadgil Programme Director at Parisar about 'Education for Sustainable Mobility'. Ranjit expresses his views about sustainable mobility, the role of education in bringing about the necessary changes in society to move towards sustainable transportation systems etc.

 

What is sustainable mobility? Is it understood in Pune and in India? How useful are examples from cities elsewhere?

The first step towards sustainable mobility is the recognition that though private motorized transport offers individual convenience, it cannot be the major mode as cities grow. The situation rapidly becomes unsustainable with congestion and pollution. Building a city around the private automobile leads to an insidious reduction of quality of life and equity; there is lopsided allocation of resources, and even social issues such as people becoming cut-off from one another. Understanding about carbon contributions from transportation systems to climate change has added a global dimension to what was earlier thought of as a local issue.

Is it understood in Pune and in India?

The National Urban Transport Policy by the Government of India, and the federal Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission have strongly emphasized enhancement of public transport and non-motorized transport. These are both welcome and important policy decisions however a greater emphasis on Traffic Demand Management is still needed. In Pune, civil society groups have been discussing the traffic and transport issues for over a decade so the demands for bicycle tracks, improvements in buses, and even the concept of traffic demand management are no longer met with incredulous surprise. However, the old paradigm is still too deeply ingrained – when we suggest 'add a bus lane'

or 'increase the footpath width', people still ask, ' what about space for motor vehicles?' People are still not thinking of non motorized transport and public transport as the main pillars of mobility systems for the city, but simply as utopian ideas.

How useful are examples from cities elsewhere?

The major transformations towards more sustainable mobility seem to have taken place in South America and Europe. The Transmileno, Velib and the London Congestion Charge are powerful demonstrations of this we have facilitated visits of municipal officials to some of these cities. It has been clearly  demonstrated in Curitiba and Bogotá that a committed politician can bring about radical change, however in Europe, the change has been more gradual and accompanied by wide-ranging discussions and public engagement in the formulation of local and higher-level policies. In Pune we don't have a directly elected mayor and nor are our city-level policy formulation processes very well formed as yet, so we have

to adapt examples of transformation processes that might have been very effective else where in the world such as design typologies and films prepared by Interface for Cycling Expertise and GTZ.

How have you engaged with local policy-makers?

Civil society groups in Pune have largely interacted with the bureaucracy on sustainable transport issues. However, much more engagement with elected representatives is necessary for the evolution of local policies, plans and budgets for sustainable mobility systems. In the future, we aim to help candidates standing for election as well as the electorate, understand how public transport and non motorized transport facilities are related to equity, quality of life, income levels etc. Given that at least half the voting population of Pune uses the bus service (which needs great improvements), it makes sense to be more strategic about engaging with elected representatives.

Mobility needs to be part of election manifestos. Parisar has organized car-free days, pedestrian protests, a signature campaign by bus users demanding improvements, protests against bus fare-hikes etc. Hopefully, such expressions do convey the citizens' needs to the politicians!

What is the role of young people’s clubs and senior citizen organizations?

When you've just got your driving license, and experienced freedom with a motorbike, it's difficult to be too serious about footpaths and buses! But students in professional courses of architecture, engineering, planning especially must be exposed to technical aspects of designing sustainable mobility systems as well as the social dimensions such as equity and inclusion. For this, we design projects for students such as passenger counts, footpath designs, opinion surveys, designing communication material, organizing presentations etc. It's a good idea to engage senior citizens groups as advocates for sustainable mobility. They are adversely affected because of poor footpaths and bus services and they are often well-connected since they've been around, and can influence the local councilors!

What about schools?

We've developed a survey on how children come to school. Students are supposed to take the survey sheet home and fill it in after discussing it with parents. Often parents call up to complain that cycling is not safe in Pune's traffic conditions and we explain that the idea is to help children understand the need for city-widesafe and sustainable mobility. We also conduct a short slide-show and a film by ICE, followed by a discussion. The values dimension (equity, inclusion) is often included as we think it important that students are able to link the state of our city to its governance. We encourage students to write to the Municipal Commissioner presenting their views on the state of traffic and transport in Pune, and how they would like it to be. Political education is part of learning for sustainability.

(First published in the autumn 2009 issue of 'Educationand Sustainability' available at www.es-online.info)

The National Urban transport Policy was formulated in 006. Its objective is to ‘ensure safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access’ to city residents.

Urbanindia.nic.in/policies/TransportPolicy.pdf

Service Level Benchmarks for Urban Transport

Service level performance benchmarks for urban transport have been identified for the following areas

of intervention:

1 Public transport facilities

2 Pedestrian infrastructure facilities

3 Non Motorize Transport (NMT) facilities

4 Level of usage of Intelligent Transport System (ITS)facilities

5 Travel speed (Motorized and Mass Transit) along major corridors

6 Availability of parking spaces

7 Road safety

8 Pollution levels

9 Integrated land use transport system

10 Financial sustainability of public transport

These performance measurements will need to be carried out by the service delivery agencies

themselves, reported to higher levels of management and also disseminated widely. Clear definitions and methodologies are expected to eliminate bias in measurement and reporting. Typically, four levels of service (LoS) have been specified, viz. '1', '2', '3', and '4' with '1' being highest LoS and '4' being lowest to measure each identified performance benchmark. Therefore, the goal is to attain the service level 1.

For detailed information visit:

http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/programme/ut/Service_level.pdf

Bicycle Safety Program in schools of Pune City

“While we cycle to school everyday, we don't feel safe even on cycle tracks, where we are told me to move out by pedestrians/motorists.”

“I have a lot of fun cycling near my place, but my parents don't allow me to cycle to school because it is very far and they think it is dangerous.”

These statements by school children in Pune are a telling comment on the situation of traffic and transportation in our cities.

Parisar Paryavaran Sanrakshan Sanstha, a Pune-based NGO has been working to promote awareness about sustainable urban mobility. Parisar believes that the first step towards sustainable mobility is the recognition that though private motorized transport offers individual convenience, it cannot be the major mode as cities grow. The situation becomes unsustainable with congestion and pollution and consequent reduction of quality of life and equity. Cycling is not just an alternative means of moving around easily but it is a fundamental means of transportation. If integrated into urban planning, cycle-based transportation can make a significant contribution to the move towards Liveable cities. Cities designed for non-motorized traffic and public transport, rather than for the car, have benefits for people and the environment.

With this in mind, Parisar initiated the Bicycle Safety Program in schools. The approach and the materials developed are easily adapted for use in other cities in the country. “The original plan”, says Ranjit Gadgil, Programme Director, Parisar, “was to run the program in about 30 schools in Pune like a campaign. As it turned out, we were able to develop a kit through trials in about 10 schools. The kit can be used to enhance awareness among children about cycling as a sustainable mode of transport in cities. It also has an element of 'civics education'. NGOs can use the kit to collect rich data about cycle routes used by school students and for further work on developing safe routes to schools.”

The programme is implemented with students of 7^th to 9^th standard. The kit consists of:

1. Three types of survey sheets to collect data from students who cycle, students who don't cycle and parents, on the reasons for cycling/not cycling, and perceived solutions from the parents' as well as the students' view on the situation.
2. A 20-minute Power point presentation on the transport situation in Pune.
3. A 15-minute video about cycling-friendly cities
4. A model 'Letter to the Municipal Commissioner' on behalf of the students drawing the authorities' attention to the problems of the students as cyclists.
5. A model 'Declaration' that can be made by the schools to make the city a cycling-friendly place.
6. Safety Tips for Cyclists' instruction card.
7. Badges.
8. Posters conveying various aspects of cycling through the medium of graphics and text.

 Implementing the Program Laying the Ground through the Survey

Students were given a week to fill out the survey sheets. They were asked to take the survey sheet home and fill it after discussing it with parents. Survey sheets were also given for the parents to fill out. Often parents called up to complain that cycling is not safe in Pune's traffic conditions. This became an opportunity for Parisar to say that was exactly the point, and also to clarify that Parisar wasn't telling children to cycle, but helping understand the need for and issues related to city-wide safe and sustainable mobility.

The data from the survey can be compiled and the results discussed with students. When plotted on a map, a visual representation can be made of which routes are being used to cycle to school.

While this was not a stated intention by the designers of the program, from an environment education perspective, the survey is a good way to get students to investigate the situation and arrive at their own conclusions based on facts they collect, rather than hand out platitudes like 'bicycling is good'. The survey also helped to reach out to parents and get them involved in the issue. If, at a later stage, a project is taken up to design safe routes to school, such outreach would likely provide a useful ally in the School Management Committees that includes parents.

Interactive Session to Imagine a City Safe for Cycling and Walking

After the survey, the Parisar team discussed with students the purpose of transportation including by walking and cycling and if it really makes sense to walk and cycle. They were encouraged to share their experience of walking and cycling and if they didn't do either, why?

The slide show 'Cycle for Pune' prepared by Parisar was used to present the current situation of and issues related to traffic and transportation in Pune. The show has photos from Pune's roads depicting the volume of traffic, difficulties faced by cyclists and pedestrians, as well as illustrations on how improvements in public transport, and cycling and walking facilities are the way to meet the traffic challenge.

Shweta Vernekar, who is part of the Parisar team, says that “the presentation also communicates ideas of equity and justice, with respect for all and its environment”. She also lists out some of the comments and questions the students raised that bring out key hurdles in making Pune a cycling friendly city again:

• Cycle tracks are not maintained, even as adjoining main road is always taken care of. Why is this so?
• Cycles are lightweight and hence very easy to steal, how can this be avoided
• To reduce the dependence on private vehicles [two/four wheelers], there should be adequate alternative public transport available.
• Public Transport must be clean and convenient. One should feel like opting for it.

After the slide show, students were encouraged to think and suggest how it would be to have a city where they were free to travel safely to school on cycle or by walk. Next, a film by Interface for Cycling Expertise titled 'Cycling Friendly Cities' was screened to show that there are cities in the world (such as Amsterdam and Bogota) where cycling and pedestrians are given priority on road. The response to the movie was very positive and enthusiastic. All children agreed unanimously that they would definitely cycle if they lived in such a city. The question of 'how to make cycling cool' was also discussed in some schools.

Some 'Civics Education'

An important part of the interactive session was the final question to students – what can be done? Students were asked about how the city decides about infrastructure projects and planning, and who makes these decisions.

At this stage the model letter to the Municipal Commissioner was shared which requests him on behalf of these students to look into the matter of safe and convenient cycling for them and for the city as a whole. At all the schools, students enthusiastically signed it.

After the session was done, students were handed out the badges and the safety tips cards as a token of participation. The School authorities were given posters handling different issues concerning cycling to be put up on school display boards. A charter declaring the school's support for cycling was also put up on the notice board.

The response to the program from students, parents, and teachers was very enthusiastic. Over 1200 children participated in the program, and each of the six schools mailed a copy of the Letter to the Municipal Commissioner on to the Pune Municipal Corporation, asking for safe cycle paths to allow them to ride to school.

For more information contact:

Parisar, 'Yamuna', ICS Colony, Ganeshkhind Road,

Pune 411 007; Ph.: 020-25512122

Website: http://www.parisar.org

The 'Walking School Bus'

A walking school bus is a group of children walking to school with one or more adults. To set up a walking bus, usually the school sends out a letter to parents enquiring about their interest and also if they can volunteer to accompany the walking bus. Then, the route is identified based on where students live. The school and the parents check the route for safety and start the bus, making improvements as they go along.

Some things to check: Do you have room to walk? Are there footpaths? Is there too much traffic? Is it easy to cross the street? Do drivers stop for walkers? Are there loose dogs?

(From ww.walkingschoolbus.org)

In England, many local governments help schools set up their walking bus. Over 3000 primary schools in UK have applied for support.

• Read out the information on the Walking School Bus in the daily school assembly.
• Discuss the Walking School Bus in class, or your ecoclub. Do you think your school should set up one? Your class or eco-club could suggest it at the next meeting of the Parent Teacher Association.

Towards a Livable Pune
Socially and Environmentally Sound Traffic and Transport

In Pune, Parisar and its partners have been grappling with sustainability in urban traffic and transport systems over the last decade or so. EfC spoke to Sujit Patwardhan over a couple of longish coffee sessions to obtain the story of how the diverse influences of the environmental and sustainability movements, design and localized public engagement are shaping the evolution of sustainable traffic and transport in Pune. The story provides several useful insights into the nature of education for sustainable development.

Finding Connections
The roots of the traffic and transport challenges of today can possibly be traced back to how modern cities were envisioned in the early twentieth century. Contested Streets, a film by Transportation Alternatives, recounts the story of how New York was planned for the automobile.

The car was seen as the clean, hygienic modern alternative to horse carriages which led to dung, filth and dead horses on streets. The car could transport people to work in the city, and back home in the suburbia. It also meant that poor people were driven out to make way for roads and parking lots; or that the poor were excluded from the ‘modern city’ since they couldn’t afford cars. But as owning a car became more affordable and wide spread, other types of problems started cropping up — of environmental damage where the raw materials for cars were being mined, of air pollution and congestion in the cities, and of scrap disposal and mountains of old tyres in the landfills.

When I saw Contested Streets a few years ago, I could immediately see that our cities too are indeed increasingly becoming ‘car dominated’. We seem to have learnt nothing from the problems of cities in the developed countries with a longer history of car usage. On the contrary, the conventional idea of a ‘modern city’ is still very much that of a city replete with traffic infrastructure such as flyovers and wide roads that caters to the private vehicle.

The writings of Jane Jacobs, which I had read earlier in other contexts, spoke about the old city centres and the vibrancy of community life in older neighbourhoods which combined places of work, home and leisure in mixed land uses and within walking distances.

These were formative influences.

As I started talking to friends, other NGOs in the city, and ‘sustainable transport’ advocates, it became clear that traffic and transport issues are intimately connected with the social fabric of the city.

This group of concerned individuals and organizations in Pune coalesced into what we started calling the Pune Traffic and Transportation Forum. We would meet the first Saturday of every month. Since there are so many facets to urban transport, diverse groups such as doctors, urban planners, environmentalists, informal sector workers, etc have found something to relate to and have helped enrich the debates. We realized that equity and livelihoods, a sense of community, health, and of course local and not-so local environmental impacts are all part of how sustainable transport is envisioned.

Among the many victims of road widening without tackling the root problem of increasing vehicle numbers - heritage structures, trees and open spaces.

What’s Our Focus
We also found that several groups were focusing on cleaner fuels, more efficient engines, emission standards, road safety issues etc. Certainly these are aspects of sustainable transport. But we felt that a central element — motorized traffic reduction — was missing.

We felt this is the keystone of sustainable transport. We were convinced that people in Pune need to understand this paradigm of traffic and transport planning. When you plan for people, not for cars, all the elements of health, equity, efficiency etc, fall into place.

Internet Resources
• SUSTRAN (Sustainable Transport Network for Asia) www.newmobility.org
• Car Free Cities Network www.carfree.com
• EMBARQ: World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport www.embarq.wri.org
• Transportation Alternatives www.transalt.org
• Interface for Cycling Expertise www.cycling.nl
• IIT Delhi www.iitd.ac.in/tripp
• Pune Traffic and Transportation Forum www.pttf.net

Helping Leap Frog
Some years ago the BBC showed a film ‘U Turn’. The futility of building fly–over after fly–over only to find them full and jammed in five years is beautifully explained. After seeing the film one feels that we must leap frog — our cities don’t have to go through the escalating spiral of
road —car — more road — more car.

But leap frogging is a complex concept. It has to be clear what we are leap frogging over and to what. That is the ‘education’ task we have.

Around this time, we received support from the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme through the Centre for Environment Education. The main focus of our project has been to evolve the local traffic and transport vision through stakeholder dialogue.

Assessing Pune’s T and T Situation
In November 2004, PTTF together with the Pune Municipal Corporation organized a seminar “One Right Turn: Critical Issues in Urban Mobility for Developing Countries for the coming Decades”. The main outcome was the highlighting in the public mind that the issue of traffic and transport is severe in Pune and that we have to take into account aspects of economic efficiency and environmental impact while making a decision.

This was also the time that the Supreme Court’s EPCA or the Bhure Lal Committee started to visit Pune. Having taken note of rising air pollution levels in eight cities of India, the Supreme Court through the EPCA is monitoring the steps that the municipalities of these cities are taking to counter pollution — improving traffic and transport is a key area.

The EPCA directed the PMC to articulate a policy for Traffic and Transport. PTTF members contributed substantially in the formation of the draft policy, which awaits approval by the PMC General Body.

Experiences from Different Parts of the World
Once we decided that it is important for citizens of Pune to understand the traffic and transport planning experience from various cities of the world, we started to bring in information, materials, speakers and resource persons. Sujit Patwardhan

A city needs at least 40 buses per lakh population according to the Central Institute of Road Transport

Dr Enrique Penalosa, who was Mayor of Bogota visited Pune at our invitation and addressed the citizens in a public meeting at Bal Gandharva. Through his very effective oratory and slides, he shared his experiences of how their Bus Rapit Transport (BRT) sysytem the TransMillenio was put in place.

Dr Penalosa says ‘Its very simple to create a livable city … design it for people, not cars.’ What an elegant statement! He captures the essence of sustainable cities and sustainable traffic and transport.

We drew upon the ICE (Interface for Cycling Expertise) for ideas on non–motorized transport, and have had fruitful interactions with transportation experts from the EMBARQ project of the World Resources Institute, Washington, and also officials from the Federal Transit Administration, Department of Transportation in the US Government.

We also found studies on Pune’s traffic done by the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) in Bhosari. A very important statistic — that a city typically needs 40 buses per lakh passengers/ population — came from CIRT. When applied to Pune, we found that our local municipal transport was woefully short of at least 400 buses. This is apart from other management issues that plague the transport service.

We also interact with experts from the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme of IIT Delhi, and were instrumental in connecting them to the PMC. This eventually resulted in a BRT plan being evolved for Pune.

Public Opinion and Outreach
While on the one hand we were enriching our, and the civic administration’s understanding of city traffic and transport, we realized that unless public demands are also articulated and presented to decision–makers, the political decision making would not be convinced.

Outreach Tools
We developed several outreach and communication tools including a slide show, and facilitated a series of articles in the popular print press. We also used the materials from the networks we were engaged with. Films and pictures from ICE, the IIT Delhi and various others highlighted the new traffic transport paradigm, and pointed out specifics in improved design of footpaths, cycle tracks, tackling congestion with buses rather than flyovers, etc. These have been very useful resources in our own public outreach. Sujit Patwardhan

Parisar organized a PMT Users’ Signature Campaign to demand improvements in public transport

Interaction with the IT Industry
Pune is a boom–town for the IT industry. It is changing the layout, appearance and the economics of the city. Through a high-profile seminar with the Software Exporters’ Association of Pune Social Foundation, PTTF was able to reach out to this sector. E-groups and movements on safe traffic, better roads already existed, with a large membership from amongst the IT sector workforce. Our main contribution to these discussion groups has been to introduce the core issue or logic of sustainability.

The e-groups sustain continued dialogue and help evolve positions. These are becoming an important method of outreach in our increasingly networked city.

The PMT Users Forum
A major initiative we took and are now consolidating is the development of a PMT User’s Forum (Pune Municipal Transport). We worked with the students of a local college and other local partners to take up a signature campaign of users of the local municipal bus service to demand improvements. Over ten thousand signatures — and many useful suggestions — were gathered in a single day and later presented to the political and administrative leaders.

Stake-holder Discussion Series
In more recent months, the Sakal group which runs the largest Marathi newspaper has taken up this cause. They had conducted opinion surveys last year asking readers about which are the most pressing issues of the city. Traffic emerged as one of the most important. Series of articles by editors, experts and citizens were published in Sakal paper. Based on this, a set of recommendations regarding sustainable solutions to traffic and transport in the city were made at a workshop organized by PTTF, Sakal Social Foundation and Janwani. These recommendations are the inputs from Pune's citizens to the Committee appointed by the State Government to study Pune's traffic problems and suggest solutions.

On–Ground Work
Our work is not limited to discussions and dialogue. We have been contributing to evolving on–ground systems with the municipality.

For instance, no traffic planner or engineer in Pune has actually designed a full cycle track network. We don’t yet have a city–wide network, only a few disjointed tracks. While professionals can read up the theory, a lot of detailed work is required in the actual design of a large network and users have a very important role in evolving effective design. So, members of a large group of cycling enthusiasts, the Pune Cycle Pratishthan and PTTF are helping to chart routes, design signage, separators, point out impediments like broken tracks and debris etc.

We have also been monitoring the implementation of the pilot bus–rapid transport system in Pune and working closely with the PMC to provide constructive suggestions. PTTF members are working with the Hinjewadi IT Park to work out a good public transport service for the area. Other members are monitoring slum rehabilitation projects to add the public transport dimension, since that is a key to successful rehabilitation.

Pune is shaping its Development Plan (DP) for the next twenty years. Parisar and PTTF members are on the Steering Committee for the DP. Transport systems mould the shape and character of a city. A Development Plan that incorporates socially and environmentally sound traffic and transport systems can make our city livable.

For more information contact:
Sujit Patwardhan
Parisar, ‘Yamuna’, ICS Colony,
Ganeshkhind Road, Pune 411007
Ph: 020–25537955
E-mail: sujit@vsnl.com
Website: http://www.pttf.net/

Sujit Patwardhan

Facilities for non-motorized transport are an integral part of transport planning – something that is largely ignored by most of our cities

Sanskriti Menon

Roads for mobility or free parking for cars? Fergusson College Road, Pune 1997