People’s Way: Urban Mobility in Ahmedabad: Places: Design Observer
Photo: Meena Kadri
Transport rates up there as one of the most important of infrastructure issue for planners. Congestion, the word alone conjures up the proverbial metal box and is sufficient to induce [insert stress related symptom here].
Meena Kadri, in her superb article, the detailing of a Bus Rapid Transit - which repurposes existing roads into dedicated busroutes - being implemented in Ahmedabad, India.
The merits of public transport has been given sufficient (and superior) discourse elsewhere so I shall refrain from any comment (which shall only incriminate me in my ignorance). Rather, the main message which I felt warrant note is the success in how planners was able to handle and effectively address criticism. From what was visible, there was genuine willingness on their part to work together with the community. The focus on equity (socio-economic concerns, little things like PA system for the blind, signs for the deaf etc.) really seemed to engender support from an initially skeptical audience.
Finally, I think the means of gradually implementing the system with a testing period is a creative approach which we can do much to emulate. Personally, my understanding of the gaming industry (my inner non-hipness emerges) is that (well, a good game anyway) a ‘beta’ version is released to the community, whereby after several months of play-testing, any major glitches are patched up for a more polished end-result. It all seems rather simple really, infact, I would go so far to say, it is pure elegance in its simplicity. I think the closest analogy it perhaps pilot programs - my personal qualm with it is that they often seem to be based on whether objectives are meet rather than working with communities to reach said goals. Anyway, for want of a concise conclusion, I shall end with this: the BRT model in Ahmedabad is a good example of engendering community support, and in turn gaining that development mandate which can mean the difference between having long term success or not. Anyway, click on the link for some smashing prose.
