Tamil Nadu - Chennai

European Union provides best transport model: expert

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

T. R. Lakshmanan.

Chennai: A geographer and an expert in transportation, T.R.Lakshmanan, Director, Centre for Transportation Studies, Boston University, has been travelling to many parts of the world, including the European Union and Latin America, to study experiments in mass transport systems there.

In his opening speech on ‘Planet in Peril’ at the National Association of Geographers’ annual meeting held recently in India, he dwelt on sustainable development to conserve ecology. According to Mr. Lakshmanan, the transportation model followed in the United States is not the best to pursue as it has only resulted in high consumption of energy.

“In the U.S., 70 per cent of the total mass transit system is concentrated in seven cities. All the money is wasted in parking subsidy. Transport development is not [about] merely building roads and highways but generating more market for subways and road space and not driving a car,” he says.

“It is important to understand that car pooling improves energy efficiency. Make people understand the cost of using the road space and have higher pricing [toll] for rush-hour road use.”

Increasing the toll during the rush hour would reduce movement of people.

Also, providing green channels to buses in the designated lane would ensure better use of road space.

The best transport models to emulate would be those in place in Singapore, Brazil or even the European Union. The European Union, he feels, has shown the way in conserving energy by seeking alternatives, while maintaining a high standard of living.

By encouraging spatial growth in cities, where sprawling homes are replaced by multi-storeyed buildings, governments would be discouraging people from using private transport for want of space, he says.

“Look at New York. Thousands can enter the Wall Street junction at the same time. We need such a system where half a million can reach their place of work at the same time.” Using a car should be limited to activities such as visiting a friend or the like.

He suggests pro-active policies instead of reacting after the development has taken place.

“Between now and 2040, 20 to 40 per cent more people from the rural areas will come into the city. We need to plan to provide space for these people. The only way to do this is to build high-rise structures and housing options. This would ensure that a large number of people are packed in a small space and are easily transported to their destination at the shortest span of time.”

He believes that India has done a good job in railroad projects in Mumbai and Kolkata, with their huge capacity to transport people. It is the upper middle class and the business class, who drive the national transportation policy but for sustained development it is important to have good economic and environmental development so that the benefits reach the poor too, he says.

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