Category Archives: Transportation Planning

Taming street-people: India’s grand civilizational project

Posted on July 18, 2011 by

A status message by a friend on Facebook has had me thinking for many weeks now. He wrote: Ranchi is an amazing city. In my first 30 minutes there, two schoolchildren, one bike rider and a goat tried to kill … Continue reading →

Posted in Car-free streets, Equity in Planning, Indian National Movement, Mumbai, Planning History, Ranchi, Safety, Skywalk, social spaces, Street Vendors, Suburban Rail | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

How much more should we give up for parking?

Posted on July 4, 2011 by

I have written previously about parking spots replacing parks and playgrounds in cities like Bangalore and Chennai. Now we learn that even houses will be demolished and river beds covered up to make parking lots. It is time we asked … Continue reading →

Posted in Chennai, Flood Mitigation, Parking | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Models of parking provision in urban India

Posted on June 2, 2011 by

Mumbai’s parking policy gives builders FSI incentives to build public parking (source: indianurbaninfrastructure.com) It is incontestable that there is a shortage of parking in Indian cities. One only needs to look at the number of vehicles parked on the streets … Continue reading →

Posted in Aizawl, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Parking | 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City

Posted on November 9, 2010 by

This review was originally written for a class I am taking with Prof. John Pucher here at Rutgers University. I am putting up this review here even though the book reviewed talks mainly about the United States, because I feel … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Gasoline Taxes, Highways, History, New York City, Safety, Street Vendors, Transportation Planning, Uncategorized, United States | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Ringroading and Mumbai’s spatial structure

Posted on October 22, 2010 by

Mumbai is currently undergoing historic but unnoticed changes that might possibly alter its urban structure beyond anyone’s imagination. It’s monocentric structure that aligned the entire city towards the downtown in South Bombay is likely to change very soon. Indeed, this … Continue reading →

Posted in Airport, Highways, Land-use Planning, Metropolitan Government, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, New Towns, Suburbs, Transportation Planning | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Parks vs. Parking: What do Indian cities need?

Posted on September 26, 2010 by

Chennai had prepared a plan some years ago for a multi-storey parking deck  in T. Nagar where the Panagal Park now stands. T Nagar, once a quiet residential neighbourhood, is now the shopping centre for all of Chennai and has … Continue reading →

Posted in Aizawl, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Park-n-ride, Parking | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Transit as a social space

Posted on September 5, 2010 by

In a previous post, I had argued that air-conditioning transit is a wasteful and avoidable expenditure that adds little to the comfort of the commuter, and that city planners should instead seek to reduce crowding in transit by increasing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Mumbai, Needs of the poor, social spaces, Suburban Rail | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Metros and social justice: the case of Mumbai

Posted on September 5, 2010 by

Amitabh Bachchan, the famous Bollywood actor, recently stirred up a controversy when he complained in his blog about the intrusion of his privacy due to the construction of the Mumbai Metro near his mansion “Prateeksha” in Juhu. The city responded … Continue reading →

Posted in Equity in Planning, Metro, Mumbai, Rehabilitation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Vendors are the security, can’t you see?

Posted on August 30, 2010 by

Street vendors and homeless persons should be welcome on streets – between the two groups, they occupy the streets at all times of the day and night, providing stray walkers at night the security of not having to worry about being the only person on the street. And yet, we find that governments respond to their presence in exactly the opposite manner – Mumbai wants to get security to keep people from “encroaching” the elevated walkways when they could have gotten these “encroachers” to themselves serve as security – at so much less expense and freeing up so much time of the already overworked Mumbai Police. Continue reading →

Posted in Bangalore, homeless persons, Mumbai, Needs of the poor, Pedestrian Needs, security, Skywalk, Street Vendors | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

On cycle rickshaws and the right to economic opportunity

Posted on August 9, 2010 by

Some months ago, I wrote in TheCityFix.com about a Delhi High Court judgment (Manushi Sangathan vs MCD) overturning limits on the number of legal cycle rickshaws plying within the limits of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Here’s a recap and an update. Continue reading →

Posted in Cycle Rickshaws, Delhi | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment