Why London’s Sadique Khan And New York’s Sadik Khan Are Important For Us In India

By Vidyadhar Date

11 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Two Khans, one Sadik Khan and another Sadique Khan, are very relevant for the cause of public transport in India. One is the recently elected Mayor of London and the other is the former transport commissioner for New York, Janette Sadik Khan.

The first announcement of Sadique Khan as Mayor earliest this week was to give some bus fare concessions. Travellers will get to make two bus journeys for the price of one. This is particularly relevant in a city in which fares, particularly train fares, are steep, perhaps the steepest in Europe. He is passionate about public transport and interestingly his own father was a bus driver in London.

Khan’s election as Mayor has attracted international attention because he is of Asian origin and was the target of a racist campaign by his conservative rival.

Janette Sadik Khan has revolutionalised New York streets by adding 400 km of cycle tracks, curbing cars, pedestrianising streets and Times Square in particular and ceaselessly campaigning for public transport.

She has also authored a book whose title would make a revolutionary proud - Street Fight – a handbook for an urban revolution. The title reminds me of the political radical Tariq Ali’s book Street fighting Years about political battles fought on the streets in the 1960s. Indeed , we need street battles in the coming years not only for political and economic justice, but also equality on the streets and opposing the domination of the motor car.

.She says her work is like a Copernican revolution in road transport which involves remodeling streets for human beings walking , cycling and n in buses rather than those speeding in the metal box, that is the car.

She says in the last 100 years the United States damaged its cities by building them around the motor car, to suit the interests of motor cars, motorists.

Our politicians and bureaucrats need to learn from this seriously as most of them give the impression of being obsessed with the private motor car and want to build cities around the interests of the car lobby.

Mumbai’s municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta reiterated in the city on May 10 that a car parking authority would be set up to facilitate parking of cars. Car parking, one must point out, is a big scandal in India and one needs to remind our authorities that enough expertise on car parking is not available even in the United States where the motor car is pampered. The authorities should read the expert Donald Shoup on this. The government machinery behaves as if there is no civic problem more important than car parking even while it scandalously neglects its basic duty to provide decent sanitation in Mumbai.

Mr Mehta, who is one of the more efficient bureaucrats, was speaking at a seminar on infrastructure for Mumbai organized by the Indian Merchants Chamber.

One is tempted to say that what we desperately need in Mumbai are low cost solutions and implementation of existing norms rather than expensive mega projects.

Mr Mehta talked of the need to allow more high rise buildings in Mumbai. But see what is happening in reality and which the officials, living in isolation, are not likely to notice.There are many high rise buildings in Mumbai which violate all norms but let me cite one example. Recently, I saw a high rise on the narrow Dr Ambedkar road in Bandra west in Mumbai. It is so high one has to really strain one’s neck to look at the upper storeys. There is almost no open space in the building, no set-back, it is too close to the road. It will be difficult to fight a fire in such cramped conditions. And worst of all, there is no footpath outside on one of the busiest roads in the city. It has a high concentration of rich people as well as the poor including dalits. It is ironical that this road with a deeply anti-people ambience is named after the champion of social justice. Such buildings generate heavy car traffic and yet there is no protection to common people walking on the road from the menace caused by the arrogant motorist class.

Mr Mehta skirted the main issue about footpaths in typical bureaucratic fashion.As usual he blamed encroachments by hawkers and others on footpaths and he created the impression that the BMC is not to blame. This conceals from people the fact that the corporation is the main culprit. The basic problem is that in the first place the corporation has not built footpaths even in prime areas in which ministers and bureaucrats live.

Mr UPS Madan, commissioner for MMRDA, Mumbai metropolitan region development authority, admitted that there had been no augmentation in public transport in Mumbai which earlier had an efficient and reliable public transport system.

I would argue that the transport problem could be eased considerably if only motorists give up their ego and start avoiding needless trips.

The traffic jam caused by motorists at two mega events at the Brabourne stadium and Wankhede stadium recently was entirely avoidable. It also shows the traffic police, the organizers and the motoring classes in poor light.

Thousands of people converging for the events in the same area at the same time surely called for a little innovative thinking.

Both these stadiums are bang next to the Churchgate local train terminus. The motorists could have easily taken the local train and conveniently too as most trains in that direction in the evening are certainly not crowded.

Or they could have taken a bus or a taxi for a change or just taken , a walk in the evening along Marine Drive to the stadiums . But the point is the motor car is essentially a status symbol for the motorists, an ego trip, it is a commodity to be flaunted. This also shows how backward they are even as they constantly ape the West for all the wrong reasons. A good number of car trips in Mumbai are easily avoidable and the distance can be easily covered in other ways. But the traffic planners seldom talks about these things.

The whole establishment eats out of the hands of the car lobby. If someone thinks this is harsh, read a report a recent report in Financial Times which shows that chancellor Angela Merkel virtually lobbies for the German car industry. If the German government machinery had been strict the Volkswagen emission scandal would have been checked much earlier.

Two major events, a Zubin Mehta concert and an IPL match, taking place so close to Mantralaya as well and the authorities could not plan for the event ? The main reason is that the administration is completely helpess before the motorist class. Earlier, the authorities used to appeal to motorists to avoid bringing their cars for such events. One did not hear even this being done about the events.

Imagine if such a traffic jam had been caused by people coming out on the streets in support of their demands for basic amenities. There would have been front page stories about how the masses needed to be kept out of the district of the rich and the powerful. While the authorities are so servile before the automobile lobby, they unabashedly restrict the movement of pedestrians. The point needs to be repeated that the authorities have literally put a lock on a gate at Azad Maidan near the Press Club side and barred use of this public space to pedestrians. They do not even realize that they are adding to traffic problems. So everyone now has to take a long route by a taxi, car or a bus to cover a distance that can be easily covered by foot. The BMC officialdom is not even aware of this. When I pointed this out at a seminar some time ago, a high official seemed totally taken aback and looked to Meera Sanyal, former Lok Sabha candidate for the area , for a clue

This is how nedless car traffric is generated. An international school in Powai held a programme for its nursery kids in St Andrew’s school in Bandra recently. So the little kids and their parents in cars travelled a distance of some 25 km and that is only one way. One can imagine what a waste of time, fuel plus traffic congestion. And this happens on several days of the month as children from other schools come here for such shows.

I asked a child’s mother and she agreed it was pointless to have the function so far away. But who will tell the management ? she said.
The parents’ cars created a traffic jam near the school too and two hefty security men, hired by the school specially for opening the car doors for the rich parents, made things worse with their traffic management.

If only the traffic police used more brains than muscle power. The constables furiously make gestures at traffic signals. The higher ups don’t realize, prevention is better than cure. Reducing traffic, eliminating needless travel will vastly improve the situation at no cost.

And can’t these rich schools in distant suburbs, exploiting the parents, find a decent hall in the vicinity ?. If there are not proper halls, they can be built. That is what planning is all about. But then how can the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats make their crores without more roads and flyovers ?

People simply want to flaunt the car. They arrive in Joggers Park in hefty SUVs. Even when they come for relaxation, they want to assert their financial status and even here they cannot forget the business of making money. Many in the Laughter Club have to be reminded to please stop discussing which share is rising and which is falling. But what do they care ? After all, they are laughing their way to the bank.

(Mr Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of the book Traffic in the era of climate change).