Invest in public transport instead, say mobility experts

The Hindu: "“The city administration needs to first make a conscious choice to opt for public transport instead of private,” he said.

Srinivas Alavilli from Citizens for Bengaluru said the alarming levels of pollution in NCR should ring warning bells for Bengaluru. “The State government hasn’t got the message from the Steel Flyover Beda campaign right. The campaign was a clear expression of people’s opinion against all flyovers, which are essentially stop-gap temporary solutions, not against that particular steel flyover alone,” he said."

Stop finger pointing, boost public transport: EPCA tells Delhi govt

Hindustan Times: "Citing that lack of public transport will make such an important pollution control intervention meaningless, the letter also said: “It is imperative that your government take urgent measures and decisive steps to augment public transport. Only then emergency steps like odd-even are effective.”"

Wheat fungus thriving in warm, wet weather

undark : "No one in Bangladesh knew how wheat blast had jumped two oceans, but now it had a foothold on the Asian continent. In March, reports came out that wheat blast had surfaced in the Indian region of Bengal. Should the disease spread widely across Bangladesh and India, and into Pakistan, wheat blast could devastate a crop that feeds more than 1.5 billion people. And waiting to the north is China, the world’s largest wheat producer."

Now cars can kill with heat, from a distance of thousands of miles

InsideClimate News: ""Not even the fittest of humans can survive, even in well-ventilated shaded conditions, when the wet-bulb temperature stays above 35," said study co-author Jeremy Pal of Loyola Marymount University. The effects ripple beyond the existential threat to individuals to affect industries like construction, transportation, agriculture and utilities.

"Generally speaking, it is the poorest that are working outdoors and that don't have access to air conditioners. This is particularly unjust, because per capita emissions in most of these poorer regions are less than a tenth of those in industrialized nations," Pal said."

Renewables are wrong prescription for #climate

Saral Sarkar's writings: "
I hope now it has become clear to my readers that "renewable energies" cannot play any role in solving the multifaceted global crisis of today and that, on the contrary, investing in these technologies is a waste of time, effort, energy and, most important of all, scarce resources."

Patiala, India, climbing on top of buses

Students rue lack of public transport: "“It is very difficult to reach the college during the morning hours as all means of transport remain occupied due to augmented footfall of students. We have to climb atop private buses to attend the first lecture,” said Gurkirat Singh, a BA final-year student."

Lahore - poor workers cannot afford bus fare

The Express Tribune : "A regular passenger of the new service, Muhammad Amir, tells The Express Tribune that passengers have to literally beg conductors to let them come onboard as they cannot afford a Rs200 smartcard.

“The other day, an aged housemaid touched the conductor’s feet to get herself aboard a feeder bus,” he recalled. “The woman, dressed in rags, complained she worked as a housemaid and could not afford the Rs200 plastic card for travelling. She claimed that she scarcely earned Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 a month after sweeping floors and cleaning dishes in different houses.”

“I am sure the Punjab chief minister and officers sitting in air-conditioned offices of the Punjab Mass-transit Authority (PMA) cannot identify with the miseries of an old housemaid who was begging a conductor in the scorching summer heat.”"

Plea for better #publictransport in Karachi

thenews.com.pk: "A majority of people in Karachi use public transport since it is economical and helps reduce traffic congestion. The transport system of the city displays a sad picture of mismanagement. Insufficient number of public buses has badly affected the lives of residents. Irregular schedule causes frequent delays and long waits. During peak hours, public buses are always overcrowded. Passengers have to cover the long distances while standing. When motorcycle-rickshaws were introduced, the majority of people were relieved. However, the ban on these rickshaws has further increased problems for residents.

In addition to this, the available transport is in bad condition. Seats and windows are broken adding more difficulties to passengers. Lack of maintenance of vehicles is another problem that needs to be taken care of. . The government is requested to provide a secure transport system to the people of the city.

Shabia Bashir Chouhan

Karachi"

Pakistan choked with cars while people move quickly on #publictransport in Hong Kong

For public transport | Opinion | thenews.com.pk: " I recently visited Hong Kong and in my two weeks there, did not witness a single traffic jam.

Even the flow on main roads and streets was smooth despite it being the busy Christmas and New Year time. There I got to know that even people who earn more than Rs1.5 million a month prefer to travel in public transport. The reason behind this was the efficient and effective service of their Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and buses. Their public transport is easily accessible, well-maintained and sanitary. Minor delays of even a minute are an extreme rarity for the Hong Kong public transport."

Goa, India, the way to fewer cars is via public transport

Times of India: "Sharing her thoughts about the construction of new bridges in Goa, she said, "The government feels it is inevitable that the vehicle numbers will grow and we will need more space. This is not sustainable. Beyond a point, Goa cannot find enough road space to accommodate higher car density. If they make infrastructure for public transport, there will be no need for flyovers in the future.""

Pune Mayor plans to make #publictransport cheaper than a two-wheeler

Times of India: ""Good public transport is needed. People are not opting for it (public transport) because they don't have any guarantee about the service. The elected members of my party and also other parties will work to change this. More buses will be made available for the city so that the frequency of buses will increase," Pune mayor Prashant Jagtap said. He added that steps would be taken to ensure the per kilometre expense of using public transport becomes cheaper than that of two-wheeler."

Delhi gridlocked in stupidity: 9,000,000 cars, 4,000 buses, 6,000 respiratory deaths, 0 brave politicians

Hindustan Times: "On December 15, HT wrote about a study by six road design experts stating that the time spent by Delhi commuters on city roads has doubled in the last six years and the speed of traffic during peak hours has been cut by half. Today, a person travelling 40 km by a private vehicle during peak hours spends an average of 3.43 hours on the road, up from 1.36 hours in 2011, the researchers found.

This ocean of vehicles hasn’t just choked the roads. It is asphyxiating the national capital. In 2015, as many as 6,502 persons died of respiratory diseases, the second biggest cause of death after the unspecified “others” category in government records."