New Study: Indian Cities Score Low in Walkability Ratings | TheCityFix

Lack of pedestrian facilities in Indian cities lead to low walkability scores and points to the urgency with which policies must address this neglect. Photo by Satish Krishnamurthy.

New Study: Indian Cities Score Low in Walkability Ratings | TheCityFix: "“Indian cities were built for walking and cycling. However, rapid motorization combined with limited attention to pedestrian facilities has inadvertently resulted in a decrease in the overall mode share for non-motorized transport. Strategies must be incorporated in order for people to reclaim the urban environment overrun by motor vehicles. Policies and investments provide an impetus to transform Indian cities, encourage pedestrianization and allow people to enjoy better mobility and quality of life.”"

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Not all public transit is equal

Straphangers United: "How is that swanky Japanese Metro and Monorail trains to be built at a cost of more than 5 billion dollars in Chennai will co-exist with another set of urban train systems that have filthy station approaches – literally filled with human excrement?"

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Invest 1% GDP to Improve Public Transport - southindia - Andhra Pradesh - ibnlive

Invest 1% GDP to Improve Public Transport - southindia - Andhra Pradesh - ibnlive: "PUDUCHERRY:� The government needs to invest at least one percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in public transport systems to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and reduce emission of green house gases (GHG) to create sustainable cities, said Peter Head, director of Arup.
Speaking at a workshop on ‘Regenerative Townships of Tomorrow’, organised at Auroville on Thursday, he said such a measure would reduce GHG by 78 per cent. “Costs of mitigation of around 1% of GDP are small relative to the costs and relative to the risks of climate change that will be avoided,” Peter� said"

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Public transport must be made free for everyone

The Hindu : Cities / Chennai : How free bus passes are being misused: "R. Balasubramanian, a former Managing Director of MTC, says: “Electronic ticketing and smartcards could solve much of the problem as MTC moved away from the token system to avoid printing costs. Public transport must also be made free for everyone and it must be subsidised through a combination of Central and State government assistance. In most U.S. cities, 65 per cent of the public transit expenditure is federally funded. Schemes such as JNNURM must be a continuous process, instead of a one-time grant.”"

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Students 'free ride' agitation to stall city buses today - The Times of India

Students 'free ride' agitation to stall city buses today - The Times of India: "BHUBANESWAR: The city bus service in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri is likely to be paralysed on Tuesday with the student wing of Congress threatening to stall the public transport system to press for their demand of 'free rides' in the vehicles.

The 'green rider' buses were stalled for a few hours on Monday as well with hundreds of students of Utkal University and various city-based colleges staging sit-ins at several places in Bhubaneswar. No such strike was reported in Cuttack, though some students staged demonstrations at Pipili in Puri district, affecting the bus service."

Global study reveals climate peril for millions of poor | Reuters

Eight-year-old Ali Asghar waits for customers as he sells roasted corn at a makeshift stall in Abbottabad May 18, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Akhtar Soomro

Global study reveals climate peril for millions of poor | Reuters: "(Reuters) - Millions of people already living in poverty are on a collision course with hotter and more variable weather that threatens crop yields and livestock, a global study on climate change 'hotspots' has found."

Nuclear Plants = Compulsory genetic engineering while energy is being wasted in traffic jams.

source: http://www.time2news.com

Fukushima lessons « LOKAYAT: "And then Cesium 137, it’s half life is 30 years. It lasts for 600 years. The same with Strontium 90, and I could go on and on down the Periodic Table of the list of all the elements. This is on-going. And not what’s more, if a man’s genes mutated in his testicles by plutonium, which has a particular predilection for testicles, then the genes, the damaged genes transmit it generation to generation, while the plutonium lives on. And if the man gets cremated, it can be inhaled by another man and get into his testicles ad infinitum.
So you can see an exponential increase in genetic disease. There are now 2,600 such diseases like Diabetes, Cystic Fibrosis, dwarfism, and the like. My specialty is Cystic Fibrosis. And they will increase in frequency down the generations, and that’s the legacy we leave: random compulsory genetic engineering for the rest of time."