We are thrilled to share highlights from Pune's inaugural Annual Cycling Conference, an event that marked a significant milestone not only for Pune but also for cycling enthusiasts across India. The conference, held on March 30, 2024, at the SM Joshi Socialist Foundation in Sadashiv Peth, Pune, brought together a diverse array of panelists, moderators, and participants passionate about promoting cycling as a sustainable mode of transportation.
Parisar participated in the recent Pedestrian Day celebrations organised by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), collaborating with various organisations such as ITDP and Save Pune Traffic Movement. The event, held on 11 December 2023, transformed a stretch of Laxmi Road, from Nagarkar Taleem Chowk to Garud Ganpati Chowk, into a haven for pedestrians, commerce, and exhibitions, from 10 am to 7 pm. Our exhibition stood out, featuring a photo gallery showcasing successful case studies of streets across India that transitioned from motor-centric to people-centric, encouraging Punekars to reimagine and revive their streets.
As traffic levels soar in the city, roads get congested, leading to demands from various quarters - the traffic police, elected representatives, PMC planners and engineers and even the public - for road widening. Road widening is routinely marked in the Development Plan, in anticipation of growth in traffic. Eventually budgets are allocated and once land acquisition procedures (both time-consuming and very expensive) are completed, the widening of the road commences. There are two fundamental issues with this approach though - without any restraint on vehicle growth, soon the widened road also gets congested. And in the process of road widening, trees - often old and big trees along the roadside - get cut in the hundreds. In fact the road department is responsible for most tree cutting in the city. More traffic and less trees is a double recipe for increasing pollution, GHG emissions and heat island effects.
Transport experts have long dismissed road widening as a way to solve congestion. Instead they recommend promoting walking, cycling and public transport and vehicle restraint measures.
The Pune Air Action Hub organised the Breathless Pune Photo Exhibition from 18th-22nd January 2024 at the Darpan Art Gallery, Kalachhaya Cultural Centre Pune. A carefully curated collection of photos was put up to show the different aspects of air pollution visually, with minimal text for reference. Photographs were taken by city based photographer Gayatri Juvekar, and some photos by citizens and school children were also displayed in the exhibition. The idea was to generate interest, conversation and awareness among different stakeholders about air pollution in Pune.
Parisar is a civil society organization working on lobbying and advocacy for sustainable development. Since its formation in the early 1980s, Parisar has worked in a diverse set of fields such as preservation of heritage, protection of urban bio-diversity, and sustainable agriculture. Since about the turn of the 21st century, its work focuses mainly on sustainable urban transport, since it recognizes that unsustainable transport policies and systems are the foremost threat to urban environment and quality of life.
As a part of our Schools for a cycle friendly Pune initiative, we undertook a Cognitive Mapping Exercise with students. The term "cognitive mapping" may sound complex, but at its core, it involves the mental processes of acquiring, representing, storing, and using information about the spatial properties of our physical surroundings. In simpler terms, it's about understanding how individuals perceive and navigate their environment.
Read more ...We are in a strange world where the word sustainable mobility has assumed a multitude of interpretations. Mobility is stuck so much to a passenger car that as common citizens, we have stopped thinking any differently.
Let us try and examine some realities...
Even in large cities, more than half the trips happen on foot, bicycles and public transport. Most of the road, probably more than 80% is occupied by private cars, accounting for just one passenger per car. The investment in good roads, and flyovers etc., specifically in cities, is the largest chunk of development budgets.
If we need sustainable mobility, we need to look at several parameters for more comprehensive understanding of the problem:
0. First think of whether you need to move at all
Read more ...The Global Status of Road Safety report (GSRRS, 2023) by the World Health Organisation has reported a reduction in road traffic deaths globally. There were an estimated 1.19 million road traffic deaths in 2021 – a 5% drop when compared to the 1.25 million deaths in 2010. However, RTIs have continued to increase in India, with 1,68,491 deaths reported in 2022, an increase of 9% from 2021 (MoRTH, 2023). Thirty six percent of these fatalities were reported on National Highways (NH), 24% on State Highways (SH) and 39% on other roads. The proportion of RTC on NH, SH and other roads have remained unchanged since the road network in India was 63.32 lakh km in March 2019.
Read more ...The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) celebrated Road Safety week from 11 to 17 January 2023 across India.
Parisar was felicitated as a best NGO working in the field of road safety in Maharashtra. This award ceremony was held in Mumbai on 11th January 2023.
The event was organised by the Transport Department, Maharashtra State and Mr. Sandeep Gaikwad (Senior Program Associate) represented Parisar to receive the award.
Read more ...The following article in Marathi highlights the issue of traffic congestions in the cities across India. It talks about the reasons, impacts, issues of traffic congestion and solutions to resolve it.
The shortened version of this article was published in Sakal media on 10th October 2022.
वाहतूक कोंडी एक गंभीर समस्या!
भारतातील सर्वच शहरे विशेषत पुणे, मुंबई, दिल्ली, चेन्नई, बंगळूर वाहतूक कोंडीने त्रस्त आहेत. वाहतूक कोंडी ही समस्या दिवसेंदिवस वाढत उग्र रूप धारण करीत आहे. सण-समारंभ, मंत्री महोदयांचे मोर्चे-दौरे, यात अधिक भर घालतात. काही दिवसांपूर्वी पुणे शहरात खुद्द आमदारांना आपल्या शासकीय वाहनातून उतरून वाहतूक सुरळीत करून वाहतूक कोंडीतून स्वतःची सुटका करून घ्यावी लागली. कोणत्याही शहरात पोलिस प्रमुखाची नव्याने नेमणूक झाल्यास नागरिक, संघटना, पत्रकार पोलिस प्रमुखास पहिला प्रश्न विचारतात तो म्हणजे वाहतूक समस्या सोडवण्यास काय उपाययोजना कराल?
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