Delhi BRT Busy Mowing Down Pedestrians
I really have no idea if a BRT in Bogota can be compared to a BRT in Cleveland to a BRT in Delhi or to a would-be BRT here in the Bay Area, but the one in Delhi seems to point to some bad conditions for pedestrians - a necessary condition of any BRT system as far as I can tell:
When the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) was first planned, one if its prominent features was pedestrian safety. The reality, however, is very different six months after the first 5.8 km stretch of the corridor became operational.
On Wednesday evening, a pedestrian was mowed down by a speeding minibus on the corridor near Sheikh Sarai in southeast Delhi. The man was the eleventh person to be killed on the BRT corridor since its inception.
Commuters said public transport has improved on the corridor, but crossing the stretch was still a nightmare for pedestrians. Many motorists have simply stopped using the corridor and take long detours to avoid traffic jams.
R.S. Bhalla, a retired govenrment official and resident of Khanpur, said he has stopped going on morning walks. “You may keep a watch on the right side of the road, but a vehicle might suddently come from the wrong side and hit you,” he said. Other residents of the area said the stretch was confusing with so many lanes and signal cycles.
…
“It is very difficult for school children to cross the road. The school bus drops them at the bus stop at 2 pm every day and they reach home by 3 pm,” said Renu Kanojia, another resident of the area.
5.8 km is 3.6 miles. 6 months into this BRT project in Delhi there have now been a total of 11 deaths on the corridor. Even if Indian traffic is usually a death trap for everyone who comes near it, these numbers are not inspiring.
The speeding buses and confusing traffic signals are things I have explicitly stated on this blog or on the local ’sfbike’ email list as two of the myriad reasons to oppose BRT.
Planners for the Delhi BRT touted ‘pedestrian safety’ as one of its ‘prominent features.’
I’m not sure if San Francisco can afford such a prominent feature for its planned BRT systems.
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