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Drivers from state-run bus company in Kerala, India (KSRTC) participating in the training workshop in Mysore, Karnataka

In August 2012, EMBARQ India in partnership with Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), organized a driver training, fuel monitoring, and vehicle maintenance workshop in Visakhapatnam, a port city on the southeast coast of India. This workshop was organized as part of EMBARQ India’s ‘Talking Transit’ series of workshops under the FedEx supported Bus Karo Plus programme. The workshop was a result of the best practices identified by EMBARQ India through a performance evaluation project conducted jointly with APSRTC in the city of Vishakhapatnam. APSRTC’s best practices in vehicle maintenance and driver training have resulted in consistently high fuel efficiency. It has also resulted in many awards for the corporation. The workshop was attended by officials from public transport agencies from over 20 cities, and focused on best practices that would help city bus agencies improve their operational efficiency.

EMBARQ India’s Bus Karo Plus programme has three components – ‘Talking Transit’, a workshop series, ‘Mentoring Transit’, assisting agencies in impleneting pilot projects, and ‘Learning Transit’, developing and disseminating training material.

As part of the ‘Mentoring Transit’ initiative, after the workshop in Vishakapatnam, EMBARQ India organized driver training workshops in Delhi, with Star Bus; in Mysore with the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC); and in Bangalore with the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).

About 30 drivers from each of these cities  have been trained by Mohammed Haneef, a former APSRTC driver who is now a consultant with them for fuel efficiency and safety. Haneef, who was instrumental in developing the driver training course for APSRTC, introduced the drivers to two driving methods – ‘smart driving skills’ which has five principles of safe and fuel efficient driving and ‘momentum mode driving’, which uses the momentum of the vehicle to reduce the fuel intake into the engine. The first workshop was held in Delhi with Starbus buses, where 37 drivers were trained. After the training, it was observed that the fuel efficiency increased by 67%. Similar results were also observed in Bangalore (42% increase) and Mysore (21.5%). The improved fuel efficiency not only raises the operational efficiency of these agencies but also reduces their CO2 emissions.

Considering, for example, that the drivers trained through these pilot workshops maintain the improved fuel efficiency, the total carbon savings per day from the three cities will be close to 2.5 tonnes. If all the drivers in the depot improve their fuel efficiency, the fuel savings will be about 18 tonnes. If all the drivers in these organizations improve their fuel efficiency up to 296 tonnes  of carbon emissions can be reduced.

Carbon Emissions Reduced

Under the current operational environment, the three organizations can save up to 90,000 tonnes of CO2 per year between them. In addition to the reduction in CO2 emissions, higher fuel efficiency can also help reduce fuel expenses by INR 1.072 billion per year (US$ 18.4 million). This money can then be used to improve operations.

Money Saved

EMBARQ India strongly believes that there is great potential for carbon savings from bus transport agencies. By promoting good driving habits, road safety can also be improved. To achieve this, EMBARQ India is working at three levels:

• Assisting organizations to include fuel efficiency monitoring as an organizational process: good monitoring and incentive schemes are essential for successfully achieving these fuel efficiency levels.
• Safe driver training habits and monitoring: With the increase use of technologies such as GPS, there is potential for incident management. Ride smoothness, hard braking and acceleration can all be monitored.
• Finally, EMBARQ India is also working towards scaling up this process to all transport organizations in India. EMBARQ currently works with transport organizations in 20 cities and through this program, more cities would be added to the network.

Introducing the first mass public transportation system in Pakistan. Photo by Star240.

Today we celebrate a positive development coming out of Pakistan, overlooked by mainstream news: an advanced bus system in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city. In years past, Lahore, capital of Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab, was a city where urban public transportation was virtually unknown. For the more than 11 million residents and commuters of the Lahore urban area, the only transportation options were motorized rickshaws, private buses, minibuses, or taxis.

On February 11, 2013, Lahore began operating Pakistan’s first Bus Rapid Transit or BRT system, officially known in the city as the Metro Bus System (MBS). A catalyst in the development of urban transport in Pakistan, as well as in South Asia, the new Lahore Metro Bus System continues the deployment of advanced bus systems in South Asia, first pioneered in cities like Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangkok, Thailand. The advanced bus system in Lahore exemplifies how knowledge sharing positively impacts urban transport.

Lahore before: a densely populated area without solid public transport

Prior to the installation of Lahore Metro Bus System, the densely populated metropolitan area of Lahore, growing in population at a rate of 3% per year, was without a solid public transport option.  In the last decade and in the same region of the world, less than 600 miles away, the city of Ahmedabad, India, was already at work on establishing their own sustainable transport system. The implementation of the Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) in 2009 would then further accelerate the spread of advanced bus systems in Asia.

What are the benefits of bus rapid transit?

Unlike traditional bus corridors in Delhi, Pune, and Jaipur, Ahmedabad gave its residents India’s first full BRT system, which incorporates an integrated approach to roads, stations, buses, technology and branding. As sophisticated bus systems which operate in dedicated lanes on city streets, BRT has revolutionized the urban transportation world. BRT systems have many of the benefits of metro or light-rail systems, with significantly lower construction costs. In India, the BRT is now being replicated in the cities of Surat, Indore, and Bangalore.

Lahore after Metro Bus and beyond

Opponents to the Lahore Metro Bus System originally estimated the cost of construction at RS 70-80 billion (US$ 713-815 million) and used this figure to criticize the plan to build an advanced bus system. About a year after construction began, the system has launched, and the economic reality of Lahore’s bus system is much different than what naysayers projected. The finance minister for the Punjab Region, Shahbaz Sharif, announced at the opening ceremony of MBS that the actual system cost of came to RS 29.8 billion (US$ 303.6 million), significantly lower than original estimates.

Launched on February 11, 2013, the bus system spans a 27 kilometer-long corridor linking the suburbs of Gajju Matah and Shahdra to the main city center of Lahore. A fleet of 45 articulated buses (each 18 meters long) transport up to 12,000 passengers per hour, from 27 stations on the route. With the first month of ride fare waived as a promotion, citizens lined the corridor on the opening day, in an atmosphere of celebration and fanfare. Dignitaries and officials from Metro Bus System boarded for an inaugural ride, accompanied by their counterparts and collaborators  from Turkey.

Collaboration, locally and with international firms, is key to making things happen

Tasked with overseeing this project from March 2011, the Punjab Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency turned to a fellow Islamic country and world leader in the development of sustainable transport for guidance, modeling their system after the Istanbul Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). Lahore’s MBS planners found a recognized private partner with similar experience in the Turkish al-Buraq Company.  The partnership inspired investment from the Turkish firm, Platform, which has been contracted to operate the MBS in Lahore. Through its partnership with Turkey, Lahore has demonstrated the type of peer-to-peer collaboration advocated by EMBARQ and other groups.

At the MBS inaugural ceremony, Turkish deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag expressed interest in building a stronger business relationship with Pakistan and collaborating on additional MBS corridors in Pakistan.

This type of international, peer-to-peer collaboration promises not only immediate benefits for cities developing sustainable transportation solutions but establishes long-term economic partnerships that facilitate best-practice sharing, and inspire the spread of advanced bus systems to other cities and countries.

Paving the way for advancement in Southeast Asia

Lahore’s implementation of — not only the first mass public transportation system in Pakistan, but a bus rapid transit system — signal exciting possibilities for the development of additional bus systems in Asia. Other countries in the region considering advanced bus systems are Sri Lanka (in the city of Colombo), Bangladesh (Dhaka) and Nepal (Kathmandu). As the Lahore-Istanbul relationship demonstrates, cities in the planning and pre-planning stages, such as Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu, should not have to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to the implementation of advanced bus systems; rather, they should take up where their peers have left off and further research their project for the benefit of their local context and for next generations of advanced bus systems around the world.

Opportunities to share knowledge are increasing, through organizations like Asia BRTS. On the website, visitors can monitor regional developments and best-practice sharing and find more information and additional, region-specific resources for reference. Asian localities interested in the planning and construction of the Lahore MBS can find an in-depth presentation from Dr. Nasir Javed (the Urban Unit, Lahore) and additional resources from the organizers and partners of the Asia BRTS conference, such as the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT, in Ahmedabad), EMBARQ, and the Indian Ministry of Urban Development.

Dario Hidalgo, Amit Bhatt, Benoit Colin, and Elise Zevitz also contributed to this piece.

Del 5 al 9 de marzo, se llevaron a cabo en la ciudad de Bogotá, la “Conferencia sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe: Seguimiento de la Agenda para el Desarrollo después de 2015 y Río +20” y el “Foro del Caribe”. En estas reuniones participaron como parte de la sociedad civil: el Secretariado Global de la Iniciativa de Acceso, la Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad de Colombia, y CAINFO y GAIA de Uruguay.

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Biking on the Asian side of Istanbul. Photo by bicyclemark.

Last year, Turkey and the Netherlands celebrated 400 years of diplomatic relations, established between Sultan Ahmed I and Maurice, Prince of Orange, in 1612. In 1600, there were around 460,000 inhabitants living in Istanbul. There are upwards of 13.8 million in Istanbul today, putting pressure on the city, its inhabitants, city planners and preservationists to make better use of limited space ,and implement more people-centric solutions for the benefit of the city’s two greatest assets: its people and its history.

Through peer-to-peer collaboration and best-practice sharing, BikeLab Istanbul, a new project undertaken by EMBARQ Türkiye, the association dedicated to sustainable transportation in Turkey, in partnership with a Dutch consortium of six urban design companies, with YARD 9, and the Netherlands’ Royal Consulate General, is working to make Istanbul’s historic traffic woes a thing of the past.

What is BikeLab?

Onno Kervers, Consul General for the Netherlands in Istanbul, happens to be a cyclist. Kervers says that the Dutch Consulate was “ready on day one” to help bring famous Dutch cycling expertise to help turn Istanbul into a bike-friendly city, that uses bikes as another legitimate means of urban transport.

Featured in a February 2013 article in Time Out Istanbul, BikeLab Istanbul was launched in a December 2012 workshop at Salt Galata, Istanbul. Attended by sixty guests, including representatives from the Dutch Cycling Embassy board, the Life with Bikes Association, and the Turkish Bikers’ Association, the workshop brought Turkish and Dutch experts together, along with urban transport stakeholders to discuss topics across the transportation space: bicycle safety, bike-pedestrian-transit infrastructure integration, and the fostering of a bike culture in the 8,500-year-old city. Participants shared examples of successful bike projects and bike lane designs from the Netherlands. Consul Kervers highlighted that the BikeLab project presents cycling as not only a mobility solution, but also as a way to take cars off the road, reducing Istanbul’s famed traffic congestion.

Problem: no commuter cycling culture

Addressing the absence of an ingrained commuter cycling culture in the city is one of BikeLab Istanbul’s greatest challenges. Often, a hard-fought step forward is replaced by two steps backward from automobile drivers resistant to change. In November of 2012, cycling lanes were installed on Bagdat Caddesi, a 14-kilometer main thoroughfare on the Asian side of Istanbul, along the Marmara Sea. Yet, only a month later, due to opposition from drivers, the city removed the lanes in December 2012. “Bicycles are usually seen as the vehicle of the poor or the hobby of the rich,” observes Murat Suyabatmaz, president of the Turkish Cyclists Association, in the February 2013 TimeOut Istanbul piece. Meanwhile, automobile emissions are taking a costly toll on the preservation of the Historic Peninsula’s iconic attractions.

Solutions for building a bike culture

BikeLab Istanbul seeks to facilitate the development of a cycling culture in Istanbul, through a number of different approaches. Normalizing cycling as a transport option for city residents has been identified as key in this process, and in addition to hosting workshops, BikeLab Istanbul seeks to reach people through promotion of cycling in mainstream media and television shows, and in particular, envisions capitalizing on Turkey’s robust sports culture to introduce biking to sports fans through a Tour de France-type racing event.

BikeLab project partners also see a great deal of potential for bicycle integration at Kabataş, a bustling transportation hub for ferry boats, buses, light-rail, and funicular on the European side of the Bosphorus strait. BikeLab also would like to reach out to Istanbul’s youth and next generations of cyclists through education seminars on bike safety and the benefits of integrating biking into one’s lifestyle.

Now turning Istanbul into a “bike city”

The December workshop helped catalyze the planning and development of solid solutions to turn Istanbul into a biking city, inspiring further collaboration between Dutch and Turkish experts, the Istanbul Municipality, Istanbul Electricity, Tramway and Tunnel General Management (Public Bus Authority in Istanbul), and representatives from NGOs. Within the scope of the project, a number of events will take place in the coming year. EMBARQ Turkey and YARD 9 will conduct activities to encourage the use of bicycles as a means of transportation, through creative ideas and designs. Further workshops will be organized to design “safe and user oriented” bicycle lanes, following which will be the pilot implementation of prepared bicycle lane designs.

What better way to honor a 400-year diplomatic milestone than to help Istanbul reclaim and preserve its ancient identity and make urban life healthier, safer, and more enjoyable by bringing in some Dutch inspiration?

Benoit Colin and Elise Zevitz also contributed to this piece.

En el foro sobre acceso a la jurisdicción ambiental y el rol de la sociedad civil, realizado el 19 de febrero, quedaron planteadas importantes preguntas.

“La justicia y la ciudadanía tienen nuevos desafíos en cuanto a exigir el cumplimiento de derechos de la naturaleza. Y serán los jueces quienes den luces a la aplicación de este derecho”.

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