we do not need driverless cars but carless roads
The solution is not to increase number of privately owned vehicles but to take urgent radical steps towards eliminating the need for any privately owned vehicles for commuting purposes. This is only possible if we strengthen and improve public transport so that people do not need privately owned motorised vehicles. Doling out loans to lure people in buying new motorised vehicles is taking us away from making roads any safer. Governments are shying away from its responsibility to eliminate the need for privately owned transport, which is only possible if governments ensure comfortable, safe, affordable, and accessible public transport options for everyone. Just to remind the governments that one of the promises enshrined in SDG target 11.2 aims to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable public transport by 2030.
I use a cycle for public commuting in Lucknow, state capital of Uttar Pradesh in India (and have also cycled in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Boston, US). In my own experience of cycling for years for longer distances (up to 60km), I have found that the benchmark we use for 'modern safer roads' (like model highways/ expressways/ or other downtown or urban roads), may be making roads unsafe for cyclists, and others using non-motorised vehicles or walking. I feel most safe in crowded lanes and bylanes and roads of old city of Lucknow, and most at risk of being hit on modern, trendy, and so-called 'safer' roads or highways. Roads belong to everyone, and not just to car riders. Then why are car riders or motorised vehicle riders kept in mind while designing urban development? Is it because of the car industry or other businesses that thrive on growth of motorised vehicles and development of necessary infrastructure? Governments are accountable to their people and so interest of the people (and not profits of the industry) should take primacy when it comes to road safety, and development.
Bobby Ramakant - CNS
Bobby Ramakant is a World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General's WNTD Awardee 2008, and part of CNS (Citizen News Service), Asha Parivar and Socialist Party (India). He returned to cycling in 2014 (after 1998), and eventually sold his car in 2015, and did not renew his driving license that expired in 2018. Follow him on twitter @bobbyramakant.
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