Road Widening Not Sustainable: Experts

Parisar, an environment group working for sustainable transport in Pune, has expressed disappointment over the decision of the three member committee appointed by the state government to ignore the technical submissions made by various transport experts along with thousands of people who had objected to various road widening proposals. The group said that the logic of the committee that road widening is necessary to accommodate future growth of traffic reflects the outdated and unsustainable ¨supply-side¨ thinking that attempts to solve traffic problems by accommodating the ever increasing vehicular traffic. The world over, it pointed out, cities have focussed on improving public transport as well as restricting the growth of vehicles through transport demand management (TDM) such as high parking fees, congestion charges and restricting the road space for personal vehicles.