www.parisar.org

Dr. Adhiraj Joglekar conducted an online survey to collect views and experiences of users with regards to the JM-FC one way scheme. The results of the first 136 respondents of the survey between 12th and 15th September 09 are summarized below. We thank Dr. Joglekar for granting us permission to use data from his survey and publish the results on our website.

It is apparent from this survey that though the scheme has increased speeds of travel, it has compromised safety of both vehicle travellers and pedestrians and cyclists, while increasing commuting distances and making it inconvenient to bus users.

In June 2009, Parisar undertook a survey of cyclists in Pune with the help of Prof. Shruti Tambe of the Sociology Department of the Pune University, and her students. From Parisar's side Ranjit Gadgil was responsible for driving the project. The idea was to understand the demographic profile of cyclists in Pune, and their real needs and requirements. This survey was only a pilot survey with a small sample size of about 100 cyclists. But it still resulted in valuable insights about cycling in Pune and attitude towards cyclists. Click on the image to the left to download the full report (900KB).

The worst fears of civic activists have come true. The one-way street "experiment" on Jangli Maharaj road and Fergusson college road started off without the basic infrastructure for pedestrian and cycle safety, and slowing down of motorized traffic. Inevitably, it led to its first casualty on Saturday, 5th November, when a six-year old boy lost his life to a speeding bus.This was in spite of many citizen's groups meeting with city officials and arriving at a plan that provided for pedestrian, cyclist safety, reduced inconvenience to bus passengers and controlled vehicle speeds on these corridors more than six months before the so-called experiment.