KARACHI, Sept 16: The city is expanding at a rapid pace and if an efficient and inexpensive public transport system is not put in place now, it will collapse in the next few years, said former mayor of Bogota Enrique Penalosa Londono at a seminar on Tuesday.

The politician-turned-international development adviser from Colombia said that public transport should be given priority over private cars, with local governments focusing more on open public spaces such as parks, pedestrian streets, playgrounds, waterfronts, etc, where everybody could go easily rather than on building new signal-free highways and exclusive elite clubs, used by a small number of people.

He was speaking at the seminar on ‘Sustainable urban development and mobility’ organised jointly by the City District Government Karachi, Shehri and the Clinton Foundation. City Nazim Mustafa Kamal, who was expected to attend the event, could not make it to the venue.

The urban development expert said that over the years, major cities in the developed world had shifted their focus from making things easier for car-users to improving their mass transport systems, luring car-owners to using the improved public transport, particularly during rush hours.

He said that in most road accidents in the developed world more motorists died than pedestrians, whereas in developing world cities it was vice versa and more pedestrians died than motorists.

Giving an example of the Colombian capital, Mr Londono said he had introduced the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system with specified bus ways, specially-built bus stations etc, which had solved the transport problem. As it saved time and was comfortable, many car-owners also used it.

He said he also introduced taxes, including parking fees, for the use of cars, and it not only eased traffic congestion on roads but it was environment- friendly also. Car-free roads were introduced to increase the pedestrian areas in city centres. Cycling was encouraged by building special cycling paths, he said.

He said the transport policy of a city should be to use fewer cars, but in developing world cities more highways, signal-free corridors, etc were built for the convenience of car-owners at the cost of pedestrians. If the paucity of space demanded construction of elevated roads, these should be used by buses than cars, which are used by fewer people.

He stressed that the BRT system was less expensive than the subway or underground trains and buses running on roads being flexible could serve more areas than the trains that have a limited access. He said there should be one transport authority to operate the buses, collect fares and to manage the infrastructure.

Tickets should be valid for all BRT buses, which could be owned by different companies paid by the authority under a formula. In this way, the buses – which raced with one another to pick up passengers and stopped in the middle of the road affecting the traffic flow -- would pick up and drop passengers at designated stops only and they would not be bothered if the bus was full of passengers or empty, as they would be paid by the authority.

Mr Londono said the city should have ground-plus-three to -four floor buildings with wide footpaths, cycling tracks, bus paths, parks and playgrounds. Speaking about various parks in European cities, he said these had in fact been gardens of the monarchs and the elite and were taken from them by democratic governments for the use of the public.

He also suggested that if parks and open spaces were fewer in number, the elite clubs, receiving government subsidies but serving a select group of people, in the centre of a city be taken over by the government and declared open to the public. Elite groups could be given land outside the city.

Stressing free access of the public to waterfronts, he cited that the Paris city government put sand on a highway along the Seine to convert it into a beach on certain days in summer so that the Parisians could have the feeling of visiting a beach.

Pointing out that the people needed to walk as birds needed to fly, he said that with the availability of more open spaces, parks, footpaths, etc, people would be in contact with nature and a feeling of equality would emerge among them, and they would feel less stressed.

Oscar Edmundo Diaz of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, Malik Zaheer of the CDGK and others also spoke.