Editor’s Note

Mamta Shah

Managing Editor

Vinod Shah

Head - Communications

Surya Prakash

Circulation In-charge

Anushka Khare Associate Editor

Naomi Pandya

Digital Media & Design Executive

Krishtina D’Silva

Sr. News Editor (Global News)

Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine is published bi-monthly by:

Urban Transport News

F-35, First Floor, Pankaj Grand Plaza, Mayur Vihar Phase-I, New Delhi-110091 Tel: 011-4248 4505, +91-9716 4545 05 E-mail: editor@urbantransportnews.com Web: www.urbantransportnews.com

Subscriptions:

Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine is sent without obligation to professionals and key opinion leaders working in urban transport industry in India and other countries. However, publisher reserves the right to limit the number of copies.

Cover Price: Annual:

Print ₹ 300.00, Digital- ₹100.00 Print ₹ 1800.00, Digital: ₹ 500.00

All subscriptions payable in advance. Print circulation available in India only.

© All rights reserved.

Contents of this publication may not be reproduced without written consent of the publisher.

For reprint, circulation in outside India, contact: editor@urbantransportnews.com please

Edited and published digitally by Mrs. Mamta Shah, Managing Editor from F-35, First Floor, Pankaj Grand Plaza, Mayur Vihar Phase I, New Delhi-110091, India.

ISSN 2581-8023

Disclaimer: The facts and opinions expressed by the authors/contributors here do not reflect the views of editorial team or editorial board of Urban Transport News/Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine. The current necessity of social distancing is re-shaping urban transport. In several cities the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is already evident. Like the 'bike revolution' started in the Netherlands after an economic and social crisis in the Seventies, the pandemic may be a fly-wheel for sustainable mobility in many polluted urban areas.

Willingly or forced by circumstances, cities across Europe have slowly started to change their vision about urban mobility. “Towns built for people not for cars” is a concept acknowledged even before the coronavirus outbreak, due to the high level of pollution released by the heavy traffic in the big communities. Now, social distancing imposed by the sanitary crisis has led many municipalities to offer their citizens new travelling ways to avoid gatherings on public transport along with an excessive use of private cars.

At the same time, India is witnessing the arrival of a new generation of mobility discourses, which are nuanced enough to provide sustainable urban mobility. The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has issued a detailed advisory, as to how the nation needs to move ahead in these testing times. It rests on three key pillars, namely, promotion of public transport system, leveraging technological advancements and penetration of NMT systems in the urban transport paradigm.

Various studies show that about 16-57% of urban commuters are pedestrian and about 30-40% of commuters use bicycles in the country depending on the size of the city. Considering this as an opportunity, elevating the priority of these modes gives travelers another private vehicle alternative, which is clean, safe, secured particularly if it is integrated with other modes and affordable for all. Non-motorised transport will occupy the prime, non-negotiable, position in every form of urban mobility discourse and intervention.

Please share your valuable feedback on the content of this Journal so that we can improve and provide more useful information in our future editions.

Stay Safe and Stay Happy!

Mamta Shah

Managing Editor editor@urbantransportnews.com