By IANS
New Delhi : London Mayor Ken Livingstone Tuesday offered Delhi his city’s expertise in planning dedicated bus corridors, advice that could benefit the Delhi government, especially in the aftermath of a fatal accident last week due to the new lane dividers on the capital’s roads.
Most of London’s streets are narrower than in Delhi, but they have dedicated bus corridors despite that, said Mark Watts, senior adviser to the Mayor on climate change and sustainable transport.
“There is no physical separation of the lane, but no one else will go there, because everyone knows how huge the fine will be if any other vehicle is found in the bus lane,” Watts pointed out.
He said that having dedicated bus lanes and moving people from cars to public transport was the way forward.
Watts praised Delhi’s move to shift all its buses from diesel to compressed natural gas (CNG), but said London was not going to do the same because the carbon dioxide emissions from CNG were about the same as those from old-fashioned fossil fuels.
“Instead, we’re moving towards diesel-hybrid buses for our entire fleet of 8,000. That will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent,” Watts said.
Last week, a motorcycle rider crashed against a new High Capacity Bus System lane divider in south Delhi on way to office and died. The dividers have led to several accidents over the past weeks and are a subject of controversy.