SPPGA is pleased to introduce Binoy Mascarenhas as a visiting Policy Practitioner Fellow from September 2022 to April 2023. Biony is an urban planner and economist with over 15 years of experience across sustainability, transportation, and analytics. Before moving to Canada in 2019, Binoy served as the Head of Urban Transport at the India office of the World Resources Institute. He was the WRI India-lead in the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety, working closely with organizations such as The World Bank and The World Health Organization in road safety initiatives across India, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
We sat down with Binoy to ask him some questions about his policy career, and how his interests will influence his time as a visiting fellow at SPPGA.
What has been a meaningful moment in your career that underscores the need for good public policy?
Before moving to Canada, I spent many years working as a transportation planner and road safety specialist in the city of Mumbai, where about 400 people die every year in road crashes. The overwhelming majority of these fatalities are of pedestrians, a big factor being that virtually all road infrastructure in the city is geared towards serving automobile traffic. On many narrow streets, sidewalks have been eliminated to provide more road space for vehicles. There is growing recognition among city officials and the public that this situation is untenable and needs to be addressed. However, Mumbai does not have a comprehensive, far-reaching policy to guide the development and preservation of pedestrian infrastructure. In the absence of such policy backed by legislation, nothing prevents the city from tearing down sidewalks or eliminating crosswalks to improve convenience for motorists. Over the years, I was involved in many city-led initiatives to make streets safer in Mumbai. While some of these initiatives resulted in positive outcomes, others lost steam and fizzled out with a change in administration. This left me with the feeling that a lot more change could have been achieved at a quicker rate, if our initiatives were guided by comprehensive public policy and a long-term vision.
What are you most looking forward to engaging in as an SPPGA Policy Practitioner Fellow?
I am most looking forward to the opportunity of collaborating with local partners in Metro Vancouver on impactful and compelling policy research outcomes. Given that my experience and interests lie at the intersection of transportation and analytics, I am excited to work on a data-driven policy project that addresses a relevant and urgent transportation challenge for the region. I am keen to learn and benefit from access to the immense pool of expertise and talent at SPPGA, including its faculty, staff, students, and my peers in the Fellowship program.
