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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Bus karo! Cars hog 85% of city’s roads

Mumbai: If you are sick of Mumbai's perennially clogged traffic, it is perhaps time to demand a better public bus network. After all, private vehicles hog more than 85% of road space during peak hours though they ferry only a few more people than buses which occupy not more than 7% of roads. This is true for both the city and suburbs, shows an ongoing analysis conducted by the Mumbai Environmental Social Network (MESN) which is among the transport organizations demanding that buses be given priority on Mumbai's roads. 

    The group observed traffic flows at peak hour across 19 spots in the city. The Kalanagar junction, the converging point for traffic from the eastern and western suburbs is a case in point. During peak hours, there were 48 times more private vehicles (cars, taxis, autorickshaws and bikes) plying the road than buses. They could be blamed for the bumper-to-bumper traffic taking up as they did 86% of the road space vis-a-vis buses which occupied a mere 6%. This even though buses ferried 41% of people against the 59% ferried by private vehicles. In fact, at some junctions like Citylight in Mahim, private vehicles took up more space but ferried fewer people than buses. They clogged 82% of roads to ferry 35% of commuters while buses which took 16% of space carried nearly 65% of people. 
    Getting Mumbaikars out of their cars and into buses or shared transport will not only ease the traffic snarls but also lower emission and pollution considerably, say transport experts. 
'Public transport is key' 
Mumbai: An ongoing study by the Mumbai Environmental Social Network highlights the disproportionate use of road space by private vehicles in the city and suburbs. "Our analysis is meant to encourage planners to facilitate dedicated bus lanes, where bus traffic is higher," said Ashok Datar of the MESN, pointing out that policymakers needed to change their focus from moving vehicles to moving people. 
    The analysis comes at a time when travelling urban think tank BMW Guggenheim Lab is engaging Mumbaikars in finding transport solutions for the city. The Lab team is shocked at the skewed transport planning priorities. "Nearly 20% of the city's transport investment goes into the Bandra-Worli sealink, though it has a minuscule number of users. Future investment should be cut down to two per cent and the difference invested in public transport," said Yuval Zohar, an architect with the Lab. About one million cars were added to Mumbai roads in the last 10 years, while buses correspondingly increased by only 1,500, say experts. 
    Other cities are already making a shift from pro-car infrastructure towards policies which boost public transport networks. Bus rapid transit systems (BRTS) are in place in 25 Asian cities, including Delhi, Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot. "Limiting the number of cars on the roads and making public transport more comfortable will increase road space. It will in turn increase the traffic speed and reduce congestion and air pollution," said Rishi Aggarwal, environmentalist and researcher at the Observer Research Foundation. Vivek Phansalkar, joint commissioner of police (traffic), too believes Mumbai has to mandatorily move towards public transport and BRTS could be a solution. 

    Globally, cities like Los Angeles, Guangzhou and Singapore have paved the way. In LA, renowned as the car city of the world, an upcoming neighbourhood of about 31,000 people has pledged no parking space, given its proximity to public transport. In China, Guangzhou has 
put a restraint on car purchase at a cap of 5,000 cars per month, while Singapore has made it mandatory to purchase a certificate of entitlement as a pre-condition to purchasing cars. This certificate is auctioned and the revenue raked goes into developing public transport.




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