I am a former student of Dr. Geetam Tiwari, TRIPP lab, IIT Delhi, and currently working as a transportation engineer in San Francisco Bay Area. It is shocking to read the response of media and people to the Delhi BRT project. It can not only be described as a reaction to change but also as a hype created by media against the system.
The building of freeways, flyovers and toll roads has been on the horizon for a long time, to cater to the ever increasing transportation needs. But, as it is well known, even before they become fully functional they get to the point of operating beyond capacity. It is clear that that is not a sufficient solution to the increasing traffic problem. The rate of increase of vehicles on the road is much higher than even the theoretical potential to build roadways, not talking about the practical side of things. India is gradually becoming the largest market for automobile companies. There are even greater number of models and varieties suiting everybody's liking. The percentage of people owning cars has gone up many folds in the past 5 years. Tata Nano, the car for the common man, is the epitome of the 21st century. But there are over 1 billion common men in India, and everybody riding their car which will amount to paving almost the whole of the county with asphalt. There is definitely a need to find a solution to this roadway traffic explosion or else Tata should probably develop Nano aircrafts for scope of any possible commute in the 21st century.
Majors cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay are facing severe traffic congestion issues, and it is something not uncommon in the rest of the world as well. The absolute dependence of people on their personal mode of transportation, sheer unwillingness to use existing means of public transit, or the utter lack of any mass transit service has lead to similar problems in the western countries. Even though the population is not comparable in India and the US, the latter is reaching the crisis state as well. Each person's desire to drive his own 4 wheel-5 seater automobile for commute has led to massive traffic jams in peak hours in almost all of the majors cities in the US. To tackle this problem, the transportation authorities are in the process of developing and popularizing public modes of transportation. But it is so ingrained in the psyche of the people that change is an uphill task.
India, being primarily a transit dependent nation in the past, has seen a rapid increase in automobile ownership in the recent years. With the increase in the purchasing power of people, and with the relative decrease in the cost of cars and gasoline, India is headed more and more towards the likes of the western world. Agreed that it might be a symbol of prosperity, but just for the sake of a symbol, we surely do not want to face the repercussions and face the same issues which the other developed countries are. We are a progressive nation and we know it.
It is good to know that at least the planners are acknowledging the importance of a well developed transit system and the taking measures to develop a functional one. The decrease in the number of vehicles on the road is the only source of rescue from the immediate state of crisis. No one can stop people from buying cars, but limiting the capacity of the road to discourage the use of them can definitely be a measure. No one can demand to change the people to ride transit overnight, but it is not be impossible to expect that with better transit facility and worse driving conditions, people can be willingly forced to use the transit.
That is the aim of developing the Bus Rapid Transit in Delhi. Without going into intricate details of right -of-way, separate corridors and signal priorities for bus service, we can state in a nutshell that this simply means preferential treatment of buses. This ensures that there is scheduled bus service and no unnecessary delays as a result of traffic jams. These systems are highly successful in other parts of the world, and have a promising future in our country as well. If the buses provide assurance of time, good frequency of service, good riding conditions, comfort and convenience, then there is no reason people still prefer to drive their cars through clogged Delhi roads. The population which this system is targeting is the one which is getting agonized by the impossible driving conditions, and seeks to make them switch to this mode of transportation, in turn relaxing the roadway traffic.
This state-of-the-art project in Delhi has been well researched and planned by all the institutions involved in its development. It is baseless to condemn it with as abysmal a charge as monetary interest, and too from journalists, who have minimal background and knowledge of statistics behind the effort. It not only shows the lack of understanding, but also a lack of seriousness of the media. It is not only the image of our alma mater at stake, it is the image of the country, and its residents that is involved. If the reaction to a positive effort is so unsupportive, how will declaring yourself as the sixth nuclear power make things any better? How else do the learned journalists of our nation seek urbanization and development in the country?
If we are also not convinced of the benefits of this, how should we expect everybody else to understand it. We should provocate the development of the BRT as much as possible in our capacity, and protest against the aspersions and malice thrown on it.
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3 comments:
Aarti,
You seem to have forgotten about the upturned nose of the avergae Delhite, who would rather crawl in his longer than yours car than take a bus.
On a practical level, buses need to be airconditioned like the metro to influence the car population to shift.
The second point was why not do a lot more of metro. In Paris, Rome and Berlin, I remember that the metro system is so dense that one doesnt need to walk 5 minutes in any direction to reach a metro station.
Achal, Thanks for your well thought comments. Then our target audience is not the upturned nosed fellow Delhiite, but rather people like you and me who value time much more than anything else.
How much effort do you think it would take to air-condition the buses when each and every car on the road has that facility. Once the system is established and is able to earn for itself, and the people are addicted to it, the higher bus tickets for air-conditioning would be accepted better.
Moreover, the idea of covering each and every niche of our beloved city with Metro seems to be the ideal solution, how much of capital investment are we talking about there? And I wish it could all be done overnight, but since it cannot be, what is the immediate solution to the crisis?
Both should happen. Buses should be airconditioned and metro should just keep expanding. Both will happen, its a matter of time. But I havent so far seen special corridors for buses except in Pune (yes, in India) and the system isnt working very well there either.
I am in Bangkok which is between India and the developed world in terms of development. It has big traffic problems but has both AC buses and an expanding metro system as well. No Bus corridor though.
By the way I saw your comment on my blog (on dowry :)). I had seen it earlier as well but had discounted it as one of those.
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