Fly-overs - and their role in "one" world

"Fly-overs are a sign of development." I can not possibly count the number of times people have praised the fly-overs to me.

In fact, I myself have praised the fly-overs in the same vein so many times.

A recent comment, though very innocuous, set me thinking. It was in context of a new fly-over planned in Delhi. "With this new fly-over, traffic will completely bypass the congested slum areas." Very promising indeed. So, we will zoom past the dark under-belly of this huge city without getting disturbed by slum children playing on the streets or pedestrians making way to their livelihood.

This is what fly-overs do. Almost all of them. They by-pass the underdeveloped parts of the city to ease the life for those living in better-off areas. So, that those with fast moving vehicles don't get bothered by pedestrians and rickshaw-pullers.

The people in those fast moving vehicles therefore ignore the presence/ absence of the people on foot. They help the rich forget the poor. They essentially divert the attention of the rich from the poor to the rich and richer.

This is possibly where the unsatiable desire to earn more and become richer than the richest starts to take birth. This is possibly where the government officers and decision makers, who move in cars - air-conditioned or otherwise, loose the sense of reality. This is possibly where the decision to make a new fly-over is taken. This is possibly where, greed metamorphoses into need. This is possibly where the "one" world gets divided.

Government of Delhi spends hundreds of crores of rupees in building these fly-overs. The need for these fly-overs arose because there was a need to speed up the traffic. It was possibly the definition of traffic that was wrong. Traffic is not just cars and scooters and SUVs. Traffic is also pedestrians and rickshaw pullers and those who need to travel by public transport to get to work.

The government should provide for speeding up the second traffic. The first one will automatically gain speed. If the hundreds of crores of rupees that the government spends on building fly-overs are rather spent on beefing up the public transport system and providing facilities in the slums, then the not only will the city develop in a more holistic fashion but the problems of traffic will also get mitigated.

Building more fly-overs can be directly compared to loosening the belt to control obesity. Yes, when your waistline increases, it is necessary to loosen the belt, but that is not the solution. The solution is to control your diet, eat healthy food and to do physical exercise. Similarly, making more fly-overs in Delhi is not going to solve the problem of congestion on the city roads. Number of vehicles on the roads need to be controlled. Focus should shift to policies that improve over-all health of the city.

Reducing the numbers (examples from elsewhere that can be adapted in Indian cities)

• Singapore has a policy according to which cars are cheap, however their registration is costly. Its an annual auction of registration plates. This makes private ownership of vehicles a not so lucrative option in addition to raising more money with the government.
• In another country, vehicles with only odd registration numbers are allowed on the roads on 3 days of the week and even registration numbers on the other three.
• In another country, car pools are given special preference and they have separate fast moving lanes.
• In another city, public transport is so good (and affordable) that it saves time to go by public transport.
• In another city, public transport is so predictable that people plan their schedules according to bus schedule.
• In most other countries, the pedestrian ways (foot-paths) are systematically designed and are designed on priority. These ways are not only handicap friendly, but also well-lit to ensure proper safety of pedestrians. If the foot-paths are given due weight in any road widening/ construction, pedestrian traffic is automatically taken care of. What is happening in Delhi is exactly the opposite - footpaths are broken to widen the road.

Correcting the focus

The money raised from auctioning of registration numbers and saved from building fly-overs mindlessly should be spent in a manner that the underpriviliged sections of the society also develop and contribute more effectively to nation's growth. The money should be invested in many of the following things which will again help in improving traffic speed.

• Special lanes for bicycles and rickshaws
• Providing better hygiene and sanitation facilities in city slums (so that people don't need to defecate on footpaths - thereby making them available for pedestrians)
• Designing disabled friendly and senior citizen friendly pedestrian ways
• Building pedestrian over-bridges or subways for crossing roads and providing pedestrian signals at all road crossings
• Improving public transport (buses and metro) such that people prefer to travel by public modes.
• Have public transport operate on a publically available schedule so that uncertainity of travel by public transport is reduced
• Have GPS installed in all public transport vehicles to monitor and provide help in case of problems
• Cross-subsidize public transport for low-income groups and daily wagers by providing better (and lesser congested) services for those who can pay.
• Have dedicated car-pool lanes on high-traffic routes to motivate people to travel by car-pool. Buses and public passenger carrying vehicles have the access to these lanes.

A cultural shift in drivers is also needed. Instead of "bigger vehicle has its way", the rule should change to "pedestrian gets right of way".

Its already been a long post... I will possibly post more on this topic again. But till then, give it a thought. Let fly-overs not let us fly-past the reality.