Surrender

A child surrenders to the way its parents take care of it... Considering God to be the parent of human beings, a child teaches complete surrender to God...

Should a Delhiite dump his/her car and switch to public transport

The Times of India had thrown open a blog to record what people wanted to say about the possibility of people dumping their cars in favor of public transport on the BRT corridor. I felt that smart people would definitely prefer the switch... Here is why :-)
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I think Delhi people are smart...

The success of Delhi Metro in converting people from car travellers to users of public transport can be replicated..If we look at reasons why people switched from private cars to public transport, we notice a few pertinent things:

1. Petrol and fuel prices are sky-rocketing... People want to cut down their cost of living in times of such inflation... They are looking for alternatives

2. Driving on Delhi roads is a night-mare... If you drive to office and take about 1 hr in one side commute (quite normal), then by the time you reach office, you are tired enough to not be able to contribute fruitfully for at least another 30-45 minutes... And if by chance you meet an accident on the way (again scratches are quite commong), forget about making good use of about 1-2 hrs...

3. Delhi Metro offered fast travel... Speed of buses in BRT will be very good (since as newspapers report, the BRT corridor is almost vacant).. This means, that commute time through buses would also reduce...

4. Delhi Metro offered predictable travel time... This was significant gain when compared to traffic-jams ridden road travel... With the advent of BRT, we do not expect to see traffic jams in that corridor... So the public travel will become more predictable than private transport... So, DTC can come up with time-tables of their buses - when a bus would reach a particular stop etc (just like done by BEST in Mumbai and public transport fleets in other countries)... Natural logic would mean, people would switch..

5. Delhi Metro - even if crowded - is comfortable because of A/C coaches... People don't mind standing in A/C coaches for fast travel... If A/C buses are introduced on the corridor, it would make the travel much more convenient... The low-floor DTC buses are also comfortable, but AC buses would increase the comfort... The travel in such buses would also be pollution free and therefore healthier...

6. Delhi Metro is preferred mode of transport because it connects the most congested parts of the city... BRT should be implemented in the congested regions of the city and its utility will become more than evident...

7. Delhi Metro has been expanded to mesh around the city... Similar exercise should be done for BRT... If public transport across the city is fast, people would not mind changing buses to reach destination because they will get end-to-end fast connectivity...

Delhi Metro is a good example to prove that people switch from private transport to public transport... I personally have very high hopes with BRT... This despite the fact that there are some teething troubles at the moment

The BRT Corridor and TOI

This is the letter that I sent to the reporters and editor of The Times of India to moderate their reporting with views of bus commuters. In response to the letter, they opened a blog on www.mytimesmyvoice.com asking if people will dump their cars to use public transport.. Check out the responses on that blog also.
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I am a regular reader of The Times of India... TOI has built a brand for itself in the urban middle class... It is now a power to reckon with... The way media shapes public opinion is to be learnt from the various success stories led by TOI...
However, this also puts a big burden of responsibility on the shoulders of journalists working with the esteemed newspaper. I found the coverage of the BRT a bit deficient in a few aspects. I might be completely wrong, but I still wanted to share my thoughts with you so that if you find any merit in them, you can help in shaping the public opinion to achieve a better society and a brighter tomorrow.

1. Your coverage looses sight of the fact that every bus carries at least 40 passengers (in fact, the way public buses in Delhi are overcrowded, this number can touch 80-100 at times). In contrast, a private vehicle in Delhi usually carries about 1 passenger. On an average, it would carry less than 2 passengers.

- Pollution per passenger in a bus is about 1-tenth of the pollution by the most fuel-efficient (hence, less polluting) car on Delhi roads.

- fuel consumed by the buses in Delhi is much cleaner (CNG) than the fuel of an average private car (petrol). These add to public health benefits and saves the burden on govt health facilities (that they are not in good shape is another matter altogether and a different point of discussion).

- higher fuel consumption in private cars is actually a drain on India's forex reserves

- According to Delhi govt statistics 70-80% of road users are pedestrians, cyclists and bus travellers.

- According to Delhi traffic police statistics about 88% of fatalities in road accidents involve the vulnerable 70-80% of road users (mentioned above).

- When buses have to compete for road space, it creates problems. In recent times, we have experienced hundreds of deaths by DTC buses and Blue Lines (remember the recent campaigns - also run by TOI).

- production of a private car wastes at least 10 times more raw material per passenger than a bus. This means more private vehicles are a "much bigger burden" on the planet.

2. Delhi government has in the past many years (except the few very recent ones) promoted private transport at the cost of severly neglecting public transport.

- Flyovers have been built left-right-and-center in various parts of the city... They definitely speed up motor vehicles, but add to the plight of pedestrians and cyclists. In fact, most of the flyovers don't even have mechanisms to allow pedestrians cross the road.

- While thousands of crores were spent on building such new infrastructure, DTC used to get limited budget to upgrade its fleet of buses. This has thankfully seen some change this past year.

- Even in this year's budget, the fly-over projects get more than 4-times the allocation to DTC for fleet upgradation.

- In earlier years, this ratio touched 8-10.

3. BRT is a project that upgrades the traffic sense of Delhi's commuters to safer levels.

- It promotes lane driving

- It offers higher priority to vehicles carrying larger number of passengers

- It offers safe travel opportunity to the people who travel in an eco-friendly way

- It prevents the kind of accidents that buses cause on other Delhi roads because they have to compete for road space.

- It makes roads safer for the huge majority of more vulnerable sections of the society (many of whom can't even afford insurance in case of death or injury)

4. Every such upgradation project - a project that brings about a change - is bound to see resistance from public... Even abolition of Sati saw resistance... It is in such times that The Times of India should take the lead to ensure that such upgradations are accepted more gracefully... You can try interviewing a few bus commuters who benefited from the faster and less rash travel in Blue-lines on that route...

5. Such projects that involve change in the way public behaves are bound to see glitches... I am an engineer... Even we have to tweak our designs after testing it... I believe that when you write a piece of article, you also review it and make changes... I am also a blogger... I remember that when I used to write earlier, I would usually pass my writings through a test audience and then make changes based on their reactions and then post on public forums...

6. In the case of BRT, the government started with a pilot project (did not spend exhorbitantly on it when you compare it with numerous other flyover / construction projects)... It must have definitely made some miscalculations in traffic volumes at the time of deciding the signaling duration etc. and hence landed itself into a mess. I believe that the government is doing its hardest bit to turn things around from the present mess... Such long jams are clearly not desirable even for private vehicles... Please give them some time-space to affect the changes...

7. Top article on front-page of The Sunday Times (27-Apr-2008) harped about the Rs.4 cr additional cost in managing the Rs.60 crore project... This clearly is a 7.5% increase in expenditure. However, to put it in perpective, this cost is almost inconsequential when compared with the cost of other fly-over and road projects operated by the Delhi Govt... In fact, many of those projects - of which the government has so much of experience - also see similar and higher cost escalations... This was the first project of its kind, and if this cost escalation happens, it can be taken as a learning experience... While we should always bring financial impropriety to light and such financial imprudence shouldn't be spared, we should give the government enough leverage in the "first of its kind" initiatives, where they also don't have prior experience...

Looking into the future, I also see DTC introducing A/C and also more comfortable buses on Delhi roads... At such times, such corridors will promote use of public transport and hence reduce pollution, vehicle density, transport time and also curb inflation due to reduced fuel demand... Public transport should definitely be promoted - even if at the cost of inconvenience to private transport... Look at the example of Singapore where public transport (through taxis, buses, MRTS etc.) are the preffered modes of travel... I hope Delhi becomes a world-class city like that...

Also, I am not sure if you noticed, but I am keeping Shobha John in cc of this email... This is to appreciate her for giving so much thought to highlighting the efforts taken up for improving experience of air-travellers. This when air-travel is an option for at most 0.1% of Indian population. I hope that you give due weight to the additional safety and benefit that this corridor offers to the majority of commuters in Delhi. If successful, we can hope to see better road sense prevail in other parts of the city and many other Indian cities... I sincerely hope that we respect the people who respect the environment and public health, as much as they respect their commuting experience and travel time - either due to need or due to their condition...

Again, I might be wrong, but I felt that there was a significant other side of the coin that was not being reported in The Times of India. You can possibly also interview the experts from IIT Delhi who were involved in the project and get more technical data and analytical information about how the project helps the roadscape of Delhi. I think that responsible citizens can also give suggestions to improve the BRT corridor, we can possibly highlight such suggestions in our reports... This will help people to allow phasing-in of the safe road sense more gracefully...

In the future, I sincerely look forward to campaigns from TOI that bring to fore-front the plight of a pedestrian on Delhi roads... The foot-paths are being sacrificed for motor vehicles sake everywhere... It is no surprise then that pedestrian casualities are on the rise in the city...

Looking forward to hearing from you.