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 :-)
--------------------
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.
---------------------------------
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.

US, EU, India and Public Transport

The title is funny... But yes, the difference in availability of public transport in the two places has a lot to say about the cultural differences there. I believe that this should be an interesting read.

Except in NY, there is almost no concept of public transport in the US. You walk to your office, and you are the only one walking. To go by bus means that you need to time your arrival at the bus stop precisely, or end up waiting for an hour. Mass Rapid Transport Systems are 'almost' non-existent.

There is a clear intent to make people use private means of transport. It seems very clear that this is done under the influence of automobile industry. People need private means of transport - so, they will purchase cars (profits to automobile makers). Since public transport is almost non-existent, more cars will ply on roads. This means more roads will need to be constructed (profits for infrastructure contractors). If the roads were not widened, traffic congestion would motivate people to go for small cars, but continuous intent of profits for contractor mafia motivates regular widening of expressways. As roads widen, people have no motivation to go for smaller vehicles - instead, due to high speeds enabled by wide roads, they prefer SUVs. This means, there are more fuel-guzzling machines. So, the oil dealers stand to profit through all this.

And Oil, was we all know, is a weakness of the US state. They went on a rampage in destroying countries after countries just to gain control over their oil-fields.

However, I was not supposed to harp on this industry-government nexus against the poor here. My idea was to in-fact tell that motivation of wider roads in western countries may not necessarily have been public benefit. Yes, good roads enable good communication links and therefore are important for economic growth, but India should adopt a model that is more suited to Indian needs.

And before I digress to the trans-Atlantic developed countries, I want to appreciate the extreme care with which pedestrian walkways are still maintained across different cities and rural areas in the US. These are critical to allow access to the differently abled. And they also in some sense promote healthy life-style of walking and jogging.

But before discussing further, let us discuss what happens in Europe. The expressways are absolutely great. They are wide. They do an excellent job of connecting different cities together. However, urban roads are narrow. They were not designed to be narrow. When they were designed, in those days, these were wide enough. Today, they can carry upto 1 car in each direction and many don't have curb-parking allowed along them.

The governments in Europe, however, did not eat up the pedestrian ways. They regulated traffic flow on these roads. Only one-way traffic is allowed on many streets. European governments did not spend on widening roads OR promoting private ownership of vehicles. European governments built public modes of transport. Almost every big city in Europe has a good public transport network - be it buses, rail, tram or any other MRTS.

Why did they do this? Why did they also not go the US way - and just widened the roads further? Why did they not eat away the pedestrian ways? What did they have to gain? Why did they invest heavily in public transport? What has been the impact of such decisions? Does the more social nature of European societies has something to do with this?

I will attempt to answer these questions in the Indian context and it will be easy to see the prudence in the way European countries managed their traffic flow.

There is no denying the fact that India needs better road infrastructure. What we should not forget is that India - at least Indian cities - can live without further widening of roads (if Europe can manage it well). What Indian cities most urgently need is a better public transport infrastructure. So, while highway construction and improvement is needed to connect rural areas across India - to provide better services and opportunities, the focus in urban areas should clearly be public transport infrastructure.

India would stand to gain enormously if it sets its priorities right in the public transport sector.

1. Public transport will result in lesser fuel consumption. Fuel consumed per rider is far less when people travel by bus, than when they use a private vehicle (car). Considering fuel efficiency of a small Indian car as 15km/litre of petrol, and that of a bus as 3.5km/kg of CNG (or 3.5km/lt of diesel) (source - Red Herring Prospectus of Indraprastha Gas Limited). Typical ridership in cars in Delhi is 2. Typical ridership of buses in Delhi is 50. While a car may take the shortest route, public transport will typically need to travel a bit more. Considering an example where a car would travel 30km, the bus would travel 45km (extreme exaggeration). So, fuel consumption per person in car is 1 litre of petrol. Fuel consumption per person in bus is 0.26kg of CNG (or 0.26 litres of diesel). So, this means gains of more than 70% (if we assume same cost of fuel) and much more (if actual cost of petrol / diesel/ CNG is accounted). So, if government promotes public transport, then it stands to improve the cost of Indian basket of crude imports. This will be a major "boost" to Indian economy as crude oil is one of the largest drains on pricing of Indian currency. The idea is very profitable for the country.
2. Fuel consumption in public transport is lesser (per capita) than in private transport (as shown above), and therefore, GHG emissions would reduce. Clean fuel fleets can use this reduction in GHG emissions to earn Kyoto Protocol credits and subsidize the cost of better fleet procurement. Not only do we become more environment friendly, the cost would be subsidized by selling Kyoto Protocol credits. The gains will be more if more and more cities adopt CNG as the fuel of choice for public transport.
3. Lesser fuel consumption also means lesser exhausts of poisonous gases in the air. This leads to lesser air related diseases in the general population. This has two-fold benefits, the requirements of beds in hospitals reduces (and the already stressed health-care sector in the country can get some relief). The second benefit accrues from the fact that as less people fall sick, there are more working hands in the country and the overall productivity of the country improves.
4. As more people travel by public transport, congestion on roads would reduce (space utilization is better in public transport). This would mean faster transit times. This would also mean "no need to widen roads" further - at the cost of pedestrian ways. As I said in the earlier note on "fly-overs and their role in one world" also, widening roads in response to traffic congestion is like "loosening belt when obesity arrives". But as we know for obesity, loosening the belt is not the solution. The solution is better regulation and control. Same thing holds for traffic congestion. The rate at which private vehicles are increasing in Delhi, it is only better regulation that can change the situation. Check out my earlier note here. If we follow these practices, funds would be saved while traffic congestion will simultaneously reduce. The saved funds can be utilized for increasing the speed of rural sector reforms and enhancing rural infrastructure. This will leapfrog India into the developed world trajectory faster.
5. When people travel by good public transport (and don't drive themselves), stress levels reduce (driving tension is driven away) and therefore quality of life of citizens improves.
6. Public transport is a good means to increase interaction amongst citizens. People form relationships on public transport and hence build a structure of social and emotional support. Better social structure reduces crime rates as communities become more self-reliant. While inequality is the major trigger for higher crime rate, better social fabric induces the spirit of inclusion and therefore reduces incidences of crime.
7. Lesser consumption (of oil, cement, charcoal, metals etc.) also means that all of us reduce our eco-footprint and ecology becomes more sustainable. Lesser number of mines need to be opened. Lesser people will be uprooted from their lands. More indegenous cultures will remain preserved and the huge cultural diversity of the country will be preserved.

Many a times we don't realize the "huge" impact our decisions have on this interconnected world. The world is but one. As we become more responsible for our actions and as we reduce our consumptions continuously, we will strive towards better lifestyles for more and more people. We will work towards increasing overall happiness level of the world - without compromising on our happiness.

India definitely does not need to go the US way. We can't afford to go the US way with the huge population and the large cultural diversity of the country. The costs will be flabbergasting. The impact on Earth's natural resources will be absolutely disastrous.

I sincerely hope that our Urban Renewal Mission takes a corrective recourse and the focus is shifted from simply infrastructure addition to better regulation and prudent promotion of reliable pubic transport systems in different cities across India. Not every city can afford to have a Metro system, but most of the cities would definitely do much better with better public transport network of CNG-based RTVs or three-wheelers and other energy efficient vehicles.

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.