Bumper to Bumper 2: Bangalore needs urban transport policy

Bangalore needs urban transport policy
By A. Ravindra
The Times of India

Bangalore city news of late is dominated by roads, one-ways, flyovers, Metro rail and international airport. In other words, traffic and transportation have become the number one problem. The common solutions proposed are road widening, construction of more flyovers, strengthening public transport including a rapid transit system and improving traffic management. While each of them has a certain value, we seem to be missing the wood for the trees.

There are different perceptions to urban transportation. The aim of the traffic engineer is to design systems which can handle maximum congestion, the traffic police views it as a problem of dealing with the flow of traffic and accidents. The interest of the commuters is to move from one place to another at maximum speed and least cost and the automobile industry sees it as an opportunity to flood the market with new brands of vehicles. The result is today we have an automobile-oriented transport system which has precipitated the following problems: congestion — reducing the efficiency of transport; safety — causing accidents, injuries and death; pollution — creating an adverse impact on the environment, high energy consumption — leading to inefficient use of limited resources.

As cities expand and populations grow, these problems are only going to get worse. We, therefore, need to develop a transport policy which addresses issues relating to efficiency, safety, clean environment, affordability and equity. In the context of Bangalore, the following aspects need to be highlighted.

1. Public transport meets a little over 50 per cent of the travel demand in the city. However, there is increasing use of private motor vehicles whose number has crossed 20 lakhs; 13,000 cars were sold in just three months between August-October 2004.

2. Introduction of rapid rail transit system has been in the air for long but has not taken off. Even if it does, whenever it may be, it will take at least five years to fructify. Moreover, the present plans do not include linkages to workspots such as Electronic City, ITPL, Bangalore University or Peenya.

3. Roads are getting choked and there is little scope to widen them. In fact, widening will reduce the space available for footpaths. Flyovers may provide some relief for the present but in the long run will only act as an incentive to carry more private vehicles.

Given the above facts, automobile traffic will continue to grow and become more chaotic and cause more pollution in the next five years, unless some innovative measures are adopted. Let us consider the following options.

1. The primary objective must be to minimise congestion. To achieve this, some hard decisions are required on the part of government. It must seriously consider introducing congestion pricing which will act as a disincentive to travel or do business in crowded areas. Providing better transport amenities in already-crowded central business areas will only add to the congestion. Instead, provide facilities in extensions and less-crowded places and induce business to these areas.

2. Bus transport system must be strengthened but reoriented to minimise waiting time. Reducing the number of routes and increasing the number of buses will reduce waiting time.

3. Private sector employers, particularly the large ones and the wealthy ones must provide housing for their employees in the vicinity. Public sector industries such as HAL, ITI and BEL built their own townships thus minimising the travel needs of their employees.

4. Provide incentives for use of alternative modes of transport such as walking and cycling. Make congested business areas like Commercial Street a car-free pedestrian street and Avenue Road a bicycle street. Employers can provide more travelling allowance for those who travel by bicycle or public transport and less for those who use private transport.

5. Shift some wholesale business activities, like iron and steel, to outskirts of the city.

It is not impossible to implement such measures; in fact, some developing countries have shown the way. In Bogota, capital of Colombia, people are encouraged to use non-automobile modes of transport; 120 bikeways have been provided and another 180 planned.

Construction of sidewalks and shaded walkways have made walking a pleasure. Restrictions have been imposed on private automobile travel, and public transport has been improved with high capacity buses and magnetic ticketing. In Curitiba, a Brazilian city, priority to public transport has ensured 75 per cent travel by buses despite the rapid growth of the city. Mumbai and Chennai have shown that it is possible to shift wholesale businesses out of the city.

For any policy to succeed, it is essential to provide an institutional framework to plan, develop and regulate transportation in the city. A single Metropolitan Transport Authority which can coordinate road and rail transport and all aspects pertaining to safety needs to be set up. City planning must aim at integrating land use planning with transportation planning. The absence of such planning has been a major cause for traffic congestion. Traffic managers must be professionally trained not only to enforce but to educate. The needs of pedestrians deserve to be recognised (pedestrian crossings, sufficient time to cross, well-laid footpaths, adequate street lighting etc). The citizens on their part must learn to respect the norms of traffic discipline.

The need of the hour is a comprehensive Urban Transport Policy whose overriding objective should be ‘decongestion’ by discouraging use of private motorised vehicles and encouraging other modes of transport. This policy should become part of the Comprehensive Development Plan of Bangalore that is under revision.

(A. Ravindra is urban planning expert and former chief secretary)