Public Transportation

The failure of the government to provide decent transportation linking various parts of the cities, districts, states etc has made the people to go for personal transportation. With the exponential increase in the number of private vehicles the road space has become insufficient. Thousands of crores are spent on building better roads for better movement of people, goods. Now with better roads more people are going for bigger vehicles and the new wider roads will become insufficient in no time.

The problem of reducing the traffic congestion cannot be addressed by bulding new roads, flyovers but by economically using the existing resources. In a city like Seoul to reduce the traffic congestion many of the existing flyovers are removed and a Bus system has been put in place with dedicated tracks. the Bus-stop are put with information boards which electronically dsiplay the arrival of the next bus and its current position. The ticketing system is all integrated electronically that the entire design is customer centric.

Based on similar lines BRTS has been introduced in several places in India with varying degree of succcess and many more are being planned. The road transport is not considered as efficient as rail transport but the simplicity in its operation and control makes is more preferred. Metro Train services are also being introduced in various cities but the requirements of new tracks, its construction problems is delaying the implementation of the projects. But the BRTS with roads already available are easier to implement.

A car the most preferred private vehicle for the neo rich people, can carry at most 5people. A bus which usually takes around 3-4times the road space of a car can carry around 48people. This makes the bus a better and efficient user of road than the cars. Bikes are no good and the accidents that are taking on the roads are due to the driving of the speeding cars and bikes and the rashness. Also the bus and lorry drivers create accidents but their overall contribution is less. For long distance travel like between capital of states rails are supposed to be the best as there will be large number people travelling between the state capitals for a variety of reasons.

The politicians and the rich who are control the bus mafia have ensured that no rail lines are put for efficient use. The trains are provided at odd times so that many donot use. Usually people use a service when their useful time is wasted the least. This is effect means the journey should be completd in the night, and the people should have good sleep during thier journey. If the train starts after the office times and before midnight and reaches its destination before early morning, it is considered most ideal for travel between big cities. The bus mafia have ensured otherwise.

The business and income of the mafia has grown rapidly and the profits of the railways is reducing. The railways instead of coming out with proposals to increase its passenger and freight quantity to increase its profitability is increasing the fares in name of lack of funds and for improving the safety of the system. The same we have been listening for the past so many years and nothing much significant has been established even after somany years. China which is building the high speed railnetwork to connect its remotest parts with the main land where speeds of 300kmph is a norm, we in India are still talking about 150kmph.

The railways instead of operating throughout the country and in a most inefficient ways should focus on moving maximum number of people at some restricted points and make them into transportation hubs. From here the buses can take over for plying the people to the interior parts of the country. And finally the socalled nonsese of the raod traffic, the autos can finally move between the small localities and to cover the small distances even though they are the most inefficient users of space their requirement is present because of the large layouts of the residential areas and movement through wihich for public transportation like buses will be not economical. Cycles are both bi and tri are least polluting and those who want to use them should be encouraged and also the electric powered vehicles should also be encouraged since these are non polluting and not suitable for within city because these will only increase the traffic congestion.

The entire nation has to be divided into zones for easier managment. The main lines first have to linked by rail and 6lane roads. The second part is already in practice but the speed of implementation has reduced drastically. One example to cite is the distance from one place called Kurnool to Hyderabad is around 240KM and if we go by personal vehicle the distance can be covered in 3hrs but in a govt bus it takes around 4-5hrs. The fares have been increased due to the presence of toll gates. The only beneficieries of the better roads seem to be the private owners and since no better option is availabe for travel, people continue with the government buses.

Just like in a human body, the heart has 4valves-2incoming,2outgoing lines pumps blood to the tiniest tissues by branching out the public transport system has to be divided into numerous branches with vehicle sizes smaller and smaller depending on the number of peole travelling and optimizing the frequency between the points of travel. Also with adequate emergency vehicles available the demand for private vehicles will not go down but their usage for regular purposes for travel should come down.

But those who want to use their private vehicles should be taxed not based on some old calculations, but based on the space usage, pollution, fuel consumed etc. The increased tax should act like a deterrent for use for short distances. No vehicles should be allowed to be parked on the roads and the parking spaces should be created at all points and charges for parking should be collected which increase the revenue for the local administration, through which better facilities can be provided for the general public. 

Unless people start to travel by public transportation the accidents cannot be reduced, pollution controlled and fuel subsidy bill reduction is possible. It is in the interests of the nation that the PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION has to be implemented and used by its citizens shunning thier elitist tendencies.