Each to his own

It may be no exaggeration to say that our cities could soon have more vehicles than humans. If you have the time, just stand and watch the traffic on the roads and you are sure to see the ‘traffic beast’ grow in strength every day.

Everywhere in India’s major cities, private vehicles have taken over the road. Congestion has peaked. Despite city governments adding road width and flyovers, the time it takes to drive has increased. Bangalore has over 2.5 million private vehicles but city buses number only about 4,185. Since 2003, more than 400,000 private vehicles are added to its roads every year, while the number of city buses increased by only about 300.

In a telling and indicting survey taken recently among car-owning Bangaloreans, it was shown that fuel conservation or any related climate concerns hardly bothered many. Covering those who earned between Rs 20-40,000 per month, only 22% of those polled have practiced car pooling. There is also not much to look forward to on that front; almost half (47%) the respondents said they are ‘comfortable traveling alone’. Not many are trying / willing to try public transport either. More than 50% have not even thought of using Public Transport services. Reasons cited included over crowded buses, poor frequency, poor quality of buses etc. At the same time, 43% are not willing try Public Transport even if service standards ‘improve’.

A study by the ministry of urban development has found the share of public transport declined between 1994 and 2007 in all cities except Kochi, where it is 51 per cent. The irony is that private vehicles meet only 20 per cent of the travel demand, public transport buses meet 60 per cent of the city’s travel demand. The study projects a significant decline in public transport and sharp increase in private vehicles in the future, especially in the metros.

Forget incentives to public transport, there actually are disincentives. With an excise duty which was more than for cars till recently, and is now on par that for small cars, public transport is burdened with passenger tax, etc. The road tax is three times that for cars and unlike the latter’s case where it is a one-time tax, for public transport is slapped annually! In fact, CSE has been campaigning against this step-motherly treatment of public transport since some time.

There is cause for concern here. Not only in terms of greenhouse gas emissions but also pollution related health. Transport sector accounts for nearly 22 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and of this 74 percent by road sector, according to International Energy Agency.

In a first of its kind study, the greenhouse gas inventory for Bangalore’s transport sector prepared by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and Enzen Global Solutions, had placed the annual emission figure for the city at 2.2 million tones. This is poised to cross 4 million tones in the next ten years, the study projected.

Now in a continuation of the study, the inventory for seven other southern districts has been prepared. While emissions are lower compared to Bangalore, the trend is disturbing. Mysore and Bangalore Rural boast of emission figures between 0.2 to 0.3 million tones. A majority of the districts show increase in number of cars and jeeps, indicating a clear shift to private transport!

Is this the right direction to take?

Allow your citizens to have the right to spend money as they want, whether it be in buying SUVs or high energy embodied homes. But the least a wise government should do is to smoothen the road for public transport.

A differential pricing for diesel which was made cheap to cater to public transport, but now being increasingly used by big cars; dedicated bus lanes; more buses; congestion charge as collected in London on private vehicles, etc can easily tilt the balance in favour of public transport.

As the world shrinks further and further into a small village, the unfortunate tendency is that the human race is withdrawing into smaller, narrower units. Who knows, traveling together may forge new bonds!