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Public transport for livable cities

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's advocacy of appropriate, efficient, and affordable public transport for Indian cities is a heartening sign that initiatives for sustainable urban transport will at last get some high-level policy support. Dr. Singh outlined his vision for substantial changes in public transport infrastructure and services while inaugurating the third line of the Delhi Metro. This is a subway project (the second after Kolkata) the country can genuinely be proud of for its scale, design, and speed of implementation. While the accomplishment in the national capital is laudable, citizens in three score other cities with big populations can only hope that this people-centric vision will be embraced by the real decision-makers, the State Governments. It is no secret that cities are suffering the consequences of unsustainable vehicle use in the form of congestion, worsening travel delays, higher risk of injury and death, and environmental degradation. Most investment decisions made by State Governments after economic liberalisation have tended to favour the relatively well-off; they have actively encouraged automobile dependence. Costly investments in urban infrastructure have generally been unfriendly to the majority of road users — pedestrians, cyclists, children, women, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled.

Studies show that India trails many other major developing countries in transport planning. Official policies have generally ignored the everyday needs of people while determining parameters for land use. This has led to urban sprawl and a haphazard growth of residential and commercial areas. Investments in infrastructure remain poorly informed and urban planning processes are not transparent at a time when economic growth has created an unprecedented demand for travel. Several cities in China, Brazil, and Colombia have begun operating high capacity Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems that are seen as a cheaper alternative to rail lines; they can also be put in place faster. The success of rail and BRT ventures depends on some core requirements, notably infrastructure (dedicated busways for BRT), modern fare collection methods that enable the integrated use of trains and buses, and a regulator for planning and control. In India, suburban trains operate in competition with city buses because the Centre and the States cannot agree to share revenue. This dichotomy has come in the way of unified ticketing. Citing financial constraints, several States have not invested in their own bus networks. They are also reluctant to review policies that block service models involving private participation. Such inaction has resulted in gridlocked, unlivable cities. A first — simple and elegant — priority should be to facilitate walking and cycling, which would surely be conducive to both health and the fuel economy. Building rail and bus systems will need long-term vision and political will.

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