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The future bus system of India
Everyone is talking about climate change. With the big meeting just 2 months away and no good deal in sight because of countries waiting of their counterparts to take the first step, it now becomes every individual’s responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint if the government can’t come up with a plan. One of the most advised methods are to use public transportation or use bio-fuels for household chores or ride a bicycle to work. Every responsible citizen wants to reduce their carbon footprint but why do we still find it so difficult to shift to public transportation? Didn’t we wish public transportation was more comfortable and fast? In India, there is no certainty of when the bus or trains would arrive or for how long you would be stuck in traffic as we don’t have separate lanes for buses or cycles. Riding a cycle in big cities like Delhi (in India) isn’t a safe option as most of the people have very little sense of traffic rules. With two wheelers available at prices as low as 550 USD and the cheapest car coming at 2000USD and inefficient bus transportation system, it just has become very easy for people to use personal vehicles rather than use public transport.
The government understands this and since past few years it has made efforts to make public transportation much reliable than before.
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
The bus rapid transit means a high-capacity transport system with its own right-of-way, which means high-capacity buses are operated in lanes reserved for their exclusive use. BRT system exists in many countries like Australia, Northern America, Europe, China, Indonesia, Brazil and a few more in South America. It’s a new concept in India with Pune being the first city in India to implement it in 2005. BRT system has been operational in Delhi since 2008 june. Several other states in India are also trying to replicate the idea of BRT system.
Roads constitute 20% of land in Delhi, the highest road to land ratio in the world. The number of motorized vehicles has increased by 9 folds since last 3 decades thus decreasing the average speed, increasing congestion and pollution. The need for BRT arose when it became clear that it makes no sense for the cars to occupy 70% of the road space given that they just move less than10% of people. BRT managed to provide cheap, efficient and fast means of communication but at the cost of slower movement of car traffic. According to TRIPP (Transport Research and Injury Prevention Programme), if people are stuck in jams in their cars, and see buses speeding by, they would realize that it is more costly to travel in car in terms of time.
After the introduction of BRT system, the demand of travelling by buses has increased by 20% in those regions with BRT system. The average traveling time has reduced by almost 30mins and 80% of bus commuters have approved for BRT system in other parts of Delhi. These buses also run on CNG which further continues in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Total length of road that has been dedicated for BRT is a little less than 100k.m. The government has plans for 292k.m. of BRT by 2020. But, I believe, if there could have been a 20% increase for just 100k.m, they should cover a larger portion as total road length of Delhi turns out to be over 28,000k.m!
BRT comes as an easy solution for the government to encourage public transportation as it costs 8 times less than construction of metros. The government also plans to increase its metro rail length to 493k.m by 2020 from the existing 128k.m long route.
It hasn’t been easy for the government to introduce BRT and has faced a lot of resistance from some sections of the society, and also want the government to scrap off the plan of BRT. Inspite of the approval by a large chunk of daily travelers, there voices remain unheard as majority are from the lower economic classes. This has slowed down the expansion process. Hopefully, people will understand its importance soon.
Comments
I think BRT systems are just great
Especially in a situation with very crowded traffic, like I can imagine in India.
A great asset is also that you can easily electrify the system, if you have clean energy in the grid.
Whenever we try to solve a problem we only try to reduce the problem but never eliminate .using CNG maybe reduce the pollution but we do not know what is the effect of CNG on the environment. Who knows maybe next time you will write an article about how to reduce the effects of CNG.
@Ajay Its true we are just trying to mitigate problems without really eliminating them because its not easy to suddenly shift from conventional to non-conventional methods. A lot of investment goes into it. CNG is better than petrol/ diesel. It releases 25% less CO2 and up to 99% less particulate emissions as compared to gasoline-fueled engines. its possible that i might just write about on how to reduce effects of CNG. our govt is also trying to introduce metros in other metropolitan cities, has started increasing the metro rail length in Kolkata and Delhi. We will slowly be able to eliminate problems (cant happen in a go!)
There is an interesting side effect to the BRT system that is very relevant to the Indian context, especially while addressing environmental issues. I totally support the BRT system for the fact that it makes public transport more convenient and fast; however studies have pointed out that the best design for a BRT is having dedicated lanes in the middle of the road (your pictures suggest the same). In most metros in India, wide enough roads have thick tree cover in the medians which certainly have to give way for road expansion to accommodate the BRT. The little under 6kms stretch that came up first in Delhi alone cost the city some 3000 odd heritage trees. My point is, in an effort to introduce something new and good for our climate, we invariable create a void else where, with or without knowledge. It is very essential to be wary of this void and ensure suitable measures are taken to fill them up before we decide on implementing anything.
We need a BRT system in Romania, too.
It’s a good solution for relaxing the traffic & reducing CO2 emissions.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed this but in India, Emergency response teams like ambulances and fire-tenders get mired in traffic jams and are unable to reach their destination in time.With proper planning and execution, the dedicated BRT corridors can be used by these personnel for their needs. But again, this requires meticulous planning,implementation and training.
By a curious coincidence two articles on bus transportation were posted here on the same day.
Here is the other one: http://climatechange.thinkaboutit.eu/think2/post/because_in_iceland_buses_are_for_losers/
Alda Sigmundsdottir is closer to the truth. The poor people in India don’t take those horrible buses because they are eco-minded but because they can’t afford cars. And that is the way it shall be until the last drop of petrol is gone.
And I am not going to stop driving my car either.
Great post and points, BRT would be the best thing to ever happen to transit in India.
Other conditions immediately relevant to the Indian context include the sheer volume of people requiring local public transportation and the quality of the roads themselves. Subway systems may cost much more than BRT but they have the advantage of eliminating animal and foot traffic as well as damaged roads.
It’s clear that India needs far greater BRT ASAP, but it should be done at a pace that can insure adequate parallel development in bus & road quality and sufficient traffic enforcement. Such a solution will require some serious political courage.
As I see, public transport is India’s only rescue. Even today there are way too many personal vehicles on the road. We need the govt to make personal vehicles unaffordable to really decrease our transport emissions. And simultaneously increase spending on public transport. BRT is a good start.
@Arnav Agree with you, i think ambulance or police or fire-extinguishers could use BRT lanes for their purpose until the traffic sense gets better in our country. i hope the govt takes emergency response teams into consideration.
@kapil Yes, poor people use public transportation because they have no other option. Also, there are people who want to use public transportation arent using them because of bad services, dont you think its important to make services better for them because they are large in number too. Petrol/diesel will become more expensive, so people have to look for other options.
@devin political courage required in large quantities! One error made, next thing you know is your opponent parties are all set to bring you down on your knees
@Anindita: I didn’t need to use my car when I was in NYC except for drives outside the city. But NYC, even Singapore which is as authoritarian as you can get!, still have traffic jams. Just try driving below 50th St!
It doesn’t matter how good the public transport system is, personal transport just answers some deep human need.
In Delhi I use a car for the reason that I do not want to be stuck in the crush of a DTC bus. I leave for work 15-20 minutes earlier but I make up for lost time by using my laptop in the comfort of my own car. Try doing that in a bus!
@Abhishek: “We need the government to make personal transport unaffordable”? Are you kidding me?
Anindita has the right idea: make public transport more comfortable, and people just might accept it. But you only want to make people equally UNcomfortable!
@Devin: ‘Political courage’ = Political suicide!
I am an staunch supporter of BRT system. i see it as a need of hour to improve traffic system in the crowded city like Delhi and Mumbai.
Great idea - so many times we can think that we can only try one of these tips at a time to get the results we desire. How much further from the truth could that be? When they are all used in conjunction we can multiply our return.
video tips
How do you think transport in your hometown will change in the future?
Courier Services
All cars and other motor vehicles are required by law to have insurance to protect against any road traffic accidents that occur. Therefore if you are involved in a road traffic accident, the first thing you should do is exchange insurance details with the other party, as your claim for personal injury will be made against the insurance company of the third party
Road Accident Claim
This is a very interesting find indeed. I will have to check it out when I get the time though. Thanks for the nice tip.
car accident insurance claim
Very good idea in effect. It would also be necessary to make big efforts of town planning. We must be able to work of a platform near us. In that case there is not transport anymore! Stores close to houses are also needed.
Wow, that would definitely be a good idea. Buses for Sale
It’s, indeed, a good idea. It will definately help in terms of improving bus system in India.
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