Transport Challenged People in Bangalore

Sudhir Gota writes a very interesting & thought provoking post, Behind Bangalore’s Growth, A New Species Is Born: Transport Challenged People on The City Fix. An excerpt:

Bangalore’s urban sprawl was aided by the economic boom, during which income levels of certain industries skyrocketed. The rising income combined with long travel times, poor public transportation facilities and the glamor and hype generated by the automobile industry powered the vehicular boom on the roads. The government’s efforts to make the city more car-friendly had a boomerang effect with a virtual multiplication of private automobiles on the road. In fact, the motorization index nearly doubled from 178 in 1996 to 361 in 2006. Presently, private automobiles – two wheelers, cars, taxis etc. – make up nearly 88% of the vehicles on Bangalore’s streets. Yet that accounts for just 39% of trips. Thus it can be concluded that Bangalore has high congestion not because it lacks roads– a claim that advocates of road construction routinely make – but because there are so many private vehicles moving so few people.

And, his concluding statement is spot-on…

It’s time to start planning for people and not vehicles. Accessibility and not mobility should be the primary concern of the planners and government.

Here’s a paper that Sudhir Gota & Prashant Mutalik have published on a related topic: Congestion to Demotorisation – A paradigm shift for Bangalore (PDF).

Times of India’s now started a new initiative (I’m guessing, encouraged by the success of the ‘Lead India’ initiative): ‘Unlock Bangalore – Let’s put the bang back in Bangalore‘.