Vizag's public transport challenge

Vizag's public transport challenge

The bulk of city commuters are those who have to go to work or study every day, six days a week. Driving or riding ourselves gives us some flexibility, plus the air conditioning in the car in summer is indispensable. But still negotiating the unpredictable traffic and lack of parking space is a real pain in that point nearest to our centre of gravity. If you take a motorbike or scooter to commute, the cacophony, heat, smoke and the ubiquitous black dust will make you age faster. Who would want to suffer this if good quality public transport was available easily whenever we wanted it?

RTC buses

Office goers, factory workers, teachers and professionals from all walks of life use our RTC bus services. Students travelling to schools and colleges get concessions and though the busses are crowded they are transported quite quickly and economically. More than 100 bus routes crisscross our city from six depots carrying lakhs of people each day. In the absence of data on the RTC website we may guess that around 5 lakh people commute by bus every day in the greater Vizag area. In recent times one can see air conditioned buses on some routes, albeit carrying very few passengers, possibly because they do not operate from areas where commuters are willing to pay more for the air conditioned comfort.

Auto rickshaws and other contraptions

It is said that more than 40,000 auto rickshaws ply in Vizag and several other autos from neighboring towns also land up here for business. The large Bajaj, Ape, Atul and Mahindra autos are the beasts of burden on our suburban roads. These contraptions take two passengers alongside the driver, three on the folding seat facing backwards just behind the driver, three on the seat facing forward and another three in the back of the auto facing backwards, together making up an incredible 11 passengers and a driver! The smaller auto rickshaws also undone carry 4 to 6 passengers at a time. In recent years “cabs” those ugly vehicles that look the same whether they are coming or going are becoming heavy duty people movers. Together it is estimated that these vehicles move more than 2 lakh passengers each day. While they are a nuisance, accident prone and dangerous they must still be factored into our public transport system.

Ola and Uber

If we want to take the next step in public transportation we must ensure that our private vehicles don’t leave their cellar parking except in an emergency – like buying a loaf of bread for mother-in-law. Luckily the age of Transportation Network Companies like Ola and Uber is here. Their air conditioned chauffer driven cars ensure that you don’t have to take your car out. At dirt cheap rates you can travel in AC comfort to Spencers or the airport. All you need is a smart phone and the App and you can get a cab at your doorstep in less than 10 minutes flat. If you have topped up money in your account with them you can just walk away at the destination without having to fumble with your wallet. Letting someone else drive you makes the commuting less stressful and more comfortable. Any city administration must recognize and encourage this segment of public transportation. While being cost effective, these services are still beyond a daily commuter’s budget unless you do carpooling.  These companies recognize this and are working on Apps that will help daily commuters get together and ride in the same car to work.

The mini bus option

Many of us hate to drive in the city and would prefer to take public transport. Yet it is impossible to get a bus in many parts of Vizag. For example we do not see public busses in the uplands area; this is probably because of the steep slopes, narrow roads and low load factor. Here is where air conditioned mini buses at prices below network taxi rates but above regular RTC bus rates would be perfect. With our streets getting crowded by the day small buses would be best to negotiate the narrow busy roads and keep the load factor at an optimal level.

Nothing funny about funiculars

Despite much fanfare and trumpetry our BRTS projects are in slow motion and the much touted Metro train service remains a distant dream. Visionaries talk of cycle tracks and urge us to get on our cycles and go to work. Cycling can at best be a leisure activity in the early mornings on our beach road. What with Vizag’s slopes, oppressive heat and traffic this is a crazy unworkable idea good for intellectual conversations. However Vizag’s slope disadvantage can be converted to an advantage by using Funiculars. You see them in steep slopes in Europe. These are a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails. They move up and down steep slopes, the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalancing each other thereby using very less energy. They travel on a single track except for a short stretch of double tracks where the cars pass each other. As they travel away or above the roads they are not intrusive. These vehicles are economical to build and run and being a novelty will also serve as a tourist attraction.

Work from home dream

Many visionaries say that it all starts from city planning stage; all you have to do is make sure that workers stay near their factories, professionals near their office, students near their schools and colleges, boozers near the bars and so on. Just pop out of your homes and walk half a kilometre to your destination. Voila, no need of commuting, you can also go home for lunch in the afternoons. In the 1980s many thinkers including Alvin Toffler the futurologist, predicted that a large proportion of professionals would work from home in the future. This like “paperless offices” did not become a reality but some young professionals do work from home occasionally when, for example, they have to look after sick kids or do a teleconference in different time zones. So, citizens still have to commute and public transport must gear up to handle the load. The objective of any public transport should be to provide safe, economical, flexible, speedy commuting to anyone for any distance. Most importantly we should be able to remove private vehicles from the streets and get folks into public vehicles.

Sit tight and let your fingers move

Citizens can help in decongesting our roads. Thanks to online shopping you can buy stuff from washing machines to potatoes by tapping on your smart phone. Most of your works with banks, electricity office, telephone companies, house tax payments, and bus and train tickets can all be done from the comfort of your home. In fact you can now do half the jobs that you went out for ten years ago without having to step out of your home. Imagine if lakhs of us did this, we would take that many vehicles off our roads. I am now going to print this article, take my gas guzzling car out of the garage and deliver these two sheets to the newspaper’s office … just kidding.