Comments on: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Trial Run Fails Miserably in Delhi…

By: Vasudha Rajgarhia

Vasudha Rajgarhia — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:28:29 +0000

The B.R.T. bus corridor is really very helpful it even lessens danger on the road.It is very useful but it even causes a lot of traffic which is the real problem.Thats why there should not have been so many changes together.

By: Dr Joglekar

Dr Joglekar — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:01:12 +0000

Unfortunately a number of factors are being over looked in these discussions. Concepts such as cost effectiveness and opportunity costs remain forgotten. Equally to run after a dream called BRT without having basic pre-requisites in place is nothing but foolish. For more details on my views with 15 embedded links please read http://better.pune.googlepages.com/WhyBRTinIndiadoesnotexciteme.htm

By: C V BALAKRISHNAN

C V BALAKRISHNAN — Sun, 18 May 2008 12:04:50 +0000

The BRT has lot of flaws right from the selection of route to design. The BRT should have been tested on the ring road instead of the present route from Ambedkar Nagar to Delhi Gate. Ring road has enough space to have a cycle track, pedestrian path and a dedicated bus lane on the left side with three lane or four lanes for the cars in the centre on each direction. Wherever necessary there are provision to widen the road. Added to this they could have constructed a sub-way / overbridge at all bus stops thereby reducing the necessity to put a manual signal at every bus stop for commuters to cross over from the centre of the road to the other side. The cross cutting of roads on the ring road is also minimum, thereby reducing further the need for any traffic signal. The present route apart from being a waste of resource for construction, is causing national wastage of fuel, due to traffic jams (especially when international fues costs are going up everyday). Government should evaluate all these vis-a-vis the false achievement of success that they are claiming. It is surprising to note that although the test run is going on, the encroachment / rouble is yet to be cleared on this route.

By: Arvind

Arvind — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:03:46 +0000

Media in India is focussed around people who drive cars including the rich and middle class. Majority of car owners in Delhi firmly belive that their right to use road space is superior to those of bus users, bicyclists and pedestrians. Thus they hate BRT because it gives dedicated road space to underpreviliged users of three hated modes of transport. The non-car-users are usually less educated, with little or no means and have no access to internet. Thus, non-car-users do not have a voice and their opinion is never reported by the media. Media in Delhi has been biased in reporting everything about BRT. I do not find that strange because all those who write for media are car users or concersely BRT haters.

By: Dario Hidalgo

Dario Hidalgo — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:14:37 +0000

Not all the media is covering just the car’s perspective. See this interesting survey:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048558
Hope the initial problems in Delhi, which have been faced by most bus improvements in developing cities worldwide, are solved soon, and the system continues its expansion. This will benefit the mayority of the people, specially the car-free low income population.

By: Madhav Pai

Madhav Pai — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:24:52 +0000

In mixed traffic, buses were carrying not more that 4000 people in the peak hour in the peak direction. One the BRT lane has opened the speed of buses is over 15 km ph and it carries close to 12,000-14,000 in th peak hour. 10,000 more people. The lane meant for motor vehicles carries not more than 2,500 people.

By: lee schipper

lee schipper — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:09:06 +0000

With Indian’s urban traffic and air pollution rivalling the worst in the world it is amazing to hear the bellyaching when a plan to increase the flow of people (not vehicles) per hour runs into snags. Of course Delhi has its metro, for billions (thats dollars or rupees, not people), but where are the sidewalks, the bus and auto stands, the safe walkways etc. Why was I able to get a cheap loan for a two wheeler at CICI Bank in Pune in Dec. 2004 when there were no sidewalks in front of the bank offering the loan? And what will happen when the two wheeled scourage of streets becomes a four wheeled one?\’

These are India’s problems to be solved by Indians. Other cities and nations have been struggling for years, with Singapore, London and Stockholm ( congestion pricing, mss transit) and Latin American cities like Mexico City (Metrobus, 300 000 people/day ni a single 25 km coridor) showing results. What will Indian cities do? Protect the majority on buses, on feet, or on pedals or pave more roads for the small minority in cars or the growing minority on two wheelers?

Lee Schipper
Berkeley

By: Sudhir Jatar

Sudhir Jatar — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:24:21 +0000

BRTS is a proven concept so let us not question the efficacy of BRTS. The problems that Delhi faced were the same as Pune in 2006. However, in Delhi it became ‘national interest’ while no body took notice of the woes of Pune.
I can summarise what went wrong with Delhi/Pune BRTS:
a. The passenger lead (average distance commuted by bus passenger) is over 12 km in Delhi and Pune while the length of the BRTS is only 5.8 km. Hence, the average commuter would not like to take a BRTS bus for fear of changing buses.
b. Where ever BRTS has succeeded, there has been a corresponding land-use planning to ensure that the BRTS gets additional commuters. No such planning is done in Delhi or Pune. Hence, we find the bus lanes ‘empty’, while there is overcrowding in personalised vehicle lanes.
c. We in India have scant respect for the law because our representatives set the example of breaking the law and getting away with murder. BRTS needs good traffic discipline.
d. A proper BRTS has an intelligent transportation systm, just to name one basic attribute, which neither Pune or Delhi has.
e. Transportation is a ‘political’ problem, not technical and least of all economic. In the case of both Delhi and Pune, politics played a large part. In Pune, the idea was to complete an adhoc BRTS (actually a modified bus system with dedicated lanes) before the impending municipal elections. BRTS failed so did the ruling party!
f. In Delhi, there is an ideological battle. The Left wants to deprive the personalised vehicles owners space on the road while at the same time promoting (for obvious reasons) a particular brand of luxury buses for BRTS. This kind of ‘politics’ is not in the interest of the public. In Pune, the NGOs saw through the game of the consultants (the same as Delhi) and succeeded in persuading the administration not to buy buses of the particular make.
g. The citizen and the county suffers. But then who cares?
Did you say, ‘citizen’ and imply ‘India’? Which citizen and which country are you talking about? China or the US?

By: Vidyadhar Deshpande

Vidyadhar Deshpande — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:50:07 +0000

If we consider the trip lengths and possible options for commuting in Indian cities we have to give priority to commuters choosing the option of Public Transport. Other options of mass transport are rather costly and capital intensive. I think BRT is an attempt to give priority to commuters using public transport, which is used by 60 % of Delhi’s people. If these people using BRT do not have any complaints to make against BRT then for whom media is making faul cry. In Paris using your own vehicle is 6 times costlier than using Public Transport, still no body grumbles. Here in India on one hand we are talking about ” Inclusive Planning “, ” Including the Excluded “, and on the other hand we are arguing for the interests of few who are using their own vehicles and causing congestion on the roads and are responsible for pollution in the city. In fact BRT is nothing else but an attempt to provide mobility to common man. But it seems these people want the mobility of vehicles. rather than the mobility of people which is against the National Transport Policy.

By: Sujit Patwardhan

Sujit Patwardhan — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:07:04 +0000

Excellent article. Anti BRT and the car lobby has been doing their damnest to kill BRT so the entire width of the road can open up to cars. Little do they realise that actually a well flowing BRT improves the flow even in the MV lanes. Sensible people need to speak up in support of BRT even while initial shortcomings are corrected.

Sujit Patwardhan
Parisar,
Pune