Editorial: Buses are inescapable

The 5.6-km-long road corridor in the southern part of the Capital, where the trial runs for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system started on Sunday, has presented a picture of confusion if not chaos. Those overseeing the project's implementation have not been properly prepared, and Delhi's traffic police failed to ensure that the rules with regard to segmented traffic movements within the identified corridors were followed. The combined effect of these was evident in the non-functioning of traffic signals till 9.30 in the morning, though the trial run had begun more than two hours earlier, traffic pile-ups and widespread anger. Officials of the Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System, which is implementing the project, admitted to problems arising out of inadequate signage and signals that were not synchronised with traffic movements. In the resulting chaos, cars and other private passenger vehicles strayed into the corridor reserved for buses, and powered two-wheelers encroached on the space earmarked for cyclists. This is no way to implement a project.

 

The larger danger is that poor execution will kill an idea that deserved a fair trial. The very idea of segmenting road lanes for exclusive use by public transport vehicles has come in for attack in a city where the public transport system has seen progressive decay (till the Delhi Metro brought about a marginal improvement), with an increasing number of people relying on their own vehicles. The project's execution has caused avoidable traffic bottlenecks, and the trial runs were postponed to allow the project authorities time to remove the snags in the system. But going by what has happened this week, the agencies involved with the implementation of the BRT system have failed on the job.

Rational debate, however, must start with the recognition that even if the BRT project is scrapped, as it might well be, Delhi (like other big cities) has a traffic problem to deal with. Road space in Indian cities is more limited than in many countries, and a minority of road users (in private vehicles) end up hogging the bulk of the available road space. Fly-overs, expressways, signal-free stretches and road widening have all been tried, but end up being short-term palliatives in a country that turns out 10 million vehicles every year. If the traffic snarls are not to get worse, all cities have to make a decisive choice in favour of quality public transport systems that use air-conditioned buses. The metro presents one option that Delhi and other cities are adopting, but this will not do more than handle a part of the increased traffic that is projected for the future. In short, there is no escape from reducing the percentage of road space taken up by private vehicles, and having more public buses on the road. The BRT project may fall victim to poor implementation, anger on the part of private vehicle users and difficulties with the concept itself, but if it does get junked, something else will have to be tried. The congestion charge that London imposes, and the licensing of cars that Singapore has used, are two options.

The media has been overtly influenced by the concerns of those using cars and two-wheelers, who were obviously inconvenienced by the dedicated corridor for public transport vehicles. The same share of voice has not been given to those who use the bus service (who after all are the majority), and there has been little debate on whether the cycle corridors are a good idea when cyclists are among the most vulnerable on the city's roads. Biased reporting makes the search for a transport solution more difficult than it already is.