Public Transport For Bangalore

1) Why is it that the excise duty is 16 per cent on buses and a mere 1-2 per cent for BMWs?
2) Why not stop registration of cars like Singapore did?
3) You talk of conserving fuel and at the same time promote large segment cars. There are no concessions for small cars. Reva gets an excise duty concession, not here, but in London!
4) Transport is not about travelling between two points but about making a statement on ‘having arrived’
5) The road transport authority constituted has only bureaucrats, instead of multiple stakeholders.
6) Broadways and more flyovers are not the answer, as Bangkok has found out! Despite widening its roads it has not been able to avoid traffic jams at bottlenecks.
7) Witness the spate of road widening in Bangalore that has seen hundreds of trees felled. To what purpose? Simply to allow a mind-boggling 2.5 million vehicles to speed for a distance and then cruise to crawling speed! We never seem to learn.

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Solution to many problems: Bring in the buses!
Bangalores traffic woes can be tackled in a single step efficient public transport.
Jayalakshmi K, Deccan Herald

To enter London, lorries, buses and coaches must now meet EU pollution standards or else pay £200. The low emission zone thus created will ensure better air quality for 1,70,000 people. The congestion charges already existing levied a nominal $8 on most cars, but now this has been enhanced in those cases where emission is most.

Stockholm similarly introduced a congestion tax last year and that saw a 20 per cent reduction in traffic as more people took to public transport.

When can we expect such a measure in Bangalore? A city bursting at its seams and choking in polluted air.
Soon, according to experts but first, we need to put in place an efficient public transport. This should be “cheap, available and comfortable. Like Beijing has done. It has banned two-wheelers and reduced the bus ticket fare in an effort to woo more people and have less of private vehicles on the road during the Olympics,” says Joshi, MD, KSRTC.

There is also much to be done by way of excise duties and registration of vehicles, besides financing more public transport. “Why is it that the excise duty is 16 per cent on buses and a mere 1-2 per cent for BMWs? Why not stop registration of cars like Singapore did?” Joshi asks.

The government is not consistent in its policy, as H C Sharatchandra, chairman, Pollution Control Board, observes. “You talk of conserving fuel and at the same time promote large segment cars. There are no concessions for small cars. Reva gets an excise duty concession, not here, but in London!”

He is particularly critical of the IT crowd that is “loud in its complaints of traffic problems even as they travel in big cars with single occupancy. We need to sensitise them on public transport, if we have to decongest Bangalore. If at all we can!”

Public transport is neglected in the country even as the government encourages auto industry and has allowed 100 per cent FDI in the auto sector. India is the third largest auto industry in Asia-Pacific after China and Japan, but is the third largest auto market in the world!

Swati Ramanathan, Janaagraha, stresses on how public transport must have door to door connectivity and should become the “preferred choice of transport, rather than only meant for those who cannot afford private vehicles”. A total lack of coordination between departments involved and a total lack of planning has been the bane of Bangalore, she notes. “Even the road transport authority constituted has only bureaucrats, instead of multiple stakeholders.”

A regional approach will help, like holding the Mayor responsible for transport in cities and urban planning, she adds.

The other pertinent point she raises is of attitudes in the city. “Transport is not about travelling between two points but about making a statement on ‘having arrived’.”

Perhaps there will be some shift with BMTC’s plans to increase its fleet from 32 lakh commuter trips per day to 57 lakh trips per day by 2012. Proposals to have point to point pick ups in limousines that pick up people from volvo buses and drop them to their houses, it is hoped to create a shift in people’s choices of transport.

Broadways and more flyovers are not the answer, as Bangkok has found out! Despite widening its roads it has not been able to avoid traffic jams at bottlenecks.

Witness the spate of road widening in Bangalore that has seen hundreds of trees felled. To what purpose? Simply to allow a mind-boggling 2.5 million vehicles to speed for a distance and then cruise to crawling speed! We never seem to learn.

Almost 25 per cent greenhouse gas emissions are from transport and of this 75 per cent is from road transport. If we are serious about our emissions, here is a point we can start from — a really good public transport. Later comes the disincentives, taxes on fuel guzzlers, tax reduction on the green vehicles, alternate fuels, etc.
Sweden plans to be fossil-free by 2020. Brazil intends to stop all oil imports by 2009 and UK is planning for the next Olympics to be the greenest by cutting emissions by 50 per cent. What can our mission statement be?