Private vehicles fly over public transport: Study

The latest study on traffic patterns on the city bridges revealed that private vehicles use our flyovers more instead of the public transport ones.

An analysis of the iconic JJ flyover, conducted by the Mumbai Environment Social Network in July 2012, showed a skewed ratio: Only six buses use it as compared to 1,400 cars per hour. This renders the expensive flyovers useless for mass transit. Around 30 buses use the road below JJ flyover per hour.

“It is government policy to encourage the use of public transport but this is not happening. There is urgent need to promote more BEST buses and dedicated lanes for them,” said Ashok Datar, transport expert.

He added that the huge amount of public money spent on building these flyovers should not be allowed to encourage use of private vehicles and congestion, which will only worsen the situation.
The study also revealed that every hour, only 45 buses use the flyovers on the Western Express Highway during peak hours. The highway has five lanes in each direction. These 45 buses account for 20% of the commuters while private cars and two-wheelers account for 40% of them and taxis and autorickshaws, 33%. 

BEST traffic planners explained that as public transport buses are meant to benefit commuters, their vehicles run under the flyovers. “We can’t ply all buses on flyovers because people do not walk on them. But a few express buses do use these bridges,” an official from BEST said.

Datar dubbed the theory wrong and said there is huge scope to show what buses could achieve if given legitimate space on city roads. “Providing, promoting and protecting a bus lane can mean faster buses which will result in more people shifting to buses. It will cost less and not take much time, but will need a lot of thought and planning,” he suggested.