We usually blame the traffic police for the congestions we have to face on the city roads. We say that the traffic police are inefficient in managing the traffic and are unable to keep the vehicles moving in the rush hours. But we tend to neglect the truth that is right in front of our eyes. Bad traffic is also an engineering problem and not always an enforcement problem. And the fact is somewhat true for India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, says Paulo Sergio Custodio, an international public transport expert who has worked with many countries, including his native country Brazil.
In an exclusive interview given to Mint, Custodio speaks about how traffic-related problems can be solved. He suggested a few solutions to decongesting Indian cities and why the Metro might not be the most effective means of public transport in all parts of Bengaluru.
Taking the example of Delhi BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), Claudio said that bad designing and bad construction causes the major traffic woes. Like the Delhi BRT, not even a single flyover in Bengaluru is well-designed.
He says BRT has more cost benefit analysis than a metro. An average trip length in Bengaluru is 10.9 kilometers, which takes 40 minutes to cover — this is not the sign of a healthy city. Sao Paulo in Brazil, on the other hand, has an average trip length of 8 kilometers. There is more probability that a person finds a job nearer to home in Sao Paulo than in Bengaluru.
Custodio is hopeful that BRT will work in Bengaluru if it is properly designed. And he staunchly supports BRT because he finds it 10 times more cost effective than Metro. Metro might not be able solve the traffic woes in the city as we are all expecting it to be.
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