Buses occupy 6% road space, private vehicles 87%

MUMBAI: In view of the BEST fleet size being reduced in recent months, transport experts point out that these buses occupy just 6% of the roadspace but ferry a good 45% of the total daily commuters in Mumbai. On the flip side, private cars and two-wheelers occupy 87% of the space on city roads and ferry equal number of commuters.
"The state and civic corporation should encourage the BEST to increase the fleet size and cater to large number of commuters in the city.At the same time, it should dissuade citizens from bringing private cars on roads," demanded transport expert Ashok Datar, while pointing out the anamoly.
The latest statistics on motorvehicles indicate that the city's vehicular population is bursting at the seams, with over 2.5 million vehicles. The number of private cars has gone past the 8-lakh mark and they occupy a huge chunk of the road space. The BEST fleet is presently restricted to 4,200 buses -- from around 4,685 buses a couple of years back.
"The share of roadspace for public transport vehicles is a total 13% -- with 6% coming from the buses and the remaining 7% from autos-taxis plying in the island city and suburbs,'' Datar said. The autos-taxis ferry 10% of the total commuter population -- which comes to roughly 9 lakh daily, the sources said. The city has nearly 2,000 km of road length, as per MMRDA figures.
Datar stated that to increase the road space for public transport buses, the state should create more dedicated bus lanes and procure adequate number of buses to run on them. "On any stretch, dedicated bus lanes would have hourly supported 80 buses ferrying 4,000 passengers and would have reduced congestion and other problems. A bus can carry passengers equivalent to eight to ten cars on roads," he pointed out.
Binoy Mascarenhas, manager of urban transport of Embarq India, too agreed that Mumbai's think tank needed to work towards strengthening the public transport. "We cannot live with increasing number of private cars on roads -- polluting, adding to congestion and numerous traffic snarls. Instead, we need at least a thousand more buses, which can carry more load and cause less traffic jams," he suggested. He added that a good public transport system coupled with proper roads, underpasses, freeways, one-ways, flyovers and proper management by traffic cops will ensure "smoother and faster journeys" for Mumbaikars.
Senior activist P K Das said that the authorities need to re-design all roads to give priority to public transport. "Citizens want faster dispersal of traffic and there should be better alternatives for private cars as well to ensure quicker movement,'' he said. Another activist G R Vora said : "Unless we offer a better quality public transport system, we cannot woo the private car users to keep their vehicles back at home."
A V Shenoy of Mumbai Transport Forum said that citizens will not mind travelling even in crowded buses if they reach the destination on time. "So, apart from buying more buses, there is a need for proper planning of routes and implementing dedicated bus lanes on arterial and busy roads,'' he suggested. He stated that share autos and taxis should be encouraged on feeder routes and outside Metro and Mono Rail for a faster commute.