Seeing a very minor impact of sea link and ATC project on traffic congestion which continues to grow and spread in all parts of city and the fact that metro and mono rail projects are delayed , it is time we think of a paradigm change which can be followed immediately , can show visible results and will not cost much . Fortunately, we are getting 1000 new buses under JNNURM this year. Let us deploy these buses with imagination supported by a dose of discipline. It is an idea whose time has come.

A study on the causes of traffic congestion in the USA for 1983 to 2003 by Duranton and Turner for National Bureau of Economic Research has this to say, "Traffic jams persist even when roads are widened /extended because of an increase in driving by current residents and inflow of new residents. Even increasing public transportation will also not eliminate traffic congestion. The researchers say, “It is the congestion charges, raising the price of fuel and increase in parking fees alone will improve congestion"

This is a blunt admission of truth which is more relevant to Mumbai. No. of vehicles will continue to grow at 10%. We have ignored reforms in parking regulation and tariffs. Other restraint measures such as metro fuel cess, restricting vehicle registrations, or levying high reg fees and reducing the no of taxies/rickshaws are not even on agenda!

The few and feeble initiatives in parking reform have skirted the main issues of regulation and fair pricing of on /off road parking altogether . MCGM is working out a few multi story/ under ground parking proposals - purely an exercise in tokenism (and very costly at that) what is on agenda is how to incentivise building multi storied parking within premises and outside thru grant of an FSI. These are, at best quite irrelevant and, at worst, they will be worse than the problem!

Until now, there was a complaint that there are not enough buses. That problem is solved now. But just having enough buses wont help as the buses need road space and enough passengers – who will come only if they find there is a value in switching to buses. Two wheelers will find that buses are no cheaper but much slower. The four wheelers – i.e. cars must find them worthwhile as compared to present situation where the cars are not very costly to operate and not difficult to park free ( with the help of drivers who are primarily meant for “managing parking” meaning they create mobile jams .

What can/should the new buses achieve to reduce traffic congestion on roads?

What we should expect from 1000 new buses with a capacity of 45000 passengers? They represent a 30% addition to BEST fleet. In addition, we will have New Mumbai and Thane buses will also be plying to carry the passengers between Mumbai and these cities. Can this lift the no. of bus trips/day - stagnant at 43 lakhs for last 25 years- to 55 lakhs per day? London with a population half of Mumbai and with three times more cars , achieved an increase of 40% in bus trips to 7 million/day with an addition of 1000 buses in a period of 5 years during which traffic congestion has visibly reduced .

These objectives can be achieved if we deploy a significant part of new fleet to cater to marginal car users, first class train users as well as multi trip commuters. This is possible if buses use flyovers, sea link and offer high frequency (few stops) reliable services from residential areas to commercial areas in direct corridor routes using the bus priority lanes to be cordoned and supervised wherever road conditions permit! About 20% of these buses can be AC but with fare only 30% higher in peak direction and 15% in off peak direction)

"Either Pay (a fair price) or don’t Park” Regime specially for Business Districts"
Such a service needs to be supported by a complete ban on parking – at least during peak hr peak direction - supported by a force of traffic wardens/police with sufficient number and powers. In addition, we should make parking in congested commercial areas under properly marked pay and park with tariffs at least twice as high for small cars and even higher for larger cars. We should use methods such as:

Whereby it should not be easy to park for free in any business district. Superior supervision supported by a strong media campaign, informing people that, parking is not a right but a priviledge to be used where available and at fair price at all public places incl roads which are meant for all vehicles – with a priority for buses – to move and not for parking (and no free parking even with a driver inside)! Some areas of roads should be marked where only alighting is permissible And on some parts of road, we should not permit even stopping (motorists should walk from the area where alighting or parking is permitted.)

If we begin this regime on select roads/area with trained, motivated and equipped wardens/policemen in sufficient numbers, we can surely succeed. We need not wait for cameras which can be used for traffic and lane violations. We can support towing vans by ticket fixing so that a large no of wrongly parked cars can be covered fully whereas a towing van can pick up only one out of many wrongly parked vehicles. Support in the form of camera toting and ticket fixing crew can improve the compliance dramatically. The extra cost of such force and equipment and IT support can be more than met thru substantially increased collection of fines but more than that , a very high likelihood of being apprehended will prevent motorists from parking cars in the bus lanes which will also help such motorists to shift to high speed buses.

What Can We Achieve by this Dual Approach?

During peak hr/peak direction , every 2 minutes there should be a bus using a flyover or sea link ( on western expressway to BKC/N.Point ) and from Deonar/ Mulund via Sion/Dadar /Parel/JJ to Museum with a distinct identify with few stops using the bus lane wherever we can provide and guard it. This service should be in addition to the existing services which can be modified whereby people can change buses to reduce overall time.

These services should be able to improve the turnaround time by at least 20 % which will make a radical difference to their appeal. These services with fewer stops should allow only a few standees. These services should achieve higher passenger km than ordinary buses by at least 20% during a day.

Achievement of parking discipline as well as buses parking tight at the bus stops preventing spill over of the passengers on the road can be prevented by proper training and discipline for the BEST drivers and passengers and thru marking on roads and plastic bollards supported by traffic wardens, fines and media campaign. We need to be persistent right from the beginning on one or two pilot routes chosen. We need to prove that the discipline is profitable for everybody.

If we restrict parking at all destinations to the available spaces only and make it more expensive for long term parking ( by a flat and higher rate per hour ) and simultaneously provide good , reliable point to point bus service on roads followed by the motorists ( like Marine Drive ) we can achieve good results for everybody.

How to Do It?

BEST, MCGM and Traffic Police together need to work out the details. There is enough know how and creativity amongst all these establishments. We should encourage them to work together for the success of the city by taking some bold decisions and convictions. We cannot lose. At the most, there will be under achievement. I don’t see any alternative if we are serious to reduce congestion and encourage the people to switch from cars and crowded first class trains to buses whereby BEST will improve their image, popularity and income. The city managers should find how the approvals , if any , can be obtained. The total project can be commissioned within 9 months and within the sea link toll amount for a month.

Anyone for Mumbaikars and Marathi Manoos ?

We need to impress on the higher authorities in the govt and political establishment that this would be the first serious effort to combine discipline with concepts of sustainability and modern managements working for the Mumbaikars as well as Marathi Manoos . So all those who champion the above causes should support these ideas and insist on MCGM, Traffic Police and BEST to relieve us from the traffic congestion and offer a solution which works !