The drive to nowhere
Vehicle additions in Bengaluru has been growing at an average of 10% for the past 18 years (MOSPI). This means traffic doubles every 7 years. We will be staring at 1.6 crore vehicles by 2026 from the 80 lakhs that are choking the roads today. The adjustment of the belt to suit the growing tummy has to stop. This constantly increasing demand for road space will reduce everyones ability to access the road equitably. Reducing demand with monetary disincentives and road dieting is the only way to curtail this.
This fact is not lost on the planners, but its lost on the people who put their private interests over the public good. Bold moves in dis-incentivising motor vehicles has to start now. Traffic congestion was not created by the government, it was caused by people making choices that created this collective action problem. The government has not been bold enough to step up and put in disincentives. Road bandwidth is limited and needs to be allocated for maximum efficiency not on increasing supply to a small, mostly inefficient, category of vehicles.
There have been moves in the recent past by authorities to get people to adopt public transport, walking & cycling. While these have been in the form of infrastructure investment, the mindset of the people towards such means is still regressive. The motor vehicle as a symbol of upward economic mobility is entrenched. This also leads to a victimisation of the other users on the road like pedestrians and cyclists. This can only be solved by behavioural change at a collective level.
The #KeepMeSafe campaign encourages vulnerable road users to claim equity on streets from the hegemony of motor vehicles that claim all of the available roadspace. ABetterBangalorean campaign that enables this, kicks of on June 2nd with a Ride for Safety, that has so far attracted more than 2500 participants, one of the biggest gathering of cyclists in the country.
The campaign asks the drivers of motor vehicles to share the roads with pedestrians and cyclists to enable greater efficiencies and equity on the streets.
The support of the people at the helm of Urban Development Department, Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Bangalore Metro Railway Corporation, Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike etc have been to acknowledge this problem correctly. Implementation is still lagging because of capacity constraints and political pressures. They have actively encouraged people to utilise the available infrastructure and supported campaigns like #KeepMeSafe and #ABetterBangalorean. The future lies in how the community now steps up and takes charge of this problem. The govt will then have no option but to enable the changed dynamic.