Mumbai’s roads are commuters’ nightmare

Last night there was a traffic jam on Peddar Road at 9.30pm. If you go in the south to north direction of central business district to residential suburbs, the rush-hour would begin at 6 and start easing off in South Mumbai around 8pm. This was not so long ago. Now it starts off at 5.30. And if the traffic is crawling even at 9.30 on Peddar Road, the clogged traffic is not likely to ease off
in Juhu/Andheri till 10.30. Soon that will become 11pm.

Mumbai adds over 100,000 (one lakh) to its vehicle population every year. This rapid ‘birth rate’ has seen the city’s vehicles go up in numbers from an estimated 50,000 in 1951 to over 1.7 million now. The break-up is 530,000 cars, 920,000 two wheelers, 63,000 taxis and 110,000 auto-rickshaws. In the same period, Mumbai’s road length increased from 777 km to 1930 km. In percentage terms, the road length went up by 250%, which doesn’t seen so bad till you see that in the same period, the vehicle population went up by 3700%! 

You don’t have to be a traffic expert to look at these figures and say that there can only be two solutions to the problem: the first, reduce the growth in the number of vehicles. The second, increase road length as quickly as possible.

If only it were so easy! You can’t reduce the growth of cars for the simple reason that in a democracy no one can curb any citizen’s right to buy what he wants. You could discourage it by upping taxes and duties but the automobile sector does play an important role in the economy of a country, so a government overburdens it at its own peril.

That leaves only one option: building roads, lengthwise and breadth wise, as quickly as possible. That needs money, and even more than money, the organisational and political will which has so sadly been lacking so far. How long has the Peddar Road flyover taken to get off the ground? Apparently it’s been waiting for environmental clearance for the last few years!

One of the reasons that low priority is given to road infrastructure by governments is because it is seen as a problem of the affluent and not of the aam aadmi. Yes, car owners suffer due to poor traffic infrastructure, but their discomfort is infinitely less than for those who travel in crowded and sweaty buses and trains.

The real solution, as we all know, is for the city’s train system to become world class. London’s Underground is the shining example: because it is so good, the city imposes a huge charge on cars driven into the city centre. And because the train and bus services are so comprehensive, London can make do with only 20,000 cabs, an unbelievably small number when compared to our figure of 63,000 taxis and 110,000 auto-rickshaws — a massive number of vehicles-for-hire which further clog our roads whether they are plying passengers or waiting for them.

A small digression here. London has so very few taxis even though it has no official restriction on them. This is for two reasons. The first is that each licensed driver of a black cab must have exhaustive and intimate knowledge of each and every street and square of the city, a knowledge so deep that it can take two years to assimilate. Secondly, London’s black cabs have to be of certain dimensions and specifications and so far only three manufactures have been able to combine the comfort and
engineering required.

Reduce the number of taxis and autos drastically, remove the taxi stands on main roads, prohibit double parking anywhere, make buses stop near the pavement and not in the middle of the road… and see the difference it makes to traffic flow even with the present road length and present vehicle population.

Ultimately, this will not be enough. A comprehensive public transport system must be in place, otherwise we will soon spend all our waking hours stuck in the middle of Mumbai roads.