In the last couple of months, Mumbai has seen several infrastructure breakdowns that have impacted travel time.
The Comprehensive Mobility Plan, published by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) in 2014, states that over 40% of all work trips in the city are executed using public transport (8.5% bus, 31.6% suburban rail, 0.1% monorail and 1.2% Metro) and 38% workers walk to work. Only 13% travel to their work place by private automobiles (8% by car and 5.2% by motorcycle) and only 6% use autos or taxis to get to work.
Indeed, these are 2014 numbers, but the 2019 projections are not too far off from these. If anything, walking remains the dominant mode share followed by public transport. Albeit, the high numbers of pedestrians in Mumbai do not translate into high quality walking spaces in the city.
Read: 'Workplaces close to stations, are a necessity': Railway officials
Cities like New York lead the way through design manuals that focus on an equitable distribution of road space. The city of London has a program that promotes enhanced accessibility in growth areas and incentivises private sector participation in building and maintaining streets; thereby ensuring safe and efficient movement of people, goods and services and unlocking the development potential in these neighborhoods.
Read: Vibrant street life encourages people to walk & cycle around: Study
In the last couple of months, Mumbai has seen several infrastructure breakdowns that have impacted travel time. A major blow was the closure of the Delisle bridge in Lower Parel – a crucial east west connector – on 24th July, last year. In the months following that, the Ghatkopar bridge, the bridge on Juhu-Tara road, the Oshiwara bridge and several other critical vehicular and pedestrian bridges were closed by respective authorities. Several others are slated to be closed in the coming months.
Read: Walk-to-work: Still a distant dream in India
Then came the much-awaited monsoon, as much respite as it provided, it also bought the traffic to a virtual standstill for a couple of days. All of this coupled by metro barricades on major arterials reduced significant vehicular capacity on our city roads. This has obviously impacted work travel.
Mumbai needs to define a 'new normal', one that suggests a paradigm shift from 'roads for cars' to 'streets for people'.
Dhawal Ashar, Senior Manager – Integrated Transport, WRI India
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