Goa will be “developed” when the rich use public transport

Goa, the entire state, is a curious study from theperspective of transport. It looks like small village connected by severalstate highways and district roads with some nodal towns like Panjim, Mapusa,Margao, Vasco, Ponda and others. It however functions like a continuous urbanagglomeration with people working and living in different parts of the stateand travelling to and fro on these few, beautifully maintained 2 lane roads allover the state.

But how are these people travelling? Few studies have beendone to document the travel behaviour of people in the state. I have been verycurious about that, asking people as to how they travel especially if they areworking in another town or village. A sense I get as a transport planner, Ihate working with guesses and conjectures, is that the people who can afford itrely on their cars and 2 wheelers to get them to where they want to go. And thepeople who cannot afford that walk long distances to access the buses for theirlonger commutes, use the share auto-rickshaw within the urban areas and cycle.There must be a number of people in this category who do not own cars and 2wheelers, but how many? How much time does the housekeepers, maids, cooks,office assistants, shop helpers spend in getting to work? How much money dothey spend travelling as a proportion of their income? Is access to work, interms of distance and mobility choices, a constraint to their livelihood andeducation?

The city of Panjim, according to the Urban TransportReport  of MoUD, 2008 comparing theprofile of 30 cities in India, had 8 buses serving a city with a populationover a lakh and probably 3 times of floating population. How do people commutein Panjim – 34% people walk to their destinations, 3% cycle, 26% use twowheelers, 5% public transport, 27% cars and 5% auto-rickshaws. The questions asa transport planner for me are the following:

•             If 34%people walk in Panjim, do we have a third of the road space dedicated topedestrian facilities like footpaths, and safe crossings and what is theirquality?

•             If 3%bicycle, would that have been more if the facilities were safer and the accidentsfewer?

•             If five %people use public transport, is the limitation primarily from the supply side –there are only 8 buses! And if 5% use auto rickshaws, are they enough to servethe city? Is their parking and access organized in the city.

•             If 26%use 2 wheelers do we have speed limits less than 50km/hr which are enforced(above that speed every accident is a possible fatal accident), is helmet usemandatory, and is the street furniture forgiving (if you are thrown off the 2wheeler from the road would you die by being impaled on a fancy pointed ironrailings of the side?

•             If 27% ofpeople use cars then do they want to or do they have to? Even in Delhi, ahighly car dependent city the mode share is only 14%, and Mumbai is 8%.Can thecity afford the real estate spent on parking and the health effects ofpollution and deaths?

In fact, if you combine the private modes they total morethan 50%, which means everybody who can possibly drive their vehicle is doingthat, children below 18 are not legally entitled to drive, the very old and thedisabled cannot drive, and that totals to 50% of the population notwithstandingthe affordability factor.

Possibly the most horrifying figures in the study were theaccident figures of 2005. Panjim recorded a phenomenal 832 accidents per lakhof population, the second highest being Trivandrum at 293 accidents, the lowestbeing Varanasi at 8. Typically, pedestrians and cyclists are the highestpercentage of fatalities and injuries. If the city, with organized streets, footpaths (though according topedestrian opinion surveys Panjim has one of the lowest level of pedestrianfacilities) and crossings, reasonable street lighting is recording such highaccidents then the suburban highways and district roads must be recording severaltimes more. Accidents are a symptom of high speeds, badly designedintersections, no street lighting and a variety of other planning andenforcement issues.

Summing up the transport situation in the state, Goa hashigh dependency on private vehicles with planning focussed on them, low supplyof public transport and intermediate transport and high numbers of accidents.Growth in the business as usual scenario will lead us to a polluted, unsafe,inequitable and unlivable state. But alternative scenarios of sustainabilityare possible.   Sustainability needs toaddress concerns not only of the environment but of inclusion and equity and ofeconomic and financial sustainability. A critical paradigm shift needed to achievesustainability is to delink economic development with motorisation. The famousformer mayor of Bogota, Columbia said “A developed city is not where the poorhave cars but where the rich use public transportation”.

Planning solutions, design options, technical support – allthe needed knowhow is available and within reach of the state. Resources aredefinitely available in a country investing in urban renewal at a massive scaleand at the state level. The question is of political and bureaucratic will.

What should the vision 2020 for Goa for Urban transportationbe? What about “A sustainable, low carbon, inclusive and safe urban transportsystems which provide access to the required goods, services and activities forall citizens”. This translates to a State where:

•             Publictransport is an attractive option to commute from between towns and villagesbecause access needs of the  commuters,once they enter the city, are taken care of by good auto-rickshaws cycling andwalking facilities.

•             A familychoosing to buy a house in the state has the option of not buying a car or2-wheeler.

•             Even ifthe family has a car, they may never need to use it to access markets,educational services, health care and other amenities within the city.

•             Walkingand cycling in the city contribute to good health not to injuries, respiratorydiseases and depression.

•             Women andchildren move safely on the streets of Goa without fear of rape or injury.

•             Theelderly, the disabled, pregnant women are not prisoners of their houses but canactually move about in the streets, cross roads and use public transportsystems with independence and dignity.

As policy makers and planners we are comfortable and havealmost a default “windshield perspective” of planning – I plan for what I seefrom the windshield of my car. And I miss the people trying to walk onsidewalks without falling into open manholes, the old man standing for 10minutes at the crossing waiting for a gap to cross the road, the woman in asari climbing up a 1 foot high sidewalk or skirting around garbage and urinatingmen, two children riding a bicycle to school together and that large groupwaiting at the non-existent bus-stop for a bus that may or may not come knowingthey will be abused today for coming late for work.

Is this vision too idealistic? Is it impractical? Is it toomuch to ask of a democracy that planning and policy address the need of allcitizens and not just the desires of a few? Gandhiji said that “the earth hasenough for everybody’s need but not everybody’s greed”. Goa is beautiful, greenand warm attracting people from all over the world to come and share its joyand serenity. Let us ensure that it becomes safe, inclusive and liveable forits people too.

Dr Anvita Arora, is an Architect and Transport Planner andcompleted her PhD thesis on Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) methodologyfor Urban Transport Projects: Impact of Delhi Metro on the Urban Poor, from theCivil Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in2007. She is the Managing Director and CEO of Innovative Transport Solutions(iTrans), an incubatee company of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),Delhi. She was also the India Representative of Interface for Cycling Expertise,I-CE, Netherlands for 4 years. She is the President of the Global Feet andFiets Foundation, Netherlands and Director of the Institute for Democracy andSustainability (IDS), Delhi. She also teaches Transport Planning in the UrbanDesign Department in the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi andguides the thesis students of the Transport Planning Department. She wasassociated with Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP),IIT, Delhi, a VREF Centre of Excellence, for nearly 12 years and has beeninvolved in projects pertaining to the inclusion of the vulnerable road usersand the urban poor in transport planning. She has been involved in sustainabletransport projects since 2000, and has focused on understanding the needs ofthe different user groups in the system. She is a certified trainer innon-motorized inclusive planning and has ongoing projects to integrate BRT andNMT systems in large cities.