‘Time taken has reduced from 40 minutes to 29 minutes on an average’

The average commuting time for office-goers in Bengaluru has come down by 11 minutes, thanks to metro rail connectivity and improved public transport facility, a study has found.

The city-based Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) study — Will Bengaluru Become Smart or Liveable? (2018) — found that the travel time for office-goers has gone down from an average 40 minutes in 2001 to 29 minutes (one way) in 2017, owing to improved services of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and Namma Metro. The average distance travelled to office (one way) in the city is 7.7 km.

The 150-page study by Kala Seetharam Sridhar, professor, S. Manasi, associate professor, K.C. Smitha, consultant, and N. Latha, senior research associate, found that the average commuting cost is ₹34 a day as a large number of people travel in public transport and BMTC buses.

The study was based on a sample of 1,500 households (5,514 persons) in 27 wards in different zones of the BBMP. The Indian Council for Social Science Research funded the research.

“For ICT workers, the commute time was significantly higher at 40 minutes one way while average distance was higher at 11 km,” it said. The least commute time was for businessmen (19 minutes), as they run business/shops closer to their houses. However, the commuting time for teachers and researchers was on an average higher than the average (7.7km).

The shortest distance travelled to office/work is in Shivaji Nagar ward (2.5 km) and longest is in Kumaraswamy Layout (9.9 km).

More cellphones

The study also found that more households have cellphones (99.2 %) than TV sets (98.1%) and only 14.5% and 8.7% households had some form of computers and Internet access, respectively.

Only 3% respondents (39) reported that they worked from home, which implied that the room for technology to reduce commute time, costs and congestion is limited in the city.

‘Men more prone to illness’

The survey indicated that a majority of the respondents (45.9%) have been suffering from lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Lifestyle diseases were owing to poor eating habits, smoking, alcohol, sedentary lifestyles and stress.

A higher percentage of respondents suffered from heart ailments, hypertension (35.7%), diabetes (28.9%) and back pain (27.3%). More specifically, lifestyle diseases were more prominent among men (57.4%) than women (29.2%).

It noted that more men (52.8%) were prone to illness as compared to women (47.2%). It was observed that the communicable, lifestyle and common ailments were more among the men than women.

The research noted that only 3.6% of respondents were investing in preventing healthcare and active lifestyle activities such as fitness equipment/visit to fitness centres, while 13% do yoga.

A few takers for water harvesting

In 2009, the BWSSB made rainwater harvesting mandatory for households (built on sites measuring 40x60 and 30x40 ft) and commercial establishments. But only 2.4% of households surveyed had adopted RWH. A total of 46.1% felt that adoption of RWH was not feasible.