paragsachania Distinguished - BHPian



Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Belur/Bangalore Posts: 6,134 Thanked: 18,802 Times

Re: Ola shares some travel stats from 2017 Public Transport:



While the statistics themselves indicate a shift in commute times, towards the higher side, it also is an alarm that Public transportation like Metro or Suburban trains is only to going to ensure that things don't get worse than today at rapid pace than it would in the absence of such Public Transport systems.



Road Network and Infrastructure:



Wide roads may help, to a greater extent but what kills it instantly is a narrow bottleneck that awaits ahead - A classic example is Bangalore's famed Hebbal Flyover which doesn't even figure in the list there. It is not a junction that is causing jams here but a flyover that is the very reason! Talk about 3 lanes from the expressway merging with 2 lanes from the service lane and each one trying to scissor the other by heading from right to left and vice-versa right before the mouth of the flyover. Sorry, this very flyover can handle only 2 lane and if this is not enough, way ahead it also greets fellow commuters merging from 2 other loops towards the city, again 2 lanes each. Hence, essentially this is Toothpate tube explained with a marvelous flyover that was once touted as the few of the complex loops built then in early 2000.



Skewed data?



I recall responding to a similar survey last year as to how this data may not give anyone the real picture of traffic from most cities. For instance, as smartcat has pointed out, the presence of Tech parks elsewhere has ensured density of cabs in these areas. I see far too many taxis in Whitefield, ORR and EC areas than anywhere else. Secondly, OLA and Uber are still not the most preferred Airport cabs. So they won't even make a good sample to certify particular stretches where we regular commuters in our own vehicles are the best guinea pigs!



I would love to see Googlemaps come up with these surveys than a cab aggregator because a lot of surprises will get unfolded in terms of traffic patterns.



And representing one of the single mammoth state, we have got Mumbai and Pune that make it to the list and needless to say, they are right there below Bangalore and Delhi.



Gradual increase with commute times:



In last month alone, I drove to Pune/Mumbai twice and it was so easy to guess how things are gradually heading towards mayhem. Crossing Pune from Westerly bypass to Eastern most suburbs on an Xmas Holiday noon was more time consuming than last year and so was the return on a weekday (post noon) that took me more than 90 minutes. The answer was right there; More vehicles and narrower roads (which seemed wider then).



Delhi on the other hand fares better with maximum vehicles around - Thanks to consistency in terms of wider roads that is missing in many other cities. As they say you create a flyover to shift the Jam from one signal to the next one.



Wait for it.....

One thing for sure, the future is not going to get any better! Last edited by paragsachania : 3rd January 2018 at 13:17 .