A moving debate

Recently I've written about both the need for conservation and the appalling state of traffic on our roads. Today I'd like to explore the intersection of those two sets, and discuss the state of public transport within our metropolitan areas. Public transport is the most ecologically efficient way of moving people around a city, and has the advantage of reducing the number of vehicles on the roads as well. This is a vital issue for a country like Pakistan, with a growing population that is seeing a wide scale population shift into the major cities.

Unfortunately, in our cities, the vast distances that need to be covered on a daily basis and the great costs that this travel incurs is almost crippling to someone earning the national minimum wage. For example, it is not uncommon for someone working six days a week to earn Rs6,000 a month to spend Rs1,000 or more on their monthly transportation. And that is neither safe, clean, convenient nor comfortable. Instead the people are put at the mercy of transport mafias that seem exempt from even the most basic rules of safe road transport. Within a city like Karachi, the nation's largest, there is practically no state sponsored option for mass transportation. But that doesn't mean that there can't be one.

The advantages would be manifold. An efficient mass transit organisation would create jobs and economic opportunities, improve road safety, make our cities more accessible, and most importantly, provide economic relief to the people that need it the most. It is ridiculous to subsidise fuel in the name of the people. But subsidising fuel costs to public transport ensures that the
correct people receive the benefit of that subsidy.

Certainly, we've heard grand stories of improvement projects, but with the exception of a few model areas, ideas like circular railroads, underground metros and CNG buses remain elusive fairy tales. So what are our realistic options? Underground trains are expensive, technically difficult (we can barely keep our bridges up) and time consuming to build.

The same applies to elevated trains and monorails. So that leaves us with buses. And luckily, there are several excellent global models that we could follow in setting up a comprehensive mass transit system based on the use of buses. Famously in Bogota, Colombia, where a dual vehicle system was set up and credited with transforming the city for the better within a decade. The model there uses smaller buses to service outlying areas and connect to the main arteries, where larger buses are used to move between the major destinations.

What about funding? Pakistan has received billions of dollars in aid and loans in recent years, much of it earmarked at civil infrastructure and development projects. Let's use some of this money to carry out professional surveys (in a timely manner, please), purchase new vehicles, buy land and build well designed depots, and train drivers and maintenance staff.

This undertaking would have to be a collaborative effort, with the public providing realistic feedback about their needs and promising to do their part in maintaining the system. The state in turn needs to ensure that the funds are made available, and that the project is implemented in a thoughtful and precise manner, and not rolled out hastily in an effort to gain political currency. Don't think just good enough for Pakistan, think good enough for the world, and maybe we can finally build something worth being proud of and that our people deserve.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2010.