A recent transportation study conducted by LEA Associates, in association with the city traffic police and the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) revealed the need to increase people’s dependence on public transport.
According to the report ,only 2.6% of the city’s traffic comprises of buses which carry only 34.1% of the commuters. Although the vehicular traffic in the city has increased many times over the past 10 years, the percentage of people travelling on buses has remained more or less the same and in the last four years it was noted that the percentage has dipped slightly, said the sources.
Though the number of buses in the city grew by 13% between the years 1999 and 2012, the percentage of people depending on buses has flattened 2-3% over the same period.
Contrary to the bus dependence rate the number of two wheelers in the city has increased by 150% and it was clearly mentioned in the report that both two and four wheelers are adding more traffic to the city roads.
According to the report the current population of the city is 80 lakh and it is expected to reach 1.36 crore by 2021. The number of personalised vehicles that ply on the city roads is recorded as 20.8 lakh with the addition of 2 lakh vehicles every year. 80 lakh trips are made every day of which 42% that is 33.6 lakh are made by public transportation system. Though the reports mentioned that the upcoming metro rail project will be a boon to the city it also mentioned that it would not solve the whole problem, as the metro rail project would be serving over 40% of the commuters only.
As per the report, unless people prefer public transport instead of commuting on their own, the traffic problem in the city will not cleared.
Source: The Hans India