Burgeoning population, shifting mobility patterns, and deepening environmental awareness are changing the face of public transportation across the globe. Bus transportation is becoming decisive now more than ever in providing greenest, safest, commuter-friendly, affordable and inclusive means of transportation for the masses. Buses have been shaping sustainable mobility for more than a century, and they will continue to do the same in future as well.
MOTORINDIA, in this 62nd anniversary special issue, makes a convincing case for bus transportation as a crucial link in spawning sustainable mobility in India. In the immediate section, it is briefly argued that buses and coaches promote not just environmental justice but social justice for the masses in modern societies. The succeeding sections of this features presents a satisfying capture of latest trends and developments happening in the bus and coach industry, and how these fantabulous mass transit vehicles continue to stand the changing waters of technology, market preferences, and sustainability.
Let’s imagine that an alien is examining earth and its inhabitants from a space ship floating above the city of Delhi. It would most likely comprehend the sightings this way – that the earth is inhabited by millions of solidified structures, between which strange creatures move hither and thither. They appears to have four rounded legs in general, although some mighty beasts have six to twelve of them, while some poor creatures have just two. They are served by host of slaves who buy them liquid foods, clean them, cure them, are totally enslaved to them. While the majority of those four-legged creatures have just one or two slaves, some larger boxy creatures have at times over 50 slaves in them. It seems that these slaves have no life of their own other than serving and pampering those moving creatures!
Automobiles have undeniably became the key artefacts, to which our modern-day cities and spaces are custom-made for. Private cars, in particular, occupy the entire imagination of urban policy and superior mobility, and so modern-day roads are far wider and easy flowing than before, tailored specifically to give free run to the motorcars and their parking needs. As a neoteric urban society, we are inherently symptomatic to a mobility culture that favours the personal cars over any other modes of transport. No wonder that there has occurred an unprecedented car boom in our cities.
Just as the alien has observed, private cars in cities usually commute one or two people and squat in various parking space and sides of public road for most part of their life. On the other hand, a public bus is always on the move, carries about 50 passengers or more on an average in any given point of time. Now, considering this argument. In a democratic republic, every citizens have equitable rights to any public good. Roads and parking spaces on their sides, or any other common space for that matter, are truly public goods, which means every one of us have equal spatial rights over them based on our citizenship.
Equity on roads as a territorial space is one of the basic corollary of our citizenship rights. The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) of 2006, in its vision statement clearly acknowledges this claim. It says “people should occupy the centre stage” in mobility policies, with “equitable distribution of road space”. Which means, in strict sense, the equity demands that a city bus carrying about 60 passengers should have several times the rights of a private car with a lone traveler on the road spaces. But in reality, rather than giving space for our buses, we often end up bashing bus drivers while driving cars for not giving us way or a free run.
The curious cases of BRTS in Delhi
The politics of privileging car users over a vast majority of other road users including those using public transport is a bitter reality in the country. The choices made between personal mobility and public transportation at all levels and times – at our households, media houses, at policy-making levels and even at courts – is very much a “political” choice than it appears to be.
Take the case of BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) in Delhi. It was built to implicitly facilitate this equity in road space usage we are talking about. Also known as High-capacity bus system (HCBS), it was designed not only to provide dedicated lanes for the city buses that carry more than 40 percent of total commuters, but also to provide demarcated space for bicyclists and pedestrians, leaving two lanes for private vehicles. Yet, right from its inception in 2005, faced stiff opposition from the motorised private car lobby and elite sections of media. Consecutive governments were keen on scrapping the system as well, described it as an “inconvenience” to other road users. It was later scrapped.
Although personalized vehicles have their own conveniences and advantages, their excessive numbers have led to severe congestions, resulting in inefficient use of road spaces and increased emission in cities due to extensive idle time. In such a scenario, road space becomes a scarce resource and therefore the positive aspects of owning a car, with various negative virtues, turns out to be a social evil. Private cars threaten ‘democracy on road’ and our citizenship rights, and ultimately social justice.
Buses and coaches can play a crucial role in addressing this mess, as they are the most flexible, affordable, and adaptable form of passenger transport that can use the road spaces quite efficiently than any other. Aside from reducing congestion, they also have the lowest carbon footprint per passenger of any form of motorised transport. And with fleets being constantly renewed – at up to 10 percent per year in many countries – they are perhaps silently leading the way in implementing new low-emission technologies, even without the megatrend of electrification of buses.
Moreover, bus transportation plays an important role in social cohesion, helping people, especially those on low incomes, access education, work, and healthcare. And it is often the only option for people who don’t drive, have disabilities, or live in remote areas. A key link in the mobility chain of towns and cities, buses are critical to the development of sustainability mobility in our societies.
Buses restore Social Justice: ‘Getting everybody onboard’
Inclusiveness and affordability are the lynchpins that differentiates mass transportation from other personalized modes. Bus transportation is by far the most cheapest and inclusive mobility solutions available to a wide spectrum of population, not just in India but globally. Inclusiveness not necessarily means serving all sections of people, but admitting those from the lowest rung of economic and social ladder. This includes disadvantaged and marginalized groups, may it be poor, lower classes and castes, women, people with disabilities, and so on.
Especially in India, where such inequalities are more pronounced than other countries, public bus transit systems run by state-owned corporations offer solace in this regard. In pursuit of public welfare, STUs ensure that their services are affordable and promise to include vulnerable sections of our population through various concessions and welfare measures. This includes concessional fares, operating buses in so-called unprofitable routes so as to ensure connectivity, customized services to women, school children, etc.
It is the bus transportation that gives greater scope for welfare and inclusivity in mobility services. Buses are more mobile across nuke and corners – can be operated wherever just a fair road network exist – unlike other modes of transport including railways, metro rail, trams, or whatever. Buses themselves are evolving to ensure more inclusivity – with the arrival of more and more disabled-friendly, low-floor buses. Sustainability of bus transportation does not depend only on its clean-energy management, but also in ensuring accessibility and affordability to the masses.