India Gridlocked: Be a Solution, Not the Problem

Our cities are becoming traffic nightmares. Public transport only helps so much, as commuters love to move on their own. We need to change ourselves first

- HARISH BIJOOR

India boasts of 475 urban agglomerations as per Census 2011. Today, the number might as well nudge 625. The urbanization index is on fast-drive. Of the 1.423 billion people India is proud to host, 36.36 percent live in urban areas today. The World Bank estimates 40 percent of India's population will live in urban areas by 2036, contributing to 70 percent of the country's GDP. Urban areas increase their might as islands of prosperity that become migration magnets.

When you think urban, however, the first big image that comes to mind is the chaos that one seamlessly associates with everything the term. Even as we think of our flyovers and brick-and-mortar and steel-and-glass workplaces, we also do speak of vertical cities that challenge the skylines. As cities look progressively vertical—Rajkot is a stark new example—the imagery of our flatter villages look all the more charming to those tired of living in towers akin to stacked matchboxes.

Our workplaces look congested as well. The better-planned cities have workplaces and homes in the neighbourhood as a luxury. The worse-planned ones have clearly demarcated central business districts, shopping districts, and residential districts. And in this planning lies the chaos. Every morning, Mumbai wakes up to go to work and uses a longitudinal stretch to travel into the central business district. While the rich still find a way of living in this district, the middle class and poor need to traverse long distances. Busy traffic on the roads and in every other mode of transport—be it on suburban railway or waterways (for cities like Kochi)—is the new norm.

So my first column in this spanking new year is devoted to traffic and the city. If you live in a big city, you recognize traffic. You see it every day; you are possibly gridlocked in it on many a day as well. If you live in a city like Bengaluru, you possibly spend a good hour in it every day, if not more.