A cartoonist’s take on congestion!

A slight extension: How about CBW {Cycle + Bus + Walk}?! Congestion apart, it tames the lung-shattering pollution & increasingly menacing climate change as well. *Bonus*: Improved heath and increased reserves of fuel & money!

Related facts:

• The new small cars may be more efficient than before, but they all consume way too much road space (> 10 times what buses occupy, per passenger) to be able to satisfy our transport needs without painfully long gridlocks. Enlightening slides on traffic: stats, snaps & solutions.
• Road widening only provides tiny, short-lived relief, since it simply can’t catch up with our private vehicles that almost double every 5 years [1]!
• Congestion* apart, a car consumes about 6 times more fuel & produces >= 4 times more carbon emissions than a bus, per passenger [1, 2, 3]. Average occupancy: a car – around 1.25 people, a bus – 50.
• 30% of Bangalore’s children are asthmatic, for which vehicular pollution is a chief culprit! Doctors in Kolkata also blame it for the increasing onset of “lung & brain cancer, Parkinson’s, heart attack and kidney failure“.
• Auto rickshaws are no good, either. They emit visible pollutants (SPM, RPM) more, while cars let out invisible (yet harmful) gases (SO2, CO2, etc.) more. CNG/LPG-run autos curb a lot – not all – of that, but the use of adulterated fuel/excessive oil reverses those gains (evident in B’lore).
• Contrary to the popular premise, the air quality inside the car is often much worse than outside. In addition to toxic chemicals, emanating from the interiors, as per International Center for Technology Assessment, the car carries alarming levels of the deadly CO, up to 10 times > outside. Sealing the windows is of no avail, and the AC often worsens it.
  

The alternatives – CBW {Cycle + Bus + Walk} – offer much more:

• Cycling (like walking) is as green as it is healthy. Apart from taming indigestion & obesity, it reduces the risk of heart disease, high BP & diabetes [1]. It saves you (some of) the time/money spent on the gym, too. The same also holds, albeit to a lesser degree, for bus users, as you walk a kilometer or two (a day) in the process.
• More/bigger vehicles imply more/wider roads, in turn implying more tree felling [Bangalore's lost a whooping 70% of its tree cover in the last 40 years]. Turning to Cycle/Bus/Walk can bring back the bliss of greenery.
• Substantial monetary savings. Obvious, it may be, but matters to most.
• Note: 2-wheeler/car/auto pooling outscores individual vehicles, but damages considerably more than cycle/bus, in terms of both pollution & traffic.

Going healthy & green is now easier than ever before!

• Quite a few high-efficiency cycles are available, from manufactures like Decathlon, Hero, Trek. [What to look for while choosing a cycle?]
• The govts are slowly but surely beefing up their bus services (illustrated by the BBMP’s latest Big 10 & HOHO buses). The time’s ripe to switch!
• Bus routes and timings can be figured out online in many cities [L1, L2].

Laying the concerns to rest:

• The transition from {Cars, Auto-rickshaws, 2-wheelers} to CBW {Cycle, Bus, Walk} need not be abrupt. Committing to 2 days of green commuting per week may be a good starting point to build upon.
• Cycling, after the first week, is no tiring affair. The notion that I don’t or no longer have the fitness/stamina to cycle is largely a misconception. Besides, one can always begin by limiting the paddling to nearby places.
• Cycling is perfectly safe, as long as we keep to the left and use reflectors/lights (e.g., bright, twinkling LEDs) during the night.
• Bothered about sweating? Ride unhurriedly, start early (~9:30 am or sooner) and/or carry a towel (& an extra shirt when needed).
• House distant from work? You can paddle to a bus stop or a colleague’s house and commute from there via a bus or vehicle-pooling. Hopefully, the colleague will convert soon and you both will board the bus!
• Monsoon? Simply do what you did as a motor-biker! Carry a raincoat. If your backpack is not waterproof, (re)use a plastic bag to safely stuff the valuables. If needed, get mudguards for the bicycle.
• Further concerns? Kindly check this out (Adapt it to the Indian context).

* Dense traffic amplifies the original carbon footprint of each vehicle by a significant margin, owing to the extra time for which the vehicle engine runs, repeated stops-and-starts, speed variations, etc. The hefty amount of space wasted in car parking (11% of the total area!, in Delhi) further compounds this.