Mumbai must shift its paradigm to moving people instead of moving vehicles

“Flyovers will ease the traffic in Mumbai” said a headline in the year 1999, at a time when the ‘Mumbai Traffic Improvement Mega Project’ on 50 flyovers was launched. The MSRDC website stated at the time that “In Mumbai city there is an urgent need to cater to the traffic, especially quick entry and exit from the city. The industrialisation and growth of traffic has resulted in congestion which has raised the pollution at various traffic junctions.” Cut to 2022 and it wouldn’t be inaccurate to state that we’re still experiencing higher travel times, frequent delays - commonly called ‘traffic jams’ - and higher pollution. It will also not be inaccurate to state that in many parts of the city, every year, since the mega project, we’ve been experiencing traffic and pollution problems. Since then, Mumbai has witnessed the construction of many more flyovers, the sea-link and the Eastern Freeway. Many are under construction even now. Will the new set of flyovers magically resolve the traffic problems, or will it lead to more construction demand?

More roads lead to more demand. This is well established now. It’s a phenomenon called ‘Induced Demand’. Mumbai has been no exception to this phenomenon. Automobile population in the past two decades has grown exponentially. More automobiles choked up our existing internal roads, including arterials like SV Road, LBS Marg and alike. So, they had to be widened as much as possible. But then, many automobiles also mean a lot of parking demand. Those that have parking provision in their residential premises will park inside, others will park on the road. As a result, all this widening hasn’t even realised into actual vehicle carrying capacity. Take for example the Andheri Ghatkopar link road, which has for the most part five lanes on either side, except under the metro stations, where it is not possible. In several stretches, barely two lanes operate. This is due to parking. A lot of it may be informal but serves an important function in the city and cannot just be wished away. Mumbai is at a stage in parking where the demand will probably never meet supply. The most affected in all this has been the pedestrians. When foot-over bridges and subways are built for crossing, their accesses block the footpaths entirely. When a property entrance gate opens onto the footpath, pedestrians end up walking on the carriageway. When it’s not safe to walk, senior citizens end up curtailing their trips and children are in a state of constant risk.

However, among all this, one fact that no one in Mumbai can ignore is the constant construction we’ve been living through. And from what it seems, we’ve got many years to go. But once this current set of construction is over, will that be all? The short answer is no. A city is a perennial project. What is constantly being used is going to wear and tear. Same applies to the city infrastructure. It will always need maintenance and upgradation. But if we want to end our infrastructure woes, Mumbai must consciously shift its paradigm to moving people, instead of moving vehicles. The problem is the automobile-centric approach. And if we have to learn anything from the past two decades, this will continue to spiral us down a path of incessant large-scale construction. More roads will lead to more cars. There’s no reason to believe that the new flyovers will magically resolve the traffic problem in the future. It’s not to say that we don’t need more roads, we need a different planning approach that puts people first. An approach that shifts the priority pyramid to walking, cycling and public transport first, and automobiles later. This will end our reliance on large-scale road infrastructure projects that focus on only cars. Simultaneously, we also need to move to a modular approach of construction that doesn’t take years to complete but can be opened for public as soon as possible.

The author is program head, Integrated Transport, WRI India