Is the problem in BRT or its current implementation?

The primary reason of BRT’s lack of popularity in Delhi city is its impact on the average private vehicle owner who feels harassed by the road congestion on a daily basis. Due to this minority – but a very vocal minority – of the people have formed a negative opinion of the BRT system itself.

What we need to focus on is that it’s not the system but very specific parts of its implementation that cause the perception of the problem. Otherwise why would crowded cities around the world like New York, Cleveland, Rio, Ahmedabad etc. implement similar BRT systems?

BRT system uses the already existing road infrastructure which leaves lesser space for the private vehicles and leads to road congestion. However at the same time it takes significantly lesser time and money to deploy and construct respectively as compared to a system such as the Metro. Therefore congestion during the construction period is lesser.
It’s estimated that if the entire area of the road is used in a mixed pattern by private and public vehicles then the road is capable of ferrying up to 12,000 passengers per hour. However at the same time a dedicated BRT line would increase that number to 20,000 passengers. This means lesser people in private vehicles and more people in BRT which will automatically result in lesser congestion.

Taking into account the ever increasing number of private vehicles in Delhi; whose growth is estimated at 1000 to 1200 cars per day; Delhi would need 1,50,000 sq. meters of road added daily. Since this solution is practically impossible, the only solution left is to implement systems like BRT which have proven their merit in cities around the world. However, BRT will only function at its fullest when it is deployed throughout the city in long stretches which is exactly what Delhi is lacking.

What do we need to do then, to fix it?
• Create more awareness and hence build more acceptance
• Make people understand that the objective of BRT is more people and not more vehicles
• Increase the length of BRT to at least 15-20 km so that its full benefit can be illustrated for the citizens.
If this is what you believe in, join the citizen’s initiative at Facebook andTwitter.