Urban Transport Challenges and Recommendations

Urban Transport 1
Urban transport
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Urban Transport 2
Increase in the number of buses in Mumbai will ultimately lead to traffic congestion. Currently,
Mumbai is experiencing high levels of traffic congestion due to the many vehicles that ply the
city every single day, (Singh et al., 2019). However, demand for public means of transport from
the bulging population of Mumbai has necessitated BEST to increase the number of buses
serving the city. Peninsula location of Mumbai has encouraged the use of railway transport as
opposed to bus riddance.
Rapid population growth and significant economic growth exert pressure on the available forms
of economic infrastructure that is important to enhance development and growth in the region. In
order to contain the pressure, it is important in meeting the transportation demands of the city
with the emphasis being made on the optimal use of the available resources, (Suman et al., 2017.
Pp. 69). Road transportation is vital in bringing equality in terms of basic education and
employment opportunities generation. In Mumbai, bus transport is normally a monopoly of
BEST.
Even though there are still small companies operating bus services in the city, they have not been
able to contain the monopolistic competition pressure exerted by BEST in terms of volumes of
buses run. This has made BEST to increase the number of buses plying in the city every single
year.
Need for efficient bus supply system in the city of Mumbai is desirable from societal view.
Mumbai needs a well-planned bus transport system that will be able to effectively provide high
levels of mobility to the populace of the city. The efficient, effective and sustainable bus
transport system is the one that permits members of the society and companies to mobility wants.
This should be done in a manner that safeguards human and environmental wellbeing, (Pai, and
Wilson, 2018). In order, for this to be achieved in Mumbai’s bus transport system, there is a need
to put into consideration all the variables that affect the transportation system during the decision
making the process.
Currently, the bus transportation plan in the city is poorly done giving the railway transportation
an edge over it. However, bus transport has experienced numerous challenges since its inception.
Today, the transport sector is facing major challenges that are as a result of the following
variables;
i. The existing disconnect between transportation planning and land use in the city
ii. Peninsula location of the city. This favors railway transportation as opposed to bus usage
iii. Imbalance in the city’s modal split