Walking the green talk

Geetam Tiwari is quite amused that a recent report she co-authored was surprising to many. The study showed that most metro networks in India were running with only 25-30% of their projected ridership. Even the Delhi Metro, the country's busiest and most vast, runs at only around half its projected ridership (bit.ly/metro-occupancy).

Tiwari points out that census data, and other subsequent smaller surveys, show that the majority of urban Indians do not commute long distances every day. "Some 25-30% of trips to work are still within the walking-distance range. Even in a megacity like Delhi, 45% of trips are shorter than 5 km," says Tiwari, Emeritus Professor at the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Commutes to school, for daily shopping or for routine medical treatment, are even shorter, Tiwari points out. The paper makes a case for selecting differential urban public transport modes based on size and needs of each city.