Mobility is an essential human need. Human survival and societal interactions rely on the ability to move people and goods from one place to another. Public transport services are part of the basic mobility provision in rural areas and one means of reducing congestion and pollution as part of an integrated transport policy in urban areas. Public buses are the main form of ground transport in Nepal. But reliability of public transportation is falling day by day. The people in the capital are especially frustrated with the existing public transport, which is resulting in the increasing number of private vehicles on the roads. Local transport in the Kathmandu valley includes taxis with and without meters, micro and mini buses, tempos, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws and bicycles.
The level of dissatisfaction with public transport in Nepal is very high. Public buses are normally very crowded, comparatively expensive, and uncomfortable to stand as well as to sit in. They do not have travel time schedule, integrated ticketing system and transfer, and proper bus stops. These factors are prompting the public to opt for private transport. It is essential to develop a system now so that the public is encouraged to use public transport. For users, four factors are paramount in determining satisfaction from transport services: Time, cost, dependability or predictability, and comfortable service.
A fixed travel time should be allocated and easy transfer and integrated interconnection as well as integrated ticketing system should be developed.
Developing the infrastructure can be an option to manage the increasing traffic but it is painstaking. The country cannot always keep on developing infrastructure as traffic problems multiply. Therefore, traffic management is the best way for the smooth flow of traffic in cities such as Kathmandu. In the best run cities of the world, a majority of people use public transport for their daily commute. Traffic problems cannot be solved in a day or two; it can only be managed through long-term planning.
Introducing metro and trains takes a long time and is very expensive. With the present Nepali economy, development of metro or trains in Kathmandu is out of question. But developing an integrated bus transit is affordable. Additionally, bus transit is flexible in routing and easily expandable.
Implementation of integrated bus transit starts with the systematic replacement of low-capacity public vehicles with high-capacity ones. These vehicles should be easy to board, comfortable to ride and quiet. One high-capacity bus can carry the same number of passengers as a few micro or mini buses. This will result in less number of vehicles on the roads, which makes the task of traffic management easier. Owners of traditional buses become shareholders of the new operating companies. A city with a number of bus operators should have the same fare collection technology enabling passengers to use a single fare card or token system.
The fare collection systems need to be secure, efficient, and simple. A fixed travel time should be allocated and easy transfer and integrated interconnection as well as integrated ticketing system should be developed. Walking distance between transferring points must be made as short as possible, with safe passageways (pedestrian bridges, zebra crossings and shaded pathways).
There could be numerous operating companies (even the government can operate the system). However, there should be coordination between the operators regarding the inter-connections, timetables and ticketing. The bus stations should be well-designed with large shelters and route information allowing people to board the buses quickly from a platform that is level with the bus floor. Since it does not take much time to plan and design physical facilities for a bus system, principal attention can be given to the layout of routes, so that a good geographic coverage is achieved and the largest numbers of potential riders are able to gain convenient access to the service. The second major task is to schedule service so that demand is reasonably met with the least consumption of resources.
Implementation of these strategies would certainly improve the public transportation systems of our capital which, in turn, would attract private vehicle users to use public transport. This improved system would reduce the number of vehicles on the streets making the management of traffic and parking easier. Fuel congestion would also be reduced. This system is economically- and environmentally-feasible. Above all, it will serve the people with quality transportation systems and with a better mobility option.
(Writing is a MSc student (Transportation Systems) in Technical University, Munich, Germany.)
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