A brief traffic count on the city’s arterial SV Road has thrown light on the differences in vehicle capacities, their numbers and use of road space.
An hour-long cursory count on Tuesday by NGO Mumbai Environmental Social Network (MESN) of vehicles on SV Road between Santa Cruz and Vile Parle showed that though the number of black-and-yellow taxis exceeds that of private cabs, the number of ‘conventional taxis’ plying on that road was way below the latter’s count. The MESN team spotted 56 black-and-yellow taxis and 90 tourist taxis during the spot survey.
Ashok Datar, chairman, MESN and member, Unified Mumbai Metropolitan Transport Authority (under MMRDA), said, “Although this is not a very scientific survey, it indicates the difference between the efficiency of the two. There are around 10,000 private taxis and 50,000 conventional black-and-yellow taxis. This means conventional taxis are parked more often than being on the move. The private players are using technology efficiently to be on the move.”
The study found that buses, which carried the most number of passengers compared to other vehicles, occupied the least amount of road space. In one hour, 26 buses had occupied only 0.5 per cent of the road space.
Two-wheelers came second in occupying least road space. The maximum road space, about 64 per cent, was taken up by conventional and private taxis and autos. In one hour, around 2,025 vehicles had used on the road, carrying approximately 4,112 passengers.
Key observations made by MESN state that movement of traffic on this stretch is perpetually slow. If the road use is dominated by cars, space use would be very inefficient, it said. “Buses are using barely one per cent of the space and carry 32 per cent of passengers.
"The share of tourist permit taxies is much higher than conventional taxis. This is something we need to recognise. Their number is less than one-fourth, but they do more trips due to tech support. Hence, they are rarely parked,” the study found.
“Mumbai needs an antibiotic solution for its traffic woes. We should reduce the number of vehicles on the roads and increase the number of passengers per person. Buses carry 13 per cent of the passenger load and occupy only 0.5 per cent of the road,” Mr Datar said.
Buses, which carried the most passengers, take up the least amount
of road space
