Bengaluru traffic woes: 95% car owners prefer to travel by Metro, says study

Traffic chaos in Bengaluru is increasingly leading vehicle owners to choose public transport like Metro over personal cars and two-wheelers. According to a recent survey, 95 per cent of vehicle owners in the city plans to ditch their own conveyance to evade long traffic jams. The survey, conducted by NGOs, says that commuters in Bengaluru spends up to one hour and 30 minutes to reach their destination. The two-wheeler owners take more than 30 minutes to commute each side.

The report, which is part of a campaign called Personal2Public, is based on a survey covering 3,855 individuals living in Bengaluru. Most of them said they are willing to give up personal cars and bikes to travel in Metro which takes half the time to commute compared to cars. On an average, a Bengaluru resident travels around 10 kms to work every day. The survey found that the city's Metro rail network, which spans around 13 kms, takes less time to transport commuters to their destination without any traffic issues.

Out of the 3,855 respondents, around 58 per cent said they use personal vehicles every day to work. Around 17 per cent of the responders said they use public transport like bus or Metro.

Two of the key reasons why car and two-wheeler owners want to shift to public transport are to save time to travel as well as save on fuel. Revathy Ashok, managing trustee & CEO of B.PAC, an NGO said, "Bengaluru commuter survey findings have yet again clearly established that citizens of Bengaluru are willing to shift away from private vehicles and travel in public transport to their workplaces provided there is seamless, predictable and comfortable access to first and last mile connectivity."

While voting was almost unanimously in favour of shifting to public transport, the survey report pointed out that the city needs better feeder services to make that a reality. The survey said several women face challenges due to lack of last-mile connectivity during their commute.