Transportation Systems

After a long time, I am sitting at a café and writing a blog. I used to do it a couple of months ago, more like a many months ago. Back in the day, when I was still at the university which I still am in some ways. As mentioned earlier, I moved from San Francisco to another city across the country, which in many ways is equally as interesting to live in, if not more. Of course, I am talking about New York City. Well, as you might have guessed, nobody who is unemployed lives in the New York City. Most families live outside the city and commute to the city. I am presently lodging at a cousin’s place in Stamford, CT, an hour’s distance to the city by train.

Speaking of trains, the only reason why New York or any such city can survive in the booming city population is through good, effective transportation. And Efficient. The transportation system in London is very similar, although much older. I am sure future generations would look at the subway systems of modern cities and would be amazed as we are of the drainage system of the first civilizations. With the technology available in modern transportation systems, especially the pubic transportation systems, I think we did a very good job (wherever it is being done). I am sure more such transportations are needed in more and more developing cities world wide and such systems are being developed. An example is Delhi. If the subway system would not have developed, it would have been impossible for people to survive in the pollutions generated by the citizens of the city. And more and more cities around the world desperately need some kind of public transportation available. Studies have shown that a developed and efficient public transportation could do wonders for both the local economy as well as the health care of the people.

Thus, it is very surprising that more emphasis to public transportation is not been given. Instead developing cities are emphasizing on improvement of present inefficient systems which, more than often not is owned by either the government or private ownership who are more interested in short term view. I wonder who owns the transportation systems in the New York City area. I believe the system is managed by trusts, non-profit organizations, overseen by board members belonging to the all communities. I could not be wrong if the actual maintenance of the system is privatized.

Take a case of Hyderabad, India. Traditionally, the major modes of transportation were private cars, two-wheelers, autorickaws, ricshaws, and finally buses. A local ground train system was present, but ineffiently run and outdated (It did not go to anywhere meaningful). In the last decade, the government introduced a number of changes. One of the main projects in the 90’s was the beautification of the city, including expansion of the road system. Roads were widened wherever possible, both by occupying adjacent land as well as breaking down existing illegal structure. One lane roads became 4 lanes in some areas. However, the general public simply “updated” their transportation modes from 2 wheelers to cars to SUVs. The road system is still bad. On the other hand, the Bus system improvements had some positive effect on the road condition. A multi-layered payment system enabling higher paying customers to pay for added comforts resulted in some improvement in the system. New Types of Buses were introduced catering to various demographics. Talk about a mono-rail system fell through due to politics. The disadvantage with mono-rail is the cost of construction. (It is usually built in the same routes as major highways, thus further disrupting the traffic) As with everything else, a newer system developed which is not as efficient but bypasses the problems created by the old system. Budget Airlines have come up connecting cities which a mono-rail should be plying to. Private ownership has enable capital to flow in without politics and a small section of the society is benefiting from it. If a good pubic system was made possible, with almost the same amount of capital (or even less), more citizens of the country would have benefited. (I am assuming that the cost of transportation that is the ticket price is going to be affordable for the general pubic). However good the budget airline system is, it is a very poor substitute for mordern tranportation systems.

What are the disadvantages of such a transportation system? As with everything, something on paper (or in this case, computer) is very different from actual reality facts. How an impliementation progresses depends on the people who turn it, not the technology used behind it, nor the money attocated to it.