HYDERABAD: Hyderabadis love their public transport but the cleanliness of the public transport and quality of roads is putting them off. These were the findings of a new report released by Ola Mobility Institute which ranked Hyderabad as the 4th best metro city to travel in, based on public perception.
The report gave Hyderabad a score of 5.22, with Kolkata, New Delhi and Chennai performing marginally better. Kolkata scored 5.42 points of the top 6 metro cities. The report goes on to detail what Hyderabadis think about travelling in the city using various parameters like public transport usage, safety, parking availability, condition of footpaths etc.
Hyderabad was lauded in the report for its extensive network of intra-city public transport, especially bus connectivity across the city. It was ranked as one of the best in the country among the million+ metro city. The credit to this can also go on the fact that on an average a person only had to walk for 15 minutes to reach a public transport transit point, the report finds.
“64 per cent of the denizens use public transport in the city. The intra-city bus network is so extensive that 87 per cent of the residents can access public transit within 15 minutes of walking,” noted the study. However, only 41 per cent of public transit users are women and, of that, 60 per cent of them said they would shift if public transport be improvised.
The report however ranked the city badly in terms of the Cleanliness (5th rank), Quality of roads (4th rank) and Affordability (4th rank). “In Hyderabad more than 95 per cent of people want to ensure their mobility is more sustainable, with 33 per cent already preferring eco-friendly transport,” noted the study. People also feel strongly about the need for better footpaths and cycling tracks,
Another pressing issue highlighted in the study was that how 2lakh cars were getting added onto the roads, increasing the traffic congestion and time spent on road dramatically. Only 66 per cent people spend less than 1 hour on traffic.