CHENNAI: Going by the findings of ‘Ease of Moving Index - Chennai City Profile’, over 95% of respondents to a survey used public transport regularly in the city between 2022 and 2023. The mobility profile was released by the OMI Foundation in partnership with the IIT Madras on Tuesday.
It aims to study public transport usage, increase in number of vehicles and ownership patterns and parking situation, using raw data collected between 2022 and 2023 for the ‘Ease of Moving Index-India Report 22’ that was released in April 2023.
In Chennai, the OMI Foundation conducted the survey with over 3,100 respondents, comprising 43% women and 2% trans/non-binary. As much as 57% of the respondents owned homes in the city and 4.3% of the respondents were persons with disabilities.
According to the report, the city residents took an average time of eight minutes and nine seconds to reach their nearest transit hub by walking or cycling. Only Mumbai clocks a shorter average time in the country.
However, 31.10% of respondents in Chennai expressed dissatisfaction regarding the waiting period for public transport which was around nine minutes on average.
Among regular public transport users, 90.22% also owned some form of motor vehicle. “Interestingly, as much as 38.62% of these people choose not to use their vehicles due to the reliability of public transport and availability of alternatives such as autos and cabs. Additionally, 36.78% cited the high cost of vehicle ownership as their reason for relying on public transport,” the report said.
Chennai distinguishes itself with a 75% share in active transport mode (walking and cycling) and shared mobility (public/mass transport and taxis).
“This highlights the critical need to prioritise these modes to address concerns of unfettered motorisation and consequent traffic snarls,” said a press release from OMI.