HYDERABAD: A new survey suggests that more than the high prices of metro tickets, it is the poor frequency, lack of parking space and peak rush hour that bother the commuters in the city. The problem even leads to commuters opting out of metro or any other public transport.
The study titled, ‘Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration- Challenges in Mobility and Transport’ found that 47 per cent of those surveyed by a team of researchers from Osmania University for over a span of four months used their own vehicles or private cabs instead of opting for public transportation.
In order to incorporate date for the survey, the researchers, P Ganeswara Rao, Dr A Arun Kumar, and Prof V Shekhar, spoke to several commuters in the city. In their survey, they found out that 42.5 per cent of commuters use their own vehicles to travel, other 32.34 per cent use buses, while, 10.38 per cent use MMTS and only 8 per cent use the metro. Further, a 5.63 per cent of people opted for cabs. The over all survey states that, a close to 47-48 per cent of the commuters travelled through their means instead of using public transport in the city.
In the survey, when the commuters were asked, whether the metro fare is more compared to other modes of transport, 31 per cent said they were quite satisfied, while, many did find the metro fare high and expensive. However, the researchers found that high metro fare is not a big concern, but the poor frequency of trains and peak hour rush are the major issues that bothers the commuters a lot.
The surveyors noted, “If the popularity of metro and its increase in ridership is any indication, the commuters are willing to pay the fare at prevailing rates. However, they (commuters) expect that all trains run as scheduled and the facilities like parking, safety, toilets, and catering are augmented and maintained. The response to the questions that users should bear the cost, almost 56 per cent of the respondents have agreed that users should meet the cost of provision of urban transport.”
When the city commuters were asked about the problems they face during peak hours on metro, 50 per cent of the respondents noted that they have experienced problems during peak hours, while 13.9 per cent said that they have no problems. Queries on waiting time for public transport revealed that 40 per cent had to wait for minimum eight minutes to get their public transport.
‘TS prefers trains to other public transport modes’
Hyderabad commuters seems to prefer rail-based transport system, finds the survey conducted by researchers from Osmania University, titled ‘Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration- Challenges In Mobility and Transport-A way forward’. The survey which looks into Hyderabads’ commuting preferences and how people prefer it to be, found that though the primary mode of public transport used is RTC which serves about 32 per cent of all travellers.
The survey says, an overwhelming majority of people prefer rail based public transport network like MMTS and metro.MMTS and metro, the two rail based public transport form only 18.39 per cent of all public transport users, however, the researchers found that some 82 per cent preferred this mode of transport, over buses and other road based public transport. Commuters, choose this mode of transport in view of fuel efficiency and in terms of safety.