BENGALURU: A survey by Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) and World Resource Institute (WRI) India has revealed that about 95 per cent of respondents want to shift from personal transport to public transport like Metro Rail. The representatives from these organisations said after the month-long survey, now they want to launch a campaign ‘Personal2Public’ to educate and motivate the public using personal transport to switch over to bus and Metro transport services.
Revathy Ashok, Managing Trustee and CEO, B.PAC, said, “3,855 people were approached for surveys across the city, especially on Outer Ring Road. Ninety-five per cent of them want to switch to Metro Rail. And 70 per cent of the respondents want to switch immediately provided there is connectivity between home and workplace.”
Srinivas Alavilli, Fellow, WRI India, said, “The only long-term solution to our traffic problem is public transport. The year 2023 is going to be a milestone year for Brand Bengaluru, as Metro connects Whitefield to the rest of the city. #Personal2Public is a citizen’s movement with active participation from corporates, auto unions and citizen groups. We are working together to improve first and last-mile access by collaborating with government agencies.”
He further added that Outer Ring Road (ORR) has a maximum number of daily commuters, so running faster feeder buses from Purple Line metro stations to tech parks on ORR will make a big difference. Our sincere appeal to commuters is to adopt public transport starting at least two days a week.”
Vikram Rai, president of Bengaluru Apartments Federation, said the survey team recently met Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy and sought the government’s support for the campaign and gave recommendations urging the government to appeal to the public to switch to public transport at least twice a week.