Public Transport Reforms: Eliminating Slow Transport

There is no surprise that slow transport has clogged our roads and plagued the entire country with pollution, whether environmentally or in terms of noise. Every neighbourhood experiences some sort of nuisance due to these vehicles that create disturbance and annoy everyone from people at home or on the road.

Talking about rickshaws, these scooter/car converts are probably the single most annoying things on our streets today and have cause many to lose their minds while driving near one.

The noise and smoke caused by these, not to mention the slow speed at which they travel in the middle of the road, has wrecked havoc everywhere.

Eliminating these are a top priority for anyone in the government and with authority to make such moves, but when the antidote is approached, many loopholes and consequences emerge which make the move one which will wreck further havoc due to the widespread joblessness which will be caused.

Like anything else and the former donkey cart solution which was discussed, rickshaws must be phased out instead of being banned all at once. People who use them will need to adapt to other methods of travelling and drivers themselves must be given other jobs in order to earn a respectable living, which in the end is the right of every citizen in this country.

Currently, these small Asian taxis are banned from major roads like the Mall and motorway but that only creates more congestion in the neighbouring areas where they are allowed. Rickshaws and similar transportation methods must be replaced by cleaner, more efficient and cost-effective methods of transportation.

Car taxi’s which run on CNG can be an optimal solution to this problem and large passenger busses with specified routes. This will allow for a cleaner and safer solution to the problem which at the moment is very dangerous and hazardous.

Inter-city trains must also be introduced to allow further employment of those rickshaw drivers to save them from unemployment.

Slowly but gradually, rickshaws can be eliminated just like donkey carts can, making not only our cities cleaner and more beautiful, but also allowing people to opt for public transport out of desire rather than need.

Different opportunities can be created for these unemployed rickshaw drivers in various public and government departments, which could always use more manpower, especially when larger public busses are introduced which run on specific routes.

Posted by Syed Hassan Bokhari on Oct 17 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry