Sunday, 24 May 2009 22:25
“Last Come Last Serve” Motto is Not Always True
Urban population is now over 50% of total population. Urbanization provides not only advantages of technology but also many problems as well. One of the main problem is transportation. The residents are used to spending so much time on the road to reach their destinations from the early hours of the day to the late hours of night.
Resident of cities, where public transportation facilities are sufficient, are able to reach their destinations in shorter time, whereas the resident of the cities without sufficient transportation infrastructure waste so much time on the way to their destinations.
After industrial revolution, USA, Euopean countries and Japan made really huge investments on public transportations of large cities and completed the integration process of road, railway and maritime transportation networks. Then, datas were collected to develop the systems and raise the speed of transportation. Further investments for integration of infrastructure and transportation modes were planned in compliance with those collected datas.
While municipal governments of cities with sufficient vision and financial resources were planning and implementing transportation investments, underdeveloped or developing cities tried to save the day with temporary solutions. However, it is not bearable anymore in our age. In fact, it is just like a torture to live in cities where transportation problems has not been solved.
30% of Istanbul residents spend minimum three hours within the traffic. Even the students have to spend two hours within their service vehicles to reach their school within reasonable distance. We are used to getting accustomed tho this fact with progress of time and show reactions after considering the traffic jam while going somewhere. Traffic jam is the primary excuse for being late to appointments.
Nevertheless, nobody knows how long it shall last.
While oil prices are rising constantly, considering the fact that efficiency is the primary must to catch the development level, it is not a sustainable case for all of us to get stressed on the roads due to traffic jam and fight with each other.
In fact, the solution is same within every time and place.
In case of no financial difficulties, the first solution is to establish public transportation on underground base and to feed underground with vertical bus lines and integrate those with maritime transportation.
Considering the fact that total cost of underground construction is average 85 million USD/per km, developing countries do not sufficient financial sources. Under those circumstances, the solution is to use buses instead of underground for public transport. The cost of this system is 2 million USD/per km. The investment of this system is both faster and cheaper.
Ultimately, countries, which have already completed their public transportation investments, get their money’s worth. Reasonable municipal governments, which makes their public transportation investments recently, are used to constructing modern transportation systems by using the price advantage of bus system.
