A realisation

Since I have been travelling a great deal in different modes of transport in the last 3 years I have an observation to make, “the pace of a country’s growth can be judged by the pace of its public transport”. I was sure that this is true in India. However I wanted to check for other countries as well.

I myself have been spending 2-2.5 hrs daily on commuting since the last 3 years. That makes up to roughly 34 days in a year. Shit! I have been wasting more than a month each year on commuting. And if I assume that on an average I have been spending Rs. 3000 each month on commuting then I end up spending 36000 each year and a total of 1,08,000 in 3 years. Wow! This means that I was spending more than a month’s salary each year on commuting. I am sure you must be shocked at this statistic. I could have spent that time doing something creative and that money if invested in the market would have yielded good returns, considering the gains which could have been made by recovery in the market after recession. And if I assume conservatively that 25% people in India travel to work/college/school daily then that comes out to an average of Rs. 10¹³ spent each year. This is 18% of our GDP!

This is the story in most of the developing countries in the world. Developed countries have been smart enough to realise this economic wastage and have taken sufficient measures to reduce this loss to the economy. In USA people have the flexibility to work from home, the traffic is well managed and the public transport scenario is much better than in developing countries like India.

“Seven per cent of commuters globally spend 10 per cent or more of their salary on commuting.”

“In the UAE only nine per cent of commuters travel to work more than 90 minutes every day.”

Average travel time to work in different countries:

USA 24.4 minutes

EU average: 38 minutes

Italy: 23 minutes
Spain: 33 minutes
France: 36 minutes
Netherlands: 43 minutes
Germany: 44 minutes
UK: 45 minutes

“26% of commuters in India still travel for over 90 minutes every day.”

The facts above may not be very accurate but they at least present a picture that represents a stark difference between developing and developed nations. Basic modes of public transport in India are buses, auto rickshaws, taxi and metro rail. With infrastructural changes like Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Delhi metro, etc the government is trying to reduce the wastage of economic resources, which includes resource time wasted on roads, wastage of fuel, polluting of the environment and a lot more. Needless to say, with the corporate culture growing rapidly in India, initiatives like work from home would go a long way in helping the situation. Quicker modes of public transport and addressing the problems of traffic congestion would also help in reducing wastage of national resources.