The report studies three pillars of mobility — people, infrastructure and sustainability — to determine the overall health of a city’s mobility.
At a time when mobility is driving economic growth in the country, 80 percent of commuters feel first-and last-mile connectivity holds the key to improve public transport ridership, according to an Ease of Moving Index 2018 report by Ola’s Mobility Institute.
Almost 70 percent of the public transport users currently rely on cabs, autos, and non-motorised transports (NMTs), according to the report. It means users have to either walk or take an auto to reach the nearest public transport service such as a bus stand, local station, or metro terminal.
Commuters believe if the government fills this gap in the first-and-last-mile connectivity, ridership in public transport will go up as around 60 percent of the current non-users will be willing to shift to public transport.
Currently, public transport accounts for 34 percent of the total transportation across India. About 58 percent of the commuters use their personal two or four-wheelers for transportation, while around eight percent of the respondents use shared transportation, according to a report by McKinsey.
In India, over 80 percent of commuters use public transport on account of it being affordable, time-saving and convenient. Kolkata offers the most affordable transport services, whereas Delhi provides the most comfortable transport to its citizens, the report by Ola said.
On the cleanliness front, Ahmedabad leads the way in offering cleanest public transport services. Patna tops with the least travel time required to go for work trips as the city is well served by intermediate public transport (IPTs).
Among metro cities, Kolkata leads the ease of mobility index at 5.42, followed by New Delhi (5.32) and Chennai (5.27). Mumbai ranks sixth with an index of 4.95.
The high willingness of passengers to use public transport can be used to make policies catering to specific needs of different users by improving service levels, real-time information, providing clean public transport, improving frequency and better route planning.