What India’s metros should learn from London Olympics

How will the Commonwealth Games affect the traffic in and around Delhi? How will Anna Hazare’s fast at Ramlila grounds affect your movement? Will there be any traffic jams in south Mumbai during the Kalaghoda Festival? What are the roads to avoid during the Ganpati festival? What is the easiest way to travel from Gariahat to Dalhousie Square during the pujas? Wouldn’t you have loved to have these answers BEFORE you got stuck in a two-hour snarl? While local governments and police departments do nothing in any city in India to help out commuters, they should learn from how London is helping out the city population during the forthcoming Olympic Games. [caption id=“attachment_209727” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The ad released for the convenience of Londoners. “]  [/caption] First, they release an ad. The ad directs you to www.getaheadofthegames.com, which is a site that is designed to answer questions such as the ones listed above, in the context of the Olympic Games. “This year brings the largest sporting events in the world to the UK — the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Because we’re hosting these large events, you’d expect roads and public transport to be much busier than usual. We’ve developed this site to help you understand where the travel hotspots will be and enable you to plan in advance to make your journeys easier,” they say on why the site exists. A quick glance at their ‘top tips’ tells you how useful the site will prove to be: • Find out if your journey will be affected and plan your travel in advance • Consider alternatives - another type of transport might be a better option for you • If you aren’t going to a Games event, try to avoid venue stations, particularly at the busiest times • If you need to travel, look at re-timing so you avoid the busiest times • Avoid driving in affected areas if possible. If you need to make a car journey, be prepared for delays. Interactive menus give more meaning to the tips. The site gives you an estimate of how much delay is expected on routes defined by the user, suggests alternatives if you want them, high-density areas, and so on. While the obvious and overt beneficiary is the common man, the less obvious beneficiary is the city itself. Armed with information that is available to the citizen, the high-density areas will be avoided by those for whom the journey was not necessary or important; traffic will be diverted to alternative routes to ease congestion, and so on. That’s why civic authorities and police departments need to look at this initiative and explore creating such websites for each metro in India. Every day in every metro seems to bring with it traffic chaos, and a website like this will allow authorities to communicate on a continuous basis with citizens in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Which of us hasn’t been stuck in a traffic jam that we couldn’t foresee, or missed a flight because one got caught in a political procession? Which one of us wouldn’t benefit from such an initiative?