Outlines
- Traveling in a big city is not usually pleasant for the common people
- taxis and rickshaws with their high fares
- minibusses and big buses
- different categories of travelers with their respective (own) problems
- how we may solve our transport problems in the big cities
“Movement is natural to all living bodies, but its dependence on vehicles makes it mechanical and artificial.”
In a big city like Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Peshawar or Quetta traveling is not very pleasant or easy. Distances are usually long and buses are not :always and everywhere to be found. No doubt, taxis and rickshaws can be had at central places at least. But, who can hire them easily? [the_ad id=”17141″]They are, by all means, much too expensive. Mini-buses have solved the traffic problems a great deal. But still, they are not everywhere available all the time. Then, like the big buses, they have too many passengers.
Different categories of travellers have their own problems. School and college-going students find it difficult to reach their classes on time and to return at ease. Factory and office workers also find it difficult to get to their places of work and to return home.
Firstly, we should have more buses at the busy hours, especially for the students and factory and office workers. Secondly, the bus-rounds should be so arranged that buses take the passengers to the farthest places. Every bus route should have the right number of buses. Thirdly, the mini-buses should be forced to travel on all the bus routes and all the time except from 11 pm to 5 a.m. They should not have any standing passengers. The passengers’ seats in the buses should feel comfortable. Fourthly, the rickshaws and taxis should not be able to overcharge the passengers. The police should check their metres very strictly. Then they should be forced to travel short distances as well.[the_ad id=”17142″]
Fifthly, there can be telephone taxis for businesspersons, patients, and women. These taxis may be called by telephone from the taxi stations, and their fares should be proper (that is, within the reach of common people). Sixthly, the broken roads should be repaired. Those roads, which are very narrow, should be widened. The traffic problems in the big cities can, of course, be solved through the joint efforts of the government, the public and the transporters.
We should provide the maximum chances (opportunities) to our own transporters to run their buses in city or inter-city routes. It is not a desirable policy to have foreign companies in our country doing flourishing (very successful) business in the transport sector. Let foreign investment be reserved for those areas of the economy where our countrymen cannot easily invest.
