ANNOUNCEMENTS
India is surging towards rapid urbanization that is creating pockets of heavily populated areas as compared to the earlier set up of rural areas. With a burgeoning population and increasing migration coupled with an increase in income levels and affluence, it is expected that the pressure on urban infrastructure will be felt more in metros like Delhi. Moreover, cities are witnessing an astounding growth in vehicle ownership. There are other factors like inefficient use of existing facility, lack of infrastructure and poor availability of public transport, further contributing to severity of the problem of congestion. This is a cause of concern for policy makers.
Traffic Congestion is often viewed as an urban bane and has a negative connotation. Congestion not only reduces productivity in terms of man-hours lost but also has an adverse impact on health. Given the magnitude of the problem, it requires the attention of policy makers and various measures to curb this menace.
Various supply-side solutions and blueprints have been advised and are being worked; however, they have been able to control this problem in limited ways. Therefore, it becomes important to analyse the problem through studying demand dynamics which involves capturing the problem from behavioural and attitudinal perspectives.
This study is an attempt to capture the nature of this problem through an urban travel demand analysis. The methodology involved for this was a questionnaire-based survey conducted for 115 households. The data obtained was used to analyse the behavioural aspects involved in the decision to travel. A willingness-to-pay survey, to find out about the preference to pay for better public transport services, was also a part of this project. Towards the end of this paper, recommendations have stemmed from the urban travel demand behaviour observed during the course of this study.
