Even after three weeks of ban to e-rickshaw from plying on two parallel roads in Srinagar including M.A. Road and Residency Road, there seems to be no relief to the traffic gridlocks that needs to be resolved immediately for the smooth plying of the traffic.
Although, the main motive to ban playing of e-rickshaws on those busiest roads was to decongest the traffic but it seems that the authorities need to devise some other alternatives to overcome the issue.
The gridlock especially takes place during the peak hours when almost all the students, employees and other daily wagers leave for the office and homes respectively.
The logic behind banning e-rickshaws to ply on these vital roads was just because they were slowing at a very low speed and it was affecting the speed of other vehicles that was ultimately causing the jam pack gridlock.
E-rickshaws have become the most publicly visible scapegoat in what is a very complicated set of problems. The administration has removed one part of a much bigger picture without fixing any of the other underlying problems resulting in a situation where they have moved the congestion, but have not fixed it.
What has happened instead is that there has been an immediate influx of private cars, taxis, and buses now filling the void left by the removal of e-rickshaws.
This demonstrates that it isn’t about what type of vehicles are on the road, rather it is about how many vehicles are travelling through a given road space.
This experiment demonstrates a total lack of comprehensive traffic planning, where a sustainable traffic management solution cannot be built only on the basis of prohibition.
In addition to a prohibition on one type of a vehicle, a strategy needs to be developed that understands and subsequent to accommodates the entire mobility ecosystem within the city.
