Pune ranked 7th most congested city, 20th in terms of traffic speed

Ritika Bhoora

Pune is the seventh most congested city in India, according to a recent research published under the US-based organisation, National bureau of economic research (NBER). The research conducted by University of California, Berkley and 3 other universities studies the current status of mobility in urban India, using Google maps.

Bengaluru tops the list as the most congested city followed by Mumbai in the second place and Pune in the seventh place. In another index of traffic speed, Kolkata has been found to be the slowest city, while Pune manages to hold down its position to the 20th place.

“There is a lack of proper infrastructure in the city, when it comes to accessing mobility and traffic condition. While the government is making attempts to fill that gap, there is a big lack of scope for widening infrastructure in the heart of the city, which includes peth areas especially. Congestion is the highest in those areas mostly.There are a number of flaws when it comes to monitoring congestion and traffic through apps like Google maps, which is not really on real-time. For instance, Google data is always on a 10 minute lag, while TomTom data refreshes after 5 minutes. Also, both the apps mistake parked vehicles as those stuck in traffic, and considering the huge number of vehicles parked on the streets, the data is not always accurate.We are trying to find a better monitoring system to provide better solutions to congestion,” said Tejaswi Satpute, the deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Pune.

She also added that more number of people in Pune prefer to use their own vehicles rather than Public Transport. This also contributes to congestion on the streets.

The research paper, ‘Mobility & Congestion in Urban India,’ is the first large-scale analysis of traffic congestion using Google Maps in154 Indian cities.