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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Swapping car for bus: Are we ready?

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By Conrad Prabhu — MUSCAT: Feb 11 - Around two-thirds of Omani respondents in a new survey conducted by Sohar University say they are unlikely to ditch their private cars in favour of public transport for “socio-cultural” reasons. The findings of this insightful survey are due to be presented at the 7th International Union of Public Transport (UITP) Forum due to open at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre tomorrow. The four-day event is being hosted by Oman National Transport Company (Mwasalat) under the auspices of Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications.


The findings of the survey will be outlined by Prof Rakesh Belwal, Associate Professor at Sohar University’s Faculty of Business, and a well-known expert on urban transport. His talk at the forum will look at the cultural challenges of promoting public transport services in a private car-dominated context. Any rapid uptake of public transport services in the Sultanate will potentially be an uphill challenge if the results of the survey are any guide.


Of the 195 Omanis — a mix of men and women of different age groups and professional backgrounds — polled in the survey, an overwhelming 63 per cent said they have “cultural” concerns in travelling by public transport such as buses and taxis. A similar percentage affirmed they would not encourage female members of the family to use shared transport for travel. A further 52 per cent said “they have a problem sharing taxis/buses with the other sex”.


The respondents cited various reasons for their aversion to public transport: Absence of segregated areas for male and female passengers, Absence of women drivers, Absence of family-oriented public transport options, harassment concerns, and sociocultural and religious reasons. Besides being a novel concept in itself, public transport was also seen as problematic from other standpoints, such as lack of privacy, crowding, and the awkwardness of travelling with expatriate strangers.


To help overcome these “socio-cultural” concerns, the respondents offered a number of recommendations and measures that, they said, would go some way in making public transport acceptable as an alternative to private transport. The most common suggestions include: dedicated zones for male and female passengers, women-only transport services operated by women drivers, security cameras in public vehicles, and high-quality transport services. Others mooted the importance of, among other things, punctuality, WiFi availability, safety and hygiene, better regulation and integration with taxis, reasonable fares, introduction of metros and double-decker bus services, metered taxis, reserved seats for the physically challenged, pregnant women and senior citizens and functional mobile apps.


According to Prof Belwal (pictured), the challenges impeding the shift to shared public transport are essentially two-fold. Firstly, the easy availability of private cars is a major disincentive for motorists to switch to public transport. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the absence of an integrated, end-to-end public transport system that offers frequent and dependable services is a shortcoming too. Female passengers, or their family members, would particularly need to feel assured that public transport is comfortable and safe for women, he stressed.


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