Build it, they will more than come
From ‘KSTOA seeks alternative road to Bengaluru airport amid increasing commuter challenges’, The Hindu, October 23, 2024:
The Karnataka State Travel Operators’ Association (KSTOA) has raised concerns over the existing connectivity to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru. In a recently written letter addressed to the Central and State Governments, the association has highlighted the urgent need for an alternative road of international standards to accommodate the rapidly growing demand from both domestic and international travellers.
The way urban planners respond to traffic congestion is so reminiscent of India’s tobacco and firecracker control policies: to attempt to change consumer behaviour alone in order to lower demand instead of changing things on both the demand and the supply sides. Research and experience have shown tha~t traffic will swell to fill roads, so we need to control the vehicular population and improve public transport (which move more people per unit of time and/or space), not build more roads. And yet…
