Public transport on the rise

| 13.10.2011

Public transport is on the rise in many countries of the world. This can be deduced from a survey by IBM, which inquired workers living in 20 cities on six continents about their experiences. Each year IBM interrogates a large number of commuters about their experiences to derive global trends in urban traffic. Result of this yearly survey is the so called IBM Commuter Pain Index. This index ranks the economic and emotional 'toll' paid by commuters in 20 cities. The lowest ‘toll’ can be found in Montreal.

The increased interest in public transport results from the fact that from the more than 8000 respondents in 2011, around 41 percent believe public transport will help to relief urban congestion problems. And while only 35 percent changed last year from transportation mode, 45 percent of that group opted for public transport. In a city like Nairobi even 70 percent said that they use public transport more often. The shift towards public transport is the largest in emerging cities such as Nairobi, Mexico City, Shenzhen, Beijing and Buenos Aires.