Transportation in Islamabad

The city of Islamabad was planned by a Greek team of architects led by Constantinos A. Doxiadis in the 1960s. The Doxiadis' master plan, based on the hierarchical system of communities, has thoroughly regulated the movements of the citizens with the provision of various types of roads throughout each community. To accommodate the growing population of the city, the government of Islamabad has been developing several modes of transportation, while retaining the master plan. However, on top of not being very successful in meeting its citizens' needs, the transport system in Islamabad has caused many issues, varying from environmental pollution to poor labor conditions. This article explores the history of the transportation system in Islamabad and introduces the crucial issues centering on it. 

The current city plan of Islamabad continues to display the major feature of the original plan of Islamabad designed by the Greek architect Constantinos A. Doxiadis: the grid pattern according to the hierarchical system of residents. Just like a nesting doll, each large sector is subdivided into many smaller areas, followed by the immediately smaller class. The plan also arranges educational, medical, and recreational facilities in the same hierarchical order; the smaller the sector is, the more services essential to life are provided.

Not only the built facilities but also transportation means followed the same hierarchical order of the city. The "Principal Roads" enclosed the largest section with a provision of some expressways, while the "Major Roads," the narrower roads that accommodated for smaller vehicles and pedestrians, underlay each smaller section. Moreover, the pedestrian streets were so well-designed that they did not interfere with the smooth continuations of the roadways.

At the intersection of the Islamabad Highway and Muree Highway, Doxiadis established a Communication Center that served a communal platform for primary means of transportation. Its functions included parking for taxis and private cars, railway station, and bus terminal, whose buses connected sites both intramurally and extramurally, i.e., it served travels both within Islamabad and to the adjacent cities, Rawalpindi and the National Park.

In 1999 - 2000, 88.5% of the total budget granted to the public transportation sector was used for the developments of the highways and bridges, while only a small proportion of it was allocated to local roads.

Major developments in Islamabad's transport system include:

• 1968 Islamabad Highway was established
• 1973 Kashmir Highway was established
• 1998 M2, the first motorway in Pakistan, was established in Islamabad
• 2001 Metro Radio Cub, a taxi-like service where riders can call a toll-free number to contact the closest taxi stand, was launched
• 2015 BRT (Bus Rapid Transit system) was launched
• 2016 Careem, a ride-hailing company similar to the American company Uber, was launched

While the overall grid plan with the hierarchical order of sectors remained from Doxiadis' master plan, the arrangement of roads varies from sector to sector. Depending on the population density and the accompanying ridership of transportation, the plan has provided some flexibility within each of the largest sectors, as can be seen from the map below.

Currently, Islamabad's transportation system comprises formal and informal modes of traveling. The formal, authorized transportation, which includes private cars and vans, minibus, and larger buses run by the BRT: Bus Rapid Transit system, makes up 95% of the transport system in Islamabad. However, due to low ridership in some areas, a significant proportion of the public transportation in Islamabad is currently inactive, and hence the inconvenience for those who live under this condition. Therefore, an informal means of transportation, namely the Qingqi rickshaws, became prevalent in the city; it is unauthorized due to its low level of traffic safety.

95% of the private cars, taxis, and motorcycles in Pakistan are of Japan-make, and more than 55% of them are made by Suzuki. Moreover, in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, except for when they participate in religious events, women are more likely to use private automobiles daily, while men are more likely to use public transportation. This is due to the current public transportation system not being suitable for women's mobility and the social constraints that limit the women's use of motorcycles and bicycles.

One of the major long-distance public transportation means is the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metrobus offered by the BRT. Started in 2015, the bus has served the area spanning from the easternmost of Islamabad to the center of Rawalpindi. In July 2019, the bus fare increased from Rs20 to Rs30, which is equivalent to 40 cents in US dollars, due to the rising cost of petroleum. This decision, made by the government, has led to a drastic fall in the number of daily passengers; it decreased by 16.7%, dropping to 10,000 passengers per day.

Despite the developments in each transportation mode in Islamabad, it is still far from being on the satisfactory level of the citizens. Recent surveys conducted by the Pre-Feasibility Study have shown that more than 90% of passengers are unhappy with the current public transportation system of the city. In addition to the inconvenience of the system, the rapid growth in the vehicle population and accompanying leaded petroleum consumption have required severe labor conditions and caused crucial environmental pollution.

The labor force of the transportation system in Pakistan mainly comprises of self-employed operators who do not comply with rules, resulting in their inability to offer the minimum national social security to their employees. Especially, the labors of road transportation are mostly private owners and working informally. Labors of the intra-city transportation system are typically owner- cum-drivers, who purchase vehicles such as minibus, taxi, wagon, school van, and motor rickshaw through loans and drive them on their own. On the other hand, the inter-city public transportation system has been run by small registered companies, whose vehicles are operated by employees drivers.

Literate, semiskilled, or skilled, males in the age group 20 - 45 mostly constitute the demographic of the laborers in the public transportation sector. Besides, many of the workers start their careers in the public transportation sector because of the collapse of their former business. The easy transferability of the skills has allowed the sector to accommodate the seamless flow of the unemployed, literate workers.

The major issue of the working condition in the public transportation sector is the long, irregular working hour. Traditionally, the inter-city drivers in Pakistan are on vehicles for 26 straight hours on average. Even the intra-city drivers work for much more than 10 hours a day; 14 hours for bus drivers and 12 hours for rickshaw and taxi drivers. Due to the lack of maintenance on the roads and vehicles, those drivers are also facing the danger of traffic accidents.

All those labor and fears are likely to result in the drivers' severe health condition. The long, night-time drivings induce their heavy addiction on drugs to combat their drowsiness and exhaustion. Additionally, in 2005, UNICEF has reported that the people who were most infected with HIV/AIDS were the sex workers and transport workers who operate long distances. Since the nature of the work tends to keep drivers apart from their families, they, especially males, apt to resort to sex services, and hence the high chance of infection.

Membership-based unions and federations have been evolved to support the labor and their families financially. Grants are provided to those who experienced a work-related contingency, such as hospitalizations, serious injuries, and deaths of the driver. The money is collected either from voluntary donations from individuals or mandatory payments by the members of the union.

The rapid increase in the fuel consumption of Islamabad has led to the undesirably high level of lead concentration in the air, threatening the children with the fear that it would impair their health and brain development. Statistically, from 1980 to 1998, Islamabad's growth rate of vehicle population was 21.8%, which was the highest among the cities in Pakistan, and as of 2015, Punjab, the larger province including Islamabad, had had the highest growth rate in the consumption of petroleum, compared to other provinces in Pakistan.

While the United States Environmental Protection Agency sets the standard lead concentration level to be 0.15 μg/m3, one of the studied sites in Islamabad marked 10.93 μg/m3 lead concentration in 1999 - 2000. Even in the locations without the excessive traffic activity, the lead concentration in Rawalpindi and Islamabad was found to be in the range 0.25 – 0.98 μg/m3 in the study conducted a year before. These studies have shown that the lead concentration in Islamabad has been considerably high and must have caused by the excessive use of petrol-powered vehicles.

Until its update in 2012, the CDC has been considering children with more than 10 μg/dl of blood lead as having a blood lead level "of concern." In contrast, a study conducted on 230 school students in Islamabad in 1992 have shown that the average blood lead level of male students was 23.05 +/- 2.8 μg/dl and that of female students was 22.5 +/- 3.90 μg/dl; the small disparity between the blood lead level of each gender suggests that both genders had equally been exposed to the contaminated air.

The results have indicated that, in Islamabad, the high content of lead in the air has engendered a high risk of children's health, intellectual, and mental issues.

The government of Pakistan has been making considerable effort to transform their country into "leaded-petrol-free." Their promotions of using composed natural gas resulted in a great success, achieving the final part of their progressive goals, "no more leaded petrol in country," much ahead of the scheduled time.

Finally, a study conducted on the inhabitants in Islamabad and Rawalpindi in 2013 and 2014 has shown that more than half of the interviewees had deemed the cost of public transportation extremely or majorly expensive. The same study also reported that the low and middle income households spend a higher share of incomes on public transportation. While 24%, at highest, of the total income of low-income households is spent on transportation, only 10% of that of high-income households is spared on it.

Besides, another study conducted in the same year by the government shows that the higher the income level is, the higher the share of expenditure spent on transportation. That is to say, while low- and middle-income households spend less money on transportation than high-income households, its expenditure makes up a higher proportion of their income compared to that of high-income households. These two studies indicate that the transportation system in Islamabad presents an economical challenge to low- and middle-income households with its poor affordability of useful transportation modes and expensive fares.

Currently, the metropolitan buses are all operated by the Punjab Masstransit Authority, which is a statutory body established by the government of the Punjab province. The Pakistan railway, the national railway, is governed by the Ministry of Railways, which branched out of the Ministry of Communication in 1974. Metro Radio Cab, started in 2001, was one of the first companies that introduced radio cabs to Pakistan, and still serves a large area in the country, including Islamabad.

What is necessary for Islamabad today is the maintenance of local roads. Despite the developments in long-distance transportations, including highways and metro buses, an improvement in local roads is essential to lessen traffic accidents. Furthermore, to improve the working conditions of the transportation sector, the municipal government is encouraged to set the maximum working hour and raise wages instead. To compensate for the possible lost revenue, the government can take over the radio cab and minibus system and facilitate the utilization by citizens. The government will also be able to reduce the use of private cars in this way, achieving a decrease in the automobile population, and hence fewer traffic accidents. 

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