The case of never-ending mobility woes

Two years ago, Tooba and her husband moved into her mother’s house so that they could save up on the fuel cost. The young parents of two small boys found a good school in the vicinity and her husband’s office was also comparatively nearer from this place. Hopeful and happy, Tooba was looking forward to resuming work, pursuing her Master’s degree and saving up some of their earnings for the future.

Today, unfortunately, Tooba feels that she is back to square one. The 30-year-old working mother leaves for work early in the morning and her husband drops off the kids at school. In the afternoon, she rushes out from the school in Bahadurabad where she works and picks up her children on her way home in Gulshan 13-D. And the one-time fare for this route estimates around 450 to 500 rupees. “The school is just a walking distance of eight minutes from our place. We tried to get a van for them in the morning but the van driver was charging 3000 per child for one side, which was not in our budget. There are so many expenses such as bills, school fees, groceries and whatnot; and the commute only gets expensive by the day,” she narrates. “Moreover, travelling in a rickshaw on a daily basis is not easy, especially with all the potholes getting worse every day. I’ve started getting severe back pain because of it but I have to make that sacrifice if we want to make ends meet.”

Karachi is a city of around 15 million people, according to the 2017 census. And while experts have contested that the true estimate is above 20 million, it still gives a rough idea of how densely populated the metropolitan city is. Given that Karachi is a business hub and a significant contributor to the country’s GDP, there is no proper public transit system in place to accommodate the millions of men and women commuting to work in different parts of the city.

The generation of yesteryears often reminisce about the tramway line that connected the city and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) which ran a full circumference of 44 km until the city outgrew it. Then, came along the minivans, the buses that fell out of order and the qingqi that was eventually outlawed.

All of this was followed by the birth of app-operated ride-hailing services like Uber, Careem and InDriver. And before the pandemic hit, a new cheaper alternative came with two bus-hailing services called Airlift and Swvl. The services were suspended during Covid-19, and while Airlift never resumed its daily buses after the pandemic, Swvl quickly became popular among the masses as office-goers and many students started heavily relying on it.

25-year-old Wallia is a university student, who is also working a full-time job. She goes to university sharp 8 a.m. from F.B. area to Karsaz and after she is done with her classes, she heads to the office at I.I. Chundrigar road. She has been using public transport since the past eight years, but the arrival of cab-booking services made it somewhat safe and easier. More so, the Swvl bus service was no less than a blessing for the young student, especially when she had two places to travel to on a daily basis.

“The bus service had literally changed my life. In the morning I would just walk to my stop which was a 10-minute walk from my house. From my university to work, my fare would only cost around 50-100 rupees at the most. In total, I would hardly spend 6-7k per month. And the best part was that since my timings weren’t really fixed, I didn’t have to rush my work and could easily find a different ride for a different time,” she shares.

However, this convenience didn’t last long as in early June this year, the company decided to shut down its daily ride service.

“I was majorly affected by the shutdown. It was a safe, cheap and accessible ride. Now, I have been easily spending 10k-15k on cabs, which is more than half my pay. Having to haggle with rickshaw-walas, facing peak factor and hiked fares due to petrol prices, it is not something that I want to deal with on a daily basis. It is a headache and eventually takes a toll on me. Considering that I not only have to pay for my university fees but I also have to contribute to the household expenses… it is a massive dent in my pocket,” Wallia laments.

Tabinda is a resident of North Nazimabad and has been using public transport to reach her office since the past three and a half years. She was also an avid user of the bus-hailing service but the shutdown didn’t affect her as much as it did Wallia. “When I was using the service, my average cost of transportation was around 4k to 4.5k. However, the good thing was that the Green Line Bus was finally operational and that helped me save up probably more than before,” enthuses Tabinda.

Green Line Bus Service is the first of the multiple Bus Rapid Transits (BRTs) planned for Karachi. The route is established separately on a 21 km-long track to avoid traffic interruptions, along with the 22 stations accessible to the passengers. It connects the areas of central districts to the south. The service may have been operational since December 2021, the construction for it started in 2016.

“For me, this bus has been very convenient, time-saving and cost-effective. From my stop to Numaish, I only had to pay 40 rupees which is estimated to be around 800-900 rupees per month in total. I do have to travel to my destination from there onwards but it still reduced a major chunk that was going into travel,” informs Tabinda.

Another thing that she emphasised on was how safe she felt in the van. “The guards would constantly keep a check on things like if there are men trying to sneak into the women's compartment or if things are running smoothly. In this regard, my experience has been great.”

A similar service was introduced in June of this year by the Sindh Government called Peoples Bus Service. So far there are several routes introduced in the city, but it still doesn’t cover most of Karachi and buses seem full to the brim whenever they pass by.

Areeba who lives near Tower finds the service to be quite convenient. “Luckily, my workplaces and even my university have been near to my place. I’ve been using the red bus since the past two months, and so far I find that it is a good service. It is also cheap since my fare is just 50 rupees for one side,” tells Areeba. “However, I feel that this is an option limited to people who live in the specific areas where the service is accessible. Moreover, it also limits you when you sometimes have to travel late or when heavy rains happen, as that’s when most services stop working.”

While there have been efforts made to curb the issue of commuting, there hasn’t really been a holistic model that worked for the city. Tabinda and Areeba may have found a somewhat convenient way to travel in the city, but that doesn’t apply to every Karachiite. Moreover, there are several nuances in the demographic that have to be taken into consideration when designing a mass transit.

According to a study Mobility from the lens of Gender conducted by an NGO Shehri in 2020 highlights that “transit should not be designed as gender neutral, as men and women do not have the same realities and needs. Gender mainstreaming is an important concept which has been continuously side-lined while designing public transportation all over the world, especially in developing countries.”

It further elaborates that “men spend a larger part in transit, but women are comparatively more dependent on the use of public transport.” Moreover it also pointed out that a woman’s mobility increases after marriage as they generally have a more scattered travel pattern. Simply put, they majorly travel outside work hours, and practice trip chaining, which refers to having multiple stops along their ways.

28-year-old Hasan is a Software Engineer who has been saving up for his wedding at the end of this year. Since he doesn’t have a vehicle of his own, he often uses Bykea, which is a bike-hailing service. It is a much cheaper option compared to any other cab-service which has been benefiting mostly men. “I have to travel from North Nazimabad to Millennium Mall on a daily basis. Up until a few months ago, the fare for one side used to cost me around 150 rupees at max. But now, I have to pay 250 rupees for the same route. This sums up to 500 in commute every day and when I add additional expenses of food and utilities, the total comes up to around 25k at least. I don’t know how I will be able to make enough savings.”

When asked if he has to make any additional stops on the way home, unlike Tooba who makes a few mandatory stops on her way back every day, Hasan shares that he occasionally stops by the neighbourhood shop for bread and butter, otherwise his route is almost always without a stop.

Journalist Zoya was first introduced to Bykea in 2016, when a male friend raved to her about the cheap fares of the service. “My friend travelled all the way from Gulshan to Saddar for 50 rupees. And at that time, fares for that same trip would have cost around 200 rupees,” she says. “For a reporter, public buses are not the most convenient mode of transportation, since the urgency of the job requires us to reach places on short notice. Also, thanks to broken roads and unending constructions in the city, the traffic congestion ensures that a note of 500 vanishes into thin air if one takes a car using ride-hailing apps. The city is in dire need of a mass-transit system that caters to the whole city.”

Owing to her financial constraints, Zoya decided to use the bike-hailing service frequently. While she had her qualms about travelling at night and had to deal with misogynistic drivers, she had to quickly shun all of those away in order to get things done. “If there was another safe and affordable option for me, I would never sit on another bike. I find motorcycles are not really a safe mode of commute since passengers are vulnerable, especially if they don’t have a helmet.”

Having worked in New York briefly and living in Münster, Germany, for the duration of her Master’s degree and work, Zoya compares her experience of commuting with that of Karachi. “Getting on my first ever subway ride in New York, I experienced what it was like to travel without having to call anyone. In Karachi, a woman relies on the male member of the family to pick and drop her or has to dole out an exorbitant amount in fares. Only recently I went to Sindhi Muslim from F.B. Area, and ended up spending around 2000 rupees in just fares. Even in a small city like Münster, I never had to worry about not finding a reliable ride back home, as there was a bus at the stop every 20 minutes. It was a relief to know that even if you missed your usual bus you could take another one 20 minutes later.”

Zoya has reported on multiple occasions on how the city dwellers in Karachi deserve a good transit system. But unless there is one, many women have started riding their own bikes to get around. “I’ve spoken to women who learned how to ride a bike only because they found that it was a much cheaper alternative. Motorcycles are cheaper, easier to maintain as bike mechanics are accessible in every nook and cranny. But again, bikes are not safe to ride for any gender. It’s great that women are empowering themselves, but that should not distract one from the main reasons why these women decided to take up this ride: their socioeconomic realities and a lack of transit in the city.”

The writer tweets as

@AdeelaAkmal & can be reached at adeelaakmal@gmail.com