The Traffic Paradox: Why Our Cities Are Choking — and How We Can Fix Them
Every day, millions of us crawl through endless traffic jams, counting minutes, burning fuel, and quietly wondering: Why isn’t anything getting better? Despite new metros, more flyovers, and shiny highways, Indian cities remain gridlocked. This paradox — of progress without movement — is exactly what we explored in our latest Townhall session at Chapters Bookstore with Pravesh Biyani, a sustainable mobility systems expert and professor at IIIT Delhi.
Biyani, who also founded Chartr, a mobility startup focused on data-driven public transport solutions, brings a unique mix of research depth and real-world experience. As someone who’s both studied and lived the complexities of urban mobility, he offered a refreshingly grounded view of India’s traffic problem — and a hopeful roadmap for the future.
At Townhall, our goal is to make sense of big issues that affect our everyday lives — with nuance, data, and dialogue. And few topics impact Indians more directly than urban traffic. From hours lost in commute to the environmental and mental strain of living in car-choked cities, the cost of congestion is immense. But as Biyani argued, our biggest problem might not be traffic itself — it’s how we think about it.
4 Myths That Drive Our Traffic Troubles
Biyani began by challenging the deeply ingrained assumptions that guide most of India’s urban planning. Each of these, he explained, sounds logical — but ends up making the problem worse.
1. Myth: Higher Speed Limits Mean Faster Travel
We often equate speed with efficiency — but Biyani shattered that belief using data from European cities like Paris, which have reduced urban speed limits to 30 km/h.
“In congested cities,” he explained, “the average travel time barely changes when you lower speed limits — but accidents, noise, and stress levels drop dramatically.”
2. Myth: Wider Roads and More Flyovers Reduce Congestion
For decades, this has been the guiding mantra of Indian urban planning. But building more roads, Biyani said, is like taking a “traffic steroid.” It feels good initially — until the problem comes back stronger.
This is the concept of induced demand: every time we expand a road, more people decide to drive. The result? Within months, the new lanes are just as jammed as before, but now with more cars, more emissions, and fewer safe spaces for pedestrians and cyclists.
“We’ve built our cities for cars,” Biyani observed, “not for people.”
3. Myth: Metros are the Magic Solution — Even for Tier-2 Cities
Biyani strongly supports metros — where they make sense. For megacities like Delhi or Mumbai, metros are indispensable. But in smaller cities, they often become financial sinkholes.
He cited examples like Lucknow, where the operating cost per passenger is roughly ₹83 — an unsustainable figure given low ridership. The problem isn’t intent but scale. Metros require a critical mass of population and feeder networks to succeed, both of which are often missing in smaller cities. In contrast, a strong network of buses can cover more routes, reach more people, and create the demand that later justifies heavier infrastructure like metro rails.
4. Myth: Cars Drive Local Economies
Another powerful misconception is that more car owners mean a stronger economy. Biyani flipped that narrative completely.
He explained how car-centric urban design — full of flyovers, parking lots, and wide roads — actually kills local business by discouraging foot traffic. When people can’t easily walk to shops, they turn to delivery apps like Blinkit and Zepto, bypassing local markets altogether.
From Myths to Meaningful Change
Once the myths were stripped away, Pravesh Biyani turned to what truly matters — fixing governance, culture, and systems. The real bottleneck, he argued, isn’t technology but government capacity and civic sense. Building effective, integrated transport systems requires coordination across bureaucratic silos, while our daily chaos on the roads reflects a deeper lack of discipline and respect for public space. His most powerful idea — a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for transport — reimagines how cities move. By digitizing and sharing real-time data (routes, GPS, schedules) through open APIs, governments can empower private innovators to build user-friendly mobility solutions. As Biyani put it, “Governments shouldn’t run buses—they should build the infrastructure that lets others run them better.” This model, already improving efficiency in Delhi, offers a scalable blueprint for India’s urban future.
What made this Townhall truly special was the audience participation. The discussion veered beyond transport engineering into the politics, psychology, and sociology of urban mobility.
About the Speaker: Pravesh Biyani
Pravesh Biyani is a Professor at IIIT Delhi, specializing in transport systems, data-driven policy, and public infrastructure. He is also the founder of Chartr, a startup focused on improving bus networks using open data and real-time insights. As a Yale Emerging Climate Leader, he’s at the forefront of India’s sustainable urban mobility transformation.
About Townhall by Chapters
Townhall is an initiative by Chapters Bookstore & Café that brings experts and citizens together for face-to-face conversations on issues shaping our world — from climate change to urban design, AI, mental health, and beyond.
It’s not a lecture — it’s a space to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and walk away a little wiser.
Photo by Marvin Castelino on Unsplash