by Aditya Aryan, Research Analyst at the Foundation for Democratic Reforms

India’s urban transportation system faces a variety of challenges, from overcrowded buses to inefficient multimodal integration and poor access to transit hubs. Policymakers in the country often focus on expanding roads or constructing flyovers as these are visible symbols of progress, which align with the voters’ aspirations for modern infrastructure, inevitably marginalizing non-motorized transport users. Globally, the concept of pedestrian-first urban design is gaining traction, recognizing the fundamental role of walkability in sustainable cities. Yet, in India, rethinking road user hierarchy to prioritize pedestrians as the primary users of roads is a major challenge. Roads are often perceived as spaces for vehicular dominance, reflecting socio-economic aspirations tied to private car ownership. Shifting this mindset would require not only infrastructure redesign but also cultural and policy shifts that challenge ingrained notions of urban mobility.

In such a context, improving last-mile connectivity emerges as the most impactful solution that can be implemented with minimal disruption. First and last mile connectivity refers to the challenge of reaching public transport stations from one’s origin and then from the station to the final destination. This connectivity gap represents a significant barrier to public transport adoption, as individuals are typically deterred from walking more than a quarter of a mile to reach their local mode of public transportation.¹ While large-scale physical infrastructure projects, such as metro expansions or expressways, easily gather political will, financial resources, and longer timelines, last-mile connectivity enhancements – such as feeder buses, e-rickshaws, and pedestrian-friendly pathways – are often ignored.

Lessons from Bogota’s model for India

Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and largest city, is an exemplary case study on how targeted public transportation reforms can address systemic challenges. Indian cities, today, face first/last mile connectivity challenges that mirror pre-reform Bogotá but lack the sustained political will necessary for comprehensive solutions. According to a 2006 World Bank Bus Toolkit, India has just 1.2 buses per 1,000 people, far below global benchmarks ( For comparison, Thailand has 8.6, Russia has 6.1, and South Africa 6.5.)²

The problem of last mile connectivity is acute in metropolitan cities burdened with expensive metro projects spanning across the city but still being inaccessible. This creates a paradox for metro rail systems: while the metro journey itself is dependable, safe, and comfortable, the first or last leg of the total trip – often involving non-motorized options like walking or cycling – is frequently unreliable, costly, unsafe, or inconvenient. Travelers tend to select modes of transport that align with their complete journey needs. In 2017, only 41 out of 138 metro stations in Delhi were served by feeder services.³ This connectivity implementation gap shows political will focused on infrastructure construction rather than operational integration.

In contrast, Bogotá’s TransMilenio system demonstrated how political commitment and operational innovation can bridge such gaps. While Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) systems became the frontrunner of Bogota’s mobility reforms, it was last mile connectivity measures that made it successful. The TransMilenio system’s focus on addressing first/last mile connectivity and multimodal integration⁴ led to its innovative feeder bus network, comprising approximately 948 buses representing 29% of the total public vehicle fleet. These buses provide free connections from peripheral neighborhoods to main BRT corridors. Owing to this, 39% of commuters use public transit whereas 32% rely on walking as their means of transportation in the city.

Bogota’s solution for connectivity extended beyond infrastructure to operational innovation. The system’s integrated fare structure, enabled by smart card technology, allows seamless transfers between feeder buses and trunk services without additional payments.⁵ This required significant political will to restructure fare systems and coordinate revenue sharing among multiple operators. Measures like this are indicative of the policy’s willingness to centre commuters as the fulcrum of public transportation and not private cars. 

Conclusion

Urban planning in India has prioritised vehicular traffic over pedestrian needs, resulting in road designs catered primarily to cars and two-wheelers.⁶ The association of public transport usage and pedestrian infrastructure with lower socio-economic groups also contributes to its neglect.⁷ While mega projects, like metros and flyovers do serve the needs of people in urban centres, the misallocation of political attention results in them failing to achieve their ridership potential.

The article does not propose feeder buses as the only solution but asks to think of innovative, indigenous, and data-driven solutions for this oft ignored problem. Last-mile connectivity measures play the most significant role in shifting private car users to public transportation services. It lays the ground for a multimodal transportation system and ensures physical, service, institutional, and informational integration. Indian cities possess the technical knowledge and financial resources to implement first/last mile connectivity solutions, but they lack the sustained political commitment necessary to overcome institutional fragmentation and operational challenges. 

It requires political actors who can articulate compelling connectivity visions, build broad stakeholder coalitions, maintain long-term implementation commitment, and make difficult decisions about resource allocation and institutional coordination. Without such political commitment, Indian cities will continue to struggle with mobility crises that undermine their economic competitiveness and residents’ quality of life, despite substantial investments in individual transport modes.

Footnotes

1. Bergman Å, Gliebe J and Strathman J, ‘Modeling Access Mode Choice for Inter-Suburban Commuter Rail’ (2011) 14 Journal of Public Transportation ↩︎
2. ‘Transforming India’s Mobility: A Perspective’ (NITI Aayog & The Boston Consulting Group 2018) ↩︎
3. De M, Sikarwar S and Kumar V, ‘Intelligent Systems to Enhance Last Mile Connectivity for Upcoming Smart Cities in India’ 2 J. Adv. Res. Const. Urban Arch. 16 ↩︎
4. Moro A, Eil A and Baral P, ‘Cycling Infrastructure in Cities: Bogotá’s Quinto Centenario Cycle Avenue – Creating the Enabling Environment’ (C40 Cities Finance Facility 2018) ↩︎
5. Guzman LA and others, ‘BRT Fare Elasticities from Smartcard Data: Spatial and Time-of-the-Day Differences’ (2021) 150 Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 335 ↩︎
6. Verma A, Harsha V and Subramanian GH, ‘Evolution of Urban Transportation Policies in India: A Review and Analysis’ (2021) 7 Transportation in Developing Economies 25 ↩︎
7. Tiwari G, Mohan D and Agrawal G, Transport Planning and Traffic Safety: Making Cities, Roads, and Vehicles Safer (CRC Press 2018) ↩︎