Roads bad, getting worse

HT-CSDS Survey reveals 39 per cent of Delhi?s voters feel the condition of our roads has become worse over the past five years.

This year’s unusually heavy rains left Delhi’s roads ravaged. A large number of the city’s voters, however, think the monsoon only exacerbated a problem that already existed.

According to the results of the HT-CSDS Survey on the condition of Delhi’s roads, 39 per cent of Delhi’s voters feel the condition of our roads has become worse over the past five years. This figure is three percentage points more than the proportion of people who think roads have actually improved since 1998.

Expectedly, Delhiites who travel long distances to work are the ones who are the most unhappy. Among respondents who travel 16 km or more on Delhi’s roads every day, 42 per cent say the situation was better five years ago.

The proportion of those who say that Delhi’s roads have deteriorated increases as one goes down the economic scale.

Among those who use their own cars to travel to work, 36 per cent say roads have worsened. This is two percentage points less than the proportion of people who travel by bus. Among those who use bicycles or rickshaws, 43 per cent feel roads were better five years ago.

Opinion seems divided if one were to survey people according to the neighbourhoods they live in. Over 40 per cent of Delhiites living in government and DDA flats say Delhi’s roads have improved over the past five years.

By contrast, nearly 50 per cent of slum dwellers and villagers say the situation has deteriorated since 1998.