Infrastructure, or, How To Survive in Mumbai

I think I’ve figured out what one needs to do to survive in Mumbai. But to in order to explain, I have to tell you a bit about the infrastructure here.

Infrastructure in Mumbai is often in a poor state. The sidewalks, where they exist, are especially problematic. Some parts of the city consistently have sidewalks, others do not. However where the sidewalks do exists they are wildly inconsistent in quality from one stretch to the next. The sidewalk might be nicely paved for 100 feet, then will be cracked for the next 100 feet, then just won’t exist for 100 feet, then will be there again, and then decrease in width by half for another 100 feet. In Bandra, where I am living, the main road has sidewalk, but it will go from 12 feet in width to 4 feet in width. Or all of sudden you might be walking in mud, then back to a paved sidewalk. Other streets in Bandra, however, will have sidewalks as thin as 3 feet. This is a big problem considering how many people walk in Mumbai at any given time of the day.

The sidewalks are extremely crowded here. Many people, in fact most people, just walk in the street because the sidewalks are so crowded. Another problem is that the sidewalk is often taken up entirely by vendors. A 15 sidewalk suddenly becomes 3 feet because vendors have set up tables and booths to sell everything from fruit to pillow cases. The weird thing though is that people seem kind of bad at walking in public with lots of other people. I’ve always thought that in New York or Chicago, where lots of people walk a lot, people tend to be pretty good at walking with lots of other people around. Folks move to one side or the other when there is another person approaching them, people generally avoid bumping into each other, and most people don’t take up the whole sidewalk. Mumbai is a crowded city with many pedestrians, but I cannot say that the pedestrians here very good at dealing with each other. People don’t move to the side, people walk right in front of you, or bump into you. If I am walking on a narrow sidewalk, and approaching someone walking the opposite direction, I’ll move to my left, but chances are the other person won’t even move 1 foot to the right to avoid a collision. So when we reach each other we both have to strangely contort our bodies to avoiding bumping into each other. Or I’ll be walking down to the street to the train in the morning, and people don’t seem to use their peripheral vision. Folks will suddenly cut right in front of me, like 2 inches from my face. Or people will all of a sudden bump into me. I think it is strange. You’d think that people would eventually get pretty good at walking in large crowds here. But sometimes I think that there are simply too many people and too little sidewalk space in Mumbai for even the most basic of pedestrian courtesies.

In some parts of the city, especially the northern neighborhoods, the city has built “skywalks” around the train stations, where many people walk. The skywalks are essentially pedestrian highways. They are built maybe 40 feet up, and are covered. I take the Bandra skywalk every day on the way to, and from, the train station. The street leading to the train station is nuts. There are tons of pedestrians, cars, taxis, three-wheeled auto rickshaws, and vendors. On top of that, the main bus depot and transfer center for the area is right there, which means buses are constantly coming in and out of the small street. So, I take the skywalk for about a block and a half to the train station. It’s safer, saves me some time, and offers an interesting view of the street below that you don’t see very often. If anyone has been to the High Line in New York, it’s a bit like that, but more crowded, dirtier, and with no landscaping or design.

You can also see Mumbai’s public infrastructure bursting at the seams on the city’s trains. I learned came across some interesting stats the other day. 85% of commuters in Mumbai take public transit to work. That’s a number that any transportation planner in the United States would drool over. Another 8% or so walk, bike, or take taxis, and about 7% drive. That’s the amazing thing. The streets here are packed. Cars clog the road most of the day. In many parts of the city traffic is something that drivers deal with from 8 am to 8 pm. With only 7% of the population here driving private vehicles, the city’s traffic system is just about operating at capacity. And as impressive as it is that 85% of Mumbaikars take transit, it really shows.

As I’ve mentioned before, the trains here are crazy. They are absolutely packed. During rush hour, the train will be full, and people will still stream inside, pushing their way in to get a spot. I can kind of understand (just a little bit) why people would want to get a car here, even if they have to sit in traffic all day. I’ll be standing on a packed train with literally no room to move. Someone will walk up to me, say excuse me, and look at me as if I’m supposed to move out of his way or something. Eventually they just push past me, shoving me into other people on the train. And when it is time to get off, you have to push your way to the door, and then push your way out through the crowds of people trying to get on the train.

And this is what I’m trying to get at. To survive in Mumbai you have to be patient, extremely patient. But you also have to pushy, sometime very pushy. When you are walking to the train in the morning to get to work, and people bump into you or cut you off, you have to be patient. When cars and motorcycles don’t stop for you, or almost hit you, you have to have patience and move on. If you don’t you are going to be frustrated and angry all the time. But, you also have to be pushy. People most likely won’t move for you, so you just have to keep walking through. If there are cars, you just have to walk in front of them so they’ll stop. If you keep on moving out of the way for people, of keep stopping for all the cars, you’ll never get anywhere. Or, when you are on the train, and hordes of people get on so that you are all packed in like sardines, you have to be patient. When people shove and push you to get by, you just have to be patient and get over it, or else you are going to be miserable during your entire train ride. But, when you need to get off the train, you have to be pushy. You have to push and shove to get off. Otherwise, you are not going to be able to get off the train, and will miss your stop.

That’s how you survive in Mumbai.