This a random thought from this morning. What are socio-cultural effects that a local train system can have on a city (except for the obvious ones). Being now a resident of Mumbai and one without a bike, I often travel by train and there are some interesting effects that the trains have on public of Mumbai.
1. A greater sense of groups. In a non-local-train city working or visiting a same place regularly and not interacting with others is a common occurrence. For example, a group of thirty students may go to same tuition class every day and still remain aloof to each other since only face time they get, they are listening to the teacher not interacting. On the other hand when they are all commuting by same train (if they are not rich brats) they get face time with each other where they can interact. Hence, more socializing and creation of groups according to railway timetable.
2. Quantization of foot traffic. Again in a non-local-train city people arrive at any point in a manner that can be plotted normal distribution graph, max at peak and min at extremes and continuous in between. While in places like Mumbai there is a clear quantization with large no. of people arriving at train arrival time and falling low the rest. Accordingly most of the places being involved with walk-in traffic are affected. For example, a cafe near station might be empty most of the time and overloaded the moment train arrives.
3. Redefined Geography. Location and existence of stations often redefine geography which has a huge impact on local population especially in cities like Mumbai where people often draw their identity from the locality they belong to. For example two stations Vashi and Sanpada are only five minutes (walking distance) apart from each other yet both places have their separate cricket clubs and teams.
There might be many other phenomenon that I might be missing here. Any thoughts?
1. A greater sense of groups. In a non-local-train city working or visiting a same place regularly and not interacting with others is a common occurrence. For example, a group of thirty students may go to same tuition class every day and still remain aloof to each other since only face time they get, they are listening to the teacher not interacting. On the other hand when they are all commuting by same train (if they are not rich brats) they get face time with each other where they can interact. Hence, more socializing and creation of groups according to railway timetable.
2. Quantization of foot traffic. Again in a non-local-train city people arrive at any point in a manner that can be plotted normal distribution graph, max at peak and min at extremes and continuous in between. While in places like Mumbai there is a clear quantization with large no. of people arriving at train arrival time and falling low the rest. Accordingly most of the places being involved with walk-in traffic are affected. For example, a cafe near station might be empty most of the time and overloaded the moment train arrives.
3. Redefined Geography. Location and existence of stations often redefine geography which has a huge impact on local population especially in cities like Mumbai where people often draw their identity from the locality they belong to. For example two stations Vashi and Sanpada are only five minutes (walking distance) apart from each other yet both places have their separate cricket clubs and teams.
There might be many other phenomenon that I might be missing here. Any thoughts?
3 comments:
Well your very first point... I think people get to socialise if their travelling by the train..(those people who get to see each other regularly). I am very comfortable taking the train while travelling cos i think it's pretty comfortable and we have got facilities.I think they should stress on improving the sanitation facilities.
well i think i missed the facilities that made me comfortable while in the train.
and the drains on the train. ohh yes that really came in the way of conversations
well you can't get away from it can you? train travel rules. never know who's going to help you out, wwhen and whee.remember the floods? the blasts? the yearly monsoon rigmarole?
as for train facilities, they're gettin there. look at the stations in newbombay? swanky eh?
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