Most great cities in the world are marked by their spirit of dynamism. New York and Mumbai, often counted among the world’s fastest cities, are no different. Both these cities are in a constant state of flux, always moving, always in transit.
Because the residents of both these cities are famously always on the go, the two metropolises are very well connected. The John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports connect New York with the rest of the world. The airports of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey service 109 million passengers with 1.3 million flights. In Mumbai, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport had 29.1 million passengers in 2010-2011, a growth rate of 14 percent.
New York City has a robust public transportation system made up o subways, buses and railroads, providing 2.6 billion trips each year to its residents. The subway system meets many of the city’s transportation needs throughout its boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island with 21 interconnected subway routes and 6,282 subway cars.
According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the average weekday subway ridership in 2011 was 5.3 million, while annual ridership was 1.6 billion. From the original 28 subway stations in Manhattan that opened on Oct. 27, 1904, there are now 468 stations in the entire system.
Each day in Mumbai, about 11 million people travel by public transport, with 48 percent of all commuters using the railways, 44 percent using buses and 8 percent using private cars, according to the Mumba! i Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The city’s railway system has a network of 195 local trains that provide 2,800 trips daily.
While Mumbai is a well-connected city compared to other Indian cities like New Delhi, the public transportation system is weighed down by the ever-increasing population pressure. As a result, the share of commuters using public transport is falling and the number of private vehicles is rising each year. According to the state transport department, the number of vehicles registered in the city went up from 1.1 million in 2002 to 2 million in 2012 â€" a rise of over 90 percent.
Though the population of Mumbai increases each year, the number of taxis is actually dropping, according to Mumbai’s taxi union leader, who said the city’s flet has fallen from 62,000 in 1997 to 32,000 in 2013. Meanwhile, New York has approximately 13,000 taxis plying its roads.
While both cities have iconic cabs - the black-and-yellow in Mumbai and the yellow taxi in New York - change is under way. In Mumbai, the once-ubiquitous Premier Padmini cab is on its way out because of a government regulation passed in 2008 that requires cabs older than 25 years to be retired. In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is attempting to introduce the “Taxi of Tomorrow,†the first attempt to redesign the modern taxi since the Checker cabs.
At the ! heart of ! each of these cities is an iconic edifice, which serves as the nerve center for much of the cities’ transportation needs and often features prominently in popular culture. Grand Central Terminal in New York, which celebrates its centennial in 2013, is the busiest train station in the United States, serving commuter and long-distance rail lines.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, formerly known as Victoria Terminus Station, built over 10 years starting in 1878, is one of the finest examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in the city. The building, which is a Unesco World Heritage site, is still the first place that greets many bright-eyed, hopeful young people moving to Mumbai from all over India.
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