In 1950, buses and railways had accounted for 70 per cent of the total traffic volume in western Europe; in 1997, their share came down to a meagre 15 per cent (Mobility 2001, a report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development). In Australia, private vehicles accounted for 93 per cent of total urban passenger transport in 2000.

The problem has a unique dimension in South Asia. Despite extremely decrepit and ill-maintained vehicles in its fleets, public transport in the region meets very high levels of travel demand. In Delhi, 64 per cent of the demand is met by buses. In Mumbai, buses account for 59 per cent of trips, using only 5 per cent of the road capacity. However, this has not meant lesser use of private vehicles. More than 91 per cent of on-road transport in Kanpur, 88 per cent in Hyderabad and 86 per cent in Nagpur is composed of cars and two-wheelers, whereas buses constitute 0.5, 0.5 and 0.4 per cent respectively.

Though an efficient public transportation system can provide mobility to all sections of society without the negative fallouts of individual automobilisation, transport planners have not given it due attention. Government policies are primarily responsible for public transport losing the race: The majority of cities have effectively encouraged the use of the private car through planning, infrastructural, pricing and fiscal decisions. Transportation expert Wendell Cox points to the essential ineffectuality of existing public transport options as another factor in their unpopularity: "People who are getting more affluent will not be content with a transport system that does not take them where they want and when they want in a competitive time.