Use of Private Transport by College Students: A Threat to Personal Safety and Community Feeling

Access to transportation is an important factor in deciding access to key life-enhancing facilities. Almost every aspect of life is affected by it. Where public transport is open to all and generally considered of low quality in urban India, private vehicle is one of the many attractions of modern life that is well sought after. However, not everyone has access to private transportation. Often, this inaccessibility of transportation facilities overlaps with low income and decreased quality of living which heightens social alienation. There are a number of factors which link access to transport and lack of community feeling. The present paper uses secondary data and previous research findings to substantiate the hypothesis that use of private transportation is detrimental to college students, in terms of personal safety and decreasing community feeling and increasing sense of alienation. It attempts to contextualize alienation with respect to differential access to transport via relative deprivation, powerlessness and isolation, specifically in urban areas in India. It also gives an overview of how use of private transportation is harmful for college students in terms of their safety and security and how encouragement of public transportation can help combat the situation.