I have made Pune my home for the last decade and a half. The love I once felt for the city's beautiful weather, its ability to breathe, and the relatively less congestion on roads is gradually dissipating. However, what has remained constant is the struggle with the commute.
The everyday commute from home to office is about 12 kilometers. The time taken to travel varies: on odd days, about 45 minutes; on even days in the evening, a little over an hour. There is no organized public transport system in the city – barely any buses in commutable conditions, and the metro has not reached my area. So, the struggle is real.
I use the auto almost every day to commute, and the cancellation on the app and the refusal of regular autos have sometimes really dented my self-confidence. This struggle is also real.
Pune's Congestion Ranking
Pune ranks fifth as the most congested city in the world. Let that sink in. Spanning over 500 square kilometers, Pune is too big to be this broken. We are losing 158 hours a year – nearly a full week of our lives – to the bumper of the car ahead, according to data from the 2025 TomTom Traffic Index.
Prime Minister's Call for Conservation
On Sunday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged citizens to conserve fuel by using public transport and carpooling, the discussion in Pune drifted to: 'There's barely any public transport to go by. Is carpool an option?'
With Middle Eastern tensions putting crude prices on edge, the looming threat of another hike at the fuel pump is also weighing heavily on the public mind. Carpooling may reduce driving fatigue, but the challenge now is to get into WhatsApp groups and download apps that will probably help form groups – not so much like-minded people, but maybe people traveling to similar destinations.
Mainstreaming Carpool
Even though a few students and a large section of the IT sector prefer the carpool commute, to mainstream it will need a bit more push than just practicality. Perhaps it will turn the reluctant driver in me into a social coordinator. If we are destined to spend 45 minutes moving at a crawl, we might as well dissect a Netflix series or share a playlist. In Pune, your carpool isn't just a commute; it's a support group. The challenge is to get the perfect one. And if you are not driving, good luck with the one fool-proof app to fulfill all your commuter needs.
