An ever-growing fleet of automobiles tests the limits of our already stressed road infrastructure, especially that of cities, that too on a daily basis. Around 21 crore two-wheelers and seven crore four-wheelers and above category registered vehicles are plying on the Indian roads, says Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, in his written reply to the Rajya Sabha
Seeing long queues of vehicles sluggishly crawling towards their destination is not an uncommon sight in cities like Mumbai, Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) and Bengaluru. The issue may appear a small everyday conundrum to some, but losses caused by these long trains of vehicles are by no means small. An ORF (Observer Research Foundation) article pegged the economic losses suffered by Mumbai at a massive INR 410 billion due to traffic jams. During the peak congestion level in Mumbai, a 30 minute road trip takes around 50 minutes resulting in over 121 hours being lost annually.
Traffic congestion is not only stealing money from our pockets and reducing our productivity but it is also adding poison to the very air we breathe. Transport sector is one of the major causes for India being the third largest CO2 emitting country. Global Carbon Budget Report, published during COP27 in Egypt, says India’s total carbon emission stood at 2.9 billion tonnes in 2021, just behind China and USA . Transport sector accounted for nearly 12 per cent of India’s total energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019, says the International Energy Agency (IEA). There is no second thought that the more time vehicles spend in traffic, the more fuel they will burn and consequently release more greenhouse gases. Not to forget road accidents and injuries and deaths caused by them. India is ranked first in the world in terms of total number of road accidents and third in terms of deaths caused by road accidents. In this scenario, AI-based traffic management systems can play a game-changer role, and our governments seem to have acknowledged this. In fact, an AI-based traffic management system, which goes by the name Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), is being planned for the national capital since last year. Similar systems, based on the principles of real-time data gathering, are already in operation in some of the developed cities.
Costly Burden on Cities’ Economy and Productivity
NITI Aayog, a State-of-the-art Resource Centre, in its report, “Transforming India’s Mobility” has stated that major Indian cities are among the most congested cities in the world and average traffic speed in some of the metropolitan cities is as low as 17 km/h3. The report adds further that traffic congestion results in reduced productivity and fuel wastage. Four metro cities in India, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata, bear a loss of over $22 billion annually. The amount is equivalent to 150 per cent of India’s budgetary allocation for education infrastructure in 2018.
Similarly, based on the time taken to cover 10 km, TomTom Traffic Index Ranking 2022, has accorded 2nd, 6th, 34th and 47th rank to Bengaluru (29 min 10s), Pune (27 min 20s), New Delhi (22 min 10s) and Mumbai (21 min 10s) respectively. Average speed of vehicles in these cities varies between 18 to 24 km/h during peak hours resulting in loss of precious time, reduced productivity, and chronic stress.
Deteriorating Health & loss of life
Traffic congestion is not only keeping an evil eye on our pockets, but the pollution it adds to our air is stealing our life years as well. The Annual Air Quality Life Index report of Chicago University reveals that if the 2019 pollution level persists, then people in north India will lose 8.5 years of their precious life, while Delhi people will have to pay a little heftier price by losing 9.7 years from their average life expectancy. TomTom Traffic Index Ranking 2022 also revealed that nearly 1009 kg of carbon is added to the environment in Bengaluru during a 10 km journey out of which 275 kg comes solely from sluggish train of vehicles. While in Pune 256 kg of carbon emission was attributed to traffic jams.
If you look at the report of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) it says that vehicular emissions account for 17 per cent of total PM 2.5 concentration in Delhi. “Household pollution (residential) at 13 per cent, industries at 11 per cent, construction at seven per cent, waste burning and the energy sector at five per cent each, and road dust and other sources at 4 per cent each,” said Vivek Chattopadhyay, Principal Programme Manager, Clean Air and Sustainable Mobility unit, CSE, while speaking to PTI. Earlier it was mentioned that we are losing life years but these are the long-term implications. Road accidents on the other hand, that have turned unwanted attention towards India, operate in a more direct manner. India is ranked first in terms of persons killed and third in terms of persons injured due to road accidents, said the Minister of Road Transport and Highways in Rajya Sabha. Similarly, the Accidental Deaths and Suicide in India 2021 report recorded 4,03,116 road accidents which injured 3,71,884 and claimed 1,55,622 lives.
Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS)
Number of vehicles on Indian roads is increasing with each passing year but there is no proportionate increase in the capacity of our road infrastructure, especially that of city roads. Therefore, during peak hours city roads get clogged with vehicles and people have to wait hours in traffic to reach their destination.
In this context, AI appears to have the answer to our traffic woes. AI-based ITMS can come handy in removing bottlenecks and choke points thereby ensuring a smooth and safe flow of traffic. Such systems are not new to the world. Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC) of Los Angeles, the ‘City Brain’ of Hangzhou, China, and the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) of Australia, are some of the AI-based traffic management systems that are operational in the world. SCATS system which has been installed at around 60,000 intersections of 200 cities spread across 30 countries claims to have reduced travel time by 28 per cent, stoppage of vehicles by 25 per cent and reduced fuel consumption by 12 per cent resulting in an emission cut of around 15 per cent. Delhi also appears to be gearing up for its own Intelligent Traffic Management System. The new system will result in reduced human intervention and it will be equipped with a signal stop line violation detection system, lane monitoring system for 24×7 monitoring of traffic volume, active management of signal cycle and an adaptive traffic control system for crossings.
These systems will help ITMS in assessing the real-time traffic situation which will then be passed on to the commuters on the roads. ITMS will also control traffic signals which would be operated depending on the traffic volume and average speed of vehicles on the roads. But this rosy picture is yet to be painted. Our experience has shown that the adoption of any new system in our country could take years and till then citizens have to learn to live with the problem of traffic congestion.