Mobility, pollution & possible solutions

It’s a well established fact that economic development is directly related to personal mobility. This is true across nations and over decades. As India aspires to become the second largest economy in the world by 2050, it must be prepared for a rapid increase in demand for mobility. The country must prepare itself to meet the challenges, explore tools and opportunities for transforming mobility, propose a flexible framework for a sustainable mobility architecture, and explore its application in the context of a city

Empirical studies have shown that over the past century per capita income has grown in a nation that has more than half of the population living in urban areas. India is moving rapidly in that direction. One may hope for uniform spread of prosperity across urban and rural India.Economists and analysts attribute this to agglomeration economics, boosted by access to a wider range of opportunities. There are beliefs that people in cities are more productive, innovative, and have higher skills. In other words, apart from increased personal mobility, as India’s economic growth accelerates, we also need to anticipate faster urbanization. As urbanization intensifies and densification accelerates, there are questions that need to be urgently addressed. How should cities order their urban form? What does that mean for the kind of mobility solutions they need to put in place?

The global picture

There is a symbiotic relationship between urban form and mobility architectures. If we take the example of Los Angeles, the addiction of the people to the automobile has promoted unbridled urban sprawl. It now ranks number one in urban expanse which is eighteen million population spread over 87,000 kilometres. It is also number one in density and length of roads and highways, yet it is burdened with the worst traffic congestion and air quality among large US cities.
In the 21st century, town planners and policy makers have awakened to the reality that while they were supposed to design cities for people, they were actually designing it for cars. If we take the example of Tokyo, it houses double the population of Los Angeles within less thanone sixth of the area of LA. Singapore and Hong Kong have more compact footprints and a very significant dependence on mass transit mobility. The benefits of mass transit system are immense. In the US, Dallas allocates 40 per cent of urban land area for roads to sustain its car-dependence whereas Tokyo allocates a mere 15 per cent of its precious urban land. In India we are hardly doing anything to limit sprawl. We hardly try to take lessons from global experience. One such example is the proposal in Bengaluru to sustain sprawl with six new interconnected elevated roadways at a cost of over 15,000 crore.

Economics of mobility

Mobility anywhere is important and the economics of it manifest themselves clearly. Copenhagen with a good mixture of public transport and bike-lanes spends about 7 per cent of regional GDP on mobility, whereas a car-dependent Houston allocates over 17 per cent. Indian cities can ill afford such economic waste and need to concentrate more on public transport by providing zero mile connectivity.If we take the example of Chennai, over the last two decades, it has perversely seen the modal share of public transit system diminish even as car and two-wheeler numbers on the road have soared, reflecting neglect of planning and well-targeted transit investments.
A city, even densely populated has lower carbon footprint when it relies on shared or mass transit system. In the United States, New York City has lower per capita carbon emissions, despite higher average income, compared to San Francisco because of its mass transit system and its transportation patterns. Add to over dependence on private cars, air quality degradation from automotive emissions is a growing menace. WHO data says 14 of the top 20 most polluted cities (measured by particulates)
are in India.

Smokescreens

A detailed emission inventory study is being undertaken currently, led by IIT-Madras that is likely to shed more light on the matter. As we await the result of that study, one recently undertaken in London has revealed that even with a large fleet of cars complying with advanced Euro-6 emission standards, vehicular sources accounted for 55 per cent of air pollution (PM2.5). Our cities, including national capital Delhi, have struggled to implement a comprehensive urban mobility policy to address its unhealthy air.
India is a country that is heavily dependent on expensive imported oil to meet its energy demands. It seems that in the foreseeable future it will continue. Therefore we need to guide our mobility architecture by energy efficiency. Reducing dependence on fossil fuels through more efficient mobility will contribute to both environmental and economic gains.
The National Capital Region (NCR) is now home to over 46 million inhabitants. It has raced past Tokyo with its sprawl at 58,300 sq. km, and continues to grow without showing any sign of restraint. There is a need to rethink urban planning and favour densification and transit-oriented development. Transforming urban mobility requires a clear articulation of goals, careful framing of policies, targeted investments, and rigorous implementation backed by enforcement. Our quest to transform urban mobility can be boosted by several new developments.

Mobility is key to development and economic activities but we have to ensure and mitigate the many social and environmental impacts of rising motorization. This is obviously important for the future well-being of Indian cities. We need to address the issue of mobility and problem of motorization on an urgent basis

Comparing China and India

The two emerging economies globally are facing similar problems. Cities in both countries are suffering from severe and worsening transport problems: air pollution, noise, traffic injuries and fatalities, congestion, parking shortages, energy use, and a lack of mobility for the poor. One factor that is crucial to all these, is population growth. Add to it urbanization, suburban sprawl, rising incomes, and skyrocketing motor vehicle ownership and use. There is a need to slowdown in the massive roadway investment in recent years and a shift in emphasis to expanding and improving public transport, cycling, and walking facilities. There is no doubt that there will be an increase in motor vehicle usage and that is inevitable.
There are many options being suggested like we should restrict motor vehicle use in congested city centres and increase taxes, fees, and charges to reflect the enormous social and environmental costs of motor vehicle use. It is also being argued that much stricter regulations should be imposed on manufacturers to produce cleaner, more energy-efficient, quieter, and safer cars, motorcycles, buses, and trucks. Mobility is key to development and economic activities but we have to ensure and mitigate the many social and environmental impacts of rising motorization. This is obviously important for the future well-being of Indian cities. We need to address the issue of mobility and problem of motorization on an urgent basis. This is important not just for creating a mass public transit system, and safety but also to deal with sharp increases in greenhouse gases, accelerating climate change, and rapid depletion of a range of non-renewable resources.