Sustainable urban transport: Bangalore. a contribution to KSRTC Round Table Discussion on "Sustainable development in transport - Energy and Environment", 5th June, Bangalore
Notes prepared by Margaret Grieco, Professor of Transport and Society, Napier University, Edinburgh and Visiting Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
Transport in urban India: a summary:
Newly arrived at ISEC, Bangalore, and within my first week at the Insitute, I've been invited to join this important round table organised by KSRTC on 'Sustainable development in transport'. At the beginning of my research into urban transport in India, this provided me with an opportunity and an urgent need to commence an initial framing of the field from a 'Transport and Society' perspective. My web researches have already revealed key topics and issues which bear further investigation and development, perhaps into an ISEC working paper. Let me commence with a summary extracted from a recent article on Indian Urban Transport:
First, roads are severely congested despite fewer motor vehicles and a much lower level of car ownership on a per capita basis as compared to a developed economy. Congested roads lead to a longer travel time, extra fuel consumption, and associated airpollution and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions.
Second, the use of inefficient engines, such as the twostroke engines, on two- or three- wheeler vehicles, and uncontrolled emissions from diesel buses plying in the city corridors on poor quality fuel contribute to pollution.
Third, a large percentage of the population spends time outdoors and is thus getting exposed to automotive pollutants, with the poor often having to pay a large proportion of their income for communting to work."@http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=9584
This summary provides us with a rapid grasp of the difficulties to be resolved and tunes us into issues which have particular importance in the developing context.
Issues:
For today's round table, I've identified five related transport and society dynamics or issues which are ripe for our attention:
In India "The transport sector in metropolitan cities has major problems because of the rapid growth rate in the number of motor vehicles, which has even outpaced the growth rate of the population in these cities (Table 1). While a consolidated figure of the annual growth rate of population in the metropolitan areas is 2.97%, the number of registered motor vehicles has grown at a much higher rate-8.66% between 1991 and 2001. " @http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=9584
Are demand management measures already needed in India to slow down this rate of growth? How acceptable would such demand management measures be?
"There is an explosion in the number of personalized vehicles like two-wheelers (scooters, motorcycles, and mopeds) and cars in the absence of a reliable mass public transport system in cities such as Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, etc. as compared to larger cities such as Kolkata or Mumbai where the commuter's travel demand is met by a rail-based transit system. " @http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=9584
Should demand management measures be applied to two wheelers? Are there adequate forms of alternative transport or would such demand management measures improve traffic flow but negatively impact overall urban efficiency?
Has adequate attention been paid to the mixed character of traffic? Or have western models of transport planning created a 'professional blindness' in the meeting of mixed traffic needs?
"Roads can be redesigned with separate lanes dedicated to non- motorized vehicles (such as bicycles and cycle rickshaws) and buses. This would increase the speed of all vehicles (especially buses), improve safety, and enhance the transport capacity. A detailed study in Delhi found that many existing roads could be altered within the existing right of way to provide dedicated lanes for bicycles and (non-motorized) cycle rickshaws (IIT 1998). The study found that a bicycle lane would increase vehicular capacity by 19%-23% on typical arterials and that the creation of a special bus lane would lead to capacity improvements by 56%-73% (with road capacity, including all modes, increasing from 23 000 to 45 000 passenger per hour) (Tiwari 1999)". @http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=9584
Can infrastructural changes be made in a sympathetic manner so as to preserve the vitality of all transport modes and the neighbourhood dynamics which are supported by this mix of modes?
In its development, India has retained high level of neighbourhood servicing even within newly developing suburbs - this differentiates it from the West. Can accessibility planning, coupled with ICT, be used to reduce the trip traffic between neighbourhoods and city centres?
Conclusion:
Demand management, the infrastructural redesign of transport space and accentuated accessibility planning are all likely to feature in sustainable developments in India's urban transport structures.
Background reading:
Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation web site @http://www.bmtcinfo.com/english_index.htm
Technology and policy shifts towards sustainable urban transport, Pacific and Asian Journal of Energy @http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=9584
Sustainable transport projects in large Indian cities (Delhi/ Bangalore) http://www.teriin.org/urban/stplic.htm
Last updated: June 7th 2004