A good synthesis of climate and transport economics would help

Synopsis: An analysis of urban India’s need for sustainable mobility suggests that we must rely heavily on clean public transit systems.

Introduction

Road transport contributes about 10% of global emissions and is rising faster than any other sectors. Hence the emphasis of developed countries is towards shifting away from car possession.

Why slow transition towards zero-emission vehicles looks difficult for India?

Road-infrastructure: It majorly focuses on satisfying pressing traffic needs and creation of new transport infrastructure may result in decongestion for a temporary period.

Lack of motivation to use public transport: Transport policies and investment patterns in India’s fast-evolving cities influence the country’s mobility pattern. Almost all metropolitan cities are presently saturated with traffic. The development of new expressways in these cities favours automobiles as a dominant mode of urban mobility, with increased car ownership taken as a given.

Unauthorized street parking: it is another major cause of traffic congestion.

What are ‘transit cities’ & How India can develop transit cities?

Transit cities are characterized by a package of services so comprehensive, convenient and integrated that it acts as an alternative to car ownership.

Transit cities are developed in response to traffic-saturation crises, where cars are considered a luxury instead of necessity.

The need is to focus on public-transport investments which is oriented towards mass-transit planning. It needs greater emphasis on improving ‘mobility’ and ‘accessibility’.

If road space for cars is reallocated, it may reduce congestion delays, increase traffic speed and reduce overall traffic levels by significant amounts.

What are the challenges in designing a transport system?

Dilemma: The conventional theory of roadway design argues that wider, straighter, flatter and more open streets ensure traffic safety.

However, climate-change economics argues for measures to improve the ‘accessibility’ and ‘place’ functions of any street to restrict private cars and improve public transport.

Trade-offs between development and values: the most prominent issue being displacement. As the stakeholders in development projects are varied, some sections may be more comfortable than others with private-vehicle usage.

What is the way forward?

First, Indian policy needs redesigning of street parking so that the most crowded places charge the highest parking fees. A rising trend in cities is for new shopping areas, buildings, etc, to have ‘minimum parking requirements.

Second, we need street parking management with more effective and up-to-date enforcement and pricing practices

Third, public transport must combine accessibility to stops/stations, connectivity, frequency, span of coverage, speed, civility, fairness, simplicity, reliability and presentation.

Fourth, the integration of cycling pathways with public transit systems. It requires gentle track- bends and cyclist-friendly junctions, could attract car owners to use bicycles instead.

Fifth, there is need to redesign the timing, frequency and connectivity of bus and train services, etc, so as to synchronize the same with various other services such as Metro and monorail networks that are run by metropolitan and state governments.

Sixth, Implement transport-sector investments that favor environmental sustainability: for example, Delhi Metro, earned carbon credits from the United Nations under its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Expanded Metro networks by 2030 can go some distance towards attaining the sustainable development of safe, affordable and accessible transport systems for all, with improved road safety as an additional benefit.

Source: This post is based on the article “A good synthesis of climate and transport economics would help” published in Livemint on 2nd November 2021.