With Indian cities getting bigger, the average travel distance within the city space is rising rapidly causing increasing congestion and air pollution.
Specific studies done across cities confirms how transportation is contributing to rising carbon dioxide levels. Already, transportation in Delhi is contributing to half the carbon dioxide in the city. A recent IIT Delhi study has concluded that if this trend is not halted, emissions will increase by 526 per cent by 2030.
The Centre for Science and Environment invited experts to showcase global good practices. Fabio Duarte, professor at the graduate programme of urban management in Curitiba, Brazil, emphasised how the successful implementation of BRT programme helped transform transportation in the city.
“The success of Curitiba BRT has not been a matter of buses but of combining urban development with transportation planning,” said Mr Duarte.
S.S. Bajaj, vice-chairman, Naya Raipur Development Authority, highlighted how this new Greenfield city was being developed to ensure sustainable mobility for a projected population of 50 lakh people.
Li Minwel, an engineer with the Beijing Transportation Research Centre in China, described the strict decongestion measures taken to cut down the number of new vehicles plying in the city. New car licences are issued only for a period of six months to be renewed every three months, he pointed out.
The example of California was also cited on how to per capita emissions are to be reduced by 7 per cent by 2020 and 15 per cent by 2035. California’s 18 Metropolitan Planning Organisations were asked to develop a regional strategy for reducing vehicle miles travelled and those regions which complied received additional funding.
The CSE said one of the difficulties with Delhi was that it had sparsely populated central core, compared to other prominent global cities, forcing its middle-class to live a t the periphery increasing travel distances and car dependency. Citing specific examples of how infrastructure like flyovers and signal-free corridors impacts travel distances, a CSE assessment shows how a walking trip replaced by a car trip near Nehru Place flyover because of the detours increased CO2 emissions by 434 gram/person trip.
In Gurgaon, replacement of direct walking access to Metro station at Iffco Chowk or MG Road increased walking distance by 800 metres. If replaced by a motorable trip, it increased the travel distance by 4 to 5 times and the resultant CO2 emissions went up to 504 gram/person trip.