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HARITA SALVI
URBAN PLANNING
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
We consider the continuing increase in the use and density of automobiles (more
vehicles with fewer people in them traveling greater distances over proportionally
shorter roads) in relation to transportation sustainability and quality of life. The
social dilemma perspective views this trend as the outcome of an unfortunate
preference for short-term gains by car users at the cost of long-term losses to
society. Approaches to measuring quality of life, its relation to sustainable transport
alternatives, and the potential implications for informing policy, are considered.
The social costs of transport include road crashes, air pollution, physical inactivity,
[5], time taken away from the family while commuting and vulnerability to fuel
price increases. Many of these negative impacts fall disproportionately on those
social groups who are also least likely to own and drive cars.[6] Traffic congestion
imposes economic costs by wasting people's time and by slowing the delivery of
goods and services.
The following set of principles were developed by Canada's National Round Table
on the Environment and the Economy through a consultative process with a number
of Canadian transportation stakeholders. They were developed at the request of
Canada's Minister of the Environment in order to serve as a starting point for a
discussion about principles at the Conference. These principles have been discussed
by the National Round Table, though they have not been formally endorsed. They
are designed to encourage thought and discussion about some of the key challenges
facing the transportation sector.
• Problem Statement
• Context
• Guiding Principles
• Strategic Directions
PROBLEM STATEMENT
CONTEXT
Humans are inherently mobile, and in most societies, mobility is both highly valued
personally and essential for social and economic reasons. Over time, however, as
population has increased, cities have grown, and globalization and free trade have
increased the regional and international movement of people and goods, our
transportation infrastructure and systems have expanded dramatically. The cars,
trucks, buses, subways, trains, airplanes, ships and ferries that we use to move
ourselves and our goods today have significant environmental implications in terms
of inputs, emissions, and land use.
In addition, while the emphasis on roadways for cars has increased mobility and
independence for many, it has had a negative impact on the quality of life of others.
Those far less able to access automobiles (the poor, the disabled, women, the
elderly etc.) have fewer transportation options. Road infrastructure has tended to
make more sustainable options such as walking and bicycling more difficult to use,
and it often detracts from the aesthetic appeal of our urban and rural environments,
and consumes land that is extremely valuable for other uses (for example
agriculture). In many urban centers, however, transit infrastructure has not had the
capital funding necessary to provide commuters with a suitable alternative to the
use of the automobile.
The health and safety of people have also been threatened by air quality problems
and traffic accidents associated with increased car and truck use. In larger urban
centers, traffic congestion causes losses in productivity, quality of life and health
(increased stress).
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The aim is to develop transportation systems that maintain or improve human and
ecosystem well-being together - not one at the expense of the other. Due to varying
environmental, social and economic conditions between and within countries, there
is no single best way to achieve sustainable transportation systems. A set of guiding
principles can be described, however, upon which transition strategies should be
built.
ACCESS:
Access to people, places, goods and services is important to the social and
economic well being of communities. Transportation is a key means, but not the
only means, through which access can be achieved.
People are entitled to reasonable access to other people, places, goods and services.
Transportation systems are a critical element of a strong economy, but can also
contribute directly to building community and enhancing quality of life.
Nation states and the transportation community must strive to ensure social,
interregional and inter-generational equity, meeting the basic transportation-related
needs of all people including women, the poor, the rural, and the disabled.
Transportation systems should be designed and operated in a way that protects the
health (physical, mental and social well-being) and safety of all people, and
enhances the quality of life in communities.
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ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY:
Human activities can overload the environment's finite capacity to absorb waste,
physically modify or destroy habitats, and use resources more rapidly than they can
be regenerated or replaced. Efforts must be made to develop transportation systems
that minimize physical and biological stress, staying within the assimilative and
regenerative capacities of ecosystems, and respecting the habitat requirements of
other species.
Transportation needs must be met without generating emissions that threaten public
health, global climate, biological diversity or the integrity of essential ecological
processes.
Transportation systems must make efficient use of land and other natural resources
while ensuring the preservation of vital habitats and other requirements for
maintaining biodiversity
ECONOMIC VIABILITY:
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STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS
ACCESS:
Demand Management
Reduce the need for travel while protecting social and economic needs for access by
changing urban form, promoting new communications technologies, and
developing more efficient packaging etc.
Diversifying Options
Concentrate urban growth, limit sprawl and provide for more mixed land use
through urban structure and land use policies. This would reduce demand
(especially for automobile trips) by moving origins and destinations closer together
and also help reduce habitat destruction and loss of agricultural and recreational
lands.
Give priority to less polluting, lower impact modes of transportation in the design
of transportation systems and urban areas. Pedestrian and cycling paths should be
provided as attractive and safe alternatives to cars.
Maintain and enhance the health and viability of urban public transit systems.
Protect historical sites and archaeological resources, reduce noise pollution, and
consider aesthetics in the planning, design and construction of transportation
systems.
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ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Ensure that the rate of use of renewable resources does not exceed rates of
regeneration, and non-renewable resource use is minimized.
Land Use
Emphasize compact urban form in order to reduce habitat destruction and loss of
agricultural and recreational lands around urban areas.
Minimize the impact on natural habitat and the wildlife and people it supports in the
design, construction and operation of inter-city transportation systems and
infrastructure, including, for example, highways, pipelines, and railways.
Energy Use
Reduce fossil fuel consumption and emissions through efficiencies and demand
management.
ECONOMIC VIABILITY
Fuller-Cost Accounting
Reflect the full social, economic and environmental costs (including long term
costs) of each mode of transport or transport related practice as accurately as
possible in market prices.
Ensure users pay a fuller share of all costs, while respecting equity concerns.
Job Creation
Consider the potential economic and employment benefits that could be derived
from the restructuring of our transportation systems.
Over the last few years, the word ‘sustainability’ has attained a
prominent place in transportation policy and planning. Sustainability can be broadly
defined as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their needs’. In the context of
transportation, sustainability would mean developing better transportation systems,
options, and expectations consistent with the objective of securing future social and
economic development within a sustainable environment that ensures community
well-being. Sustainable transport can be achieved through measures pertaining to
transportation system management, energy management, capacity management and
environmental management. Sustainable transport is also important from the
perspective of climate change, i.e. decreasing the carbon foot print /ecological foot
print of transportation. As per some studies conducted in the U.K and the U.S., it
has been found that road transport emits 22-25% of the total output of carbon
dioxide. These findings thrust the need for achieving sustainability in transport not
just from the mobility and safety perspective but also from the perspective of local
and global environmental issues.
Are current systems and trends in Indian cities sustainable? It is important to answer
this question before discussing research issues with respect to the Indian scenario.
For this, it is essential to first understand the present trends in areas like
urbanisation, motorisation, modal share, and their impact on mobility and safety
issues.
Urbanisation
As per 2001 census, India has 393 towns with a population exceeding 0.1 million.
Also, during the second half of the last century, the number of cities in India with a
population of one million and above has steadily increased from 5 in 1951 to 35 in
2001, and is expected to further increase to 70 by 2025. The share of urban
population to the total population is also projected to increase from 28% in 2001 to
58% by 2025.
It is clearly understood that cities are the economical contributors of the nation with
50-60% contribution to national GDP. How an Urban India can survive and thrive
with the aforementioned estimated population is a challenge of paramount
importance.
Motorisation
Indian cities have registered a huge growth in registered motor vehicles in the last
decade. Booming economy, aspirations to own a vehicle, inadequate public
transport (with respect to demand, comfort or both), government’s encouraging
policies etc. are few reasons for the rapid increase in motorisation. From 1981 to
2001, population increased in six major metropolises by 1.9 times but motor
vehicles increased by 7.75 times. Energy demand in the transport sector is projected
to grow at 5-8% per annum. The estimates of vehicular growth are unimaginable
and threatening. To illustrate with an example, cars and SUVs will increase
thirteen-fold by 2035 with respect to 2005 figures, in a do-nothing scenario.
Although we can see a clear increase in vehicular growth from past few years, it is
only applicable for private vehicles and not the bus fleet. In fact, the size of our bus
fleet has been decreasing in most urban transport undertakings except in Bangalore
where the annual growth is about 10%.
Modal share
As a general trend, with the increase in the size of the city in terms of both area as
well as population, the modal share of public transport has been increasing but there
is no evidence either for the reduction of private motorised transport (2w+car etc)
share except for the 5 million plus cities. One of the important reasons for
considerable PT modal share is the presence of a substantial percentage of captive
riders in most Indian cities. But, at the same time, the modal share of non-motorised
transport (walk and bicycle) is also considerable. Despite this, the infrastructure and
facility support is extremely poor for NMT modes in India. From a recent study by
MOUD, during 1994 to 2007, the average public transport share had been reducing
for the cities with above 2 million populations. From the same study, it is also
highlighted that the major portion of vehicular composition during peak hour on
important corridors in the city consists of cars, two-wheelers and IPT, which clearly
indicates the reason for extreme congestion on Indian urban roads during peak
hours.
Effects on Mobility
Mobility can be assessed in terms of speed, travel times, delays etc. along important
corridors in the city. According to a recent study by MOUD, the average journey
speed in 2007 on important city corridors was in the range of 17-26 kmph, which is
considerably low compared to design speeds for the same roads. Considering a do-
nothing scenario, these speeds are expected to fall to single digits by 2031. Also, as
per an interesting finding from MOUD report on calculating congestion index of 30
cities in India, it is concluded that 0.25 is the average congestion index on a scale 0-
0.6 where ‘0’ indicates good and ‘0.6’ indicates poor index value, and most of the
major metro cities fair very badly on the congestion index with its value much
higher than the average. As per the same report by MOUD, the average volume to
capacity (V/C) ratio on major corridors within cities (in 2007) has already reached
values closer to or exceeding 1, indicating extreme congestion conditions during
peak hour. This V/C ratio is expected to reach a value of up to 2 by 2031, under a
do-nothing scenario. Also, as per recent data on fuel consumption and emissions per
day, the major portion is shared by cars and two wheelers, which highlights the
need to promote PT and NMT modes to bring these levels of fuel consumption and
emission down.
Effects on Safety
So, addressing the question, ‘Are current systems and trends in Indian cities
sustainable?’ the answer is a clear ‘No’.
Realizing the magnitude of the problem, the Indian central and state governments
have taken some major initiatives in the recent past to achieve sustainability in
transport, as explained in subsequent sections.
National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) 2006
In 2006, Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. of India issued the National Urban
Transport Policy (NUTP) document, which gave thrust on moving people rather
than vehicles. The following are the objectives of the policy:-
Reduced travel demand- better integration of land use & transport planning.
Introducing ITS
Better awareness
The NUTP has now become the guiding document for all transport improvements
in Indian cities.
Overview of JnNURM
2. Cities/ UAs with 1 m+ but less than 4 m population as per 2001 census (28),
3. Selected Cities/ UAs (State Capitals and other cities/ UA of religious/ historic
and tourist importance) (28)
Coverage: This scheme covers 63 Cities/Urban Areas with a population more than
150 million to be benefited
Thrust Areas
Water Supply
Sewerage
Urban Transport
Gaps Identified in JnNURM - Several gaps were identified including: proposals not
being part of an overall vision for the city; the projects do not integrate land use &
transportation, pedestrian facilities, NMV facilities, parking facilities; Alternatives
analysis not done sincerely in most cases; lack of inter modal integration etc.
Research Issues
In spite of these and many more such initiatives by the central and state
governments, the improvements are still not encouraging. There are many research
issues that need to be addressed in order to make these efforts successful in
achieving sustainability in transportation for India cities. The following sections
present some of those research issues.
We need to clearly understand the approach for making urban transport strategies.
So far a bottom-up approach is adopted in all transportation studies and strategies
and a top-down approach is never adopted or even considered. Actually, the
bottom-up approach is useful for existing policies where minor changes are required
but not for a fundamental review of the policy. The following points emphasise the
difference in the two approaches.
Bottom-up approach
Top-down approach
The starting point is set of goals and objectives
The formed goals and objectives represent a broader view of perceived problems
The measures are developed to fulfill the objectives and further the goals
Developing the models that reflect the impact of changing land use and /or control
policies, slum development etc. on transportation and vice versa.
In cases where infrastructure expansion is not possible, assessing the required land-
use control considering the holding capacity of transport infrastructure.
More realistic modeling of mode split, including walk, public transport modes
(auto-rickshaws, taxi, bus and rail), and private transport (motorcycle and car);
Stated response surveys – how to facilitate use of complex choice scenarios for
more reliable behavioral models and more accurate response forecasting.
Better data collection techniques involving technology – for credible and accurate
travel and household data (position, route, distance/time)
More realistic assignment of trips to rail and bus networks taking into account the
condition in trains, variations in bus speeds and frequency due to changes in overall
traffic volume and fares;
Need for Systems approach in public transportation planning (address O-D travel
time effectively, include all modes)
Need to develop integrated approach for corridor identification (for Metro, BRTS
etc.) in metropolitan cities.
Need to research and define the role of NMT (access only or main mode) in overall
mobility of the city (for larger, medium, and smaller cities).
Need for change in planning and policy guidelines, to provide seamless travel using
NMT.
More credible ways to assess the impact of pedestrianization, pedestrian zones etc.
Ways to integrate hawkers and vendors as part of the pedestrian policy and facility
design guidelines.
Effective geometric design for NMT to provide seamlessly connected and safe
travel across the city.
Ways to quantify the impacts of driver attributes, education, and behavior on road
safety and mobility. Suggest improvements.
Assessing Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) and effective traffic law enforcement
as a measure for improving road safety
What is good for Indian traffic? Non-lane based or lane based traffic.