Urban transport: accessibility for all is the way forward

Urban transport: accessibility for all is the way forward
Madhav G Badami

An item in The Times of India (March 19) reported on the results of a survey which showed that the public believe that the poor quality of our roads is the No. 1 reason, followed closely by poor traffic management and lack of proper (sic) infrastructure like flyovers for traffic congestion, which itself appears, according to the item, to be the primary public concern. I can certainly empathize with the frustration with the congestion on our roads, having been stuck in traffic in Bangalore and other Indian cities, but I am concerned that this frustration will lead to an excessive, even if not exclusive, focus on road-building (and road widening) as a solution to our urban transport woes.
While there is an important role for personal and other motor vehicles (and infrastructure for these modes, as well as effective traffic management), there is also a crucially important role for walking and cycling, and infrastructure and facilities — such as controlled pedestrian crossings — for the safe and convenient use of these modes, if we want to mitigate the serious impacts of rapidly growing motor vehicle activity.
Providing infrastructure for motor vehicles, while ignoring that for the non-motorized modes, will likely increase already serious access and time loss, and road safety, impacts for the many who own no motor vehicles, and therefore have no choice but to walk and cycle. Further, while road-building may improve speeds for motor vehicles and ease congestion in the short term, it will, as international experience has shown, very likely be neutralized over the longer term, by rendering the other modes even more unviable, increasing the need for motor vehicle ownership and use, and forcing motor vehicle owners to needlessly drive even for short distances, leading to ever more motor vehicle activity and congestion, and the need to build more roads, in a vicious spiral.
It is likely that we are already seeing the negative effects of the neglect of infrastructure for walking and cycling in Bangalore. The data for the city show that as many as 38% of all persontrips are by personal (mainly two-wheeled) motor vehicles, with another 41% by buses, and only 17% by walk and cycle. The last figure is a lot lower (and the first a lot higher) than in other major Indian cities, including Delhi, by far the most motorized Indian city. If in fact the low walk and cycle shares are a faithful representation of reality, rather than the result of under-counting of these trips, it is likely that they are at least partly a reflection of the highly compromised access for these modes, due to rapidly growing motor vehicle activity, and planning to accommodate it. Ignoring walking and cycling can become a self-fulfilling prophecy; the less you provide for them, the less these modes will be used.
Infrastructure for walking and cycling is vitally important, because these modes are potentially competitive in terms of door-to-door journey times with cars and even metro, and many more people would likely use them, especially for short and medium distance trips, which account for a large proportion of all trips, if adequate facilities were provided for them; and given that pedestrian accessibility is crucially important for the viability of public transit. ‘Build it and they will come’ is as true of pedestrians and cyclists as it is of motor vehicles.
Finally, while reliable, convenient, affordable, and widespread public transit is necessary for getting people out of personal motor vehicles, its success in doing so, and indeed, the ability to curb rapid growth in motor vehicle activity and its impacts, also depends on pricing motor vehicle use at a level that will internalize its costs, discourage avoidable motor vehicle trips, and provide incentives and funding for more sustainable choices. In this regard, it is worth noting that the costs of operating personal motor vehicles are so low, notwithstanding the recently increased fuel prices (they are of the order of a rupee per kilometre on a two-wheeled motor vehicle), and parking is so inexpensive even if not always readily available, that no such incentives to avoid personal motorized trips, even for the shortest distances, currently exist.
What we urgently need in order to effectively address our urban transport challenge is an integrated approach that accounts for multiple urban transport impacts (access loss, road safety, congestion, air pollution, and energy consumption), caters for multiple modes and user groups that are differentially affected by motorization, and is sensitive to the needs, capabilities and constraints in the Indian context. Such an approach, encompassing accessibility for all, including nonmotorized modes, quality public transit, and pricing of personal motor vehicle use, along with serious attention to land use-transport integration, would provide viable alternatives for a range of road users, minimize the need for long distance motorized trips, and curb rapid growth in motor vehicle activity by restricting it to its highest value uses, which would in turn allow all modes (including personal motor vehicles) to operate more efficiently, enhance the effectiveness of mass transit, mitigate rapidly worsening urban transport impacts, and promote social justice on our roads.
(The writer teaches in the School of Urban Planning and the McGill School of Environment
at McGill University in Montreal, Canada)