Europe’s Action for Public Transport

While in Delhi last month I had a copy of The New York Times saved for me. It’s real amazing, the kind of initiatives Europe is taking to actually minimize CO2 emissions and improve conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, public transport networks and even local business.

The article titled, ‘Traffic Torments, By Design’ by Elisabeth Rosenthal is the article in reference. It gives a multi dimensional view on the happenings to make road conditions unbearable for private vehicle owners while at the same time, cites examples of infrastructure designed to boost public transport efforts.

·         Copenhagen, Munich and Vienna have closed significant road space for car traffic

·         Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes taken over by bike sharing programs

·         London and Stockholm seem to have created a toll for drivers entering heart of the city

·         German cities have bonded by creating ‘environmental zones’ where only low carbon emitting vehicles are permitted

·         Zurich has an increase in number of red light signals which are closely spaced

·         The city’s tram system can switch traffic lights to their favour to stop car traffic

·         91% of all Swiss Parliament delegates take the tram to work

Trams in Switzerland

Looking at the economics of man v/s automobile, nothing seems fair. An individual occupies three cubic meters of space whereas a car takes up 115 cubic meters of urban space in Zurich. Looking further, once road space is made unofficial for automobiles, the number of pedestrians naturally increase, this improves the business for stores.

In my understanding, it’s the attitude of the people towards one other and the environment which matters. Calculating changes in man built environments is practical in order to save the environment. Above mentioned initiatives should be taken as a deliberate push for change. We are worth more than luxury emissions.   

China's actions towards sustainability

Last week I came across a brilliant link. This link is about the various opportunities China is seizing to convert into a sustainable green economy.

The link - Clean Technology

The above also happens to culminate into strong reasons for anyone to learn Chinese.

Interview with Sandeep Gandhi on Delhi BRT

As part of the Center for Science and Environment, Agenda for Survival course we had to publish a magazine. My contribution to the magazine was an interview on Delhi's public transport system. I had interviewed Bus Raped Transit system expert Sandeep Gandhi.

 

Additional direct link to interview on C.S.E website - BRT Interview

Vehicular Pollution in Urban Areas

India’s established urban populations are busy spear heading our nation into the world’s third largest economy. This progress would carry forward even at the cost of the environment.

Our actions towards green transport must be heightened. Delhi has 4.5 million registered vehicles while Gurgaon in the last one year had 50,000 additional registered vehicles on roads. None of the following have any trace of absolute green technology.

There is a need for vehicular emissions to be controlled by proper inspection and monitoring systems. Also, fuel adulteration must be ceased. Source apportionment studies must be implemented to deal with transport related pollution in cities. While Bharat Stage III vehicles are enforced in all cities there must be right policies to enforce Bharat Stage IV fuel across India, at the earliest. The latest fuel emits only 1.8 grams of carbon monoxide per kilo meter.

 Swift BS IV

Eventually to realize change there must be effective environmental governance. There must be the correct knowledge amongst masses and the government to support clean fuels and technology. This would be sustained by development projects. Pressure groups, activists and strength of masses must work towards such change

Public Transport Perception

In India, roads are designed as per the needs of the private automobile user. This is clearly a one sided approach and partially the reason behind which there are maximum road transport hurdles.

The solution to clear road related transport issues is by simply looking at the number of people travelling in public transport versus number of individuals using private vehicles against the given utilized capacity of that vehicle at a given point of time. On average in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore 45% of the trips are less than 5 kilo meters. This proves threat to available land space for modes of public transport.

 Delhi BRT

In Kolkata 6% of land is under land network and in Delhi it is 21% of the land space. So for example, in Delhi, average speed of vehicles is 11 kilo meters an hour though for the Bus Rapid Transit system the average speed is 20 kilo meters an hour. This might not be a great comparison though with 75% vehicles being privately owned in Delhi, this only caters to 33% of the population and this is a reason to invest in the improvement of public transport infrastructure.

India's Energy-Transport Matrix

The entire month of June I was in New Delhi attending a month long fellowship on India's environmental concerns organized by the Center for Science and Environment titled Agenda for Survival. This post as well as various following posts are going to be about certain interesting leanings from the course.

The key message of the matrix is, to shift towards sustainable practices and simultaneously avoid future emissions.

India's Integrated Energy Policy, 2006 frames an analysis considering India's growth at 8-10% annually. Such growth calls for an increase in India's electricity supply six fold to meet Millennium Development Goals. This also means an increase in primary energy supply four fold. Now if coal is going to be the primary energy source in India till 2030, there is an urgent need to understand and shift to renewable sources of energy. India also happens to import nearly 75% of its crude oil energy. The transport part of the matrix comes in at this point.

The Matrix?

What do we do to make our cars more fuel efficient?

In India, the automobile industry is trying to buy itself time. This time would delay the switch from Bharat Stage IV to V and further improved standards, the equivalent to Euro auto emission standards. This is being done as auto car manufacturers have other better concerns.

The possibility of greening current fleet of vehicles on roads is very high. This is the understanding - All auto companies follow the law of the land. Thus, same car in two different countries would have separate fuel economies. Indian auto manufacturers do sell else where around the world. At this point they must follow the standards set on foreign land. Though the companies are not interested in being philanthropic.

Getting back directly to the point of coal manufacturing. Cars in India, are the second largest users of diesel. Even if there is an increase in large cars running on diesel by 10% in India, it would lead to disastrous irreversible effects. Solutions such as bio fuels from cellulose can reduce green house gasses by 50-80% . Yet bio fuels require large amounts of land, threat to agricultural production and create concerns of food security. Solar power costs Rs. 20 per kilo watt and hour of energy. Creating market for solar power would reduce prices and cost on the buyers end, this is a smart thing to do.

The facts are before us, life cycle assessment could prove resourceful in such a case. Though, we must realize that our dependency on coal power must be minimized and this is urgent.