URBAN TRANSPORT

A ENVIRONMENT
NDTransport
Urban & Environment
Dr. Pawan Kumar

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 Introduction
• Urban Transport has direct link with Urban
Environment and vice versa.

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Source:https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSblFm83hW_FtdZ-E4t1vpDiG9wyVTtQ2hY-MvKZ3bzOahHH2uf
Source : understandinguncertainty.org

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
• Linkages in three main categories:

-Local Environment,

-Society & Public Health and

-Global Issues such as Climate Change

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Part 1:
Local Environment

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 Key challenges: Local Environment & Social Issues -
Daily dose of toxins

• Adverse effects of increasingly car-based urban transport

systems and other emerging economies are most visible on the
local level.

• Vehicle emissions such as particulate matter, NOx or SOx pollute

the air.

• Traffic noise makes conversation and sometimes even sleeping

impossible.

• Road accidents pose further risk to the citizens’ health, affecting

especially vulnerable groups such as pedestrians, cyclists or
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children .
Key challenges : Local Environment & Social Issues

Growing cities around the globe face similar challenges….

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Photo: China Daily
Local Environment: Key pollutants and their effects

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Local Environment: Vehicular air pollution and related
challenges in India

Vehicles - pollution link: Emerging evidences

• Central Pollution Control Board Pollutant Transport Industry Domestic

(in %) (in %) & others
(CPCB) has compiled the results (in %)
of various studies on relative CO 76-90 37-13 10-16
contribution of pollution sources
NO2 66-74 13-29 1-2
• Vehicles contribute most of CO;
maximum NOx and a lot of PM SO2 5-12 84 -95 Nil-4

• Industry and power plants are the PM 3-22 74-16 2-4

major sources of SO2 and PM
Source: CPCB

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During festival time

•Crackers are not the major source of air pollution

but the use of private vehicles on the roads in Delhi.

26th October, 2011 was Deepawali .

•CPCB monitored the air pollution and measured

the level of carbon mono-oxide before Deepawali
and after Deepawali.

The study says that level of CO on Deepawali day

was much lesser than the other days. It was only
due to 90% of private vehicles were not ply on the
road on that particular day.

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Level of CO before and after Deepawali, 2011

S.N. Places Before Deepawali On the day of Deepawali

i. Dilshad 1705 1556
Garden
ii. Shadipur 2058 1273

iii. Dwarka 1108 964

iv. Punjabi 1924 1023

Bagh

v. Civil Lines 2740 2050

vi. Airport 2040 1730

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Note : Acceptable Standard level of CO is 2000 micro gram cubic mt.
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Local Environment: Principles of Air Quality Management

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Local Environment: AQM monitoring - (decentralized)
Institutional Setup in India

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Local environment: Noise and its abatement

• Noise impacts health: Noise is considered to be very loud at 70 dB(A). Repeated

exposure at levels of, or above, 85 dB(A) can cause hearing loss
• Noise contributes to stress levels, leading to subsequent effects on the
cardiovascular and immune systems
• Noise interferes with attention and
consequently performance and
productivity
• Noisy environments affect language
acquisition and reading development
in children

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Local environment: Impacts of noise on human health

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Local environment: Noise levels and standards in Indian
cities
Noise data from selected Indian cities
Average noise range Maximum

City (in dbA leq*) (in dbA leq*)

Bengaluru 55-66 98
Chennai 55-77 107
Delhi 52-73 97
Hyderabad 53-74 103
Kolkata 55-67 101
Lucknow 54-72 77
Mumbai 62-70 98
*dbA Leq is the continuous noise for a 16 hour period, relatable to human hearing. **Prepared
from dbA Leq Max

Figures recorded in August 2011. Source: Central Pollution Control Board, www.cpcbnoise.com

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• Road traffic causes community noise.
• Noise levels in residential, commercial, institutional areas, etc are
increasing due to high volumes, traffic speed, development in
proximity to the transit corridors, etc.

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Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2334486
Local environment: Remedial measures against
traffic noise

Road traffic noise in cities can be reduced

Night-time
through a eight-part strategy: speed limit
- raising public noise awareness (“Lärmschutz”)

- avoiding motorised traffic

- setting reception standards
- motor vehicle control (vehicular
measures) Noise barrier
along a road
- land use control
- Traffic management
- surface design and maintenance
- road geometry and design.

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Noise Map of Paris
Part 2 : Society and Health

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 Society and Health: Accessibility and social inclusion

• A transport system interacts with the society in three ways:

1) It provides access to livelihood

2) It provides a means of livelihood by providing employment in the system

3) It facilitates livelihood by creating demand for various services

• Decisions on transport investment can DEPENDANCY CONSTRUCT: SOCIETY AND TRANSPORT SYSTEM

easily overlook needs and concerns of

poor groups especially in low income Access to livelihood
(eg. bus, cycle, pedestrian)

• For example, the costs imposed on

non-motorized transport, such as
pedestrians falling victim to motor SOCIETY Means of livelihood TRANSPORT
(URBAN (eg. Rickshaw pullers) SYSTEM
vehicle traffic accidents are overlooked POOR)

in the cost-benefit estimation of

increasing speeds or capacities of roads 20
Facilitator of
livelihood (eg. Hawkers)
Sign of improvement…….

• Road building can also be an

opportunity

Connaught Place

Source: CSE

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Redesigned Streets in a Small Town of Nanded in
Maharashtra

After

Before

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Source: Pradeep Sachdeva

Society and Health: Negative health effects of transport

Air pollution: Causes e.g. respiratory  1.3m deaths from

(Particulate Matter disease, cardiovascular overall outdoor air
(PM), Ozone, Nitrogen diseases, cancer pollution
dioxide, ... )

Road traffic injuries: Affect predominantly vulnerable  1.3m deaths, 50m

road users, e.g. pedestrians,
injured persons
cyclists, elderly people

Transport is an important
Lack of physical determinant of non-communicable  3m deaths
activity: diseases (NCD), e.g. cardiovascular
disease, type II diabetes, …
Noise increases stress levels and
Noise: blood pressure, and leads to ?
annoyance and sleep disturbance
Climate change & Climate change increases risks of
health: extreme weather events, changes ?
distribution of certain diseases, …

Access and Social Access to green spaces & essential 23

Well-being services impacts health status ?
Part 3: Energy & Climate Change

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Urban Transport, Energy and Climate Change

• Human activity has lead to wide-spread increase in global atmospheric

concentrations of ‘greenhouse gases’ (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2),
methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O)
• The human activities primarily responsible for these increases include the use of
fossil fuels, changes in land use such as deforestation, and agriculture
• Greenhouse gas emissions are very likely to be the main cause of current and future
climate change
• Transport does not only contribute to GHG emissions, but will also be subject to
climate change impacts

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 Link between local air pollution, transport and climate change: Our
cities in the pincer grip of high pollution, energy guzzling and
green house gases…
• Indian cities show strong
correlation between
emissions of air pollutants
and GHGs
• As cities grow in size,
transport emissions
increase
• Importance of catching
cities in the early stages of
growth

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Source: CAI ASIA 2008
 Cities with higher NMT share emit less CO2 and also have
better opportunity to improve climate resilience……..
CO2 emissions strongly corelate with vehicle numbers

Cities with high walking and cycling

have low CO2 emissions

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Energy & Climate Change: Vulnerable Cities and its
transport systems
• Transport systems themselves will also be affected by climate change, as
extreme weather events increase….

Source: FTA 2012 / US DOT

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Mumbai floods - What do not work?

The most devastating urban flood in

India occurred on 26‐07‐2005 in
Mumbai when historic highest rainfall
of 944mm in 24 hr. occurred along with
high tide of 4.48m.

The highest intensity in4 hrs was 120

mm / hr. 29
What works? Walk

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What works? Cycle rickshaws

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Energy & Climate Change: Link between local & global
issues
Sustainable transport instruments: Synergies between local air quality
improvements and GHG mitigation

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Energy & Climate Change: Basic principles for more
sustainable urban transport
• Necessary instruments and policies are well known and proven

• They follow the so called Avoid-Shift-Improve (A-S-I) approach

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Energy & Climate Change: Mitigation options for
Indian cities
• A practical example: The A-S-I approach applied to shopping

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Basic principles for more sustainable
urban transport
• The ASI approach does not only reduce emissions on a local and global
level and improve energy efficiency
• It also supports the vitalization of public spaces, social cohesion and
economic attractiveness of a city

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Implementing A-S-I policies: Identifying respective
roles
• Responsibilities for local authorities

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• Need to identify and measure the impacts on environment in
terms of pollution level, noise emission, etc for each city and
suggest technological solutions at source of pollutions to
reduce its impacts.

• Change in priority from creation of transport systems

infrastructure to environmental-friendly transport
infrastructure by using updated technology and increasing
investment.

• Improvement in vehicle design in terms of fuel consumption,

emissions, engine efficiency, etc by the manufacturers.

• Need of policy formulation for mobility, energy and climate

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change with much emphasis on environmental friendly
transport.
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