Flooding Cars
I am resident of Trivandrum city,my settlement started here some 32 years back,a migrant in search of some affluent job and also ensuring good education for the next generation. In my yesteryears it needed some ten months salary to purchase a scooter, we people who are not Trivandrumites find it difficult to meet the both end on the only source of income, salary, acquires a vehicle only through staff vehicle loan,car loan a distant dream as our basic pay does not come near eligibility. Now a middle salaried employee can own a two wheeler with his one month salary, high paid executives may be able have a car with two or three months emoluments.
See the sit outs/car porch of every house now at least 2 four wheelers and 3 two wheelers,the flooding of cars has also created the grave situation of space for parking at night and junctions during daytime. Night parking of cars by the owners whose dwellings are by the side of single lane pathways find the narrow bye lanes as there permanent parking places, as like the stray dogs resting and careless ruthless dropping of garbages in pavements and pathways not even caring for the pedestrians.
Blaming the authorities for poor urban transport planning in our country Capital, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has said the city roads aren't meant for safe walking and cycling.A survey report says Delhi is yet to wake up to the mobility crisis as increased use of cars is reducing the capacity of roads to carry people."The national capital does not follow the principles laid down by the National Urban Transport Policy, which say that cities must be designed for people, not vehicles. More and more cars are crowding Delhi's roads... edging out buses, walkers and cyclists. The city's roads are rapidly losing the capacity to move more people," it said.The CSE also raised doubts over the construction of signal-free expressways and flyovers. "Unfortunately, obsession with seamless, signal-free travel for motorised vehicles... is disrupting the direct short routes for walkers and cyclists and increasing distances and travel time for them," the report added.On Thursday, a day-long international consultation on 'our right of way: walk and cycle' was organised by the CSE.Its assessment has revealed that Delhi is still unprepared to deal with the growing demand for travel.About 15 million motorised trips a day now will increase to more than 25 million a day by 2021. Further motorisation of those trips will spell disaster, it said.Raising concern over the rising number of cars, it said that about 14 per cent of the daily trips right now are by cars, which are choking the city.The report also pointed towards pedestrian fatalities, saying that neglect was responsible for this homicide of zero emitters who are part of the solution to the mobility crisis.India’s vehicle fleet had the second-largest growth rate after China in 2010, with 8.9%. The fleet went from 19.1 million in 2009 to 20.8 million units in 2010 India has a fleet of 1,1 million natural gas vehicles as of December 2011 .
The U.S. publisher ward,s, estimate that as of 2010 there were 1.015 billion motor vehicles in use in the world. This figure represents the number of cars; light, medium and heavy duty trucks; and buses, but does not include off road vehicles or heavy construction equipement. The world vehicle population passed the 500 million-unit mark in 1986, from 250 million motor vehicles in 1970. Between 1970 and 1980, the vehicle population doubled roughly every 10 years. Two U.S. researchers estimate that the world's fleet will reach 2 billion motor vehicles by 2020, with cars representing at least 50% of all vehicles. China’s and India’s automobile fleets are expected to grow at an annual rate of around 7 or 8%, while the slowest growth is expected in the United States, with less than 1% a year, and western Europe with 1 to 2%.Global vehicle ownership in 2010 was 148 vehicles in operation per 1000 inhabitants, a ratio of 1:6.75 vehicles to people, slightly down from 150 vehicles per 1000 inhabitants in 2009, a rate of 1:6.63 vehicles to people.] In developing countries vehicle ownership rates rarely exceed 200 cars per 1,000 population.
Plan sustainable mobility:
Some of the important strategies which are generally implemented and under the process of implementation globally are discussed below.
Encouragement of Non – Motorised means: Although Non motorised transport is an integral element of rural and developing urban cities in India, it is still good scope in some major cities like Delhi, Mumbai. On the other hand, more than 50% of the city residents cannot afford any other mode of transport unless heavily subsidised. Despite this, investment for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure is traditionally low relative to other modes. The streets of Indian cities need to be made more amenable, attractive and safe in design terms to encourage pedestrian and cycle use. Major deterrents to cycling include unhealthy, unpleasant and dangerous traffic conditions, unsuitable road design and a lack of secure cycle parking. Conditions must be improved to ensure that routes are fit for cycling such as safe, convenient and pleasant. To encourage more walking and cycling, incentives are required for people to modify their journey patterns and to make shorter trips by making such facilities (shops, schools, post offices and banks) closer to where people live. Micro level policies such as maintenance policies for walking routes, ensuring pavements are in good state of repair and removing street clutter, obstructions, etc. are also important.
Use alternative fuels: The technological foundation should be laid for the eventual elimination of the effects of fossil carbon in transport fuel. This will likely require both the development of solar energy and hydrogen energy. However, development of vehicles with solar energy as well as hydrogen energy is still in the research stage.
Promotion MRTS /BRTS: Public transport is a key policy package in providing an alternative, more carbon efficient means of travel. In India, most public transport services are of poor quality - crowded, undependable, slow and inconvenient, uncoordinated and often dangerous. In many mega-cities, rail systems should ideally carry the bulk of the high demand for motorized trips, as mass rapid transit systems (MRTS) have a capacity superior to any other urban transport system. In this some of the major cities in India like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, etc., have already taken the steps for implementation of BRTS and MRTS. For example, slow shifting from conventional buses to metro services by expanding new routes in Kolkata helps in reducing the GHG emissions as well as other pollutants to a large extent.
Speed Trains: There is potential for some CO2 emission reduction impacts by the substitution of long distance travel by more fuel efficient modes. Introduction of high speed train (HST) would definitely reduce the CO2 emission to a large extent.
Green Arteries: Recently a very encouraging policy called “green arteries” has started working in New York City which connects almost every part of the city with sustainable subway cars/cable cars and inter-cities with high speed trains. New technologies increase rail line capacity by 50% and lower energy consumption by 30%. Global implementation of such new mobility systems would make our world smaller.
Urban Traffic Planning: The issues currently plaguing the traffic and transportation system in Kolkata are lack of adequate road space, or of controlled rights of way, a rapidly increasing fleet of personal vehicles partly due to the absence of a well defined public transport system, lack of parking space and the near absence of a parking policy, lack of enforcement, and worst of all, road user indiscipline. Therefore it is necessary to improve the traffic flow which will lead to reduction of fuel consumption and then the emission of GHGs and other pollutants. more