[sustran] Re: Delhi plans congestion charge to ease gridlock | The Guardian

[Todd Alexander Litman]

Yes, this is interesting. I gave a presentation, “Congestion Charging:
Options and Impacts" at the Urban Mobility India Conference
(http://iutindia.org/urban2011 ) in Delhi last week. Nobody mentioned this
proposal. 

 

Although I think that congestion pricing could be beneficial, in most cases
it is costly and politically difficult to implement, and only affects a
small portion of total travel. For example, London’s congestion pricing
system has a 30-40% overhead cost (30-40% of revenues are spent on
collecting the fee), it only affects about 5% of total regional travel, many
types of vehicles are exempted or given large discounts for annual passes,
and it does not discourage driving within the area (once a motorist pays the
fee they may as well drive). As a result, although it reduces about 20% of
affected travel, it reduces less than 1% of total regional travel. Other
pricing reforms, such as increased parking prices and fuel taxes,
distance-based insurance, and cheaper transit fares, are probably more
economically efficient and beneficial overall, particularly for GHG emission
reductions. 

 

Here are the main conclusions from my presentation. Let me know if you would
like me to email you the slide show.

 

·         Without efficient pricing and improvements to alternative modes,
urban traffic congestion is virtually unavoidable.

 

·         Motorists either spend time or money. Spending money is more
efficient overall because it allows higher value trips to “outbid”
lower-value trips, and generates revenue.

 

·         Urban traffic congestion is increasingly severe in developing
countries.

 

·         More efficient pricing can reduce congestion and help achieve
other planning objectives. Although road tolls are most effective at
reducing congestion, other pricing strategies (parking pricing, higher fuel
taxes, and distance-based fees) may be easier to implement and provide
greater total benefits.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Todd Litman

Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org)

litman at vtpi.org

facebook.com/todd.litman

Phone & Fax 250-360-1560

1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA

“Efficiency - Equity - Clarity”

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+litman=vtpi.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+litman=vtpi.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
Of Cornie Huizenga
Sent: December-08-11 9:09 PM
To: Sarath Guttikunda
Cc: Clean Air Initiative -- Asia; Global 'South' Sustainable Transport
Subject: [sustran] Re: Delhi plans congestion charge to ease gridlock | The
Guardian

 

Dear All,

 

It is interesting to read this. I just am back from the annual UMI meeting

on urban transport in Delhi. As far as I know none of the keynote Indian

speeches and presentations made reference to this.

 

I think that the article is significant in the sense that it points at a

growing awareness in Asian cities that it will be hard, if not impossible,

to revert the current pattern of growing un-sustainability of transport

systems, associated with rapidly growing vehicle fleets merely by investing

in public transport and promoting NMT.

 

Increasingly, cities seem to be willing to put in place demand management

measures to restrain the growth in number of vehicles and their use.

Evidence of this is for example the decision of Beijng and other cities in

China to follow the example of Singapore and Shanghai who for more than 10

years have had a vehicle quota system.  The economic success of these two

cities clearly demonstrates that restraining the number of vehicles does

not undermine economic growth.

 

A quota system can be implemented more easily and it is cheaper to

administer. If it is operated on the basis of an auction system it can also

generate substantial funding which should be a major contribution towards

improving public transport and NMT, except in the case of metro's which are

more expensive. In Shanghai, about 100,000 car licenses are auctioned each

year resulting in about $ 600 million in income.

 

The basic underlying premise is of course that road space is not a free

commodity and that access to its use by cars can be regulated in the same

manner as other parts of the city such as land for construction where

public lands are sold/leased or taxed for private development and the

proceeds are used for developing schools, hospitals etc.

 

Cornie

 

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Sarath Guttikunda
<sguttikunda at gmail.com>wrote:

 

> Article quotes, "This will help reduce congestion 
 [and] encourage people

> to use public transport".

> 

> How much of this is possible with the limited public transport in place?

> Compare with the public transport system in Singapore and London, Delhi is

> not close to the required capacity to warrant a shift from cars to bus or

> metro, by introducing a congestion fees. Toll roads and fuel taxes aside,

> congestion fees system requires an enormous scale-up in the current public

> transport system to make it work and see some tangible results in reducing

> congestion and related air pollution.

> 

> ***********************************

> 

> 

>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/08/delhi-congestion-charge-ease-gri
dlock?newsfeed=true

> 

> *Delhi Plans Congestion Charge to Ease Gridlock*

> 

> No one could fault the plan for lack of ambition: to tame the choked

> streets of India <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/india>'s notoriously

> chaotic capital by imposing a congestion charge modelled on that in
London,

> Singapore and a handful of other cities.

> 

> The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the authority charged with providing

> civic services to the city, hopes to introduce a system to levy a
150-rupee

> (£2) fee on cars, motorbikes and even rickshaws entering central areas

> during the day.

> 

> "This will help reduce congestion 
 [and] encourage people to use public

> transport," the head of the authority, KS Mehra, told local press. Lorries

> will be made to pay a higher fee.

> 

> A congestion charge has existed in Singapore since the 1970s and various

> systems have been successfully introduced in London, Rome, Milan and

> several Scandinavian cities in recent years.

> 

> Authorities in Beijing recently said they were considering congestion

> charging, and other Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Nangjing are

> reported to be interested. But no city of the size and complexity of Delhi

> has attempted to introduce such a scheme.

> 

> Few doubt the necessity of radical measures in India's capital.

> Construction of a metro system and measures to boost the use of buses has

> barely slowed the increase in traffic in recent years. A decade of rapid

> economic growth and a broad distaste for public transport among the

> expanding middle class means there are now 6.8m vehicles on Delhi's roads,

> at least twice as many as five years ago.

> 

> Gridlock is common and, during winter, heavy smog leads to accidents,

> respiratory diseases and mass flight cancellations.

> 

> Other Indian cities such as Mumbai, the country's commercial capital, are

> considering similar measures. The Delhi scheme would first be implemented

> in areas around the historical old centre.

> 

> But experts are sceptical. "If you look at what is already in place to

> reduce congestion, such as toll gates around Delhi, they make the problem

> worse, not better," said Rumi Aijaz, of the city's Centre for Policy

> Research thinktank. "Even if the proposal is accepted politically, the

> necessary infrastructure simply isn't there."

> 

> The tolls on key roads linking Delhi with satellite cities cause huge

> traffic jams. Occasionally they are the focus of protests that can turn

> violent. Aijaz said a broader strategy to tackle traffic in the city was

> necessary. "There has to be a range of measures to manage the issue.

> Nothing done in isolation will work," he said.

> 

> Experts point out that one serious problem is a lack of proper licensing
or

> law enforcement in Delhi. Driving permits can be bought illegally and laws

> that should ensure safe driving and a smoother traffic flow are routinely

> ignored.

> 

> Fines for traffic violations can usually be avoided by paying a small
bribe

> to police officers. There are few cameras, although a Facebook page asking

> irate commuters to post their own photographs of offenders has met with a

> massive response.

> 

> Senior police officers said charging would be a positive step – if

> technology to avoid queuing was introduced. But even if the practical

> obstacles can be overcome, the support of the infamously fractious

> "delhiwalla" – inhabitants of the city – will be hard to win.

> 

> Some shopkeepers welcomed the move, but their customers were less

> enthusiastic. "People are already reeling under taxes 
 we don't need any

> more," Mamta Choudhary, a teacher who regularly shops in one of the areas

> designated for the new scheme, told the Times of India newspaper.

> 

> Ram Thakur, a 45-year-old manager who spends up to two hours a day in

> traffic driving from the satellite city of Faridabad to his office, said
no

> amount of charging would make him give up the small car that he bought a

> year ago. "I started on a bicycle and I've taken buses for 20 years. Now I

> am a car owner and life is very much nicer. I am not giving it up to go

> back on buses or bikes," he told the Guardian.

> 

> Dr Robin Hickman, an expert in urban transport at London University, said

> that implementing a congestion charge in Delhi would be "extremely

> difficult. "It would probably be a better option to increase tax on fuel
in

> the city and invest the funds generated in public transport," Hickman, who

> has worked in Delhi, said.

> 

> --

> *Dr. Sarath Guttikunda*

> Founder and Analyst, UrbanEmissions.Info (New Delhi, India)

> Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute (Reno,

> USA)

> *Tel +91-9891315946  |  http://www.urbanemissions.info*

> *http://www.dri.edu/sarath-guttikunda*

> --------------------------------------------------------

> To search the archives of sustran-discuss visit

> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014715651517519735401:ijjtzwbu_ss

> 

> ================================================================

> SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,

> equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries

> (the 'Global South').

> 

 

 

 

-- 

Cornie Huizenga

Joint Convener

Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport

Mobile: +86 13901949332

cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org

www.slocat.net

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SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
(the 'Global South').