[sustran] !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Indian cities should focus on dismantling the automobile regime !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sujit Patwardhan]

Excellent article.
Must Read !!!

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Sujit



CHOKING CITIES <http://scroll.in/tags/15626/choking-cities>
Indian cities should focus on dismantling the automobile regime, not just
restricting it
Delhi's odd-even experiment will be messy, contested and incremental, but
restrictions on using cars are here to stay.
Rutul Joshi <http://scroll.in/authors/10012>  · Today · 09:15 am

​The odd-even rationing of roads in Delhi has got everyone talking about
air pollution, public transport, carpooling and parking charges. It’s
amusing that issues that until recently were confined to policy and
academic circles have suddenly entered the public discourse. While this
reaffirms the belief that an issue’s proximity to Delhi is directly
proportionate to its media coverage, it doesn’t change the reality that the
air pollution levels in the capital and other cities are indicative of a
public health crisis. And it’s a crisis that has been created by placing
our relentless appetite for private automobiles above human interest.

Automobiles dominate our cities and our minds. “Traffic congestion” is part
of everyday lexicon and building of flyovers is widely used to claim
development in cities. Like the mythological demon that kept gobbling, the
demands for uninterrupted traffic flow, wider roads and more flyovers
remain unsatisfied.

Private automobiles have become dominant thanks to cheaper loans, lenient
taxation, demand for free parking spaces and the absence of effective
road-pricing mechanisms. “Car seva” remains the unofficial motto of our
urban policies, putting a dent in the city’s budget while officials get
criticised for not supplying enough essential “infrastructure” for smooth
and fast traffic movement. The large number of litigations against the
odd-even car use restrictions in Delhi and the bitter criticism of the
capital’s Bus Rapid Transit System illustrate how the incumbent automobile
regime resists any form of usage restrictions or re-prioritisation.

Here, there and everywhere

The space occupied by automobiles – moving or parked – is viewed as
inevitable and legitimate over other urban activities such as play areas
for children or street trading. A car or a motorbike are not only “utility
vehicles” but are fast becoming personalised objects of cultural
consumption. Popular media and automobile advertisements continue to
portray automobiles as symbols of greater freedom and higher social status.

Ownership of an automobile brings a sense of entitlement for consuming
increasingly more road space. We have fallaciously linked automobiles and
the upgrade from a motorbike to a car as the only possible curve of social
and economic progress. Similarly, a spurt in the private automobile sector
is viewed as a pathway for economic growth. The automobile regime
encompasses political, economic, social and cultural vested interests
developed around the relentless consumption of automobile use.

The dominance of automobiles also affects other transport modes and access
to public spaces. As automobiles appropriate more and more space, the use
and quality of public transport and the share of walking and cycling in
commuting declines. Even so, walking and cycling constitute 40% share in
urban travel, according to the latest census.

Pedestrians and cyclists scavenge for road space. Jaywalking is not
pleasant in most cities. Automobile-free areas, where one can walk freely,
children can play carelessly or where the elderly can relax, are rare,
gated, exclusive, and at times expensive.

Housing colonies, institutions, streets are infested with parked
automobiles, each of them giving up on other activities to accommodate the
vehicles. Soon, Gurgaon-like suburbs proliferating in cities around India
will lock their residents into an automobile-centric culture, just like the
residents of the low-density sprawling suburbs of the North American cities.

We live in cities made for automobiles, honking is an inevitable part of
our urban soundscapes, and breathing the foul air emanating from
automobiles completes our urban lives. While private automobiles are not
solely responsible for air pollution, the dominance of the automobile
regime severely affects the quality of urban life.

Long-term projections show that by 2050, the majority of urban travellers
in India will depend on public transport of various forms including the
para-transits, walking and cycling, carpools or car share if they become
popular.

Future course

Despite high vehicle ownership, cities in industrialised countries have
reversed their public policies and have started restricting the use of
automobiles in one way or the other.

So how will the restrictions on automobile consumption become a political
priority in India? Do we have political constituencies around promoting
public transport today? Do people demand better buses – GPS-enabled, smart
card-operated, etc. – instead of cheaper fuel for their private vehicles?
Shouldn’t we have a Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Shahari Footpath Yojana? Will
cycling to work be incentivised in the Smart Cities Mission?

There is a silver lining. The problem of automobile dominance in the city
affects the elite class, and that’s why there is such a hue and cry at the
moment. Delhi’s odd-even car use restrictions have initiated politics of
differential mobility on a large scale – a little niche to discuss
alternative ways of moving around the city, a first step to dismantling the
idea that car ownership gives you god-given rights to the road space.

The policy may not be completely rational and the government might not have
the wherewithal to fully implement it initially. But let’s remember that
public interventions in India are messy, contested and incremental.

The odd-even formula from Delhi will slowly get more people on board to
understand that restrictions on the use of cars are here to stay. It will
grow into two-wheeler restrictions, carpooling and, hopefully, better
public transport integration.

As long as the Delhi government is keen to stay the course, these
restrictions will become a reality in the capital and hopefully in many
other Indian cities as well.

*Rutul Joshi teaches urban planning at CEPT University, Ahmedabad.*



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*Parisar*
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Sujit Patwardhan
patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
sujit at parisar.org <sujitjp at gmail.com>
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