[sustran] Re: FW: INDIA: OMISSIONS IN EMISSION STANDARDS

[Paul Barter]

And another, rather different perspective on the same issue from our own
sustran-discuss participant, Prof Dinesh Mohan. 
Paul
------------------

The Times of India
Editorial

LEADER ARTICLE
Fuel to the Fire 
 
DINESH MOHAN
 
[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2002 12:10:12 AM ]  
 
THE Supreme Court has given some more time for bus operators in Delhi to
convert all their buses to CNG. Meanwhile, the government of India
constituted a high-powered committee chaired by R M Mashelkar,
director-general, CSIR, to recommend an auto fuel policy for the country. 

The committee has submitted an interim report which suggests that we should
specify performance standards and not specific technologies for pollution
control. 

This is in keeping with policies followed by all civilised societies around
the world that the basic principle of specifying standards is that they
indicate the performance expected by a product but not specify the
technology to be used. 

The reason is that specification of specific technologies ends up killing
innovation and research for improvement in the future. On the other hand,
when performance standards are specified, then manufacturers, researchers
and operators compete with each other to provide the most efficient systems
at the lowest costs for the same performance. 

If we specify a single technology then we get locked into a single system,
find it difficult to change when better products become available and get
controlled by lobbies in favour of that single technology. 

The Mashelkar report is just the first necessary - but not sufficient - step
toward sensible policy-making. This is because dealing with technology and
health in the public space is much more complex than we think. 

If your stress test shows that your heart muscles have become weak, you can
panic and demand a single magic pill to solve all your problems. But your
doctor will only laugh at your demand.

Instead he will tell you to change your diet, do a set of prescribed
exercises every day, alter your lifestyle, and take a set of medicines every
day. In addition, he will also ask you to monitor your health status
periodically and change your drugs accordingly.

Tackling traffic flow, vehicular pollution and road accidents require the
same level of scientific expertise, inter- disciplinary cooperation and
long-term attention as any other public health problem. 

To solve problems of vehicular pollution we need to work from first
principles. Quite obviously, the most long-lasting solution would be if
people travelled less. Mixed land use helps. 

Homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, entertainment areas, all need to be
intermixed in localities. This is happening more by default than policy in
our cities. Vendors going from house to house selling things reduce trips;
vegetable shops, dhobis, mochis, paan shops, and tandoor stands in
neighbourhoods eliminate thousands of scooter and car trips. 

The second long-term solution is to encourage non-polluting modes of travel.
There is only one - human-powered travel. We should be designing our streets
so that walking, cycling and the use of rickshaws becomes safer and much
more pleasant. 

If it were so, many more people would be using these modes, especially
younger people. City planning experience from Beijing in China to Portland
in the US suggests this is true. 

Street designs are available which show that segregated paths can be
provided for bicycles and rickshaws on existing arterial roads in most
cities. When you do this even the motorised traffic benefits, because
friction reduces, flow becomes smoother and pollution reduces further. 

If walking and bicycling were safer, more children would not need to go to
school by bus or in their parents' vehicles. Such policies would not only
reduce pollution but also deaths and injuries due to traffic accidents. 

The third strategy is to make public transport affordable, convenient and
safe. No Indian city has improved bus transport in the last decade. Urban
buses are still following designs of the 1950s. 

The service is unreliable and unsafe especially for children, women and the
elderly. However, recent developments in communication and computer
technology have made it possible to optimise bus operations and provide
customer-friendly services at very low cost. 

Modern urban buses have low floors - only 350 mm high from the road. These
buses make entry and exit much safer and faster. None of these options is
being planned for our cities. The fourth strategy is to reduce the pollution
from vehicles. 

This is the only area where the government has taken some significant steps.
Lead has been removed from petrol. This will conserve the health of millions
of children. In Delhi, two-wheelers are sold petrol premixed with oil at
pumps. 

This prevents bad and excess oil use and reduces pollution. The diesel being
sold in Delhi is less polluting than before. Cars being sold in Delhi now
follow more stringent pollution norms. 

Two-wheeler pollution standards in India are among the most stringent in the
world and our two-wheeler manufacturers are doing a good job of meeting
these standards by their R&D in this area. 

However, much more needs to be done. Such measures must not be
Delhi-centric. They must apply all over the country. After all, according to
the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi is not the most polluted city in
India. There are many which are more polluted. 

All policies, like drugs, have side-effects. Before prescribing a drug, you
have to be certain that the side-effects are not worse than the disease. For
example, our simple calculations show that all the effects of reducing
pollution from buses would be nullified if only 10-15 per cent of bus users
shift to using two-wheelers or cars. 

This shift would also increase congestion. Greater use of two-wheelers would
also increase injuries due to accidents. Therefore, before we make new laws
that might increase the cost of buses, we have to make arrangements for
cross-subsidy of public transport. 

This follows from the polluter and user pays principle based on fair play.
Since car users pollute the most, use the most road space and injure more
people per person transported, they must pay for their comfort that harms
others. 

Two-wheeler users come next and bus users a low third. A pollution and road
tax paid by private vehicle users could help pay for better buses so that we
avoid a migration from buses to two-wheelers and cars. 

It is quite clear that cleaner air will come at a price, and only if we have
well-thought-out long-term policies. The future committees which deal with
these issues would be well advised to consider all the complex issues,
consider the side-effects and perform cost effectiveness studies before
issuing edicts. If we don't do this, the air will not be cleaner and a lot
of people will be affected adversely. 

(The author is a professor for transportation and safety at IIT, New Delhi)