METRPOLITAN TRANSPORT: ISSUES,PROBLEMS

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METRPOLITAN TRANSPORT
ISSUES,PROBLEMS SOLUTIONS

• By
• N.P.SINGH
• Former Secretary to Govt. of India ,
• Ministry of Urban Development
• Founder President,
• Institute of Urban Transport ( India ) ,
• NEW DELHI

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URBAN TRANSPORT A good urban transport system in
a city should provide for a high quality service,
which is- safe speedy
pollution-free
affordable
convenient/comfortable
accessible ( at all relevant times not far
from ones residence or place of work) and
capable of meeting the
commuting requirements of the inhabitants. A high
quality public transport in urban areas enhances
the quality of life of the citizens, helps in
attracting economic investment for growth, and
gives a competitive edge to the city.
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• Nature of the metropolitan transport
  problems
• Acute shortage of good public transport.
• Rapid increase in the number of personalized
  motor vehicles on the roads.
• (E.g. no. of motor vehicles in Delhi has gone
  up from 5.36 lakhs in April, 1981 to 18.13 lakhs
  in April, 1991, 36 lakhs in April, 2001 and
  approx. 45 lakhs in March, 2006. Nearly 1200 new
  vehicles are added to the roads in Delhi
  everyday. The position in other metropolitan
  cities is also similar.)
• Approx. 70 of the automotive vehicles in the
  metro cities like Delhi and Bangalore are
  2-wheelers.
• There is no suburban or intra-urban rail
  transport in most of our metropolitan cities.

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• Per passenger km, a car costs more than 10 times
  and even a 2-wheeler more than 3 times as
  compared to a bus and these add much higher
  pollution load in terms of CO HC to the
  atmosphere.
• Despite the chaotic urban transport situation in
  the majority of our metropolitan cities, efforts
  at transportation planning have been extremely
  poor, if not non-existent.
• Investment in upgrading the U.T. infrastructure
  in post- independence India has been grossly
  inadequate.
• Result
• Extreme congestion on the roads
• Continuous slowing down of average vehicular
  speeds
• Increase in air noise pollution
• Rising accident rates and
• Wasteful consumption of fuel.
• This indicates the high economic price which
  the society has been paying for its neglect of
  investing in a good urban transport system.

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• Major causes of the urban transport problems
• Lack of expertise in transportation planning in
  India.
• Lack of appreciation of the impact of land use
  planning on reducing the transportation demand
  in the cities.
• Haphazard growth of cities in the absence of
  planning.
• Non-conformity of the actual developments with
  the Master Plans.
• Inadequate carrying capacity of roads not
  recognized.
• Transportation Impact Analysis of new
  developments rarely carried out.
• Indiscriminate grant of building licenses for
  M.S. Comml. buildings in utter disregard of
  road widths / feasibility of providing the
  required parking spaces.
• Grossly deficient parking norms, which have long
  been in need of revision.

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Major causes of

• Inadequate provision of public parking spaces at
  ground level or in multi-level / under-ground
  constructions.
• On-street parking of vehicles, taking away the
  already insufficient road space.
• Non-levy or insufficient levy of parking charges.
• Construction/ retention of shopping centres
  without providing for pedestrian foot-paths
  off-street vehicular parking.
• Encroachment of foot-paths, wherever available.
• Non-provision of service roads to cater to
  local traffic needs along ring/arterial roads.

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• Non-provision of pedestrian walk-ways cycle
  tracks.
• Lack of decongestion measures e.g. delays in
  shifting wholesale markets to the city
  peripheries, non provision of truck terminals
  outside the city limits, etc.
• Inadequate development of satellite towns
  around metropolitan cities and failure to provide
  RRTS or Expressways linking such towns to the
  mother city.
• Lack of Institutional focus in urban transport.
• Gross inadequacy of investment in urban
  transport.
• Failure in ensuring that infrastructure leads
  development rather than vice versa.
• Lack of anticipatory planning and pro-active
  managerial approach in the field of urban
  transport.

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• MEASURES FOR TACKLING THE METROPOLITAN
• TRANSPORT PROBLEMS
• 
  Urban Form/Layout
• Transportation demand in a city is greatly
  influenced by its layout and land-use pattern,
  besides its population.
• A city may be linear/rectangular, annular,
  circular or just haphazard in shape.
• In a linear city (as in Mumbai) or annular city,
  traffic along the length/ring can be managed by
  means of a surface railway, whereas the traffic
  across the length/ring can be managed by buses or
  other means of public/individual transport. In a
  circular city, the main traffic flow has to be
  managed along a few selected rings and radials.
• Cities with a regular shape as above are clearly
  more transport efficient or transit-friendly than
  others.

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• Land Use Policy
• As journeys for work and education account for
  the majority of trips in the urban areas,
  proximity of work places/educational centres to
  residential layouts (with rental housing) will
  substantially reduce transport demand.
• Adoption of mixed land use combining residential
  housing in upper floors of M.S. buildings with
  offices in the lower floors and/or shopping in
  the ground/first floor can also bring down the
  transport demand.
• Development of air space above suburban rly.
  stations and major bus terminals ( as in Mumbai )
  to provide for commercial office areas can also
  considerably bring down the transport demand.
• Planning and future expansion of metropolitan
  cities on the basis of poly-nuclear urban forms
  makes them more transit-friendly by generating
  peak hour traffic in all directions, leading to
  its dispersal.

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Land Use Policy (contd.)

• While planning new arterial roads for expanding
  metropolitan cities, land use on either side of
  such roads up to a limited depth could be
  reserved for road widening or park and open
  spaces, so as to disallow any building
  constructions thereon and utilize the said space
  for purposes of future road-widening as the
  traffic densities increase.
• For mega cities, the right of way for
  exclusive bus ways or rail roads to be built
  in future also needs to be reserved on the
  surface along such roads. This measure would save
  huge sums of money that would otherwise have to
  be spent by the future generations on building
  elevated or underground transport corridors (rail
  or road) as the cities expand in future.
• ( In the case of the Delhi MRTS
  project, the full cost per km. of at grade,
  elevated U.G. metro corridors has been worked
  out approx. to Rs. 30 crores, Rs. 120 crores
  Rs. 300 crores respectively.)

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Need to have Urban Transport in the Concurrent
List of the 7th Schedule

• Urban Transport does not appear in any of the
  three legislative lists of the 7th Schedule of
  our Constitution. Putting U.T. in the Concurrent
  List would enable the Central Govt. to -
• (i) enact a comprehensive Multi-modal
  Urban Transport Act covering railways, road and
  water transport besides other modes in
  metropolitan cities and
• (ii) set up UMTAs in such cities for
  integrated planning and coordination of all modes
  of urban transport, making arrangements for
  inter-modal transfers, raising resources through
  taxation and otherwise to finance U.T. projects,
  evolving integrated fare structures and providing
  for common ticketing devices for different modes.
  Other functions like land use-transport
  integration, control of environmental pollution
  arising out of the transport system and energy
  conservation, etc. could also be assigned to
  UMTAs through the proposed legislation.

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Organizational Institutional changes required

• Creation of a separate Deptt. of Urban Transport
  to be manned by Transportation planners,
  Transport economists and other experts under the
  Union Ministry of U.D. for improved planning
  coordination of metropolitan transport issues at
  national level.
• Creation of State Directorates of U.T. in the
  States having at least 10 Class I cities or 2
  cities with a population of 5 lakhs or more each.
  These Dtes. will take up Traffic Tptn. planning
  in all Class I cities in the State and coordinate
  their plans for metropolitan cities with those of
  the Union Govt.
• Setting up of UMTAs by Central law in all
  million plus (to begin with 2 million plus)
  cities in the country.

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Organizational Institutional changes (contd.)

• Operating Mass Transport Systems through
  corporate modes like Urban Mass Transit
  Corporations (UMTCs)
• Setting up Traffic Engg. Cells in all Municipal
  Corporations and
• Creation of a Municipal Police Force in all
  cities to-
• (i) regulate city traffic (in
  lieu of the State Police)
• (ii) prevent encroachment of roads
  and enforce Parking regulations metered parking
  in the city and
• (iii) support the Engg. Deptt. of the
  municipal body in the control/demolishing of
  unauthorized constructions and recovery of
  encroached land.

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Short Term Measures Transport Systems
Management (TSM)
techniques

• In the medium and short run,
  TSM techniques offer low-cost solutions to many
  urban transportation problems through optimal
  utilization of available road space and other
  transport infrastructure in our cities.
• Examples of some common but effective
  TSM techniques are-
• (i) improving vehicular flow, inter
  alia, through segregation of slow fast moving
  traffic and adoption of traffic engg. techniques
  (e.g. channelisation, signalization, bus stop
  locations, one way reversible streets, etc.)
• (ii) according preferential treatment
  to public transport modes on the roads
• (iii) staggering working and school
  hours to reduce peak travel demand
• (iv) following time of the day
  taxation principle
• (v) cordon pricing
• (vi) even odd number based
  regulation of private vehicles

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TSM techniques ( contd.)

• (vii) adopting minimum occupancy
  system for pvt. vehicles during peak hours
• (viii) levy of tax on entry of MVs into
  metropolitan areas from outside
• (ix) banning vehicular parking or levy
  of higher parking fee on busy thoroughfares
• (x) provision of ground level, UG
  multi-level parking facilities with the
  involvement of the private sector
• (xi) construction of flyovers
  elevated roads and a host of other measures
  like
• (xii) creation of traffic free zones
  (where road widening is not practicable),
  flexible laning, flexible traffic signaling,
  area-wide traffic signals coordination,
  park-n-ride facilities at metro stations,
  delineation of city-wise parking policies, etc.
  etc.

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Some additional Guide posts for orderly
development of Urban Transport

• No shopping complexes without provision of
  off-street parking and pedestrian walk-ways.
• Old complexes not having such facilities should
  be gradually phased out.
• Excessively busy commercial areas/streets should
  be converted into pedestrian malls.
• To facilitate this, adequate U.
  G./ground level/multi-level vehicular parking
  (charged) must be provided by the ULB in nearby
  locations and battery- operated/ other public
  transport be provided to the commuters from
  parking areas to the malls back, free of cost
  or at nominal cost.
• All urban bypasses to be constructed in future
  (to bypass inter- city traffic) should be
  elevated with a view to avoiding the risk of
  ribbon development.

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• Some additional Guide posts
  ...............
• Provision of truck terminals and ware houses
  should be made along arterial roads/NHs/SHs on
  the out-skirts of metropolitan cities no heavy
  goods vehicles be allowed into the city during
  day time and day-time tptn requirements be met
  through LCVs/ small lorries to the extent found
  necessary.
• Wholesale commodity markets, wherever located
  within the city, should be shifted to its
  outskirts away from the main arterial roads.
• No new major projects should be sanctioned in a
  city without carrying out a detailed
  transportation impact analysis thereof and
  coming to the finding that its results are
  acceptable.
• Reckless grant of building licenses for new
  M.S./comml buildings in utter disregard of the
  road widths availability of parking space
  should be avoided. (Ex. Airport road in Blore).

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Some additional Guide posts

• Satellite towns, if developed within a ring of
  30-50 km radius from the metropolitan city and
  with efficient communication links (like a RRTS
  or tolled expressway) with the latter, have the
  potential of greatly bringing down overcrowding
  in the metro cities.
• In view of the high cost of urban land required
  for road widening/construction purposes, the
  concept of transferable development rights or
  TDRs used in Mumbai and many cities of the
  developed world to acquire land for
  infrastructure projects within city boundaries
  should be introduced by law in all States.
• Proliferation of unauthorized colonies in the
  out-lying areas of fast growing metropolitan
  cities, sp. on revenue sites, adds to the urban
  chaos. Planning authorities must be particularly
  vigilant to check such unauthorized growth.
• High density developments on either side of Metro
  lines and in the vicinity of Metro rail stations
  through provision of higher FARs would not only
  provide better rider ship to the Metro rail, but
  also convenience to the people. Introduction of
  saleable FARs in such areas to raise resources
  for metro construction would, therefore, be a
  good idea, since land values will go up.

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Some additional Guide posts ..

• As transport of school students over long
  distances in big cities imposes considerable
  burden on urban transport, at least 50
  admissions to all schools should be restricted to
  students residing within 1 km of such schools.
• The most important steps in transportation
  planning, perhaps, are to anticipate the
  transportation needs of a growing city with the
  help of experts in tptn planning and adopt a
  pro-active approach to meet such needs, raising
  necy resources required therefor from within the
  city as far as possible.
• Anticipatory planning combined with a pro-active
  approach to provide timely solutions are thus the
  keys to solving the urban transportation crisis.
  This would minimize costs and maximize
  convenience for all concerned.
• Let infrastructure lead development and not vice
  versa!

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Long term Measures to tackle Metropolitan
Transport Problems

1.The Urban Bus

• Existing city buses in India built on truck
  chassis not suitable for urban transport.
• These need to be replaced by the URBAN BUS ,
  which has the following features-
• Lower floor height
• Wide doors
• Lighter body
• Better driver ergonomics, including power
  steering and
• Efficient engine to give economic fuel
  consumption at lower speeds.
• With exclusive grade separated bus ways, an
  urban bus can provide a system capacity of
  15000-25000 pphpd, which is the likely traffic
  load on busy corridors in medium-sized cities.

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2.Light Rail Transit System

• The LRT system developed in the mid-50s is a
  synthesis between the conventional tram car and
  the modern metro and can normally provide a
  system capacity between 30000 to 45000 pphpd.
• The system involves operation of smaller trains
  of light weight vehicles with an axle load of
  8-10 tons only, running predominantly on
  segregated or exclusive tracks.
• The LRT would suit the traffic conditions
  prevailing on some corridors in cities having a
  population between10 - 30 lakhs in India.

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3.The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System

• Chief characteristics of a BRT System which
  distinguish it from a normal Bus service are -
• Segregated bus lanes
• Prepaid/Automated ticketing systems
• Enclosed Metro-like stations
• Platform level boarding
• Route restructuring with trunk feeder systems
• Quality Service contracting
• Branding Marketing of a High Quality Bus
  Service
• BRT Buses can move at high speed high
  frequency.
• In the City of BOGOTA, BRT buses are
  carrying over 20,000 pphpd.
• In India, Ahmedabad City is planning to
  introduce BRT buses on selected routes ( March,
  2006 ) shortly.

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4. The Mass Rapid Transit ( MRT ) System

• For traffic corridors with load gt 45000 pphpd, a
  high capacity railway system consisting of
  suburban EMUs or elevated or U.G. metros provides
  the most effective solution.
• The overall costs per km of at grade, elevated
  and U.G. metro systems at current prices in India
  have been estimated to be in the proportion of
  13.510. Both elevated and underground systems
  are high cost (though efficient) solutions, which
  must be accepted in the absence of availability
  of exclusive at grade corridors for
  construction of such systems.
• It also follows from the above that reservation
  of corridors at the ground level for a future
  metro system for fast growing metropolitan cities
  would save huge costs to the future generations
  on building such systems by avoiding the need for
  U.G. or elevated constructions.
• With much lower capital costs, at grade metro
  systems are likely to be commercially viable
  under favorable traffic conditions, even where
  the elevated or U.G. systems may fail to be so.
• Running on electric traction exclusive tracks
  as they do, the MRT systems are non-polluting,
  high speed and possess high system capacities
  (upto 72,000 pphpd with headway of 2 minutes.)
  However, elevated metros cause noise pollution
  and may not be architecturally very pleasing.

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Intelligent Transport Systems
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THANK YOU!