Photo: Gettyimages
Sustainable urban transport in less motorised countries: Research and training, New Delhi, India
Road Safety and Urban Transport Planning
”Here at the Centre in New Delhi we have had significant influence, at both the national and local levels. We have been given a role in national planning. Now we are trying to get involved in all of the large cities in the country,” says Dinesh Mohan, Director of the CoE Sustainable Urban Transport in Less Motorized Countries: Research and Training in New Delhi.
COE IN NEW DELHI
Sustainable Urban Transport in Less Motorized Countries: Research and Training in New Delhi commenced its work in April of 2003. The Centre has received SEK 25 million in financing from VREF. A total of 15 to 20 researchers have been involved in the Centre’s activities.
Host organisation:
Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
Links:
The Centre’s website
During its first five years, VREF’s first Centre of Excellence – in New Delhi – has explored a range of transportation questions, from increased safety for pedestrians to developing traffic planning and policy making.
Sustainable Urban Transport in Less Motorized Countries: Research and Training in New Delhi was the first Centre of Excellence financed by VREF. The Centre was launched in April of 2003 and research has been carried out in a number of areas, including Bus Rapid Transport Systems (BRTS), pedestrian behavior at intersections, air quality in Delhi, and helmet optimization.
There are 35 cities in India with populations that exceed a million people, of which three have over ten million inhabitants. In another five to eight cities the population is expected to grow to between five and ten million. That creates a large need for public transportation and planning for it. The Centre’s researchers have, under the course of the program, discussed and gained approval for their projects with diverse stakeholders, such as traffic planners, policy makers, business people, traffic police and politicians at the local and national levels. Through the dialogue, the researchers have been able to observe a range of needs and aspects of traffic planning. The Centre has also helped in the development of a National Urban Transport Policy that has been formally accepted by the government. An important part of the policy plan is the clearly identified need for improved bus systems in a number of Indian cities. That has, in turn, led to the development and implementation of Bus Rapid Transit Systems in five cities: New Delhi, Pune, Jaipur, Indore and Ahmedabad.
In simple terms, BRTS can be described as effective transportation systems with buses that drive in dedicated traffic lanes. Accessibility is an important element of BRTS and the cost of bus fares for passengers is relatively low. The goal of BRTS is to be able to transport more people with fewer vehicles than is the norm today. “But it is also about addressing the problem of emissions and achieving a shift in choice of transportation mode, from cars to public transportation. The problem with CO2 emissions and how to reduce them is gaining increasing attention in India, so we are moving in the right direction,” says Geetam Tiwari, who leads the transportation group at the Centre.
The way forward to a finished system has been lined with a number of questions, both with respect to physical conditions such as road quality and to how decisions are made and gain acceptance. “Urban transportation planning is a complex field and requires the integration of knowledge from several disciplines. For that reason, the Centre has been interdisciplinary from the beginning and has involved researchers from engineering to economics,” says Tiwari. We expect that New Delhi will be the first city in India to fully implement BRTS by the end of this year. The construction and introduction of the system has required a new road design that includes designated bus lanes and also more space for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Roughly 40 percent of all transportation in Indian cities is – and will remain – non-motorized. Therefore, the Centre has been interested in increasing traffic safety for individuals using non-motorized modes of transportation and reducing the number of accidents resulting in fatalities. Researchers have explored pedestrian behavior at intersections, which has led to a proposal as to how traffic signal systems can be modified to avoid injury to pedestrians. “Urban transport planning for vulnerable road users is an important area of research. One of our smaller projects, for example, is about creating guidelines for the design of cars and bus stops that are safer for pedestrians. There is no formal standard for this in India. We are working, therefore, with Indian industries to create one,” says Mohan.
In the original plan, activities at the Center were expected to be concluded at the end of 2008. But the Center will continue its work for an additional three years, partially funded by VREF. “The financing from VREF provides us with stability and enables us to continue our work while we seek funding from other supporters for future projects. There is no question that additional research is needed,” says Dinesh Mohan. One of the tasks that lie ahead for the Centre is to evaluate the effects of introducing BRTS. Experience from the first BRTS projects needs to be collected so that traffic and community planners, politicians and others can utilize it in the planning and development of new systems. Empirical data is lacking today on, for example, fuel consumption and the effects of BRTS on choice of transportation mode.
“How many people actually use the buses and how many of these that actually elect to park their cars and take the bus instead are important questions that need to be evaluated. This is about how to achieve sustainable development in India with respect to transportation. We need to compare the effects of different transportation systems, such as subways, trams and buses to determine what is best for India,” says Geetam Tiwari. Another task that the Centre has taken on is producing textbooks on traffic safety. “Today there is no course literature about traffic safety, so we are going to spend the next three years producing teaching materials that can be used for university courses,” says Mohan.
The Centre has also been involved in developing an urban transportation policy for Indian cities. That work has included analyses of how decisions are made and what types of public transportation are the most effective, as well as how they should be financed and implemented. Perhaps the greatest success for the researchers is that the Centre now has an advisory role with the Indian government. “We have direct contact with decision makers such as the Minister of Transport, and we have even succeeded in convincing the government to establish an agency for road safety. We are also official members of most of the committees that work with road safety and traffic planning,” says Dinesh Mohan, Professor of Biomechanical Engineering and Director of the CoE in New Delhi.
Sustainable transportation
There are 35 cities in India with populations that exceed a million people, of which three have over ten million inhabitants. In another five to eight cities the population is expected to grow to between five and ten million. That creates a large need for public transportation and planning for it. The Centre’s researchers have, under the course of the program, discussed and gained approval for their projects with diverse stakeholders, such as traffic planners, policy makers, business people, traffic police and politicians at the local and national levels. Through the dialogue, the researchers have been able to observe a range of needs and aspects of traffic planning. The Centre has also helped in the development of a National Urban Transport Policy that has been formally accepted by the government. An important part of the policy plan is the clearly identified need for improved bus systems in a number of Indian cities. That has, in turn, led to the development and implementation of Bus Rapid Transit Systems in five cities: New Delhi, Pune, Jaipur, Indore and Ahmedabad.
Fewer vehicles
In simple terms, BRTS can be described as effective transportation systems with buses that drive in dedicated traffic lanes. Accessibility is an important element of BRTS and the cost of bus fares for passengers is relatively low. The goal of BRTS is to be able to transport more people with fewer vehicles than is the norm today. “But it is also about addressing the problem of emissions and achieving a shift in choice of transportation mode, from cars to public transportation. The problem with CO2 emissions and how to reduce them is gaining increasing attention in India, so we are moving in the right direction,” says Geetam Tiwari, who leads the transportation group at the Centre.
Interdisciplinary
The way forward to a finished system has been lined with a number of questions, both with respect to physical conditions such as road quality and to how decisions are made and gain acceptance. “Urban transportation planning is a complex field and requires the integration of knowledge from several disciplines. For that reason, the Centre has been interdisciplinary from the beginning and has involved researchers from engineering to economics,” says Tiwari. We expect that New Delhi will be the first city in India to fully implement BRTS by the end of this year. The construction and introduction of the system has required a new road design that includes designated bus lanes and also more space for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Non-motorized transport
Roughly 40 percent of all transportation in Indian cities is – and will remain – non-motorized. Therefore, the Centre has been interested in increasing traffic safety for individuals using non-motorized modes of transportation and reducing the number of accidents resulting in fatalities. Researchers have explored pedestrian behavior at intersections, which has led to a proposal as to how traffic signal systems can be modified to avoid injury to pedestrians. “Urban transport planning for vulnerable road users is an important area of research. One of our smaller projects, for example, is about creating guidelines for the design of cars and bus stops that are safer for pedestrians. There is no formal standard for this in India. We are working, therefore, with Indian industries to create one,” says Mohan.
Continued research
In the original plan, activities at the Center were expected to be concluded at the end of 2008. But the Center will continue its work for an additional three years, partially funded by VREF. “The financing from VREF provides us with stability and enables us to continue our work while we seek funding from other supporters for future projects. There is no question that additional research is needed,” says Dinesh Mohan. One of the tasks that lie ahead for the Centre is to evaluate the effects of introducing BRTS. Experience from the first BRTS projects needs to be collected so that traffic and community planners, politicians and others can utilize it in the planning and development of new systems. Empirical data is lacking today on, for example, fuel consumption and the effects of BRTS on choice of transportation mode.
Important questions
“How many people actually use the buses and how many of these that actually elect to park their cars and take the bus instead are important questions that need to be evaluated. This is about how to achieve sustainable development in India with respect to transportation. We need to compare the effects of different transportation systems, such as subways, trams and buses to determine what is best for India,” says Geetam Tiwari. Another task that the Centre has taken on is producing textbooks on traffic safety. “Today there is no course literature about traffic safety, so we are going to spend the next three years producing teaching materials that can be used for university courses,” says Mohan.
Photo: CoE in New Delhi
© Copyright VREF
2010