Activity 3(a) Work Package 1
Analyzing Sustainable Urban Transport: A City Level Modeling Approach

Background

Transport sector is the second largest energy consuming sector in India. Mobility needs are increasing at a very fast pace in Indian cities due to increased population concentrated in cities due to natural growth as well as migration from smaller towns and villages, increasing urbanization. There is a need to study transport challenges, trend over the years, possible policy and technology options, and solutions at spatially disaggregated levels or for different socio-economic groups of people. Since there are several differences in capacities to respond to technological and policy interventions at local level and across different consuming groups, this becomes a barrier in converting policies to implementable programmes. It is important to understand the specific reasons influencing choice of modes and usage pattern at the city level, analyzethe impact of attitude, lifestyle etc on an individual’s travel behavior examine various alternatives and consider a holistic approach towards transportation planning at the city-level. It needs to be done with the objective of bringing about change through appropriate policies in order to provide directed and workable solutions towards sustainable urban transport that address energy security at the national level and congestion and pollution at the local level.

Objectives

The objective of this study is to develop a simple city-level transportation analysis framework that will help in designing appropriate strategies for reducing energy consumption and addressing other issues related to sustainable urban mobility. Further, this framework would be applied to an Indian city as a pilot study. Using this framework, various scenarios of urban transportation would be examined using a set of environmental, social, and economic indicators.

Expected Outcomes

To design a framework and examine impact of appropriate long term strategies for increasing share of public transport, reducing overall need to travel, integrating land use and transport planning, ensuring equity and safety, and reducing energy use and emissions from urban transport systems.