DECARBONISING URBAN TRANSPORT

N S JAYALAKSHMI
2220600081
MTP 1ST YEAR
___________________________________________________________________________

Abstract
Urban transport is a significant contributor to climate-warming greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions in cities, with most urban transport emissions coming from cars. More than seventy
percent of global carbon dioxide emissions come from cities, making mitigation efforts at the
local level an important contributor to decarbonization. Urban transport also plays a
fundamental role in the economic activity and welfare of urban citizens. Therefore,
developing cities must find a way to continue to improve accessibility, while decoupling
growth in travel demand from growth in GHG emissions. Affordable, safe, and convenient
urban passenger mobility systems are critical for the welfare of urban residents, connecting
people to jobs, education, health care, and recreation. This paper argues that cities in
developing countries have a unique opportunity to preserve and encourage sustainable urban
passenger mobility by building on their existing modal shares in public transport, walking,
and biking the low carbon modes. And also summarizes the high-level takeaways and
suggests a way forward for the international community to support city governments in
providing better transport infrastructure, services, and enabling environments to ensure their
long-term financial and environmental sustainability.

As transport demand increases in India, due to population and economic growth, the need to
provide sustainable and resilient transport services becomes more important than ever. The
transport sector is the fastest growing in terms of energy consumption, Urbanization in SAR
is on the rise, resulting in a larger problem from urban transport emissions. The challenge will
be to curb emissions, while continuing to grow GDP. By 2050, global freight transport CO2
emissions are expected to surpass emissions from passenger vehicles. Trucking is the
dominant mode for providing freight services in SAR contributing up to 57 percent of
transport-induced GHG emissions in countries like India.

Introduction
A strong decarbonization target for the road sector would steer India closer to its climate
commitments and decarbonization offers significant co-benefits like cleaner air and related
health and well-being gains. Still, data about energy use and emissions that could provide the
groundwork for policy supporting such a target is lacking, and few studies have attempted to
compare modelling frameworks and projections across different models of India’s transport
sector. To help fill the gap, this paper is a
meta-analysis of eight of India’s key road
transport energy and emissions models. It
compares key assumptions, energy use, and
CO2 emissions by vehicle and fuel type;
assesses the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic; and considers how much
emissions reduction could be achieved from
the road transport sector by 2050 through
aggressive policy efforts.
Despite differences, in a business-as-usual (BAU)
future scenario without additional policy
interventions, the models generally expect a 3–4
times rise in energy consumption and
CO2 emissions between 2020 and 2050. However,
interventions like fuel efficiency improvements in
combustion engine vehicles, vehicle electrification,
increased use of alternative fuels, and restraining
travel demand could limit or even reverse the
growth trend CO2 emissions from the transport
sector. In an Aggressive Policy scenario, these
could help abate 45%–50% of cumulative
CO2 emissions between 2021 and 2050.
Urban transport also plays a fundamental role in the economic activity and welfare of urban
citizens. Therefore, developing cities must find a way to continue to improve accessibility,
while decoupling growth in travel demand from growth in GHG emissions. Affordable, safe,
and convenient urban passenger mobility systems are critical for the welfare of urban
residents, connecting people to jobs, education, health care, and recreation Mobility for All.
Efficient and reliable urban mobility systems are also critical enablers of economic activity
and labour markets in cities. Public transport is particularly relevant for helping people of
lower income access opportunities, generate income, and gain education.

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed a number of challenges for the transport sector, one of
which is the shift of citizens from public to private and personal modes of transport. Public
transit and shared mobility services have witnessed an unprecedented impact on account of
pandemic control measures and public hesitancy arising out of fear of contracting the virus.
India’s transport sector, which caters to over a billion people, is constantly expanding due to
rapid urbanisation, contributing to increased pollution and congestion. This may worsen
significantly as people shift away from public transport. This crisis, however, also presents us
with the unique opportunity to substitute the increased demand and control changing
transport-uptake patterns with clean, connected and cutting-edge transport systems. This
requires a fresh approach grounded in leveraging data intelligently to push forward with our
mobility policies and emissions targets.
As an emerging market, India is one of the largest car and two-wheeler manufacturers in the
world. It also has the fourth-largest railway network and the fastest-growing aviation market.
Our motor vehicle fleet is growing rapidly — with the vehicles plying on the road expected to
almost double to over 200 million by 2030. Interestingly, the share of non-motorised
transport in many Indian cities is high compared to similarly sized cities globally. It is
reported that in Indian cities with populations of over 1 million, non-motorised transport
accounted for more than 25 per cent of passenger trips, compared with approximately 14 per
cent in London. The transport sector of India is the third most greenhouse gas (GHG)
emitting sector and accounted for 14 per cent of our energy-related CO2 emissions. These
emissions have more than tripled since 1990, and with India’s urban population expected to
double by 2050, they are likely to increase further.

Vijayawada, also called as the business capital of Andhra Pradesh, has been flourishing
economically. A well-planned transportation grid in the city is of prime importance for it to
grow unhindered. Vijayawada has an impeccable public transportation system maintained by
the city administration. The population of the city is 1034358. Municipal Corporation. The
2nd largest city in the state of AP after Visakhapatnam. One of the important commercial and
transport centres of the state with 2nd busiest
railway junction and busiest railway junction
of Indian Railways, next to Mumbai Central
— 400 trains of freight and serving about 1.40
lakh passengers everyday Major commercial
hub for products like automobile spare parts,
textiles and furniture. Gandhi hill on west as a
physical barrier for any development further.
Being a city on the path of industrialization,
the city requires a fleet of private vendors
providing quick and convenient travel for
people who don’t wish to wait. The city has
numerous cab services to cater to your intra-city transport needs. These private cab providers
not only provide taxis for traveling in the city but also cater to your needs of traveling out of
the city. They have a plethora of options in terms of the kind of vehicle required right from
the facilities in the cab to the size of the cab. The package for the taxis comes in either 4 Hour
or 40 Kilometre package and 8 Hour or 80 Kilometre package. The charge for an additional
kilometre range in between INR 9 to INR 10 for a basic Tata Indica AC. The per kilometre
additional charge can go up to INR 13.50 as you move from a Tata Indica AC to Toyota
Innova AC.

key issues
Urbanization in India is on the rise. Due to its high use of public transportation options and
NMT, many Indian cities account for relatively low emissions per capita. However, these
sustainable rates of modal share are beginning to shift.
 History shows that, once a city is built, it is nearly impossible to change its spatial
organization for decades or even centuries and planning compact cities requires
proactive planning.

 Therefore, key to sustainable and efficient growth of cities should be first focus on
providing safe, reliable, intermodal public transport, to stop the loss of mode share --
and when possible, for drivers to leave their cars behind and turn to public transit.

Estimation of CO Concentrations CALINE MODEL is used for estimating CO

concentrations along selected roads

Originally developed for Carbon Monoxide (CO)

Principle – dividing road into series of elements; Concept of ‘Mixing Zone’
o Units - Metres
o Aerodynamic Roughness Coefficient – 300 (for major roads of large towns)
o Run Type – Worst case wind direction
o CO Emission Factor (g/mi) for 1 hr
o Pollutant - Carbon Monoxide
o Molecular Weight – 28
o Altitude above sea level – 23m for Vijayawada
o Link Type – At Grade
o Mixing Zone Width – ROW + 3m on either side of the road
o Wind Direction Standard Deviation - 5°
o Ambient CO Concentration – 3 ppm
Recommendations
The use of energy is a factor in all our lives, and that is why it is important for us to educate
our coming generations learn about the energy we use now and the new forms of energy that
are becoming available. Non-renewable energy sources are diminishing every day, and it is
vital that students learn about renewable energy sources to help them as they grow to become
better informed and more responsible about the energy resources they use.
The government stimulates the use of the
following alternative fuels:
Biofuels
Biofuel is fuel made from plant material or
organic waste.
Green gas
Green gas is produced by fermenting or gasifying
biomass. Biomass is made up of natural products,
such as agricultural waste.
Electric vehicles
Drivers of leased electric and hybrid cars are
exempted from taxation on private use of lease
cars.
In 1891, William Morrison
of Des Moines, Iowa,
developed the first electric
car. By the turn of the
century, dedicated electric
vehicles (EVs) outnumbered
their gasoline-powered
counterparts by two-to-one.
Today there are about
10,500 dedicated EVs in use
in the United States, mostly
in the West and South. Researchers are still working on the same problem that plagued those
early dedicated EVs: the need for an efficient battery. The batteries limit the range of a
dedicated EV, which is determined by the amount of energy stored in its battery pack. The
more batteries a dedicated EV can carry, the more range it can attain, to a point. Too many
batteries can weigh down a vehicle, reducing its load-carrying capacity and range, and
causing it to use more energy. The typical dedicated EV can only travel 50 to 130 miles
between charges. This driving range assumes perfect driving conditions and vehicle
maintenance. Weather conditions, terrain, and some accessories use can significantly reduce
the range.
Non-fossil aviation fuel
The government also wants to
make aviation more
sustainable and supports
research into biokerosene. The
project is being carried out by
SkyNRG, a public-private
partnership.
Hydrogen
To familiarise the Dutch public with hydrogen as a fuel, more hydrogen filling stations will
be built
Careful use of road pricing mechanisms, differentiated geographically and temporally,
improves the efficiency of urban mobility systems and contributes to a more optimal
allocation of scarce urban space to roads and among road users (Perkins, Wagner, and Leung,
2018). Road pricing may also work as a tool for increasing the attractiveness of more
sustainable transport alternatives versus low occupancy road-based ones and can generate
sizeable revenues to be reinvested into these sustainable transport alternatives. Road pricing
includes a set of tools of road, area and cordon line fees and can be applied during peak-hours
(congestion charging), be based on distance (distance-based tolls) or occupancy (high
occupancy vehicle lanes), or on a credit-base (rationing road space) (Victoria Transport
Policy Institute, 2019). To correctly apply road pricing, the price of the toll must be set to
equal to the marginal social cost to society that the driver's journey imposes on other drivers
(Hau, 2021). Road pricing is a more flexible policy than fuel pricing as it allows for more
customization of when and where to charge the users, in a manner that is compatible to these
societal costs.
Surprisingly, a rather restrictive policy such as the license plate schemes have seen better
acceptance than congestion pricing schemes, possibly given perceptions of fairness among
car users and car-aspiring users. Matters of acceptability are particularly important for all
pricing mechanisms discussed. While TDM measures face challenges of public acceptance
and are politically hard to implement, they are particularly useful because they often require a
fraction of the costs of implementing heavy infrastructure and may result in significant short-
term and long-term impacts on individual travel choices and the efficiency and sustainability
of transport systems.

Invest in infrastructure for public and active transport

Complete, multimodal streets
Contribution to decarbonization
 Encourages use of the most spaceefficient and environmentallyfriendly forms of
collective and personal transport
 Maintains (or increases) existing share of trips taken by sustainable modes in
developing cities
Contribution to other sustainable development goals
 Provides better access to opportunities
 Prioritizes the needs of female and low-income travellers who rely most on public and
active transport
 Improves road safety by protecting vulnerable road users
 Improves public health by encouraging activity

Improve public transit service through reorganization of operations and fleet renewal
Contribution to decarbonization
 Provides operational efficiencies (potentially including smaller vehicle fleet) that
reduce low-occupancy vehicle-km travelled, reducing emissions per passenger served
 Reduces fuel combustion and GHG emissions from the public transport fleet with
newer, more fuel-efficient vehicle technologies
Contribution to other sustainable development goals
 Provides operational efficiencies that improve quality of service for users, and
potentially affordability
 Improves working conditions for those employed in informal service provision
  Improves air quality
 Uses newer vehicles that are better designed for safety and inclusion

Implement more efficient land use regulations

Contribution to decarbonization
 Brings people and opportunities closer together, leading to less need for travel,
particularly by highly-polluting private vehicles
 Enables more efficient collective transport by agglomerating people and activities
Contribution to other sustainable development goals
 Discourages distant, dispersed, and disconnected (3-d) development
 Generates more built space and mixed land uses
 Increases supply of housing, improving affordability

Use travel demand management to appropriately price the negative externalities of

vehicle use and nudge travel towards more sustainable alternatives
Contribution to decarbonization
 Disincentivizes use of private vehicles by better internalizing their environmental and
social costs
 Encourages use of the most space-efficient and environmentallyfriendly forms of
collective and personal transport
 Reduces energy consumed by cars searching for parking or idling in intersection
queues
Contribution to other sustainable development goals
 Improves liveability, accessibility, and inclusion of public spaces
 Improves air quality
 Minimizes conflict points among road users, particularly at curbs and intersections
 Reduces congestion and improves efficiency of travel for all road users.

More importantly, cities can enter a virtuous cycle in which people will have easier access to
walking, biking, and public transport. Transfers will be easy and cost less. Land use will
allow more built space that will be more affordable thanks to increased supply and the
targeting of specific market segments. All users will benefit thanks to a focus beyond the
peak hour and the needs of men to include women and people with disabilities.

The government has already taken a number of measures in this direction — the FAME II
scheme (the subsidy as part of which was recently increased, further bringing down the cost
differential between EVs and ICE vehicles) is already providing an impetus to clean mobility
while the recently introduced Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Cell
Chemistry (ACC) battery storage will further accelerate EV adoption. The Railways has
pledged to become a net-zero emitter by 2030 and the operationalisation of dedicated freight
corridors will cut emissions by almost 450 million tonnes in the first 30 years. Metro rails are
rapidly expanding across the country as is the concept of high-speed regional mobility — the
Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System and the Kerala Semi-High-Speed Rail are both
transformational projects, which will provide quick and seamless inter-city linkage and take
millions of vehicles off the road. Ropeways, for Overhead Mass Rapid Transit (OMRTS)
along the lines of the highly successful La Paz Ropeway in Bolivia, are already being
explored in Northern and North-eastern states.
 
Strategies
Transport, the third-most greenhouse-gas-
emitting sector in India, accounts for 14% of
our energy-related CO2 emissions. It is also
the most rapidly growing sector in the
country. Therefore, moving towards a low
carbon future would necessarily include
accelerated decarbonizing of the transport
sector.’
Some of the strategies that can be adopted
for tackling the issue are as follows –
 Our overarching aim should be to balance the needs and aspirations of our citizens,
improve liveability and productivity by improving connectivity, bring down the cost
of logistics and accelerate clean mobility while taking an approach which is climate-
centric and sustainable—not just from an environment point of view, but also from a
financial perspective. Green financing will enable low interest cost financing of
electric vehicles.’
 India requires a robust roadmap for the electrification of transport. Financing plays a
crucial role here. Mobilization of capital is possible through multi-stakeholder
collaborations. The NDC-TIA initiative brings together a wide spectrum of
participants to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and information exchange on various
themes, including “Financing the Decarbonization of Transport”.

Inferences

https://www.oecd.org/env/Decarbonising-Urban-Mobility-with-Land-Use-and-Transport-
Policies--The-Case-of-Auckland.pdf

http://www.urbanmobilityindia.in/Upload/Conference/718ca02e-6c30-431e-9378-
684a973644de.pdf

https://www.government.nl/topics/environment/policy-on-eco-friendly-transport-fuels

https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/07/f17/transportation_alternativefuels.pdf

https://www.niti.gov.in/decarbonising-transport-redefining-mobility-policies-india

https://www.oecd.org/env/Decarbonising-Urban-Mobility-with-Land-Use-and-Transport-
Policies--The-Case-of-Auckland.pdf