Council on Energy, Environment and Water Integrated | International | Independent
Suggested citation: Soman, Abhinav, Harsimran Kaur, and Karthik Ganesan. 2019. How Urban India Moves: Sustainable Mobility and Citizen Preferences. New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
This report, supported by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, gauges the opinion of India’s urban population on various clean transportation and sustainable mobility interventions. It captures the characteristics of Indian urban travel to fill existing data gaps and facilitate better-informed governance of urban transport. The conclusions are based on a survey among 3,682 urban dwellers across India.
A range of externalities, including air and noise pollution, congestion, road accidents, and climate change can be traced back to increased motorisation. A sustainable mobility transition that addresses these externalities is, therefore, imperative and requires urgent action to materialise. Further, this transition in also critical from an energy security perspective given that 95 per cent of the Indian transport sector’s demand for fuel is met by petroleum-based derivatives.
Source: Authors’ analysis
The urban mobility landscape in India is rapidly evolving. Population growth, rising income levels, increasing motorisation and changing preferences are among the factors driving change in how people move in a city. Monitoring and shaping urban mobility through periodic data collection and analysis is currently limited in India. In this study, we have captured through a primary survey, travel and commute characteristics as well as preferences and perceptions of 3,682 urban citizens. In doing this, we also covered diverse geographical zones and city tiers in India.
We asked residents of urban India about the modes of transport they used. Walking (more than 500 m) and public transport use were reported by a large share of respondents. However, motorbikes are the second-most used mode of transport – a worrying sign – because this mode, while filling the void left by deficiencies in public transport is contributing to urban congestion and adding to the bulk of petrol use in the economy. Even among people who use private modes of transport, walking and public transport use were found to be high.
Figure ES1 More than half of the urban population walks (more than 500 m) for their weekly needs
Source: Authors’ analysis
Regional differences in mode share were found to be striking with regards to private car and public transport use. While a range of factors make the different regions of India nonhomogenous, at least 60 per cent of the population walks and nearly the same share uses motorbikes across all geographical regions.
Figure ES2 Personal car and hired cabs are the most frequently used modes of transport among people living in Northern India
Tier 2 cities were also found to have the highest share of personal car users while metro cities had the greatest share of public transport patronage. Tier 2 and Tier 1 cities are at a greater risk of displacing public transport, even as it remains fledgling in such cities.
Figure ES3 Private modes of transport are popular among people living in Tier 2 cities
The main barriers to the wider adoption of public transport relate to infrastructure, reliability, and speed. Women were found to rely more on non-motorised and public transport. This calls for an assessment of gender sensitive needs of commuters to ensure public transport gets a better chance of being adopted.
Figure ES4 ‘Frequency of service’ and ‘quality of infrastructure’ are the top barriers to public transport among both men and women
Source: Authors’ analysis
Overall, we found significant support among respondents for a majority of the policy interventions for sustainable mobility and deployment of clean fuels presented during the survey including congestion pricing.
Table ES1 Summary of response to congestion pricing
Source: Authors’ analysis
The study also presents views and preferences on themes such as transition to clean fuels and emerging paradigms such as shared mobility and electric vehicles. Based on our assessment of these responses, we recommend further awareness generation to enable informed public opinion and drive demand for clean and affordable mobility solutions.
The prolonged underinvestment in widely used and sustainable modes of transport is not justified, and there is an urgent need to assess and reorient investments towards non-motorised transport and public transport services. Support for such policies, as assessed through this survey, is also strong. This indicates that public opposition is not a barrier that needs to be overcome. Instead, the persistent governance deficit arising from the limited devolution of powers and finances towards urban local bodies and local agencies engaged in transport planning, are more pertinent maladies that require treatment. In the absence of concerted action, it is likely that private transportation will quickly scale to meet the demand. This then locks investments for years and also drives infrastructure provision that caters to private choices.
There is strong public support for a whole range of measures and policies that facilitate the transition to clean fuels and clean vehicle alternatives. This not only indicates the likely support for existing and additional policies that seek to manage pollution-related externalities but also the strong public demand to address these issues. Measures to address these issues must now be evaluated based on their likely impact as well as their economic and social costs.
Walking and public transport are the dominant modes of transportation, which mirrors findings from earlier surveys both at the national and regional levels. Previous studies limited mode choice to a single mode, which is not reflective of the multi-modal nature of an individual’s travel during a week, and the fact that different trips entail different modes. For instance, a significant share of private vehicle users were found to use NMT and public transport when given the option to state all the modes they used during a week. However, it is to be noted that the share of motorbike use is quite high (59 per cent), which means that it is critical to introduce measures that will cause a mode shift to public transit and non-motorised modes among bike users. The availability of motorised first- and last-mile connectivity can potentially increase public transit patronage, and this points to the need for a multi-modal approach to transport planning.
The prolonged underinvestment in widely used and sustainable modes of transport is not justified, and there is an urgent need to assess and reorient investments towards NMT and public transport services. Support for such policies, as assessed through this survey, is also strong; this indicates that public opposition is not a barrier that needs to be overcome. Instead, perennial governance issues such as the limited devolution of powers and finances towards ULBs and local governments engaged in transport planning are more pertinent maladies that require treatment. Further, given that women are more likely to use NMT, public transport, and shared mobility, it is critical to assess and cater to gender-specific needs through focused data collection and gender budgeting.
The fact that only 26 per cent of the urban population uses personal cars for their travel needs is an advantage, since studies in other countries have shown that car dependency is hard to overcome. However, with rising income levels, the share of private car trips is likely to increase. Concerted efforts are needed to provide adequate right of way and infrastructure for NMT and public transport while introducing measures to curb the growth of private vehicle use such as congestion pricing and parking fees. Public support for such measures was found to be high.
There is a reasonable appetite for EVs, with urban dwellers in metros and those belonging to the 18–24-year age group showing a stronger inclination to acquire EVs. There is also broad-based support for various policies that promote EVs. In addition to fiscal incentives, the promotion of EVs will require awareness generation among the public. While a majority of respondents reported familiarity with EVs, their assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of using EVs seems to indicate a limited understanding of this new technology.
A significant portion of the population today values car ownership, and the proportion of shared mobility users is limited. Awareness generation around the economic, environmental, and social benefits of shared mobility and shared ownership of mobility assets is needed to increase preferences for these alternatives. Libertarian paternalism approaches may also be employed to increase the preference for shared mobility over car ownership.
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