Public transport's share in commute to decrease from 75% to 44% by 2030

India's pollution problem is directly linked to the intensity of use of private vehicles in major cities for daily commute by citizens, said a report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). 

The report, titled "The Urban Commute" pointed out more than 40 per cent of oil and oil products are burnt to run vehicles annually - a burden on the environment as well as the exchequer as the country imports 80 per cent of its crude oil requirement. 

The report took account of 14 major cities in the country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, as well as Lucknow, Bhopal and Jaipur. The findings are startling. The report said the rate of energy consumption was the highest in road-transport at 7.1 per cent a year, and was likely to stay the highest till 2040. 

Among the highest guzzlers of energy in the transport sector are largely personal vehicles. To bring the present circumstances under control, steps are being taken by the administration to bring down the share of private transport in urban commute.  The share of public transport is projected to decrease from 75.7 per cent in 2000-01 to 44.7 per cent in 2030-31, says CSE study. 

public transport,pollution

Meanwhile, it took 55 years for cars to cross the 10 million mark but close to 20 million cars were added in just the last decade, the study confirmed. 

With more private transport, emissions increase and air quality worsens. While Delhi has been consistently ranked as the worst polluted city in the world by global agencies, smaller cities like Kolkata are no better as level of exposures remain high.

 Encouraging public transport is one way to improve air quality as vehicular emissions remain the single highest contributor of particulate matter in the environment.

It is important to note here that amid such dire straits, the share of public transport is projected to decrease from 75.7 per cent in 2000-01 to 44.7 per cent in 2030-31, according to the CSE study. 

"Although public transport still meets a large share of commuting demand in key metro cities, that share is at risk of getting eroded due to the high motorization rate. Consequently, CO2 emissions will increase with more fuel-guzzling," CSE said in the report. 

The study also pointed out that the average trip length of cars is higher in all cities as compared to public transport. For instance, the average car trip in Chennai is about 15.5 kilometers while an average public transport trip is less than 10 kilometers. The situation is very similar across all cities surveyed but Delhi. In the national capital, average public transport trip is marginally longer in distance than an average car trip. 

By calculating travel patterns and commute trends, CSE issued a ranking based on overall emissions which ranked Delhi at the bottom for guzzling highest energy and overall emissions. Meanwhile, Bhopal came out at the top of the table for being the cleanest of the 14 cities surveyed. 

However, the rankings change dramatically when one considers per travel trip emissions which take into account the role of  public transport in each city. Then, Kolkata and Mumbai come at the top for being the most efficient cities while Kochi, Chandigarh and Hyderabad were at the bottom of the table and Delhi being in the middle. 

"This indicates that their travel patterns, underwritten by a high modal share of public transport and non-motorized transport with low trip lengths, is helping mitigate their overall emission levels that is caused by their huge overall population," CSE said. 

While fuel use by heavy-duty trucks is a sign of growing economy, high energy consumption by cars, especially of fossil fuels, points to a potential crisis in air quality management. 

For instance, the share of energy use by cars is set to go up from 13 percent in 2013 to 27 percent by 2040, the study projects. Meanwhile, the share of buses, which are more eco-friendly due to high transport capacity, will go down from 29 percent in 2013 to 12 percent, according to the estimates.