By: Uttara Choudhury

Although India has been touted to emerge as the next economic superpower, a closer look at its teeming cities makes one realize the enormity of the transport infrastructure problems plaguing the country. But this is a global phenomenon and not restricted to any one country alone. So, what steps must cities take to combat urban gridlock and utilize energy more efficiently?

Deliberating over this topic were top-level experts in a panel titled “Creating Sustainable Growth through Smart Energy & Transportation Infrastructure”that was held on Day One of the 2018 edition of the One Globe Forum at New Delhi. 

Panel moderator, Dr. Siddharth Shanker Saxena, Chairman, Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Cambridge University, kickstarted the discussion by stating that governments should view the issue through the prism of a multi-disciplinary approach. He said, “Sustainable growth, when coupled with smart energy and transportation infrastructure, needs to take into account a number of factors which cannot be encapsulated by any one discipline, any one industry, any one school of thought. The underlying theme of the discussion is the story of cities and urbanization.”

Fellow panellist, Rachit Ranjan, Head of Policy-India, Uber, acknowledged that the topic is of utmost relevance to Uber as it is a key ride-sharing player in the Indian market. He said, “A smart city will be built on the backbone of smart mobility.” He disapproved of the way modern-day cities are being designed and called on city planners to reassess their design strategy.  He argued, “Currently, the way our cities are being designed, there is an insanity to it because we are actually incentivising private car ownership by creating more parking spots and by increasing road lengths.” He observed India cannot afford to follow a model like the United States where there are only 800 cars per 1,000 people. In comparison, there are 20 cars per 1,000 people in India. “Even if we move to 90 cars per 1,000 people, we are looking at making our cities a living hell,” said Mr. Ranjan. He rued the fact that metro stations and bus routes are competing with each other instead of acting as a collaborative feeder network aimed at serving the high demand for public transportation. 

Mr. Saxena stressed that the need of the hour is to create a culture of car ownership, proper norms of driving and parking vehicles, monitor the kind of fuels that are being used and their impact on the pollution levels. “None of this is thought through and I think these are some of the simple ideas we can try to invoke in India,” he said.

Mr. Vikram Chachra, Founder and Managing Partner, Eight Innovate Ventures, expressed scepticism over the attitude of the government to find better transportation solutions to make smart cities even ‘smarter’.  He said, “I am not betting on the government to do anything fantastic on this front. This is going to be driven by the consumer from my perspective.” To illustrate his point, Mr. Chachra reminded the audience that the onus is on the government to implement their promised policy of introducing electric vehicles by 2030. He wondered what the outcome would be if the government subsidized the electric charging infrastructure and made it free for the public. He noted that the advent of electric vehicles can lead to clean air only if gas stations could be adapted into charging stations, something that is illegal at present.

Mr. Chachra painted a bleak picture of the traffic congestion clogging Indian cities. He said, “As far as traffic congestion is concerned, I don’t think we are going to solve that anytime soon. Indians seem to be highly accepting of their circumstances to that extent. Our traffic keeps getting worse and we don’t vote out the governments which are in power. We just deal with it and move on!” He summed up on an optimistic note saying that an incentive towards cleaner energy is something that could happen in the near future.

Mr. Jerry Hultin, The Global Futures Group, LLC, President Emeritus, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, Chairman, Smart City Expo World Congress Advisory Board; former Under Secretary of the Navy (United States), spoke about how he has approached some universities to find innovative solutions to make life in a city better. He underlined congestion and tedious bureaucratic processes as some of the problems that cities need to address on an urgent basis.  He said, “Transportation leads pretty quickly to a housing issue. Housing prices have gotten too high in many cities. A bit of that could be solved if transportation was effective because you live what appears to be an hour away, but transportation is so fast that I can get to work in half an hour. So, there is an interlocking between housing prices and transportation infrastructure that leads first to just apparent reduced cost of housing. “

He added that cities owed their citizens certain fundamental conveniences such as a faster and cheaper commute to work. In this context, he acknowledged the presence of Uber and other ride-sharing apps, and even bicycles, that enable a policy framework to reduce transportation woes.

Mr. Hultin also suggested that besides government policy, there should be room for creative solutions to trickle in. He said, “I do think it’s not going to be a kind of top-down restriction on behaviour policy—these have tended to fail—it’s more likely to be promoting innovations and solutions that open up the economy and let inventive people create solutions.”

Mr. Ranjan concurred with Mr. Chachra and said the government is not serious about correcting the chaos on Indian roads and has to lend more support to Uber and other ride- sharing apps. He said, “If you look at most middle-class families in cities like Delhi or Bangalore, they have more than one or two cars—some households even have five cars! The government is actually encouraging that by offering tax rebates on any new private vehicle that you purchase. There are no tolls charged on private vehicles these days but there is a discrimination being made where commercial vehicles are subject to tolls. I feel that there should be a higher premium attached to owning a car. So, there are both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives that need to come from the government to change this behavioural mindset.”

He said possible solutions could lie in congestion pricing for all vehicles on the road and setting higher taxes for the second vehicle.

Mr. Ranjan was also of the view that promoting shared mobility within the feeder networks might resolve the first and last mile connectivity issues and gave the example of Uber’s shared ride service that he claimed has been widely accepted by its customers. He said, “I think the whole ecosystem over here needs to come together and start thinking about ways how we can use existing assets better and disincentivize private car ownership.”

Mr. Hultin summed up the discussion: “I talked to young people in China and some are saying they are leaving Beijing and moving to a city that has got clean air, possibly California. These are children of party powers saying that ‘I will not raise my kids in this air.’ When that begins to be the mantra of young people, I assure you, city leaders will begin to look for solutions.”