Car-free weekdays in Indian city- Laudable initiative that needs wholehearted support

The idea of observing car-free weekdays appears to be catching on in India, going by the number of big cities that have begun to experiment with it. While Hyderabad took the initiative to organise car-free Thursdays in its Cyberabad enclave, Gurgaon has now attempted a car-free Tuesday with mixed results. Capital city Delhi is slated to have its first car-free day on a limited stretch from the Red Fort to the India Gate on October 22 and repeat it once every month. Despite the stretches that were voluntarily marked car-free at Gurgaon witnessing traffic jams during rush hours, the pre- and post- air quality levels, measured by the event organisers Embarq India, showed a 21 per cent reduction in PM 2.5 levels. The organisers also claimed there was an overall reduction of 25-30 per cent car volume on the designated roads. In Hyderabad, the organisers, the Software Enterprises Association, has reported that after six weeks of the experiment, which began in August, there were 10,000 fewer vehicles on city’s roads on Thursdays, one lakh litres of fuel saved since the initiative kicked off, and 273 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission prevented.

In the absence of independent assessments, we are left to rely on these figures provided by organisers. But that should not take away from the laudable initiative in which the civil society, private enterprise and public servants, especially traffic officials, have come together to achieve what is essentially a behavioural change in the middle class. Cities like Beijing which have attempted car-free weekdays have reported perceptible drops in air pollution. In the past two decades, car volumes have increased dramatically for various reasons. For one, the car has become a symbol of upward mobility and also offers a great deal of flexibility, mobility and comfort that other modes of transport cannot accord to commuters. Policy makers also concurred, aware that sprawling roads, mega flyovers, large auto sales and smooth traffic flow create the right perceptions about India’s economic progress. But then urban land is a scarce commodity and there is a limit to widening roads and most Indian cities can take no more traffic. Far worse than traffic congestion has been the problem of air pollution that the growing vehicle population has spawned. Quite belatedly, there has been a realisation that cities must invest in public transport and multi-modal transport like bus rapid transit corridors, metro rails, cycle paths and pedestrian walkways.

Having started the initiative, it is without doubt an uphill task to wean people away from their cars. Merely by appealing to people’s civic sense, a perceptible change will not happen. Today, companies pay an important role in the lives of their employees, and could influence their transportation choices. In Hyderabad, IT companies have taken the lead by offering bus services to facilitate commutes for their employees. Metro systems are coming up in most Indian cities but even in a city like Delhi where the metro is fairly developed, nearly 50 lakh people still travel by buses against 30 lakh by metro. However, motivating those sections to travel by buses after graduating to cars will require the government to put out more air-conditioned buses on the road, which in turn may drive up fares for the aam aadmi. Now that urban planning in India is entering a purported paradigm shift with the coinage of the phrase “smart cities” tied with funds for 100 cities that made the cut, yet another opportunity beckons. From a time in the 1960s when bicycles accounted for 60 per cent of commuting trips in Delhi, which has now fallen to four percent, we are now attempting to turn back the clock. With cities becoming unlivable, the small price we have to pay is to slow down the pace of our daily routines — just a little bit.