URBAN TRANSPORT

AND ENVIRONMENT
URBAN TRANSPORT AND ENVIRONMENT

1
Contents

1. Introduction

2. Urban Transport and the Local Environment

3. Urban Transport and Health & Social Issues

4. Urban Transport, Energy & Climate Change

2
Introduction
• Impacts on the environment and the human wellbeing of citizens are at
the very core of any discussion about more sustainability in the urban
transport

• This module therefore takes a closer look at the negative consequences

of transportation on the natural environment and human wellbeing, and
outlines measures to address these problems

• It also explains why transport has an important positive role to play for
social cohesion and participation within the urban society

• It explores linkages in three main categories: The Local Environment,

Society and Health and Global Issues such as Climate Change 3
Part 1:
Focus Local Environment

4
Key challenges: Local Environment Issues - Daily dose of toxins

• Adverse effects of increasingly car-based urban transport systems in

India and other emerging economies are most visible on the local level
• Vehicle emissions such as particulate matter, NOx or SOx pollute the air
• Traffic noise makes conversation and sometimes even sleeping
impossible
• Road accidents pose further risk to the citizens’ health, affecting
especially vulnerable groups such as pedestrians, cyclists or children

5
Key challenges: Local Environment & Social Issues

Growing cities around the globe face similar challenges….

6
Photo: China Daily
Local Environment: Key pollutants and their effects*

* See also section on Urban Transport & Health

Local Environment: Vehicular air pollution and related
challenges in India

Vehicles - pollution link: Emerging evidences

• Central Pollution Control Board Pollutant Transport Industry Domestic

(in %) (in %) & others
(CPCB) has compiled the results (in %)
of various studies on relative CO 76-90 13-37 10-16
contribution of pollution sources
NO2 66-74 13-29 1-2
• Vehicles contribute most of CO;
maximum NOx and a lot of PM SO2 5-12 84-95 Nil-4

• Industry and power plants are the PM 3-22 16-74 2-4

major sources of SO2 and PM
Source: CPCB

8
Local Environment: Principles of Air Quality Management

9
Local Environment: AQM monitoring - (decentralized)
Institutional Setup in India

10
 Local Environment: Policy-level challenges

Upgrading
Implementing
vehicle
Retrofitting stringent vehicle
inspection and
systems fuel efficiency
Implementation monitoring
Scrapping of old standards
of Bharat Stage programme
(>15yr) vehicles
4 technology

11
Local Environment: Implementation Challenges

1. Integrated action plan for critically polluted towns and cities needs to
be executed

2. Setting up of an expert body on air toxics management (Benzene, 1,3

butadiene, aldehydes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, metals, etc.)

3. Setting up of an independent body to do stricter fuel quality checks and

measures against adulteration

12
Local environment: Noise and its abatement

• Noise impacts health: Noise is considered to be very loud at 70 dB(A). Repeated

exposure at levels of, or above, 85 dB(A) can cause hearing loss
• Noise contributes to stress levels, leading to subsequent effects on the
cardiovascular and immune systems
• Noise interferes with attention and
consequently performance and
productivity
• Noisy environments affect language
acquisition and reading development
in children

13
Local environment: Impacts of noise on human health

14
Local environment: Noise levels and standards in Indian
cities
Noise data from selected Indian cities
Average noise range Maximum

City (in dbA leq*) (in dbA leq*)

Bengaluru 55-66 98
Chennai 55-77 107
Delhi 52-73 97
Hyderabad 53-74 103
Kolkata 55-67 101
Lucknow 54-72 77
Mumbai 62-70 98
*dbA Leq is the continuous noise for a 16 hour period, relatable to human hearing. **Prepared
from dbA Leq Max

Figures recorded in August 2011. Source: Central Pollution Control Board, www.cpcbnoise.com

15
Local environment: Remedial measures against
traffic noise

Road traffic noise in cities can be reduced

Night-time
through a eight-part strategy: speed limit
- raising public noise awareness (“Lärmschutz”)

- avoiding motorised traffic

- setting reception standards
- motor vehicle control (vehicular
measures) Noise barrier
along a road
- land use control
- traffic management
- surface design and maintenance
- road geometry and design.

16
Noise Map of Paris
Environmental Impact Assessment
• EIA “an assessment of impacts of a planned activity
on the environment” (United Nations)
• Aims of EIA
– to provide decision-makers with analysis of the total environment so
that decisions can be made based on as nearly complete and balanced
information as possible
– to assess and present intangible/unquantifiable effects that are not
adequately addressed by cost/benefit analysis and other technical
reports
– to provide information to the public on a proposal
– to formalize the consideration of alternatives to a proposal being
considered, in order that the least environmentally harmful means of
achieving the given objective can be chosen
– to improve the design of new developments and safeguard the
environment 17
Guiding principles for EIA*

18

*Group Exercise was conducted as part of module workshop

 Key steps of an EIA
• Environmental Assessment
– Methodology Adopted

– Baseline Environment Profile

– Environmental Impact Assessment

– Environmental Management Plan

– Environmental Monitoring Plan

19
Part 2:
Focus Society and Health

20
Urban Transport, Society and Health

Issues covered in this section:

• Accessibility and social inclusion
• Key elements of a Social impact assessment (SIA)
• Negative health effects of transport
• Overview on health impacts of transport in India
• Tools for assessing the health impacts of transport systems
• Policies for healthy and equitable
transport

21
Society and Health: Accessibility and social inclusion

• A transport system interacts with the society in three ways:

1) It provides access to livelihood

2) It provides a means of livelihood by providing employment in the system

3) It facilitates livelihood by creating demand for various services

• Decisions on transport investment can

easily overlook needs and concerns of
DEPENDANCY CONSTRUCT: SOCIETY AND TRANSPORT SYSTEM
poor groups especially in low income
Access to livelihood
• For example, the costs imposed on (eg. bus, cycle, pedestrian)

non-motorized transport, such as

pedestrians falling victim to motor SOCIETY TRANSPORT
Means of livelihood
vehicle traffic accidents are overlooked (URBAN
POOR)
(eg. Rickshaw pullers) SYSTEM

in the cost-benefit estimation of

increasing speeds or capacities of roads Facilitator of
22
livelihood (eg. Hawkers)
Society and Health: Accessibility and social inclusion –
Efficiency vs. Equity?
Efficiency vs. Equity
• Transport policy must explicitly address the distributional
effects of efficiency interventions, and vice versa
• Transport policies and strategies need to pursue a
combination of interventions to meet national poverty
reduction goals
• Sound management of transport assets is more important
than new investment
• Narrow economic efficiency focus helps the rich more
than the poor (e.g. due to a bias towards higher-speed,
longer-distance links and projects that “save time” for
motor vehicle users
• To determine how the transport sector can best help
reduce poverty, one must first understand the basic needs
of poor people and the extent to which transport is
required to meet those needs 23
Society and Health: Accessibility and social inclusion –
Barrier free access

Example: Barrier free access

• Barrier-free environment enables people with disabilities to move about safely
and freely, and use the facilities within the built environment
• Goal: Support the independent functioning of individuals so that they can
participate without assistance, in everyday activities
• Therefore, to the maximum extent possible, buildings/ places/transportation
systems for public use must be made barrier free
• India: “Persons with
Disabilities
(Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1996
enacted by the Government
of India on January 1, 1996
24
Sign of improvement…….

• Road building can also be an

opportunity

Connaught Place

Source: CSE

25
Some good examples: Redesigned streets in a
small town of Nanded in Maharashtra

After

Before

26

Source: Pradeep Sachdeva

Society and Health: Negative health effects of transport

Air pollution: Causes e.g. respiratory  1.3m deaths from

(Particulate Matter disease, cardiovascular overall outdoor air
(PM), Ozone, Nitrogen diseases, cancer pollution
dioxide, ... )

Road traffic injuries: Affect predominantly vulnerable  1.3m deaths, 50m

road users, e.g. pedestrians,
injured persons
cyclists, elderly people

Transport is an important
Lack of physical determinant of non-communicable  3m deaths
activity: diseases (NCD), e.g. cardiovascular
disease, type II diabetes, …
Noise increases stress levels and
Noise: blood pressure, and leads to ?
annoyance and sleep disturbance
Climate change & Climate change increases risks of
health: extreme weather events, changes ?
distribution of certain diseases, …

Access and Social Access to green spaces & essential 27

Well-being services impacts health status ?
 Society and Health: Negative health effects of transport
emissions

How far tiny particles

(PM) penetrate your
lungs…

Ultrafine particles 0.65

microns
Magnified 200,000 times

28
Society and Health: Possible positive effects of active
transport
Health effects associated with physical activity

Key: **: strong evidence; *: modest evidence. Source:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2008)

Lower all-cause mortality**

Less high blood pressure**
Less type 2 diabetes**
Less colon cancer**
Less depression**

Better body mass index and body composition** Less coronary heart disease**

Better functional health in older adults** Less stroke**

Less risk of falls in older adults** Less metabolic syndrome**
Better cognitive function** Less breast cancer**
Better quality sleep* Better fitness**
More favourable biomarker profile for preventing 29
Better health-related quality of life* cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and bone
health**
Part 3:
Focus Energy & Climate Change

30
Urban Transport, Energy and Climate Change
Background
• Human activity has lead to wide-spread increases in global atmospheric
concentrations of ‘greenhouse gases’ (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2),
methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O)
• The human activities primarily responsible for these increases include the use of
fossil fuels, changes in land use such as deforestation, and agriculture
• Greenhouse gas emissions are very likely to be the main cause of current and
future climate change
• Transport does not only contribute to GHG emissions, but will also be subject to
climate change impacts

31
Energy & Climate Change: Transport Sector
Contributions

• Vehicles are prime contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

• As urban vehicle fleets in India and emerging economies rise, urban

traffic increases its share of overall GHG emissions at an alarming pace

• Along with emissions increases the share of energy consumption of urban

transportation, increasing the dependency on fossil fuel imports: Latest
IEA projections assume a growth in transport energy consumption of 38%
between 2010-2035 (especially due to larger car and truck fleets)

• Rising fuel prices put pressure on policymakers

32
Energy & Climate Change: Reducing dependency on
non-renewable fuels
The global energy system 2010, (mtoe) Source: IEA 2012

33
Energy & Climate Change: GHG emission projections

IEA transport related GHG emission projections for 2050

34
Source: IEA 2009
Link between local air pollution, transport and climate change: Our
cities in the pincer grip of high pollution, energy guzzling and
green house gases…

• Indian cities show strong

correlation between
emissions of air pollutants
and GHGs
• As cities grow in size,
transport emissions
increase
• Importance of catching
cities in the early stages of
growth

35
Source: CAI ASIA 2008
 Energy & Climate Change: More car centric growth -
more guzzling
Passenger light duty vehicles by region (IEA New Policies Scenario)

36
Source: IEA 2012
 Energy & Climate Change: increase in motorization -
License to Pollute
Freight truck sales and stock by region

37
Source: IEA 2012
 Cities with higher NMT share emit less CO2 and also have
better opportunity to improve climate resilience……..
CO2 emissions strongly corelate with vehicle numbers

Cities with high walking and cycling have low

CO2 emissions

38
 Energy & Climate Change: promoting energy efficient
modes of urban transport
GHG emissions are directly linked to energy consumption, and the most energy-
efficient modes of urban transport are obviously also the most climate friendly
ones…

39
 Energy & Climate Change: Vulnerable Cities and its
transport systems
• Transport systems themselves will also be affected by climate change, as
extreme weather events increase….

Source: FTA 2012 / US DOT

40
Mumbai floods - What do not work?

The most devastating urban flood in

India occurred on 26‐07‐2005 in
Mumbai when historic highest
rainfall of 944mm in 24 hr. occurred
along with high tide of 4.48m. The
highest intensity in
4 hrs --was 120 mm / hr.

41
What works? Walk

42
What works? Cycle rickshaws

43
Energy & Climate Change: Link between local & global
issues
Sustainable transport instruments: Synergies between local air quality
improvements and GHG mitigation

44
Energy & Climate Change: Basic principles for more
sustainable urban transport
• Necessary instruments and policies are well known and proven

• They follow the so called Avoid-Shift-Improve (A-S-I) approach

45
Energy & Climate Change: Mitigation options for
Indian cities
• A practical example: The A-S-I approach applied to shopping

46
Basic principles for more sustainable
urban transport
• The ASI approach does not only reduce emissions on a local and global
level and improve energy efficiency
• It also supports the vitalization of public spaces, social cohesion and
economic attractiveness of a city

47
Implementing A-S-I policies: Preparing climate
Action Plans
Local Climate Action Plans are
increasingly popular…

48
Implementing A-S-I policies: Identifying respective
roles
• Responsibilities for local authorities

49
Implementing A-S-I policies: share and learn exp.

Worldwide networks and communities of practice are available…

50
Adaptation options for Indian cities

• A framework for climate-proofing transport

These steps can be equally applied

to:
• Individual investments and
maintenance decisions (e.g. new
roads and public transport
facilities);
• Mobility concepts in urban areas
(e.g. public transport routings,
accessibility schemes for selected
urban areas);
• Comprehensive transport master
plans (with medium to long-term
investment and policy
implications);
• As well as ex-post climate
proofing of existing transport 51
networks and infrastructures
THANK YOU
52