Gurgaon is now a ‘no-car zone’ on Tuesdays
In July this year when a first-of-its-kind initiative in India was taken by Hyderabad Software Exports Association (HYSEA), in collaboration with Telangana’s information technology (IT) and transport departments to make “every Thursday” of a week a “car-free day” in IT corridor of Cyberabad region of Hyderabad. Now, in an attempt to reduce congestion and encourage people to use non- motorised and public transport modes like buses, metro, cycling and walking, Gurgaon sought inspiration from Cyberabad. This is how the Millennium City launched “car-free Tuesdays” from 7am to 7pm, that will start on September 22 which is also observed as “World Car free Day”. Gurgaon’s “car-free Tuesdays” is an initiative of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG), and Gurgaon Traffic Police, with support from NASSCOM, Embarq India, Raahigiri Foundation and Rapid Metro.
The main objective of the move is to encourage people to use alternative modes of transport like cycling, metro and walking and ask them to shun there pollution emitting cars for a day in week. For launching the campaign, the authorities have identified four major corridors to ensure efficient implementation of the initiative. These corridors are DLF Cyber city, Cyber Park Area, Golf Course Road and Electronic City in Udyog Vihar IV. According to figures with the Traffic police, more than 350,000 people are employed in Gurgaon’s corporate sector and more than 70,000 cars travel on these four corridors every day.
Plans in place
It will be the responsibility of the Gurgaon Police to make all these corridors free from on street parking, for which they have employed 20 cranes to tow away the cars that are parked on roads. Parking will be available only at Cyber Park and other institutional and commercial parking spaces mainly off street parking sites in the area. To improve last mile connectivity and feeder service, Haryana Roadways and mini bus service operator shuttle.com, have agreed to provide shuttle service on car-free days at major metro stations like HUDA City Centre, Sikanderpur and Indusland Bank Cyber City and from Kapashera border to the four IT corridors. Gurgaon’s example of “car-free Tuesdays” is a good and much-awaited beginning in the fight against rising air pollution in the urban areas. Delhi, being the capital of the country, should start thinking of taking such initiatives.
Usman Nasim, CSE
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Enforcement will be a challenge
Less cars seen in the morning
In a group of three, we started from Sohna Road in the morning on our bicycles. Now, we have reached Cyber City, where the cycle lanes are still being cleaned. Though it should have been done a day earlier, but it is not too late as well because it is 7.15 am and the official hours for car-free zone are 7 am to 7 pm. Till now, we have seen many police officials who are trying to enforce the plans. However, it will be interesting to see if they can keep this momentum as the day progresses.
This is the time for traffic headed to schools. While a few buses can be seen, there are also cars that have come from other parts of the city where “car-free zone” has not been imposed. Cops are trying their best to control their entry and many towing vehicles can be seen on a stretch of the road in Cyber City.
Aditya Batra, CSE
Gurgaon remains congested
I am here at Indus Bank metro station in Gurgaon, which according to the campaign, is supposed to be a car-free zone. The situation, however, is completely opposite and the business is going as usual.
There is confusion all around. Even the traffic police officials are not prepared. They are not allowing even autos to enter the designated car-free zone though cars with even one person are plying. It's more a "roadside car-free day" rather than a "car-free day.
I am not sure how authorities plan to enforce this in weeks that follow. But for now, the situation looks dismal.
Usman Nasim, CSE
Car-free Gurgaon, really?
Today’s event is actually a “no parking day”, not “car-free” day. The theory is that severely restricted parking is an effective car restraint measure. Not today, apparently. Reports are coming in of the usual traffic jams and chaos. We saw cops jump at anyone trying to park vehicles on the roadsides. What’s not clear is whether parking is being allowed on the service lanes. A large car parking area has been set up at Leisure Valley park, the venue for many public rallies and mass-events, like Ramdev’s yoga shivirs.
I guess the unstated assumption is to get car owners to go to places without their personal car, and use public transport, cycles, anything but the car. And this time, there are many options. “Shuttl”, the app-based transport startup by two former Jabong.com executives, will provide regular bus runs from various parts of the city to Metro stations and office areas. Other forms of para-transit are to be made widely available.
Read Aditya Batra's full blog here
Not a one-day affair
As I work in Delhi, I had no option but to take my car out this morning, although I did my bit: I carpooled.
With the whole hype about car free day in Gurgaon on various community pages on Facebook, I expected to see very few cars. However, I was mistaken. I got stuck in a traffic jam just as I ventured out.
There were less cars but authorities created a walking and cycling lane in the middle of the road, right beside the metro construction. Now they expected people to get out of their buildings, cross the road and start walking along the road divider. Gurgaon is perhaps the only place in the world that encourages this habit.
Why are we always aping the West? We cannot implement concepts like these without proper infrastructure. If the only motive is that companies encourage employees to use public transport for a day, then it does not serve the purpose as this is something companies should be doing every day.
Rakhi Jain, CSE
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Why car-free days in Gurgaon must gather momentum
As the international car-free day catches public imagination in Gurgaon, a reality-check on pollution and congestion in the city can help to build a stronger public support for policy and community action.
Gurgaon cannot afford to slip now, but remain on track to reinvent mobility for the rich to prevent pollution, congestion and fuel wastage. The challenge is unique in this affluent city with one of the highest personal vehicle ownerships and public transport connectivity.
Time to take action to breathe easy
Gurgaon is already amongst the pollution hotspots. This is extremely dangerous for people suffering from asthma and other respiratory and cardiac problems as well as for children and the elderly.
The official air quality monitoring is very inadequate. But limited data last winter showed a large number of days with critical pollution levels.
When Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment monitored how much pollution the people of Gurgaon breathe on a daily basis during winter, it found shocking results.
Daily personal exposure to toxic air was significantly higher than the background ambient air pollution monitored by the state Pollution Control Board. The 24-hour exposure in December 2014 hit as high as 777 microgramme per cubic metre — about 12 times higher than the normal standard of 60 microgramme per cubic metre.
IFFCO Chowk, Cyber Green Office area, Sohna Road, Artemis Hospital, Amity International School, Medanta, Rajiv Chowk, Civil Hospital, Sadar Bazaar and Udyog Vihar were among the most polluted hotspots in the city.
During early winter mornings when children go to school and people go out for their daily walk, the hourly average pollution rate in winter was unacceptably high. Gurgaon cannot afford to face another winter that bad.
In grip of explosive motorisation
Gurgaon cannot curb pollution and congestion if it fails to restrain its vehicles. It is shocking that the vehicle ownership in the city is among the highest in the country. It is even higher than that of Delhi and Chandigarh that are known to have the highest per capita income.
The Census data shows that Gurgaon has 232 cars and two-wheelers per 1,000 people, Chandigarh has 172 cars and two-wheelers per 1,000 people, and Delhi has 120 cars and two-wheelers per 1,000.
In Gurgaon 43 per cent of households own two-wheelers, 33 per cent of household own cars. In Delhi 20 per cent of households own cars.
CSE’s assessment shows that though the size of the city and the length of the road network of Gurgaon is much less than that of Delhi, the vehicle density is higher. This means road availability per 1,000 vehicles is much lower than that in Delhi.
Chandigarh has 441,284 vehicles per 1,000 km of road length whereas Delhi has 243,783 vehicles per 1,000 km of road length. This puts a limit to the growth of vehicle-based infrastructure. Chandigarh will use up its available space quickly. Not only the car numbers are increasing, the markets are also shifting steadily towards bigger cars and diesel cars and SUVs. Overall, diesel consumption has increased in the National Capital Region (NCR). Freight transport is also adding to the risk.
Mobility crisis in the city
Over the years, there has been a steep decline in public transport ridership and very high increase in personal vehicle usage in Gurgaon. In 2004, personal transport trips were 39 per cent that increased to as much as 60 per cent in 2010.
The share of public transport, walk and cycle has dropped from 58 per cent to 40 per cent. This is happening at a time when exposure to pollution has increased significantly and the city is fighting a serious battle with congestion. Bus numbers have not increased appreciably and the infrastructure has not expanded.
Gurgaon is blessed with metro line and rapid metro. It has also started to increase the number of its buses. But overall, the urban design of the city does not enable deeper penetration of public transport system into neighbourhoods. Poor first mile connectivity and lack of integrated design for public transport impedes easy access to public transport system. The gated urban design also does not allow deeper bus entry into neighbourhoods of various sectors. The city now needs scale-up and integration of buses and other public modes of transport while maintaining reliability and frequency of quality service to attract people.
Gurgaon can become car-free for local travel
It is possible for Gurgaon to cut down on a significant number of motorised trips by making the city more walkable and cycle friendly. Short travel distances will make the city walkable and friendly for cyclists.
However, this is not being nurtured even though Gurgaon has huge advantage in the area of short-distance travel. More than 45 per cent of trips are between 0-2 km, 8 per cent of trips are between 2-6 km and 8 per cent between -10 kms?? Is it less than 10 km. The number of maximum daily trips are less than 5 km.
This is evident from the Integrated Mobility Plan for Gurgaon Manesar Urban Complex, 2010. The maximum trip length is covered by buses, but due to their less availability, people have to depend on personal modes of transport. Gurgaon should leverage this advantage to convert major parts of the short distance motorised trips into motorised ones.
Gurgaon must not repeat the mistakes of Delhi. More roads are not the answer. The Car-centric policy is steadily marginalising and edging out sustainable modes of transport such as bus.
Making travel safe
It is possible to leave cars behind only if it is safe to walk and take public transport. According to the data from the Gurgaon traffic police, the city reports more than one death per 1,000 people due to road accidents. More than 60 per cent of injuries are reported during the day. The major highways that cut across the city add to the accident risk. Sixty per cent of accidents occur on the National Highway-8.
When globally the trend is towards reducing vehicular speed inside cities, our cities are adopting road designs to increase the speed of vehicles.
Unlimited, free parking is triggering uncontrolled car use
The first step towards car-free travel begins with parking restraint. Gurgaon has taken that step forward by restricting on-street parking in targeted areas. Personal cars demand enormous land area for parking.
In Gurgaon, the current registration of cars creates demand for land for parking equal to 179 football fields. Limited urban space used for parking can have other and more important uses. Use of valuable urban space is either available free or for a pittance. This is a hidden subsidy to car owners as the cost of using up scarce and valuable space for parking is not recovered through proper pricing and taxes.
Supply of free parking space can further boost motorisation. The data available for key locations including Cyber Park, Huda Shopping Complex, Fountain Chowk, Sethi Chowk, Vishwakarma Road and MG Road show that 80 to 90 per cent of vehicles in the parking areas are cars and two-wheelers. Only in some areas, autos have substantial presence. Personal vehicles are, therefore, creating enormous pressure not only on road space but also on public spaces.
Yet most of the parkers are short-term parkers. More than 80 per cent of the vehicles are parked for less than an hour. Short-term parkers are more seen at commercial areas. With an effective parking pricing strategy, this pressure can be reduced.
Poor accessibility to metro
The CSE street audit carried out recently has assessed inter-connected street network that allows movement, engineering and design features for footpath and cycle tracks; crossing-intersection and mid-section protection for pedestrians and public transport users, modal interchange locations and parking for all mode users, location and quality of facilities outside station premises, way finding maps, universal accessibility; amenities and safety features (toilets, vendor spaces, trees, lighting, seating ), and building entry locations and public transport feeder services).
This was particularly done within the 500-metre radius from metro stations. All metro stations show very poor ranking on that basis. The access to metro stations is not designed, keeping pedestrians and cyclists in mind. There are no safe crossings around any metro stations for pedestrians and cyclists. Footpaths are available mainly all around the metro stations, but their height and quality does not allow people to use them. There are no cycle tracks, except some near Huda City Centre, which is not usable as it’s a one way road.
Autos and cycle rickshaws are the major feeder services along metro stations. There are hardly any bus stops outside metro stations. Parking is provided mainly for private vehicles. Autos and cycle rickshaws are parked along the road outside metro stations as no designated parking lots are provided for feeder services.
The city’s urban design is not compact enough to allow buses and para-transit to penetrate deeper into neighbourhoods. This makes use of public transport difficult.
The CSE audit also shows that all residential neighbourhoods along the metro line are poorly connected with transit lines. This is against the principle of transit-oriented development.
Time to make polluters pay
Though cars cause congestion and add on to pollution they are not made to pay for this damage. On the contrary, buses pay higher road tax. The Haryana transport department charges road tax (called token tax) for cars as per the value of the vehicle. The tax slab ranges from up to Rs 6 lakh to car of the value exceeding Rs 20 lakh and the tax rates range from 3 per cent of the value of the car to 9 per cent of the value of the car.
In this way, a car costing Rs 6 lakh needs to pay Rs 18,000 at the time of registration. A stage carriage bus needs to pay Rs 550 per seat per annum subject to a maximum of Rs 35,000. On the other hand a stage carriage city private bus plying in Faridabad and Gurgaon need to pay Rs 18,000 for half-body bus per annum and 30,000 for a full-body bus per annum.
The imposition of taxes on private vehicles is negligible vis-a-vis that of public transport buses. Moreover, the tax rates are per passenger seat basis. But cars need to be taxed higher than buses, something which many other countries are already doing.
People want change
CSE carried out a rapid survey to understand people’s perception of air pollution and mobility problems in Gurgaon. About 85 per cent say air pollution is worsening. About 40 per cent feel cases of respiratory diseases are rising.
More than 60 per cent have complained of increased delays during peak hours. About 40-50 per cent are in favour of cycles and cycle rickshaws.
The public transport got the worst rating, with people complaining about the city having no proper public transport connectivity. About 30 per cent rated the auto/tempo services as average but say they are important.
About two-thirds think parking is causing encroachment on footpaths and causing congestion on the roads. Nearly 70 per cent think that the government should make efforts to reduce dependence on personal vehicles. Around 90 per cent want more action to increase public transport and non-motorised infrastructure.
The community action on car-free day demonstrates the power of public opinion and support. Leverage this to make a difference.
By Anumita Roychowdhury
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