Road vehicular emissions are one of the leading contributors to air pollution. In December 2020, air pollution killed about 1.7 million Indians in the year 2019 with Delhi NCR topping the chart. A source apportionment study by CSIR-NEERI in Kolkata and Howrah in 2019 revealed that vehicular emissions are the leading contributor of PM 2.5 pollution in the heavily populated cities of Kolkata and Howrah, contributing to about 25-30% of the sources. If this current trend in particulate matter pollution continues for another couple of years, Kolkata will soon crash into another impending health crisis.
The metropolitan city of Kolkata offers the most affordable and widest mode of public transportation topping the list of 20 cities, thereby having an edge over other cities (Ease of Moving Index, 2018; OLA Mobility Institute). However, it is still the only city in India to have cycle restrictions imposed over a large number of roads which dates back to over 13 years. Despite several campaigning initiatives to drive authorities to revoke the ban, present cycle restrictions within the city have been affecting the quality of life of the people through widespread vehicular pollution and loss of livelihoods for the people dependent on cycles as their sole mode of transportation.
A SWOT analysis of Kolkata’s mobility:
Kolkata has been way ahead of the game with its electric vehicle adoption beginning in 1902 with Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) being the first city in Asia to get the electric tram. In fact, at present, Kolkata has the only operational tram network in Asia. Kolkata’s deployment of electric buses has made it bag the Bloomberg Award in Green Mobility Category. The recent Electric Vehicle Policy of 2021-26 has also set an ambitious target of rolling out about 1 million electric vehicles in the next five years. Kolkata also has a well-connected railway and metro route providing daily commuters with a wide array of public mobility options. However, there are very few CSOs and institutions in Kolkata working on sustainable mobility. There is also a lack of a single clearly defined mobility management plan and a lack of clarity in its implementation. However, Kolkata presents a multitude of reasons for promoting cycles and decongesting and decarbonizing its traffic fleet in the backdrop of the city’s failing air quality. The next section goes on to talk in detail about why Kolkata needs to promote sustainable mobility and how bicycles can aid that transition.
Road safety:
A study carried out by SwitchON Foundation using data from the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic Department, Kolkata went on to show that cyclists’ deaths between the 2008-2020 period have remained consistent. Total deaths by fatal Road Traffic Accidents have come down. Deaths of pedestrians and motorcyclists have also come down. Road safety campaigns and safe road infrastructure has played a crucial role. During the period, Pedestrians formed 55% of the total deaths by fatal RTA while cycles formed only 6%. There is no data on official records on cases for unregistered slow-moving across all years and no-entry violations. Interestingly, only 5104 bicycles have been booked as against 88.2 lakhs of cars for violating parking rules.
To read more about this, find an info-brief –
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19n75-or6dmqNiTzNNCyqjUtBK8m1uQKI/view
Although cycle share has increased by 10.5 times between 2013 and 2020, cycles currently only form only 7% of the total transport share which is just nominal. Quite interestingly, trams, one of the oldest forms of sustainable mobility in Kolkata, saw a decrease in numbers by almost 7X
Read more about this here –
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19n75-or6dmqNiTzNNCyqjUtBK8m1uQKI/vie
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