David Engwicht reminded us that “people invented cities, as places devoted to human interaction, to facilitate exchange of information, friendship, material goods, culture, knowledge, insights and skills” with little need for travel. Cities once consisted primarily of ‘exchange spaces’ for people — places such as shops, schools, residences, and public buildings. Pathways connected exchange spaces and they, too, were places to meet and reaffirm one’s relationships with neighbours.
The automobile has changed our cities in fundamental ways, colonising ever more of the spaces that were once devoted to human interaction and transforming them into systems of parking lots connected by highways. Thus, many of the urban spaces that once brought us together have been converted into noisy, congested, polluting places that isolate us from one another and destroy the quality of city life. The faster and more densely the traffic flows through our neighbourhood, the less we feel at home there and the less likely we are to relate to and befriend our neighbours.
Courtesy: Wikipedia
The origin of the problem of excess private cars in India can be traced back to the ‘American Dream’ – synonymous with owning a house and a car. Since the 1950s, the US has created a culture where personal automobile ownership was not just a convenience but a symbol of success and freedom. Automobile companies sold their products as tickets to freedom, defined in many auto ads as ‘the escape by automobile from city and suburbs to the unspoiled countryside’. It is ironic, because the automobile has been perhaps the single greatest contributor to making our urban space unlivable, turning our countryside into sprawling suburbs and strip malls, and making us more dependent on cars to survive the consequences of this affliction.
Who benefits from this damage to the quality of our living? In the US, in terms of sales, their three largest corporations – General Motors Corp. (cars), Exxon Corp. (oil), and Ford Motor Co. (cars). Similarly, in India, it is the automobile industry – Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors, Mahindra, Honda Cars, and the oil industry – Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC), Indian Oil Corp Ltd., Bharat Petroleum, Gas Authority of India, Reliance Petroleum Ltd., Hindustan Petroleum, amongst others.
David Korten, stated that the automobile is not only ‘one of our least energy-efficient modes of transportation’ but also ‘one of our least space efficient’. When we take into account the multiple parking spaces that each car must have at home, office, shopping centre, temples/religious places, recreational facilities, and school, plus the amount of road space required for its movement, the total space required by each family car is typically three times the space occupied by the average family home.
In terms of ‘quality time’ (quality of living), the automobile is also the least time efficient. In Bangkok, an average worker loses an equivalent of forty-four working days a year sitting in traffic. Americans spend even more time commuting to work on congested roads (see Figure 1). An average American drove some 3,800 kms in 1950, and that figure has risen to 9,700 kms by 1990 and to 21,700 kms by 2023. How can it be greater freedom, when mostly these lost hours would otherwise be available for family, community, recreation, and relaxation?
Engwicht has challenged our current way of viewing transportation. Instead of enhancing exchange opportunities, transport does the opposite. As more space is taken by cars, opportunities for exchange, whether in the form of the corner store, the local playground or park, or someone’s backyard, are soon affected. Stores move to the suburbs, children are transported to sports facilities to play, and people restrict their socialising to a smaller area of their neighbourhood. One of the suggestions that Engwicht offers to change our auto-dependent behaviour and correct the auto-induced injustices is: ‘Drivers could pay an equivalent public transport fee for each journey they make in a car’.
Some of the measures that can be taken to improve the quality of our living and the health of the environment are: (a) take steps to make the bicycle the main form of transportation, like a Dutch city – Groningen did in 1992, (b) organise urban spaces to reduce our dependence on the automobile; plan and control the use of urban space to increase urban density and the proximity of work, home, and recreation, (c) restrict parking facilities, (d) increase taxes on petrol, and (e) invest in public transit and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists.
Currently a lot of jobs are linked to the auto industry. If we were to reorganise space and limit the automobile, what impact would that have on the economy and unemployment? Korten has best answered it by asking – ‘is it rational to structure an economy so that investors profit from socially harmful investments and the only employment people can find involves doing things that reduce our quality of life? Intelligent species can surely find a better way to provide people with a means of livelihood doing needed work that improves rather than diminishes the quality of our lives!
In the past two decades, with rising disposable incomes and attractive loan rates, India has become a major market for cars. In 2023, India sold over 4.1 million passenger vehicles – an 8.2% increase from 2022. Regardless of whether the cars are EVs (Electric Vehicles) or with Internal Combustion (IC) engines, both are equally harmful from the space, time, quality of life, and environment perspectives. Traffic congestion has increased. Vehicular emissions such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, unburned hydrocarbons and solid particles has resulted in smog, worsening of asthma, lung function, allergies and a host of other negative health effects like lung cancer, heart disease and leukaemia. Lately EVs, too, have been recognised to be a significant contributor to the indirect (Scope 3) emissions. Within the transport sector, road transport is the largest contributor to global warming.
India got lured into this crazy ‘American dream’ and together with a lack of respect for law and poor road safety rule implementation, quickly converted it into an uglier ‘Indian dream’ where, instead of success and freedom, the car became a symbol of size, power, wealth status, a killing sport with speeds to thrill. Larger the size, power or speed, greater the environmental footprint. Indians are currently finding it difficult to break the ‘automobile’ habit resulting in rapid deterioration of human lives and environment.
Being a democratic country, it is for the Indian government to begin by taking stronger measures to arrest further degradation and breakdown of Indian society. The steps taken by smaller countries such as Singapore or the Netherlands would be good examples to follow. Rather than promoting mass production of electric/ ICE cars at lower prices and building more roads, India needs to focus on strengthening its network of airways, railways, metros (subways), trams and bicycle lanes.
The Singapore govt. has introduced a car-lite policy that aims to reduce car ownership to one-third, down from 40% in 2013. To make sure that Singapore stays pedestrian-friendly and spacious, it has placed a lot of red tape on car ownership. It aims to have 75% of peak-period journeys made on public transport by 2030, and is investing heavily on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) network. The transformation of the Netherlands from car-centric to bike-friendly was a gradual and deliberate process driven by the commitment and vision of their government officials, urban planners and activists.
This article is an attempt to shake and wake up the Indian readers out from the ‘Indian Car dream’ and to guide them to take a pledge: to prevent further deterioration of the health, culture, quality of lives of the Indian masses, as well as the environment.
Bicycling Culture of the Netherlands
Usually bicycling, elsewhere, is considered to be a weekend activity, a fitness regime or at best a means of transportation. But in the Netherlands, it is considered to be more than a patriotic mode of transportation: it is a way of life. Cycling has been considered to be a national symbol of Dutch culture since 1920.
In the 1970’s due to the high numbers of deaths of children in road accidents and also due to the oil crisis, the Dutch citizens said ‘no’ to cars and accepted the bicycle lifestyle. In 1992, Groningen, a Dutch city of 170,000 people, dug up its city-center highways and took a variety of steps to make the bicycle the main form of transportation. As a consequence, business has improved, rents have increased, and the flow of people out of the city has been reversed. Local businesses that once fought any restraint on the automobile are now clamouring for more restraint. Today, the Netherlands is a leader in sustainability, and is showing the world a way to move towards a greener future:
Facts: The Netherlands has over 35,000 km of dedicated bicycle paths, and roads have been redesigned to accommodate them. Almost 90% of the population cycles regularly. The country has more bicycles than citizens (average of 1.3 bicycles per person). In 2018, more than a quarter of all trips were made by bicycles, and for journeys under 7.5 km, that figure rises to more than a third. The average adult pedals about 1,000 km a year, and teenagers cycle twice as far. Every year, approximately 1 million new bicycles are sold; half of them are electric-assisted bicycles.
The Dafne Schippersbrug Bridge over the Amsterdam-Rhine canal (see Figure 2) integrates a bicycle and pedestrian bridge with a primary school and a park in one coherent design; represents the Dutch approach to sustainable cycling infrastructure and is an icon for the city of Utrecht (in the Netherlands). Automobiles take longer to reach the other side since they need to take a very long route.
Today, around the world, an estimated one billion people ride bicycles every day – for transport, recreation and sport. It is about time that India catches up and starts bicycling. When India is a major exporter of bicycles, it would be a shame if it doesn’t.
Benefits of Bicycling
To be fit and healthy you need to be physically active. Regular physical activity can help protect you from serious diseases such as obesity, heart disease, cancer, mental illness, diabetes and arthritis. Riding your bicycle regularly is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of health problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle.
Cycling is a healthy, low-impact (causes less strain and injury) exercise that can be enjoyed by people of all ages (young children to older adults). It is an easy skill to learn, a fun way to get fit, cheap and good for the environment. Cycling uses all the major muscle groups as you pedal, increasing stamina, strength and aerobic fitness. Heart, blood vessels and lungs all get a workout. It increases cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength and flexibility, improves joint mobility, decreases stress levels, improves posture and coordination, strengthens bones, decreases body fat levels and reduces anxiety and depression. Cycling also helps prevent diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, high blood pressure and heart attack, some types of cancers, diabetes, arthritis. The effect of the exercise and the joy of riding a bicycle reduces mental health conditions such as depression, stress and anxiety.
As a mode of transport, riding to work, school or to shop is one of the most time-efficient ways to combine regular exercise with your daily routine. Cycling replaces the sedentary (sitting) time spent driving motor vehicles or using trams, trains or buses with healthy exercise.
For distances less than 8 kms, riding a bicycle instead of driving a car, also means a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. In this article, I quantify the same.
What is a Solar Assisted Bicycle?
A solar bicycle is one that is capable of harnessing solar energy for its own mobility needs. A true solar bicycle carries its own solar generator (energy) source such as a photovoltaic solar panel with it. Further, the solar bicycle has a capability to generate power while the vehicle is moving. A solar assisted bicycle is a special category of solar bicycles where the pedalling is assisted by solar energy. Thus, a solar assisted bicycle is a hybrid vehicle that is propelled by a combination of metabolic and solar energies.
To be continued…
Vithal Kamat has a Doctorate in Artificial Intelligence from the University of New Brunswick, Canada as a Commonwealth Scholar in 1996. He completed Masters in Control and Instrumentation from IIT Bombay. He is associated with the Centre for Apparent Energy Research, Anand, Gujarat.
