Can India Keep Pace With The Future Of Mobility?  

Cities such as Amsterdam, Stockholm and Singapore do not make the headlines as often as, say, New York or New Delhi. However, these cities do not ever fail to get the top rankings in various global reports on advanced and sustainable infrastructure and transportation facilities. These urban hubs will also set a benchmark as far as the future of urban mobility is concerned.

According to a recent report by consultancy company McKinsey & Co and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, electric cars would dominate the roads in wealthy cities by 2030, accounting for two-third of the total number of cars on the roads of cities such as Singapore and London by 2030.

“Today, a small number of cities, such as Amsterdam, Singapore, and Stockholm, are singled out as having effective mobility. With varying degrees of emphasis, they have an efficient public transit, encourage cycling and walking, and have managed to limit congestion and pollution. By 2030, we expect a number of additional systems to be at the leading edge of the next phase of advanced mobility,” says the report.

Behind this progress are strict emissions rules, a decline in technology costs and a more focussed approach towards the human life.

In emerging economies which includes India, however, things look quite different.

After West Bengal capital Kolkata stood at the bottom of a global index of 100 sustainable cities, Bloomberg had quoted Arcadis Global Cities Director John Batten as saying: "The rate of urbanisation in the developing world is quite extreme … You look at China: buildings first, people second in terms of priorities of urbanisation. Now, you find cities in Asia that are sort of retroactively addressing air quality and water contamination." The Amsterdam-based consulting along with London-based Centre for Economic and Business Research has come up with the index.

The new report further established that.

“Delhi, Mexico City, and Mumbai are the fine examples of densely populated metropolitan areas in developing countries. They are all experiencing rapid urbanisation, and they all suffer from congestion and poor air quality. For cities like these, the widespread use of self-driving cars may not be an option in the short or medium term, because of poor infrastructure, interference from pedestrians, a variety of vehicles on the road, and a lack of clear adherence to traffic regulations,” it says.

So what could be the way forward?

“The approach most likely to apply is a shift to cleaner transport, in the form of EVs, while also limiting private car ownership, optimising shared mobility, and expanding public transit. In conjunction with some connectivity and autonomy, traffic flows and safety could be enhanced. If relevant Asian cities move toward this model, by 2030 shared vehicles could account for almost half of passenger miles due to a combination of greater utilization and more passengers per trip,” the report adds.