Releasing a Chokehold

The current state of Mumbai´s traffic fails to satisfy the mobility needs of its population, greatly impacting urban productivity. Multimodal integration is the answer, says PAWAN MULUKUTLA.

Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment capital of India. It is a city with high levels of accumulation and a concentration of economic activities and has complex spatial structures that are supported by transport systems. It is also seen as the financial capital of India and generates about 5 per cent of India´s GDP.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is one of the fastest growing metropolises in India. With a population of 24.4 million (Census 2011), it is ranked as the sixth largest metropolitan region in the world. Greater Mumbai represents a significant engine of growth for the whole region. Greater Mumbai, with a population of 12.44 million (about 51 per cent of MMR´s population) is India´s most populous city. The island city is, however, severely constrained by its geography and occupies a small land area of 458.28 sq km (10.5 per cent of the MMR area of 4,355 sq km). Several converging trends suggest that overall transport demand in the city of Mumbai will continue to increase at a rapid rate. The rate of growth of motorised trips is approximately three times the rate of population growth. As personal incomes rise, the urban sprawl will further extend in the metropolitan region. However, the repercussions of this growth will be more pronounced in Greater Mumbai, as the concentration of employment and activities in this area will continue within the nucleus of the region.

This also suggests that average trip lengths and travel times will increase. The current state of Mumbai´s traffic fails to satisfy the mobility needs of its population, greatly impacting urban productivity. Extreme growth in population and vehicles, lack of proper signage and markings, lack of proper equipment and manpower for enforcement, ongoing construction works, parking related issues, infrastructure issues and operational difficulties have impacted traffic congestion directly and indirectly.

Congestion
In addition to the road network remaining constant over the last four decades, traffic congestion continues to worsen further due to the rapid growth in motorisation. Recent years have seen a rapid growth in the ownership of private motor vehicles. The numbers have risen steeply, and the traffic situation has drastically deteriorated due to this rapid motorisation.

This rapid growth in motorisation is occurring despite problems of congestion and parking and can be explained by the income growth of a highly aspirational population coupled with the extreme saturation in public transport. The total number of vehicles registered in the city has increased from 0.63 million in 1991 to 2.23 million in 2015, with the growth in the last decade alone being 88 per cent. The increase in private vehicle ownership during the period 2001 to 2015 in Greater Mumbai resulted in increased emissions, poorer air quality, greater congestion, and more traffic fatalities. The average journey speed is 20 km/h during morning and evening peak periods, whereas in the off-peak period, the average journey speed is about 27 km/h.

Mumbai has an extensive public transport system. The suburban railway is the lifeline of the metropolis, serving more than 7.3 million trips daily. Additionally, the bus-based transport operated by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), serves an estimated 3.5 million passenger trips daily. In addition, more than 45 per cent of the trips occur by walking alone. Excluding walking trips, 67 per cent of all motorised trips in Mumbai take place via public transport. From the perspective of mode share, Mumbai has one of the highest shares of public transport trips: about 67 per cent of all motorised trips that occur.

Seamless travel
To meet the growing mobility needs of the city and to ensure a healthy modal share of the public transport system, several studies have suggested the need to expand the public transport system by building about 130 km of Metro and about 250 km of bus priority lane/systems in the city over the next few years. In addition, the monorail is being built in the city. With several modes operating in the city, one critical area that has been ignored is the integration of all these modes to ensure seamless travel for a commuter. There are more than 35 agencies involved in the transport sector in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. They are directly or indirectly related to supply and management of the transport infrastructure, and coordination among these agencies has always been a big challenge.

Furthermore, multimodal integration has been clearly identified in the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) as an element for achieving the objective of NUTP to ensure safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access for the growing number of city residents to jobs, education, recreation and such other needs within our cities.

Integration of multimodal networks
With multiple modes of travel used for completion of a journey, it is necessary to ensure seamless integration of different modes at suburban rail, city bus service, Metro and monorail stations, with measures such as integrated ticketing system, passenger information system and physical integration. There is an increasing supply and diversity of sustainable urban transportation options across cities, but shifting consumer behaviour, to make citizens actually utilise these options, takes time. Advancement in information technology and data processing can accelerate multimodal integration, helping to integrate ticketing and leverage the growth of trip-planning mobile applications. Urban planning, infrastructure design, and city policy must be undertaken with an eye towards creating integrated, user-oriented transport systems across modes.

Some of the key challenges that need to be addressed for ensuring successful multimodal integration include:

• Transport services are operated by several operators including public and private players for different modes;
• Different fare systems are operational for different modes, thus creating differences in fare on a per-km basis of travel for the user, based on the mode of travel;
• Different subsidy mechanisms: The suburban rail network in Mumbai offers heavy subsidy, while other modes do not. There is no scientific approach for deciding subsidy. Everyone and anyone is eligible for transport subsidy today.
• Different ticketing systems: Each system has its own ticketing mechanism. So a user has to adapt to individual systems;
• Finally, as mentioned earlier, several agencies are responsible for providing transport service in the city. There is need for a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) as an overarching organisation for decision making, including fare fixing and revenue sharing.

In order to build a high-quality integrated multimodal system, cities must achieve integration in the following areas as shown in the figure:

As seen above, integrated fare payments are an essential pillar of multimodal integration. A number of cities have begun the transition towards achieving multimodal integration, through the provision of a common payment platform across modes, as seen in Table 1, which presents examples of both public-public integration (e.g., bus and Metro) and public-IPT integration (bus and taxi).

To summarise, multimodal integration will help in optimising the use and capacity of the system. In fact, spare capacity will be more efficiently used in the system. Integrating different modes will improve the accessibility of the system and will assist in creating a comprehensive network in the city. It will help in moving from a fragmented network to a more efficient hub and spoke network.

About the author
Pawan Mulukutla is Manager – Urban Transport at EMBARQ India. He is based in Bengaluru, where his primary focus is working with various stakeholders and transport agencies to provide technical support, sensitise sustainable development and build capacity at various agencies.