We are in a strange world where the word sustainable mobility has assumed a multitude of interpretations. Mobility is stuck so much to a passenger car that as common citizens, we have stopped thinking any differently.
Let us try and examine some realities...
Even in large cities, more than half the trips happen on foot, bicycles and public transport. Most of the road, probably more than 80% is occupied by private cars, accounting for just one passenger per car. The investment in good roads, and flyovers etc., specifically in cities, is the largest chunk of development budgets.
If we need sustainable mobility, we need to look at several parameters for more comprehensive understanding of the problem:
0. First think of whether you need to move at all
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The Global Status of Road Safety report (GSRRS, 2023) by the World Health Organisation has reported a reduction in road traffic deaths globally. There were an estimated 1.19 million road traffic deaths in 2021 – a 5% drop when compared to the 1.25 million deaths in 2010. However, RTIs have continued to increase in India, with 1,68,491 deaths reported in 2022, an increase of 9% from 2021 (MoRTH, 2023). Thirty six percent of these fatalities were reported on National Highways (NH), 24% on State Highways (SH) and 39% on other roads. The proportion of RTC on NH, SH and other roads have remained unchanged since the road network in India was 63.32 lakh km in March 2019.
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