Journal 2008

Editorial Board

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Institute of Urban Transport (India)P.O.Box No. 5407, Nirman Bhawan,Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi -110 011Phones : 23063498, 23063054Fax : 23063499E-mail : [email protected];

: [email protected]

All communication pertaining to articles, news and other materials for publication in the Journal and

Newsletter may be sent by e-mail or on floppy in MS Word along with a hard copy and one page abstract

to Shri B.S. Diwan, Executive Secretary

Dr. Sanjay Gupta (Chairman) Dr. Geetam Tiwari

R.C. Sharma Dr. K. Ravinder

Views expressed in the papers in this Journal are those of the authors and not necessarily the views ofthe Institute.

All communications to be addressed to the Executive Secretary, Institute of Urban Transport (India)

The present issue of the journal consists of eight papers reflecting the diverse themes of the technical sessionsof the Conference on Urban Mobility 2008 being organized by the Ministry of Urban Development, Governmentof India in collaboration with Institute of Urban Transport (India) in Delhi between 3-5

th December 2008. The

contents are informative, thought provoking and of current interest.

The first paper on ‘Redevelopment Plan for Connaught Place, New Delhi- Traffic Engineering and ManagementProposals’ discusses improvement proposals for various components of road traffic, namely vehicular traffic,pedestrians, parking etc. for Connaught Place, New Delhi. The paper is based on a study carried out byRITES on behalf of New Delhi Municipal Council for its Redevelopment Plan for Connaught Place. The proposalsincluding the new vehicle circulation plan, parking management proposals and public transport improvementmeasures have been based on extensive stake holder consultations.

The paper on ‘Development of Quick Response Techniques (QRT) for Travel Demand Estimation of Small andMedium Sized Cities in India’ is based on simplified travel demand models evolved from the analysis ofsecondary data of 25 small and medium sized urban settlements of India and validation carried out for citiesof Durgapur and Gwalior as part of a study conducted by CRRI, New Delhi.

Weekly markets, one of the spatial economic activities organized in most cities of our country, often result innumerous transport problems. The paper on ‘Mobility Considerations for Improvement of Weekly Markets inDelhi- Case Study: Amar Colony’ attempts to assess the impact of one such weekly market located in SouthDelhi on its immediate environment in terms of vehicular and pedestrian flow, parking demand, speed profileand economic factors.

Urban bus reforms are gaining wide importance in order to achieve an effective and efficient public transportoperation in cities around the world. This paper on ‘Application of Delphi Technique to Evolve Reform Strategyfor Bus System in Delhi’ provides an overview of international practices in bus reform systems with referenceto Asian cities and discusses results of a Delphi Survey conducted by the authors to evolve the most appropriatereform strategy for bus system in Delhi.

Three wheeled scooter taxi (TSR) is often a neglected mode of research in spite of its immense utility intransport service provision. This paper on ‘Three-Wheeled Scooter Taxi: Problems and Solutions for an efficientmode of transport’ provides a systematic analysis of three wheeled scooter taxi in operation, safetycharacteristics and environmental aspects. The paper observes that TSR is relatively a safe vehicle to traveland needs to be encouraged in urban areas to promote cleaner and sustainable future.

Bicycles are an important means of transport in almost all urban areas in India. The paper on ‘Bicycles inUrban India’ is based on a study of 19 cities from various geographic regions with different characteristics. Theauthors argue that there is a considerable number of trips in medium and large sized cities which have thepotential to be shifted to the cycle provided there is favorable cycling infrastructure in urban areas.

Pedestrian infrastructure in our cities is a matter of concern as it is mostly inadequate, encroached leavingthe pedestrians very vulnerable. The paper on ‘Sensitivity Analysis of Walkability for Pedestrian Facilities inDelhi’ attempts to develop a methodology for the qualitative evaluation of sidewalk facilities in Delhi. A simplifiedmodel for walkability along with the sensitivity analysis has been presented for selected sidewalks in Delhi.

Financing urban public transport is of immense topical interest to decision makers and policy planners. Thepaper on ‘Financing Urban Public Transport’ attempts to present an overview of various options for financingurban public transport projects. The author emphasizes the need for adopting conventional methods andreiterates that non-conventional measures have to be adopted in conjunction with conventional measures toyield best results.

Wishing all the IUT members a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta

From Editor’s Desk

I U TJOURNAL

CONTENTS

REDEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR CONNAUGHT PLACE, NEW DELHITRAFFIC ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS 1

Abhay Negi, Piyush Kansal

DEVELOPMENT OF QUICK RESPONSE TECHNIQUES (QRT) FOR TRAVEL 18DEMAND ESTIMATION OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED CITIES IN INDIA

Dr. Kayitha Ravinder, Dr. S. Velmurugan, J. Nataraju, Dr. S. Gangopadhyay

MOBILITY CONSIDERATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF WEEKLYMARKETS IN DELHI, CASE STUDY : AMAR COLONY 30

Sonia Arora, Prof. P.K. Sarkar, Kanika Kalra

APPLICATION OF DELPHI TECHNIQUE TO EVOLVE REFORMSTRATEGY FOR BUS SYSTEM OF DELHI 39

Sujata Savant, Dr. Sanjay Gupta

THREE-WHEELED SCOOTER TAXI : PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONSFOR AN EFFICIENT MODE OF TRANSPORT 52

Dr. Dinesh Mohan

BICYCLES IN URBAN INDIA 59

Dr. Geetam Tiwari, Himani Jain

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF WALKABILITY FOR PEDESTRIAN 69FACILITIES IN DELHI

Dr. Purnima Parida, Prof. Najamuddin, Dr. M. Parida

FINANCING URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT 83

P.S. Kharola

REDEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR CONNAUGHT PLACE, NEW DELHI- TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS

ABHAY NEGI* PIYUSH KANSAL**

* Deputy General Manager/ Urban Transport, RITES Ltd. (Project Manager)

** General Manager/ Urban Transport, RITES Ltd. (Project Co-ordinator)

ABSTRACT

Connaught Place has historically enjoyed a unique position as Delhi’s prime CBD. It is gradually reclaiming its lost

glory with the operation of interchange station of Metro Railway. With a view to showcase the Area for the upcoming

Commonwealth Games in 2010, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has formulated a “Redevelopment Plan” for

Connaught Place. RITES Ltd. have been associated with the project as traffic engineering & management consultants

for developing proposals relating to pedestrian safety, vehicular circulation and reduction in traffic congestion.

These have been phased as short-term (2006-07) and medium-term (2007-2010) proposals. The paper presents

the integrated and consultative approach followed in the development of improvement proposals for all components

of road traffic i.e. vehicular traffic, pedestrians, parking and the inter-modal integration including private, IPT and

public (bus & metro) modes.

1. INTRODUCTION

Connaught Place, located in the heart of theNation’s Capital, is the Central BusinessDistrict (CBD) and an important trade andsocio-cultural center of the City. Besides beinga popular market area, it also has numerousoffices and important institutional buildings.Connaught Place has also become a majorinterchange station with the opening of the East-West and North-South Metro lines. The trafficis bound to significantly increase in the comingyears with the increased accessibility and dueto extension of metro corridors in all directions.Both pedestrian and vehicular movement islikely to see a change in intensity andcharacteristics.

New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), againstthis backdrop, decided to initiate the preparationof a Traffic Engineering and Management Planas a component of total Redevelopment Plan

I U TJOURNAL

of Connaught Place Area. The Study Area ispresented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Study Area

Urban Transport Journal December 2008

2. EXISTING TRAFFIC SCENARIO &PROBLEM AUDIT

The traffic circulation on the Outer Circle andInner Circle is one-way in the clockwisedirection, while it is anti-clockwise in the Middle

Circle. The Radial roads within the Outer Circlearea are also having uni-directional trafficmovement. Radials 1, 4 & 6 carried traffic fromOuter Circle towards inner circle, while Radials2, 5 & 7 had traffic moving from Inner Circletowards Outer Circle (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Original Traffic Circulation in Connaught Place

Original One Way Traffic Movement

Original Closed Road

Original Pedestrian Only Zone

A problem audit exercise forms the basis forthe various traffic engineering and managementproposals. The following parameters have beentaken into consideration for problem audit toaid in the formulation of the SuggestedCirculation Plan :

Volume To Capacity Ratio (V/C)

The V/C ratio is a measure of the congestionat the mid-block locations – with an acceptablevalue under normal road traffic conditions beingless than 0.8.

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Redevelopment Plan for Connaught Place, New Delhi

The highest average V/C ratio of 0.96 wasobserved on Barakhamba Road. Among othercritical roads, Outer Circle with an average V/C of 0.93, Janpath with 0.92, Ashok Road with0.91 and Inner Circle with 0.87 stand out.

Degree Of Congestion

The degree of congestion is the relative valueof the maximum posted speed observed on theroad network to the speed on the particular roadlink. The maximum posted speed in the StudyArea road network was 40 km/h. A degree ofcongestion value below 40 is consideredacceptable. Barakhamba Road was observedto have the highest degree of congestion at 79(with completion of Metro work and re-opening

Table 1 Parking Characteristics

Area PeakAccumulation

(E.C.S.)

Short Term(< 6 hrs)

(%)

Short Term(> 6 hrs)

(%)

ON- STREET 2136 55 45

OFF- STREET 4103 65 35

TOTAL 6239

of the full carriageway, the situation is muchimproved now), followed by Middle Circle with73 and Radial 1 with a value of 70. Othercongested roads with degree of congestionbetween 60 and 70 include Kasturba GandhiMarg, Parliament Street, Inner Circle,Connaught Lane, Baba Kharak Singh Lane andRadial Roads 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Pedestrian-Vehicular Conflict

Footpaths are available on most of the roadsections, but their continuity is commonlydisrupted. Apart from the Outer Circle (2693)and Radial Roads (1000 – 2000), significantpeak hour pedestrian flows are observed alongSansad Marg (6726), Baba Kharak Singh Marg(3343), Connaught Lane (1845), Janpath(1684), Pandit Pant Marg (1582), Red Cross

Road (1560),Rajendra Prasad Road (1444)and Ashoka Road (1313. The locations with themost critical PV2 values (x 108) areBarakhamba Road - Connaught lane Crossing(215), Janpath - Connaught lane Crossing(207), and K.G.Marg - Connaught lane Crossing(145). These locations urgently require safepedestrian crossing facilities for improvingpedestrian safety as well as the vehicular trafficflow.

Parking Demand

Table 1 presents the Peak parkingaccumulation, total demand and parkingduration.

A total of about 6200 ECS peak parkingaccumulation was observed in the Study Area.About 38 % of the parking is long term in nature- indicating that the parking facilities here arepredominantly occupied by the shop-ownersand employees. Given the quantum of suchdemand and the premium on land in the Area,this parking demand must be shifted away tomulti-storied parking lots, outside the Area,connected with feeder services.

Typical traffic characteristics and problems inthe Connaught Place Area are depicted inFigure 3.

With a view towards addressing the trafficneeds of the area, as well as ensuringsimultaneous operation of traffic flow and themarket activities, sequential phasing of the

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improvement measures has been suggested.The most urgently required, simple and easilyimplementable (both in terms of cost as wellas time requirement) measures have been

included in the short-term proposals, while themore capital-intensive and time-consumingmeasures have been proposed to be taken upin the medium-term. These are presented inthe following sections.

Figure 3 : Traffic Characteristics & Problems

HAWKERS AND PARKING DISRUPT

PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENTS ON FOOTPATHS

ABSENCE OF FOOTPATH ON

MIDDLE CIRCLE AND SERVICE ROADS

MIDDLE CIRCLE - HEAVY PARKING

& ABSENCE OF FOOTPATHS

IN ADEQUATE PEDESTRIAN CROSSING

FACILITIES & GRADE SEPARATORS

OUTER CIRCLE - HEAVY TRAFFIC

VOLUMES THROUGHOUT THE DAY

RADIAL ROADS - HEAVY TRAFFIC

VOLUMES ON RADIALS 1 & 2


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3. PROPOSALS FOR VEHICULARTRAFFIC CIRCULATION

With the operation of Metro Lines 2 and 3,Connaught Place is accessible via metro fromall the major directions. As envisaged, this haspartially reduced the road traffic destined to/from Connaught Place, as commuters haveshifted from bus/ private modes to the metrosystem. However, Connaught Place stillexperiences intense traffic volumes throughoutthe day - predominace of through traffic beingthe main reason.

Two things are important with respect to trafficflow patterns in Connaught place Area.

a. Outer Circle is one-way 5/ 6 lane ArterialRoad, primarily meant for carryingthrough traffic. The internal radial/middle circle/inner circle roads arelocal/ collector roads, which should notcarry any through traffic.

b. It has been observed (Figure 4) thatthrough traffic mainly crosses the Areain the North - South Axis (betweenChelmsford Road + Minto Road - Baba

Figure 4 : Directional Flow of Through Traffic in Connaught Place

Kharak Singh Marg + Sansad Marg +Janpath) and the South East - WestAxis (between Barakhamba Road + KGMarg - Panchkuian Road + BabaKharak Singh Marg).

A . SHORT-TERM PROPOSALS (2006-2007)

The Suggested Vehicular Traffic Circulation Planwas prepared with two importantconsiderations,

(a) to restrict through traffic withinConnaught Place Area bound by theOuter Circle; and

(b) to increase throughput on the OuterCircle while retaining compatibility withexisting traffic circulation.

The Study suggested to allow 2 entry Radials– i.e. 1 & 4; and 2 exit Radials i.e. 2 & 5. Radial3, is presently closed and was suggested tobe retained as such. Entry through Radial 6,which feeds about 2000 PCUs into ConnaughtPlace during Peak Hour (most of them beingthrough trips exiting through Radial 2) – wassuggested to be banned.

PROMINENT AXES OFTHROUGH TRAFFIC :

1. NORTH (CHELMSFORD ROAD+ MINTO ROAD) – SOUTH(BABA KHARAK SINGH MARG+ PARLIAMENT STREET +JANPATH)

2. SOUTH-EAST (BARAKHAMBAROAD + K.G. MARG) – WEST(PUNCHKUIAN ROAD +SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGHMARG)


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Several possible circulation patterns werecontemplated while evolving the suggestedCirculation Pattern. The alternatives werediscussed with Traffic Police as well as NDMCofficials against the overall objective ofrestraining the through traffic from enteringConnaught Place Area. It was agreed by all thatthe final plan shall comprise entry intoConnaught Place Area from Radials 1 & 4 andexist through Radials 2 & 6 (Figure 5). The exitfrom Minto Road is suggested to be completelybanned with a view to avoid the through trafficpresently using Radial Road No. 1, the InnerCircle and Radial Road No. 5.

The prevailing circulation pattern of clockwisemovement along Outer Circle, anti-clockwisealong Middle Circle and clockwise along InnerCircle remained compatible with the proposedcirculation and was suggested to be retainedfor ease of implementation. Only the presenttraffic flow direction along Radial 6 needed tobe reversed.

The proposed circulation pattern has been inoperation since July 2006 and has been fairlysuccessful in meeting the desired objectives.

Figure 5 : Suggested Vehicular Traffic Circulation in Connaught Place

A speed Limit of 30 Km/ hr on Inner Circle & 20Km/ hr on Radial Roads and Middle Circle hasbeen recommended.

With completion of Metro work and relocationof the furniture market in near future,Punchkuian Road has also been proposed tobe opened to two-way traffic. Subsequently,Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg has beensuggested to be re-opened for two-way traffic,with carriageway widening and removal of on-street parking at the bottleneck stretch betweenBangla Sahib Road Junction and Gol Marketroundabout. This measure is expected to bringdown the additional traffic load presently beingcarried by Baba Kharak Singh Marg.

Some additional traffic management measures(Figure 6) have been suggested. These includebanning of right turns at Tolstoy Marg Crossingswith Barakhamba Road, K.G. Marg, Janpathand Parliament Street to reduce the conflictsand delays at these points, especially duringpeak hour. The affected traffic is proposed tobe diverted via the available intervening roadshaving spare traffic capacity such as Atul GroveRoad, Hailey Road, Jantar Mantar Road, etc.


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It is proposed to make K.G. Marg one-way fromOuter Circle till Tolstoy Marg and Janpath one-way from Tolstoy Marg till Outer Circle. Coupledwith the banning of turning movements, thismeasure would reduce the signal phases atthe intersections thereby relieving these roadsof the congestion presently witnessedthroughout the day.

To supplement the suggested measures forrelieving traffic congestion within ConnaughtPlace Outer Circle, it is proposed to allow only

Figure 6 : Proposed Vehicular Traffic Circulation Beyond Outer Circle

Uni-directional traffic movement on Janpathfrom Tolstoy Marg till Outer Circle and on K.G.Marg from Outer Circle till Tolstoy Marg. Thiswould complement the proposed entry withinOuter Circle via Janpath and also help inreducing the conflict points on Janpath and K.G.Marg outside the Outer Circle area.

A typical geometric improvement Plan for anintersection (K.G. Marg – Tolstoy Marg) alongwith the turning restrictions and suggestedtraffic signal timings is presented at Figure 7.


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ProposedBanning ofTurningMovement

Invalid TurningMovementdue toProposed One-Way Traffic

Proposed Traffic Signal Phasing

Morning Peak (45 seconds) Evening Peak (60 seconds)

Phase I

Phase II

22 2 21

24 19 2

38 2 20

40 18 2

Figure 7 : Typical Traffic Improvements Proposals at an Intersection

B . MEDIUM-TERM PROPOSALS(2008-2010)

It is expected that with additional Phase II metrocorridors in place by 2010, the transformationin travel pattern/ habits of commuters wouldhave stabilised as commuters from larger areasprogressively shift from bus/ private modes tothe metro system to access Connaught Place.This is gradually expected to reduce the roadtraffic destined to/ from Connaught Place. Insuch a scenario, it may be feasible to introducefurther changes in the traffic circulation system.

Consequently, a system of only right-in, rightout traffic movement at the Outer Circle isproposed to allow for signal free trafficmovement. There are two options - allowing 3entry/ 3 exit radials or 2 entry/ exit radials.

Option I (Figure 8) involves providing Right-Inentries through Radials 1,3, 6 and Right-Outexits through Radials 2,4 & 7. This does nottotally avoid through traffic within Outer Circle,but at the same time provides easy access toall CP bound traffic.

Option II (Figure 9) suggests providing Right-Inentries through only Radials 1 & 4 and Right-Out exits through Radials 2 & 6. Besides beingcompatible with the Phase I circulation, thislargely discourages through traffic within OuterCircle, and provides moderate access to all CPbound traffic.

Both options include suggestion to provideadditional access to the Palika Parking fromthe Outer Circle to avoid congestion of Innercircle and Radials by the Vehicles using thefacility. Depressing the inner Circle to provide3.5 m clearance vehicular underpasses atRadial junctions would provide for a continuouspedestrian plaza along the inner Circle, alongwith efficient vehicular movement in theConnaught Place area.

Option I would require the entire Inner Circle tobe depressed, which may not be feasible alongRadials 3 & 7, as the Rail Level of Line 3 is onlyabout 8 m below the ground level. Line 2, whichpasses under Radial 4/5 and 1a, is at a muchlower level.


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* Pattern of Only Right-in andRight Out for vehicular traffic

* Entry from Radial 1, 3 & 6

* Exit through Radial 2,4 & 7.

* No vehicular conflicts at OuterCircle - Only Pedestrian RedPhase/ Subways required at 7points

* Out-Bound traffic eased &Through traffic via Inner Circlediscouraged

* Compatible with Presentcirculation pattern - except atRadial 4.

* Complete Vehicular Underpassalong Inner Circle desirable,but may not be feasible atRadials 3 & 7

Figure 8 : Traffic Movement Pattern in Connaught Place, 2010 – OPTION I

* Pattern of Only Right-in andRight Out for vehicular traffic

* Entry from from Radial 1 & 4Exit through Radial 2 & 6.

* Less Weaving on Outer Circle

* No vehicular conflicts at OuterCircle - Only Pedestrian RedPhase/ Subways required at 7points

* Through traffic via Inner Circlelargely discouraged

* Reversal of movement directionon Radial 6

* Vehicular Underpasses alongInner Circle/ Radials 1,2,4 & 6may be feasible,

Figure 9 Traffic Movement Pattern in Connaught Place, 2010 – OPTION II

In this regard, Option II appears to be a bettersolution. Depressing the Inner Circle to providevehicular underpasses at Radials 1, 2, 4 & 6would require a detailed fesibility study subjectto DMRC construction. This would provide fora continuous pedestrian plaza along the innerCircle, along with efficient vehicular movement

in the Connaught Place area. However,modifications to the DMRC exit at Radial 6 havebeen proposed, as shifting the exit movementfrom Radial 6 to either 5 or 7 would not beadvisable in view of the weaving length anddesired directional movement of the outboundtraffic.


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Synchronised Pedestrian SignalPhases at Heavy Pedestrian-VehicleConflict Zones (To be up-graded withpedestrian subways in the long-term)

Raised Intersections for PedestrianCrossings at Middle Circle

Existing Pedestrian subways acrossOuter Circle

Guardrails on either side of PedestrianWalkway on Outer edge of Inner Circle

Considering the low volumes of trafficanticipated, Inner Circle and Radials have beenproposed to be limited to 2-lane carriagewayswith the surplus width utilised for creatingwalkways, pedestrian plaza, landscaped areasand drop-off zones.

4. PEDESTRIAN FACILITIES

A . SHORT-TERM PROPOSALS(2006-2007)

With the suggested traffic circulation, theremaining points of significant pedestrian-vehicular conflicts would be the Radials 1, 2, 4& 6 intersections on the Inner & the OuterCircles with PV2 values ranging from 4 to 155x 108 as against the acceptable value of 2 x

108. The suggested pedestrian facilities arepresented in Figure 10.

All intersections of Inner and Middle Circle withthe Radial Roads are proposed to be providedwith a raised (about 25 cm) and differentcoloured/ textured zone to ensure the slowingof vehicular traffic and facilitating saferpedestrian crossings (Figure 11). Constructionwould involve providing ramps on each vehicleapproach, which elevates the entire intersectionto the level of the sidewalk.

The crosswalks (4 m wide) on each approachwould also be elevated as part of the treatmentto enable pedestrians to cross the road at thesame or a marginally lower level as thesidewalk.

Example of a Raised Intersection: Use of Texturedcrossings raises a driver’s awareness through increasednoise and vibration.

Proposed Typical Speed Table Treatment (RaisedIntersection) at Inner & Middle Circles

Figure 11 : Proposed Details for Raised Intersections/ Speed Tables

Figure 10 : Suggested Pedestrian Traffic Facilities in Connaught Place Area


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In long run, pedestrian subways would berequired at all intersections on the Outer Circle.However, in the immediate context,synchronised (25 second Pedestrian phase +120 second Vehicle Phase) signals withprogressive time offsets are suggested alongOuter Circle at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg,Panchkuian Road, Chelmsford Road, StateEntry Road, Minto Road, Radial No. 6 andBarakhamba Road to allow safe pedestriancrossings as well as smooth traffic flow.

Provision of adequate traffic signages andinformation boards/ maps/ kiosks, etc. has alsobeen proposed to supplement the pedestrianfacilities. Directional Guide Maps are proposedat all Metro Gates and Outer Circle & Inner Circleends of the Radials (sample in Figure 12).


The short-term improvements have beensuggested to be augmented by the construction

Figure 12 : Sample Guide Map (At Metro Station Gate 4)

of pedestrian subways across all Outer Circleintersections (Figure 13).

A point of observation has been that due to poortraffic enforcement and also partly due togreater depth of subways, as many as 60 % ofthe pedestrians prefer to cross at the surfaceeven where subways exist. Therefore, the newsubways are proposed to have minimum depthto encourage pedestrians to use them. Raisingthe road level by about 1 m would serve thedual purpose of decreasing the depth to onlyabout 2 m and also provide a visual connectivitywith the road, thereby increasing the securityand usability of the subways. An additionalmeasure of providing ramps (with slope not inexcess of 1 in 12) to facilitate disabled personshas been suggested for all new subways. Eventhe existing subways are proposed to bemodified to include this feature.

With the removal of parking from Inner & OuterCircles, the available space is proposed to bedeveloped as landscaped pedestrian


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Suggested Pedestrian subways atHeavy Pedestrian-Vehicle ConflictZones across Outer Circle

Existing Pedestrian subways acrossOuter Circle to be modified to includeramps

Landscaped Pedestrian Plaza AlongInner & Outer Circles

Figure 13 : Proposed Pedestrian Traffic Facilities in Connaught Place Area

walkways. The construction of depressedcrossing at Inner Circle would facilitatedevelopment of uninterrupted pedestrian plazaalong Inner Circle.

5. PARKING PROPOSALS

A . SHORT-TERM PROPOSALS(2006-2007)

No immediate reduction in existing parkingsupply has been suggested. The closedRadials 3, 5 & 7 could also be utilised forproviding surface parking (Figure 14).

Surface parking presently is priced at 2 timesthe Palika underground parking. As a policy

measure, all surface parking in ConnaughtPlace are proposed be designated as premiumparking and priced at 3 times (along the Radials,Middle Circle & Outer Circle) & 4 times (alongthe Inner Circle) the underground PalikaParking. The 4 parking blocks for 2-wheelerslocated in the courtyard of blocks may continueto be priced at the normal rates. Comparisionof existing and proposed parking rates ispresented in Table 2. Some of the surfaceparking lots such as Patel Chowk MetroStation, behind Janpath Bhawan, betweenJanpath and K.G. Marg are proposed to bedeveloped as multi-storied facilitiers.

Figure 14 : Suggested Short-Term Parking Facilities In Connaught Place

Premium Parking

Normal Parking

Underground Palika Parking

Proposed Typical Parking Layout


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Table 2 Existing and Proposed Parking Rates (Rs.), 2006


With improved connectivity by Delh Metro andthe proposed ‘Redevelopment Plan’ ofConnaught Place to be implemented, theshopping/ tourist traffic to the Connaught Placearea is likely to increase by about 25 %. Very

little of this increase is however likely to be viaprivate modes, due to the improved publictransport including Metro System and modernlow-floor/ AC buses. As such the

Parking demand is not likely to be more thanthe present levels. Moreover, parking demandis likely to follow the parking supply.


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Therefore in the overall scenario, it isrecommended that parking supply within thestudy area is at best maintained at the presentlevels for the horizon year, viz. 2010. However,there has to be progressive shift towardsrestricting surface parking and replacing it withmulti-level parking for better utilisation of openspaces. The proposed parking facilities arepresented in Figure 15. Against a present overallparking supply of about 13300 ECS and PeakDemand of 13600 ECS, a total future supply ofabout 12500 ECS is proposed in the study area.

However, it has been proposed that the parkingdemand trend be continuously studied atregular intervals. If it is observed that parkingdemand continues to remain at present levels,a new Multi-Level parking could be constructedeither at Super Bazaar or Shivaji Stadiumcomplex (which are being contemplated foralternate landuse by the NDMC) This couldprovide additional parking supply of about 1750ECS.

Installation of modern parking meters andinformation system to guide the motorists aboutthe location of parking facilities & theirrespective availability of parking space hasbeen recommended.

Banning of Surface Parking

Allowed Surface Parking WithinOuter Circle

Possibility of Banning SurfaceParking & Proposed UndergroundParking On Radials

Proposed Multi-Level ParkingFacilities

Potential additional Multi-LevelParking Facilities

Figure 15 : Suggested Parking Facilities, 2010

6. PUBLIC TRANSPORT PLANNING

BUS RE-ROUTING PLAN

Connaught Place area has about 88 bus routeswith about 450 DTC buses and 740 STA busesmaking a total of about 11900 daily trips.Combined with the associated boarding/alighting of passengers at the bus stops/ trafficsignals, this sheer volume of bus traffic causessignificant congestion and traffic conflicts onthe Outer Circle. With Lines 2 and 3 of DelhiMetro now operational, many of these busroutes can be diverted away from the OuterCircle/ modified - so as to avoid duplication ofpublic transport facilities. The buses couldhowever, act as feeders to the metro system.

Consequently, w.e.f. August 2006, 14 busroutes with a total of about 1000 daily bus trips(about 10 % of total) have been diverted awayfrom the Outer Circle.

NEW FACILITIES FOR PUBLIC/INTERMEDIATE PUBLIC TRANSPORT

To facilitate shoppers/ metro passengers, it hasbeen proposed to operate a shuttle service (anonpolluting mini-bus) linking the Metro entry/


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exit points and parking drop-off points along theInner Circle with the bus stops on the OuterCircle (Figure 16). A nominal flat fare of Rs 2for a non-AC and Rs 5 for an AC vehicle isrecommended to make this service user-friendly. Integration of this fare within the parking/Metro ticket is another option for facilitating thepassengers. Initially, a 2-minute frequencyduring peak hours and 5- minute frequencyduring off-peak hours is suggested.

There are four bus stops located on the OuterCircle viz. Regal, Madras Hotel, Plaza andSuper Bazar, through which upto 400 busespass during peak hour. A total of about 15000

Suggested Route of Non-Polluting

Mini-Bus Shuttle Service

Suggested Shuttle Stops

Suggested Pick-up/ Drop-Off Points

Suggested Auto Stands

Suggested Taxi Stands

Figure 16 : Suggested Public Transport Integration

passengers daily board/alight at these busstops. It is recommended to provide BusStations at these stops for the convenience ofthe waiting passengers and obviate the presenthaphazard stopping of buses. A unique conceptof second from extreme left lane beingreserved for buses is proposed along the outerCircle keeping in view its typical trafficmovement characteristic, so as to avoidweaving movements with the non-bus leftturning motorised traffic. Customised busstation design have also been suggested,which are compatible with low floor buses andbarrier-free movement for the disabled(Figure 17)

Figure 17 : Proposed Bus Lanes and Bus Stations along Outer Circle

SCINDIA HOUSE BUS STOP


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Figure 18 : Typical Layout of Proposed Drop-Off/ Pick-up Zones

Figure 19 : Typical Layouts of Proposed Auto/ Taxi Stands

Suitably designed drop-off zones are proposedat appropriately located and dispersed locations(Figure 18) in the Study area for theconvenience of passengers/ shoppers wishingto drop-off from or availing pick-up via private /IPT modes. Typical details are presented inFigure 18.

The present Taxi/Auto stands are suggestedto be better organised through uniform spatialdistribution at strategic locations, exclusivelydesigned parking areas and information booths/signages/maps with clear indications of theofficial fare rates. Typical proposed layouts ofthese are presented at Figure 19. About 20Auto stands with capacity of 5 autos each and5 Taxi Stands with capacity of 5-10 taxis eachare proposed for integration in the overall layoutplan of Connaught Place.

All the Public/ intermediate Public TransportProposals have been recommended forinclusion in the short-term proposals.

7. COST ESTIMATES

The block cost estimates have been preparedcovering civil engineering works, road marking,traffic signals & traffic signs and parkingfacilities. Lump sum cost estimates are workedout on the basis of current working rates ofsimilar civil works being executed in Delhi.

The overall estimated cost for the proposedimprovements works out to about Rs. 10 croreand Rs 182 crore respectively for the short-term and medium-term measures respectively.This excludes the cost towards shifting ofaffected utilities and acquisition of land beyond


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existing Right of Way. The abstract of the BlockCost estimate is shown in Table 3.

8. CONCLUSIONS & WAY FORWARD

All the study proposals were thoroughlydeliberated upon through stakeholderconsultations, wherein all major playersincluding NDMC, Traffic Police, DMRC,Transport Department and DTC were involvedin the project development/ approval stages.Some of the short-term proposals (such astraffic circulation, parking restriction, trafficsignages and information signs) have alreadybeen implemented – and shown considerableimprovements in the traffic scenario.

A pro-active role of the stakeholders, particularlyNDMC and Traffic Police, is required for further

implementation of the remaining studyproposals. With respect to the overall‘Redevelopment Plan of Connaught Place’being implemented by NDMC, it is importantthat the medium-term traffic improvementmeasures suggested by RITES are dulyintegrated in it for achieving a conflict-free trafficenvironment for all road users. This wouldcontribute significantly in enriching the urbanlandscape and shopping experience in theConnaught Place Area.

Table 3 Abstract of Block Cost Estimates

SHORT-TERM MEASURES

1. Traffic Circulation 100

2. Pedestrian Facilities & Public Transport/ IPT Facilities 700

3. Traffic Signages & Road Markings 100

4. Parking 100

Sub-Total 1000

MEDIUM-TERM MEASURES

1. Traffic Circulation (with preferred Option II) 2500

2. Pedestrian Facilities 3000

3. Traffic Signages & Road Markings 200

4. Parking (subject to Feasibility & Potential Requirement) 12500

Sub-Total 18200

TOTAL 19200

S. No. Item Estimated Cost(Rs. in Lakh)


17

DEVELOPMENT OF QUICK RESPONSE TECHNIQUES (QRT) FOR TRAVELDEMAND ESTIMATION OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED CITIES IN INDIA

Dr. KAYITHA RAVINDER * Dr. S. VELMURUGAN** J. NATARAJU*** Dr. S. GANGOPADHYAY****

* Scientist, Transport Planning and Environment Division, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi

** Scientist, Traffic Engineering and Road Safety Division, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi

*** Scientist, Traffic Engineering and Road Safety Division, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi

**** Acting Director and Head, TES & TPE, New Delhi

ABSTRACT

To perform travel demand estimation for any city using conventional four step demand modeling, it would involve lotof time and resources. As of now, to understand the travel demand for a particular city using available parametersthere are no ready reference models are available. Considering this, an attempt has been made in this paper tomodel the travel prediction using the readily available parameters. About six models were developed utilizing variousparameters such as Population, Average Household Income, Road Network Length and area of the city. The modelsdeveloped were validated by conducting the households’ surveys in two Cites Durgapur and Gwalior. Among the sixmodels developed, the predicted values based on Population and City area are very close to the observed values ofDurgapur and Gwalior cities.

1. INTRODUCTION

The increasing population in urban areas hasresulted in increased travel demand thusleading to traffic congestion, environmentaldegradation and other infrastructure relatedproblems. When a transport system getsoverloaded due to excess travel demand, itsefficiency could be improved by providingadditional capacity in the form of new modesof mass transportation or through demandmanagement. This can be achieved by studyingthe travel behaviour with reference to choice ofcommuters in choosing the mode or in otherwords by ‘Mode Choice Modelling’. Further, theexisting transportation systems are requiringexpansions to cope with demands. Theproblems and difficulties associated withmoving about within the cities and towns ofdeveloping economies are more complex andfaced daily by urban dwellers. To address this,the relevant solutions pertaining to theapplication of transport planning process ingeneral and Travel Demand Management

(TDM) in particular can be evolved in order toalleviate problems such as congestion, delay,accidents and environment. It goes withoutsaying that after the application of different TDMoptions it is essential to evaluate itseffectiveness by conducting ‘before’ and ‘after’studies in order to obtain the best possiblesolution in terms of efficiency, equity andenvironment so that informed decisions can betaken.

Keeping the above aspects points in mind, theprinciple objective of the study was to developa Quick Response Techniques (QRT) for traveldemand estimation aimed at applying for smalland medium sized town and cities in India.

The scope of the study mainly encompassesthe development of QRT models based on theavailable household data from secondarysource coupled with the validation of the modelsby utilizing the primary household datacollected from two medium sized cities.

I U TJOURNAL

This paper has been structured as follows.Section 2 presents literature reviewed andpresents techniques available such as pivotpoint techniques and manual methods. Section3 elaborates the methodology adopted in thestudy followed by the QRT models developed.Section 4 deals with the candidate citiesconsidered in this study namely Durgapur andGwalior. Section 5 focuses on the validation ofthe models using the household data collectedfrom the two cities. The conclusions drawnfrom this study along with limitations of themodels and their applicability have beensummarized.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

This section describes the available literature,information and techniques/methods used indeveloping Quick Response Techniques(QRT).

2.1 Pivot-Point (Elasticity) Techniques

Pivot-point (elasticity) techniques are flexible,policy-oriented tools that permit rapid evaluationof alternative transportation policies in an urbanenvironment. Generally, these techniquesrequire minimal inputs to operate and suchinputs usually cover broad range of alternativepolitical, technological, and pricing policies.Impacts of these policies usually highlight theimportant implications of policy options andthereby the requirement for massive input datapreparation and detailed output are bypassed.This feature makes pivot-point (elasticity)techniques extremely useful for thepolicymaker in the decision-making processand facility analysis in an expedient and yetinexpensive manner. Furthermore, thesensitivity and responsiveness of such policy-analysis tools to urban issues make themattractive and indispensable to urban planners.

Examples of some typical transportation policyissues that arise in practice are:

! Effects of parking restrictions on auto travel

! Implications of gasoline taxes.

! Environmental impacts of implementingauto emission control strategies.

! Effects of transit service improvements.

! Impacts on travel caused by theintroduction of innovative transportationmodes and so on.

These issues are complex and no single modelor procedure can adequately address suchproblems, or predict the effects of alternatives.By employing pivot-point (elasticity)techniques, however it is possible to arrive atgross estimates rapidly and at reduced costs,thus enabling a relatively easy first-cutevaluation of alternatives. While applying thistechnique, policy issues can be representedas aggregate-input “stimuli” to a given demandmodel which then outputs respective“responses.” To attain a high predictiveaccuracy models are often operated onparticular market segments which are definedon the socioeconomic characteristics of tripmakers.

A review of the available travel estimationmodels and procedures indicates that althoughthe level of input, actual methodology and levelof output vary for each technique, some of themexhibit typical characteristics of policy-sensitivetechniques. Two techniques in particularspecifically address policy evaluation includethe following:

! A policy-oriented Urban TransportationModel: The San Diego Version developedby the Rand Corporation, is a computerizedmodel that analyzes transportationstrategies by using a technique which helpsin predicting effects beyond a nominalsituation for some future year and thenoutputs detailed service impacts.


19

! Estimating the effects of Urban TravelPolicies: Developed by Charles RiverAssociates (CRA) is an empirical tool relieson the use of calibrated disaggregate logitmodels and derived elasticity values fortransportation analysis.

2.2 Manual Methods

Computer application to transportation planningis specifically preferred because of the largequantities of data handled. The complexities ofthe procedures developed and the extent ofarea to be evaluated require the use of largequantities of data. In this regard, simplifiedprocedures are needed for quick response topolicy issues which do not require applicationof large-scale computer models when anelement of a plan is to be changed or variouslevels of service are to be tested in someportion of a region. For policy evaluationpurposes, manual procedures are desirable fordetermining supply and/or demand fortransportation facilities. These procedures willnot generally be applicable to the entire regionbut will be most appropriate for sub areas orspecific sites and corridors.

It is an established fact that the application ofQRT would be of immense use to the plannersand administrators in developing medium termsolution so as to solve the existing problemsrelating to traffic and transportation. Also, it isexpected that the QRT model would be helpfulfor mitigating most of the problems relating totraffic and transportation in medium size cities/ towns of India where the current situation ofurban public transportation is very discouraging/ dismal in terms of supply and operation.

3. METHODOLOGY

The following sections describe themethodology adopted in this study for fulfillingthe objectives of the study and the same ispresented in Figure 1. The different tasksinvolved are listed below.

" Collection of data relating to traffic flows onstrategically selected links of the urban roadnetworks in India.

" Collection of details regarding Per CapitaTrip Rate (PCTR), Household Trip Rate(HTR), purpose of the trips, mode split,route choices etc.

" Collection of data on influencing parametersincludes population, population density,vehicle occupancy, socio-economiccharacteristics (Income, sex, age,educational levels, vehicle ownership,occupation etc.) Network characteristics(Type of road and length etc.)

" Estimation of passenger flows on the linksof road network as per the modes of travel.

" Employing different techniques availablesuch as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)etc. to develop models, which relatepassenger / vehicular flows, PCTR andHTR with one or more of the above saidinfluencing parameters.

" Validation of the models for their suitabilityand practicality by selecting one or twotypical cities in India for which data isavailable from secondary sources / primarysources.

Development of Quick Response Techniques (QRT)

20

3.1 Models from Secondary Data

Table 1 depicts the secondary data collectedfor about 23 cities for developing trip generationmodels using Quick Response Techniques.The various parameters collected include

population, average monthly income, total areaof the city, total road length of the city, averagemonthly expenditure on transportation, averagevehicle ownership and per capita trip rate ofthe city. Based on the secondary data collected,the trip generation models were developed.

Figure 1 : Methodology for development of QRT techniques

Identification of influenceparameters on Travel Demand

Selection of cities for (Medium/Small size) Secondary Data

Collection

Primary Data Collection

Development of QRT Model(Trip Generation)

Validation of Model

Transferability of Model

! Population! Nature of City

Employment! Form of City,! Availability of PT! Vehicle

Ownership

CTTS Reports,Secondary Sources& Primary Survey

! DemographicCharacteristics

! Socio-economicCharacteristics

! NetworkCharacteristics


21

1 VIZAG 1.5 10.54 3436 258.2 94.0 9 11 157 81 1.82 BHOPAL 1.2 10.63 3850 284.9 143.8 11.45 13 162 32 1.83 ROURKELA 1.2 3.99 4193 139.0 86.6 7.0 16 109 148 1.34 NAGPUR 1.0 16.64 4784 234.5 116.3 11.2 14 190 114 1.75 VADODARA 1.0 10.31 3831 108.3 159.4 9.7 23 229 105 1.56 PANIPAT 0.9 1.91 4061 29.2 26.0 7.5 10 86 100 1.27 UDAIPUR 0.9 3.08 4188 64.3 53.8 8.7 10 181 131 1.68 LUDHIANA 0.9 10.43 3906 136.1 115.2 8.8 20 128 82 1.89 VARANASI 0.8 10.3 2845 90.2 147.5 8.5 3 62 60 1.110 KANPUR 0.8 20.37 3327 299.0 128.2 9.1 10 101 114 1.711 HUBLI - DHARWARD 0.8 6.48 3776 190.9 73.6 7.6 12 95 65 1.212 VIJAYAWADA 0.8 8.45 3620 332.0 73.6 8.5 9 116 131 1.113 GUWAHATI 0.7 5.84 4332 216.0 137.0 12 22 86 72 0.914 AGARTALA 0.7 1.57 3130 16.2 33.7 8.3 8 62 63 1.015 GURUVAYUR 0.7 1.19 3119 50.3 38.2 14.5 16 51 146 0.816 TIRUPUPUR 0.7 3.06 3939 91.0 38.9 12.8 34 210 117 0.717 DHANBAD 0.7 8.15 3617 201.4 219.2 8.9 9 33 28 0.918 MEERUT 0.5 8.5 3089 177.6 N.A. N.A. 4 42 168 0.719 SHIMLA 0.4 1.1 3027 35.3 69.4 5.61 11 24 0 0.820 PATNA N.A. 11 1836 128.6 N.A. N.A. 17 84 122 0.821 AGRA N.A. 9.48 N.A. 141.0 N.A. N.A. 10 80 100 N.A.22 BAREILLY N.A. 6.17 2882 N.A. N.A. N.A. 3 80 200 N.A.23 JAMMU N.A. N.A. 3869 N.A. 150 N.A. 17 64 50 N.A.

S.No

City PCTRExcluding

WalkTrips

Popu-lation

(Lakhs)

Ave.Monthly

H.H.Income(in Rs.)

Area(Sq. Km)

RoadLength(Km)

Ave. H.H.Exp on

Tpt (% ofMonthlyIncome)

Vehicle Ownership per1000 population

Car Sc/MC Cycle

TotalPCTR

IncludingWalkTrips

NA - Not Available

Table 2 presents the trip generation modelsalong with statistical analysis. For each model,different combination of parameters were used

to arrive at the best possible model for theestimation of PCTR and brief narrativedescription of the models is given in Table 2.

Table 2: Brief description of the QRT Models

S. No. Model CommentsR

2 value is low because the variation in population had wide range among

the secondary data collected.

R2 value increased as compared to model 1 thereby indicating the

contribution of Average Household Income in predicting the PCTR.

R2 has increased marginally as compared to model-2 thereby signifying

that Average Trip Length also contributes in estimating PCTR.

R2 value didn’t improve. This may be because beyond the basic required road

length available in a city to perform the trips, the additional road length may notcontribute in increasing the number of trips whereas may help in smootheningthe traffic flow and distribute the trips among different corridors.

In this model, several parameters were used to find out the correlation. Butthe R

2 value remained more or less same.

The R2 value decreased which indicates that this combination of

independent variables does not help in predicting the PCTR.

PCTR = 0.733 + 0.0165 *Pop

PCTR = 0.105 + 0.0144 *Pop + 0.000175 * AHHMI

PCTR = 0.114 + 0.01*Pop +0.000167 * AHHMI +0.000332 * CA

PCTR = 0.295 +0.01911*Pop + 0.000134 *AHHMI - 0.00062 * RLC

PCTR = 0.3185 + 0.0135 * P +0.000122 * AHHMI + 0.000458* CA -0.00069 * RLC

PCTR = 0.703 + 0.009075 *Pop + 0.00055 * CA

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Pop = Population in Lakhs, AHHMI=Avg. Household Monthly Income in Rupees, CA=City Area in square kilometers,RLC= Road Length of city in kilometersHaving building the QRT models, the subsequent sections describe the demographic profile and travel pattern ofthe commuters in the cities of Durgapur and Gwalior.


22

4.0 CASE STUDY CITIES AND FIELDSTUDIES CONDUCTED

The models developed were validated byconducting the field studies, such as household surveys were conducted in two citiesDurgapur city and Gwalior city. Thedemographic and socio-economiccharacteristics along with travel characteristicshave been discussed in the next section

4.1 Durgapur City Felid Survey Analysis

Durgapur city is basically an industrial citywhere residential area and industrial areas areseparated by Grand Trunk road. Figure 2 showsthe map of Durgapur city. Durgapur is havingnumber of colleges, schools and technicaltraining institutes. Apart from the above, it hasmany number of computer education institutes(around 211). There are 14 managementtraining institutes. There are 46 industries whichincludes Durgapur Steel Plant, Alloy Steels Plantetc. and 141 small scale industries. Theresidential area in the city is planned as grid

Figure 2: Map of Durgapur City

and iron pattern with many roundabouts. Theroundabouts were functioning efficiently for thepresent quantum of traffic.

4.1.1 Demographics Characteristics

Table 3 and 4 shows the Durgapur populationdata. There are very few private busesoperating in the city to cater the passengertransportation need of city. Apart from buses,people are using two wheelers and cycles morepredominantly for commuting purpose.Intermediate transportation facility like autos/shared autos are very less in number. Thereare new townships like SEPCO emerging onthe periphery of city demanding additionaltransportation facilities.

Most of the trips performed are either work tripsor educational trips. Business trips and othertrips are very less. The main commercialactivities are taking place in Bena city (old city)and City centre. There is a flyover at Gopalpurseparating G.T.Road traffic and city traffic.


23

Table 3: Durgapur Population Data

People Male Female

Population 2001 4,92,996 2,63,426 2,29,570

0-6 Population 48,927 25,052 23,875

Literates 3,71,100 2,13,117 1,57,983

Literacy Rate 83,57 89,40 76,80

Table 4: Ward wise Population data

Ward No. Population Ward No. Population Ward No. Population Ward No. Population1 15852 12 8970 23 12613 34 77492 5110 13 9284 24 14084 35 139823 11957 14 15386 25 7853 36 114734 14786 15 9947 26 13779 37 100265 12504 16 10983 27 13709 38 72166 10105 17 9482 28 15164 39 42127 13030 18 6287 29 11177 40 80888 14522 19 1080 30 15544 41 81919 18043 20 10869 31 9246 42 938410 10640 21 12098 32 9019 43 1374111 7398 22 16747 33 10592

4.1.2 Travel and Socio EconomicCharacteristics

The following are the summary details fromhouse hold field survey.

Total Area of city : 154.20 sqkm

Number of wards : 43

Number of Boroughs : 5

Number of Householdsbelow poverty line : 23,537

Number of Householdsabove poverty line : 1, 06,398

Total Road Length : 201 km

PCTR : 0.8589

Average Trip Length : 5.66 km

Average House HoldIncome : 9400

Average Household Expenseon transportation : Rs.690

Average Income of TripMakers : Rs. 7852

Average Householdownership of cars : 0.1068

Average Household

ownership of 2w : 0.8446

Average Household

ownership of cycles : 1.0581

Table 5 shows the purpose wise distribution oftrips in Durgapur city. From the table it can beobserved that work trips are the major tripsconsists of 55 % followed by educational tripsabout 31%. The rest of the trips are minimumreplicating the medium order citycharacteristics.

Table 5: Purpose wise Distribution of Trips inDurgapur City

Purpose of Trip Percentage of Trips

Work 55.7

Education 30.9

Recreation 1.5

Shopping 3.3

Emp. Business trip 6.3

Others 2.3


24

Table 6 shows the mode wise distribution oftrips in Durgapur city. From the table, it can beobserved that maximum number of trips areperformed by two wheelers (37%) followed bybuses (30%) and bicycles (28%). Few trips areperformed by autos/shared autos.

Table 6: Mode wise percentage Trips ofDurgapur City

Cycle 28.1 24.56

2-Wheeler 36.7 32.06

Car 4.5 3.91

Bus 30.1 26.27

Auto/Taxi 0.4 0.34

Vikram/Shared Auto 0.3 0.23

By Walk 12.63

Vehicleused

VehicleTrips

Total Trips(Incl. walktrips)

Table 7 shows the education wise distributionof trips. From the table, it can be observed that92% of trips are performed by educated peoplefrom primary to Graduate. This means thatmost of the trips are performed by educatedpeople either for work or for continuouseducation.

Table 7: Education wise percentage Trips ofDurgapur City

Table 8 shows the average trip distance madeby different vehicles in Durgapur city. From

Table 8: Average Trip Distance of differentmodes in Durgapur City

Vehicle Used Avg. Trip Distanceby diff. vehicles

Cycle 3.62

2-Wheeler 5.92

Car 7.42

Bus 9.22

Auto/Taxi 3.89

Vikram/Shared Auto 4.36

this table, it can be observed that the buseshas maximum average trip length (9.22km)followed by cars (7.42km), two wheeler(5.92km) and bi-cycle (3.62km).

The samples were selected based on wardwise population and income levels of the city.Approximately 1550 samples were collected toassess the characteristic of the house holdtravel. The map of Durgapur and othersecondary information was obtained fromDurgapur Municipal Corporation (DMC) and thefield survey was conducted in April 2005.Through the questionnaire, householdinformation was collected on sampling basisin order to assess and validate the tripgeneration models. The house hold survey rawdata collected was coded and punched intocomputers to further analyze the trips made incity. The analysis revealed that majority of tripsmade included work and educational trips.

4.2 Gwalior City Felid Survey Analysis

Gwalior is a mixed activity city of MadhyaPradesh which sizable proportion of touristsalso because of Gwalior Fort and museum.Figure 3 shows the map of Gwalior city. It hasmixed characteristics of traffic and commutingtaking place to large extent by shared Autos.

Illiterate 3.0

Primary 26.6

Secondary 36.6

Graduate 29.4

Post Graduate 4.4

Educational level Percentage Trips


25

Figure 3 : Map of Gwalior city

4.2.1 Demographics Characteristics

Table 9 shows the ward wise population dataof Gwalior city. The map of Gwalior city andother secondary information was obtained fromGwalior Municipal Corporation and the field

survey was conducted in January2006.According to 2001 census total Gwaliorcity have been divided into 15 wards and thepopulation in respective ward have been arefurnished.

Table 9: Ward wise population of Gwalior city

Ward Population Ward Population Ward Population Ward PopulationNo. No. No. No.

1 17902 16 9057 31 14904 46 123072 12660 17 10669 32 13229 47 77933 18709 18 7435 33 10365 48 180644 16269 19 16844 34 8051 49 153435 10891 20 18299 35 11626 50 89666 16259 21 22404 36 11405 51 89297 18247 22 21289 37 13472 52 110238 16276 23 24794 38 10278 53 149639 8688 24 17538 39 18183 54 1722610 9564 25 33644 40 10802 55 994811 10442 26 15043 41 8316 56 1090112 10791 27 15824 42 9652 57 1204913 9158 28 15933 43 10550 58 1302214 15030 29 8426 44 7482 59 1221615 10679 30 16077 45 22991 60 15076


26

4.2.2 Travel and Socio EconomicCharacteristics

The samples were selected based on wardwise population and income levels of the city.Approximately 815 samples were collected toassess the characteristic of the house holdtravel. Through the questionnaire, householdinformation was collected on sampling basisin order to assess and validate the tripgeneration models. The house hold survey datacollected was coded and punched intocomputers to further analyze the trips made incity. The analysis revealed that majority of tripsmade included work, recreational andeducational trips.

Road Length : 700 km.

Area of Gwalior city : 166 sq km.

Population : 8, 27,026

Number of Wards : 60

PCTR from Survey : 0.74

Average Household MonthlyIncome : Rs 8927

Average Household Expenseon transportation : Rs.1584

Average Income of Tripmakers : Rs. 6691

Average Trip length : 8.50km

Table 10 shows the purpose wise distributionof trips in Gwalior city. From the table it can beobserved that educational trips are the majortrips constituting about 30 % followed by workand business trips accounting 22% each andfinally recreational trips constitute 20%.

Table 10: Purpose wise Distribution of Tripsin Gwalior City

Purpose of Trip Percentageof Trips

Work 22.4Education 30.0Recreation 20.2Shopping 1.8Emp. Business trip 22.0Others 3.6

Table 11 shows the mode wise distribution oftrips in Gwalior city. From the table, it can beobserved that maximum number of tripsperformed by 2-wheelers (50%) followed byBicycles (17%), shared autos (12%), buses(10%) and cars (6%). Few trips are performedby autos/taxis.

Table 11: Mode wise percentage Trips ofGwalior City

Cycle 17.2 15.5

2-Wheeler 50.2 45.3

Car 6.1 5.5

Bus 9.7 8.7

Auto/Taxi 4.7 4.3

Vikram/Shared Auto 12.1 10.9

By Walk 9.8

Vehicleused Mechanical Total

Percentage Trips

Table 12 shows the average trip distance madeby different vehicles in Gwalior city. From thetable, it can be observed that the buses hasmaximum average trip length (20.1km)followed by cars (17.7km), 2-wheeler (7.9km)and bicycles (6.9km).

Table 12: Average Trip Length of differentmodes in Gwalior City

Vehicle used Avg. Trip Distanceby diff. vehicles

Cycle 6.9

2-Wheeler 7.9

Car 17.7

Bus 20.1

Auto/Taxi 6.4

Vikram/Shared Auto 5.8


27

5. TRAVEL DEMAND PREDICTIONAND VALIDATION

The developed models were validated by usingthe primary data collected in the above twocities. Table 13 presents the comparisonbetween the predicted and observed valuesthrough different models. From this table, it canbe observed that model 1 and model 6 are ableto estimate PCTR to a reasonable degree ofaccuracy. The salient features of the developedmodels have been discussed briefly below :

Table 13: Comparison of PCTR between Model and Observed Values

1 0.8 0.87

2 1.8 1.79

3 1.8 1.74

4 1.5 1.22

5 1.5 1.11

6 0.8 0.87

Model No. Durgapur City Gwalior City

Predicated fromModel

Observed from field Predicated fromModel

Observed fromfield

0.86(all trips)

0.76(only vehicle trips)

0.74(all trips)

0.67(only vehicle trips)

! For prediction of PCTR, Avg. Householdincome was taken from field observations.The average income reported may not trulyrepresent the avg. income of city becauseof incorrect/refusal of information aboutincome by households during the survey.

! The road length parameter observed to benegative because the road length may nothave direct impact on the trips performed.It may be due to less (about 30-40)percentage of trips performed by cars,buses and autos in small and medium sizedcities.

! For developing QRT models, the secondarydata was collected for 23 cities. Theregression coefficient is less because ofwide variation in city characteristics likepopulation varying from 2-15 lakhs, differentland use characteristics like industries &business, tourist places and shape ofdevelopment.

! Probably if we select samples within closegroup of population, size and type ofdevelopment, the regression coefficientmay increase. But because of the availablesamples are less, in this study, all sampleswere taken for model development.

! It was observed that maximum number oftrips in Durgapur mainly were work trips(55%) and educational trips (30%) where asGwalior has got recreational trips (20%). Thisimplies the area characteristics of both cities.

! The predicted values from model 1 & model6 are very close to the observed values ofDurgapur and Gwalior cities. Other modelswere predicting more trips than observedtrips may be because of the Averagehousehold income used in the models forpredicting trips may not exactly truebecause of incorrect information by households.

6. CONCLUSIONS

To perform travel demand estimation for anycity using conventional four step demandmodeling, it would involve lot of time andresources. As of now, to understand the traveldemand for a particular city using availableparameters there are no ready referencemodels are available. Considering this, anattempt has been made in this paper to modelthe travel prediction using the readily availableparameters. About six models were developed


28

utilizing various parameters such as Population,Average Household Income, Road NetworkLength and area of the city. Among the sixmodels developed, the predicted values frommodel 1 and model 6 are very close to theobserved values of Durgapur and Gwalior cities.Other models were predicting more trips thanthe observed trips and this may be attributedto the Average household income used in themodels for predicting PCTR. As can be notedfrom the PCTR models, the average householdincome was taken from field observations.However, the reported average income may notbe true representative of the prevailing incomelevels of the household in the candidate citiessurveys and this may be due to incorrectinformation provided by households on their

income during the survey. Furthermore afterobserving the developed models it would bemore appropriate to classify the cities whichare having similar demographic and sociocharacteristics to predict the travel demandestimation reasonably well.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors are thankful to the Director CRRI forhis kind permission to publish the paper. Authorswould like to place on the gratefulness tovarious colleagues in the traffic andtransportation area of CRRI for their useful andvaluable contributions during the course of thisstudy. The usual disclaimers neverthelessapply.

References

1) Arthur B. Sosslau, Amin B. Hassam, Maurice M. Carter, and George V. Wickstrom(1978), “Quick-Response UrbanTravel Estimation Techniques and Transferable Parameters: User’s Guide”, NCHRP R187, Transport ResearchBoard, National Research council, Washington, D.C.

2) Arthur B. Sosslau, Amin B. Hassam, Maurice M. Carter, and George V. Wickstrom(1978), “Travel EstimationProcedures for Quick Response to Urban Policy Issues”, NCHRP R186, Transport Research Board, NationalResearch council, Washington, D.C.

3) Juan de Dios Ortuzar and Luis G. Willumsen(2001),”Modelling Transport”, Third Edition, John wiley & Sons Ltd,Baffins Lane, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1UD, England.

4) Zavattero and Weseman (of Chicago Area Transportation Study), “Commercial Vehicle Trip Generation in theChicago Region.” Transportation Research Record No. 1407, October 1993.

5) Brogan, James D. “Development of Truck Trip-Generation Rates by Generalized Land-Use Categories.”Transportation Research Record No. 716, pp.38-43, 1979.

6) Brogan, “Improving Truck Trip-Generation Techniques Through Trip-End Stratification.” Transportation ResearchRecord No. 771, 1980.

7) Winslow, Bladikas, Hausman and Spasovis(1995) “Introduction of an Information Feedback Loop to Enhance theurban Transportation Modelling System”

8) Martin, William A., and Nancy A. McGuckin, “Travel Estimation Techniques for Urban Planning “, NCHRP Report365, Transportation Research Board, 1998.

9) “Quick Response - A New Approach to Planning”, TR News, 1986.

10) Training Course Material on “Urban Transport Development”, Organized by Institute of Urban Transport (India),September , 2004.

11) Yong Zhao and Kara Maria (2001), “The Propagation of Uncertainty Trough Travel Demand Models: An ExploratoryAnalysis” Civil Engineering Deptt., The University of Texas at Austin, Submitted to Annals of Regional Science,August 2001

12) Bangor to Trenton Transportation Alternatives Study for the year 2020, Phase 1 Final Report on “Demand EstimationMethodology and Ridership Forecasts by Alternative”

13) Kyle B. Winslow , et al (1995), “Introduction of An Information Feedback Loop To Enhance The Urban TransportationModeling System” project report.


29

MOBILITY CONSIDERATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTOF WEEKLY MARKETS IN DELHI

CASE STUDY: AMAR COLONY

SONIA ARORA * Prof. P.K. SARKAR** KANIKA KALRA***

* Assistant Manager, UMTC

** Professor, Transport Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi

*** Assistant Manager, UMTC

ABSTRACT

A study on weekly markets on Delhi urban areas was conducted with an objective to assess the mobility considerationsfor improvement of weekly markets on the surrounding environments. A case study Amar Colony located on thesouthern part of Delhi was taken up for this purpose. Weekly Markets generally characterized by informal marketactivities by occupying the large part of the road network in mostly the residential areas. The way the weekly marketsfunction offer both economic benefits to the user of market as well as it causes great deal of inconvenience to theroad users in terms of severe problem of traffic operations due to large-scale curbside parking and high degree ofgeneration of pedestrian traffic. This has resulted in creating severe traffic congestion in and around the marketarea. This study assesses the impact of weekly market on its immediate environs in terms of increase in vehicularflow, pedestrian flow, parking, speed, road network and economic impact.

1. INTRODUCTION

Increased economic activities in the urbanareas are being spread out the core sector ofthe city as well as extending to the outskirts ofthe urban areas. Most of the metropolitan citiesin India, that are increasingly confronted withthe allocation of space to accommodate theseincreased economic activities. Many times it isobserved that development for economicactivities is not in consonance with actualdesired land use planning giving rise to numberof transport problems.

The informal sector is a very varied andheterogeneous sector operating in a numberof fields providing services at low cost andwithin the reach of the consumers. Weeklymarket is one of the spatial economic activitiesorganized on weekly basis in most of theMetropolitan cities in India, in general and inother countries in particular. The cities likeLondon, China etc are also witnesses instaging this weekly market activities resultinginto generation of addition traffic. In India, Delhihas a wide spread network of organizing weekly

markets activities in different parts of the urbanarea. Presently there are 223 Weekly Marketsfunctioning on different days in a week to caterto the demand primarily to the local people.Master Plan of Delhi has also recommendedthe provision of weekly market of a size of 0.4hac population of 1 to 2 lakh in an area. MasterPlan of Delhi does not highlight the necessaryprovision to be made with respect to transportinfrastructure facilities such as pedestrianfacilities, parking standards, minimum width ofroads, safety standards etc. The functioning ofweekly markets along the major street asobserved today poses severe problem of trafficoperations due to large-scale curbside parkingand high degree of generation of pedestriantraffic. This has resulted in creating severetraffic congestion in and around the marketarea.

In the light of this, this paper has attempted tostudy the impact of weekly market on its environswith a view to appreciating the traffic andtransportation problems and also studied theeconomic impact by converting the Cost andbenefits of weekly markets into monetary units.

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2. OBJECTIVE

To study the mobility considerations forimprovement of weekly markets in Delhi interms of increase in Vehicular flow, Pedestrianflow, Parking and evolve guidelines andrecommendations to minimize the impact ofweekly market activities on the adjoiningnetwork.

3. SCOPE

! To study the impact of weekly markets onroad network and transport system

! To conduct relevant traffic andtransportation surveys

! Analysis of traffic data with a view to developguidelines with the provision of transportinfrastructure in weekly market

! Study is limited to most problematicweekly market i.e Amar colony weeklymarket.

4. CONCEPT OF WEEKLY MARKET

A huge unused place of a colony or a longstretch of road or vacant space due to mainmarket closure is used on a particular day of aweek; vendors start reaching around 12 noonand sell their goods generally up to 8 /10 P.M inthe evening

5. CHARACTREISTICS OF WEEKLYMARKET

A market has several characteristics observedin various markets in Delhi. The following aresome of the unique observations of the weeklymarket

a) Operate on certain (stipulated) day of theweek

b) Involve predominantly mobile traders

c) Encourage selling of all types of goods(vegetables, phone cards, fertilizer tofurniture and shoe-shine).

d) Place for Income generation for livelihood

e) Offer potential job opportunity

f) More profitable because they can reachmore people and have larger catchmentarea

6. WEEKLY MARKETS OF DELHI

Delhi Master Plan has appropriately identified223 weekly markets held on different days ofweek at different places for ensuring weeklyhousehold needs to the residents of Delhi.MCD divides the Delhi into 12 zones to cater tothe demand of weekly markets. After studyingthe various Zones of Delhi, Central zone isbeing selected for the studying of variousimpact of weekly market because of dataavailability and limitation of time. A detailedanalysis of the data collected from the 6 weeklymarkets of central zone throughReconnaissance survey and Secondarysources was carried out. The total area ofcentral zone is 44.8 sqkm with total populationof 11.30 lakh. In this zone total number of weeklymarket is 10 running on different days of a weekhaving an average of 1.30 lakh population permarket. The weekly market Amar Colony isselected for case study

7. CASE STUDY SELECTIONCRITERIA

A detailed analysis of the data collected fromthe 6 weekly markets of central zone throughReconnaissance survey and Secondarysources is being done and then rank is givento these weekly markets on the basis ofweighted score method by using performanceindicators. Performance indicators forevaluating different weekly markets wereidentified from the analysis of the primarysurveys conducted and relative weightage hasbeen given to each of them.

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Mobility Considerations for Improvement of Weekly Markets in Delhi

Performance Indicator used to give weightscore for each weekly market are PopulationDensity, Market Length, Employment, Level ofFacility, Road Network, Accessibility andAesthesis.

Each surveyed weekly market has beenevaluated on this scale and ranked accordingto their total weighted scores as shown intable 1. The weekly market that scores highestmarks is being selected for a case study i.eAmar Colony.

8. STUDY AREA PROFILE

Amar Colony Market is located in the CentralZone of MCD. It is located along a local roadparallel to the Kalka Devi Marg. Total area ofmarket is 14800sq.m. It is Operating on a streetwith total number of vendors 454. Thesurrounding land use in the vicinity of market isResidential and Institutional. It has 4 entrypoints. Entry1 is from section DD’, Entry2 isfrom section EE’, Entry3 is from section CC’and Entry4 is from section BB’ as presented inFigure 1.

9. TRAFFIC ANALYSIS

After having conducted an in-depth studies andsubsequent analysis of various surveys themajor findings with respect to various impactvariables are

9.1 Impact on Vehicular Traffic

9-hour traffic volume count was carried out atentry1 (Amar colony Marg) and entry2 (kalkaDevi Marg) with and without weekly marketactivities as shown in Figure 2. It was observedthat

TABLE1: Ranking of Weekly Markets ofCentral Zone

4 AMAR COLONY 382.6 1

63 TUGLAKABAD EXTN. 260 2

6 BHOGAL 240 3

64 DAKSHINPURI 236 4

9 BATLA HOUSE 234.6 5

65 BADARPUR 230 6

Ward

No.

Weekly

Market

Weighted

Score

Rank

Figure 1: Scaled Map of Study Area

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Figure 2: Survey Location of Traffic VolumeCount Survey

a) Volume

At entry 1 total volume of traffic increases by65% (238 pcu) due to the market activities andat entry 2 total volume is increased by 12%(1734 pcu)

b) Peak Hour Volume

At entry 1 peak hr traffic is increased by 66%and tt entry 2, peak hr traffic is increased by71% (1185 pcu)

c) Composition

The flow of Cycle rickshaw is increased by5%(48) at entry 1 and 0.7% increased at entry2(132). The hand Cart’s movement isincreased by 9%(55) at entry 1 and 1% (78) atentry 2. There is also impact on the motorizedvehicles. The flow of Auto rickshaw is increasedby 6%(47) at entry 1 and 2 % (609) at entry 2and the trucks movement is increased by 1 %(64) at entry 2

d) Speed

At Amar Colony Road, the average speed isreduced to 14.6kmph in afternoon peak hr12noon to1 p.m. and 16.6kmph in evening peakhr (6-7) p.m. The maximum delay isbetween12noon to 2 p.m presented in Figure3-A. At Kalka Devi Marg, average speed isreduced to 13.5kmph in afternoon peak hrduring 12noon to 1 p.m. and 12.9kmph inevening peak hr (6-7) p.m. The maximum delayis between (6-8) p.m. as presented in Figure3B.

3-A 3-B

Figure 3: Variation in Journey Speed Due to Weekly Market At Amar Colony RoadAnd Kalka Devi Marg


33

9.2 Impact on Pedestrian Traffic

Pedestrian count survey is done from 5 pm to9 pm at all entry points of Amar Colony weeklymarket. It was observed that

a) Flow

There is a direct increase in pedestrian flow ofthe order of 16000 (approx.) i.e. 4000% due toweekly market. The peak hour of market is 6:30to 7:30 with maximum movement of 8000(approx.) pedestrian.

b) Pedestrian Level of Service

It was found that pedestrian movement comesunder level of service (LOS) E as Pedestrianspace of a weekly market is 7.84 sq.feet/pedestrian, Maximum flow rate per minute ofpedestrian movement is 174 (entry + exit), Flowrate of a pedestrian movement is 35.57pedestrian/min/feet and Density of a weeklymarket is 13 pedestrian/sq. Feet

9.3 Parking

9 hour parking survey was done at entry1,entry2 and entry 3 with and without weeklymarket as presented in Figure 2.

a) Parking Accumulation

It was observed from a parking survey thatgeneral activity picks up momentum in themorning hrs and evening hrs as visitors /shoppers start destining the area. Peakaccumulation with and without weekly market

is increasing from 18 to 127 (109 ECS) i.e600%.

b) Parking Volume

Due to weekly market total Parking volume isincreased by 800 (approx.) ECS.

c) Parking Index

Total bays available is 210 and parking index is60.4%

d) Parking Turnover

Parking turnover with weekly market is 0.4vehicles per space and without weekly marketis 1.4 vehicles per space

e) Average Parking Duration

Average parking duration with weekly marketis 2 hour 45 min and without weekly market is1 hour 40 min

f) Parking Duration

67% of 2w, 62% of 3w, 71% of tempo, 55% oftruck are parked for long term duration and 35%of 2w, 52% of 3w, 52 of tempo, 25% of truckare parked for short term duration (<1 hour).

9.4 Road Network

Total area of market is 1524321.42 sq feet outof which 66% area is encroached by vendors.The total length of a market is 1.85 km. Theroad network characteristics of a Amar colonyweekly market is presented in Table 2

Table 2: Network Characteristics

AA’ 400 12.4 8.3 3 75.81

BB’ 250 16.2 10.1 3 13.2 81.48

CC’ 500 12.6 7.6 3.2 9.4 74.6

DD’ 100 9.4 5.3 2 7.4 78.72

EE’ 600 20.3 15.4 8.6 11.7 52.71

1850 66.55

SECTION* LENGTH ROW C/W EffectiveC/W (m)

EncroachedROW (m)

Degree ofencroached

area (%)

* As per Figure number 1


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9.5 Appreciation of Consumer Activity

During the primary survey it was found thatthe catchment area of market is 4 kmpresented in Figure 4. It was also observedthat 70% of the consumer coming to theseweekly markets is less than 2 km out of which48% of consumers came by walk and 22 %used cycle rickshaw.

Figure 4: Catchment Area of Amar Colony Weekly Market

9.6 Appreciation of Vendors Activity

During the primary survey it was observed thatMore than 50% vendors coming from1-2 kmand maximum of them using three-wheeler andHand Cart’s to bring their products to themarket.

10. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Economic impact of weekly market is identifiedwith respect to the cost paid by consumers,vendors and society.

a) Cost to the Consumer

Consumer survey results shows that the totalnumber of consumer coming to this weeklymarket is approximate 40,000 and maximum

of them buy Fruits, Vegetables and Garments.It was also observed that the averageexpenditure incurred by a consumer in a weeklymarket is Rs. 200 (Approximate) and they gota average net benefits

1 of Rs.14 with respect

to the standard market where as averagesavings

2 of a consumer with respect to the

standard market is 8.16% out of which theysave maximum in fruits and vegetables i.e.12.5%.

1 Avg. Net benefits is amount of expenditure for purchase of commodities at standard market - amount of expenditure for samecommodities incurred in weekly market- travel expenditure

2 Avg. Savings is amount of expenditure for purchase of commodities at standard market - amount of expenditure for samecommodities incurred in weekly market


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As the average expenditure incurred by aconsumer increases, a percentage of AverageNet benefit with respect to the standard marketis increases with 6.67% presented in Figure 5.As the travel expenditure of a consumerincreases their average net benefits withrespect to the standard market is decreasing.

Figure 5: Average Net benefits vs. Averageexpenditure incurred by the consumer

b) Cost to the Vendor

There are 454 vendors in the weekly marketand maximum of them sells Fruits, Vegetablesand Garments. The average net profit of avendor of weekly market is 134 Rs/day andthere profit per customer is approx Rs.3. Thetotal benefit of vendors of weekly market is9.26% of total revenue. Average income per dayof a vendor is approximate Rs.1500.Survey

results shows that 47% revenue of a weeklymarket is generated through fruits andvegetable and 40% is generated throughgarments as presented in Figure 6

c) Cost to the Society

Survey results shows that due to weekly marketthere is loss in value of time (VOT) of throughtraffic i.e approximate Rs. 1,42,200 per day. Thevehicle operating cost increases toapproximate Rs. 1,31,000 per day. Also the costto the society due to increase in air pollution isapproximate Rs. 54,000 per day. The detailsare shown in Table 3

Figure 6: Percentage ofRevenue Generated

Table 3: Loss in Terms of Value of Time / Vehicle Operating Cost/ Air pollution

12-1 7952 569 2280 634 2475 4701-2 9685 487 23328 3910 13983 4532-3 5622 398 13240 1880 6781 1423-4 3822 210 16990 1735 6005 3704-5 5710 158 4919 72 1028 4245-6 7918 201 4831 939 4151 1846-7 21447 439 7262 1457 6934 6617-8 22040 423 13810 1350 6759 1518-9 17261 422 111045 19979 3026 364

138956 3307 51145 3223

Time(Hourly)

Kalka DeviMarg (Rs.)

LOSS IN TERMS OFVALUE OF TIME (VOT),

LOSS IN TERMS OFVEHICLE OPERATING

COST (VOC)

LOSS IN TERMS OFAIR POLLUTION

Amar ColonyRoad (Rs.)

Kalka DeviMarg (Rs.)

Amar ColonyRoad (Rs.)

Kalka Devi Amar Colony


36

Above analysis shows that the total cost paidby the non-user of weekly market is Rs3,27,656 per day. Among the directbeneficiaries of the market , the total savingsof consumer is Rs 1,29,543 per day,cumulative profit of vendors is Rs 1,12,915 perday and the total profit to the user of weeklymarket is Rs 2,40,831 per day. Therefore thetotal loss (i.e. Cost paid by the non user – Profitof user) due to weekly market is Rs 86,824.

11. PROBLEMS AND ISSUES

a) No separate space is allocated forweekly markets.

b) Off-street parking due to operation ofweekly market is very severe affectingthe road capacity to the extend ofreduction of 50% and causing majorproblems of traffic operations aroundthe market area.

c) Pedestrian space is 7.84 sq ft/pedestrian and flow rate is 35pedestrian/min/ft, whose LOS is Evirtually all pedestrian would have theirnormal walking speed restricted,forward movement is possible only byshuffling. Insufficient space is providedfor passing of slower pedestrians.Cross or reverse flow movements arepossible only with extreme difficulties.

d) No segregate parking for vendors andconsumer.

e) Weekly market appears to be selling tobe unorganized activities comprising ofmainly Garments, Fruits and Vegetables,Kitchenware, Jewellery etc. Theseactivities on the roadside are not properlyregularized and uncontrolled evenoccupying sizeable portion of c/w.

f) There is inadequacy in the infrastructurerequirements in the weekly market interms of poor solid waste disposalsystem, inadequate electricity supply,street lighting facilities.

g) Though there are 450 vendors operatingin the weekly market, there isinadequacy of the space requirementof weekly market vendors spill over theiractivities on to the carriageway.

h) There is no mechanism by whichvendors can be registered and allowedto use the weekly market. As there isno control on the number of vendors inweekly market.

i) 20% of the existing weekly marketoperating on the arterial road.

12. RECOMMENDATIONS ANDGUIDELINES

a) Whenever weekly market is proposedto be developed separate space mustbe given for operating these weeklymarkets. The market area also shouldinclude area for parking.

b) In addition to the market activities, 15%of the total market area to be allocatedfor parking. Average parking spacerequired per vendor is 14sqm. Off-street parking facilities should becreated to accommodate parkingdemand of at least 700 ECS. Provisionof parking facilities should be made tothe ratio of 1:6with respect to vendorsand consumer. In total a weekly marketof the size of 15,000sq.m requiresminimum 5000sq.m parking space.

c) In order to ensure proper function ofweekly market, additional area is to beprovided for movement of pedestrian.Minimum space required for normalwalking speed of pedestrian is >15 sqft/pedestrian and flow rate should be 15pedestrian/min/ft.

d) Average minimum space required byvendor for operating their activities is2*1sq.m. Activity should be confined onthe availability portion of sidewalk


37

leaving aside the total carriage widthand vendors should be advised toadhere to the size of area as allocatedto them for their selling activities.

e) Arterial road should be avoided for definiteinclusion in weekly market areas.

f) Electrical supply and street lighting inrange of 15 to 20 meters and Solidwaste collection should be donecleaners or the traders themselves.

g) There should be registered mechanismfor the vendors based on the practice

followed in London, China weeklymarket is to be advocated for operationof weekly market Delhi. Vendors musthave badges showing that they haveregistered with the Market’smanagement office.

h) For operating any new weekly marketin future location aspects need to betaken into account judiciously based onthe intensity of development. Anapplication of locational analysis shouldbe attempted to arrive at best locationin the ward of an urban area.


38

APPLICATION OF DELPHI TECHNIQUE TO EVOLVE REFORM STRATEGY FORBUS SYSTEM OF DELHI

SUJATA SAVANT * Dr. SANJAY GUPTA**

* Additional General Manager, RITES, Urban Transport Division, Gurgaon

** Professor and Head, Department of Transport Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi

ABSTRACT

All over the world bus system has been playing an important role in meeting the transport demand of the cities.Recognizing the cost effective nature and the flexibility that the bus system provides, bus organizations in most of thecities of the world have brought in reforms to improve their productivity. Buses have been life line of Delhi’s transportsystem over the years. The need to bring reform in the bus system to improve the productivity in Delhi was recognizedlong back and number of attempts have been made in past but none could bring the desired results.The present paper is based on a study in which Delphi Technique has been applied to obtain views of the panelcomprising of experts ranging from government representatives, transport planners, academicians, operators, users,traffic police, etc. for the selection of most suitable reform strategy for Delhi’s bus system. The Delphi process wascompleted in three rounds. The results of Delphi survey concludes that there is need to bring reforms in theorganizational structure of bus system and a reform model with public private partnership should be brought in theform of DIMTS modified model wherein the public operator, namely Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) shouldcompete with other corporate private operators for route allocation and strict operational control needs to be exercisedby the monitoring authority on both the operators equally to ensure level playing field for all the operators.

1. INTRODUCTION

An effective and efficient public transportoperation is critical to sustainable andeconomic development in light of the fact thatmost of the population in towns and cities ofthe world rely heavily on public transportsystem for their mobility needs. Continuingrapid growth of cities particularly of developingworld will exhibit a strong and increasingdependence on public transport in foreseeablefuture.

The role of government in the stage bus publictransport sector continues to be source ofcontention and debate in the developing worldespecially in respect of ownership andregulation. Increasingly the trend both for publictransport services as well as other economicsectors has been marked by a gradual movefrom state control to privatization.

All over the world, during most of the 1970s,public provision and self-regulation were the

norm for bus transport but this ended withmajor fiscal difficulties. Starting in the 1980s,liberalization and privatization of servicesbecame the new norm but ended with majorsafety and environmental problems in additionto some social issues resulting from tariffrebalancing in the sector. The result, towardsthe end of the 1980s, was a wave of policiesintroduced to mitigate some of the excessesof competition by restricting entry in the sector.Since the end of the 1990s, the government isreturning firmly, at least as a regulator and as afacilitator of modal integration.

The objectives of reforms in bus system aroundthe world was mainly to :

! Introduce competition & market forces tomeet the bus demand more efficiently

! To reduce costs and to improve revenuecollection

! To produce services that are moreresponsive to meet demand with respectto both quality & quantity

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! To eliminate or reduce subsidies in bustransport

! To encourage greater use of publictransport

The major areas of reforms in bus systemwere confined to the following:

! Institutional arrangements (opening of bustransport for private sector)

! Fare control mechanism

! Fare collection mechanism( integratedticketing)

! Route planning & scheduling of services

! Route allocation mechanism

! Fare & other revenue sharing mechanism

2. OVERVIEW OF BUS SYSTEMREFORMS IN ASIAN CITIES

An overview of bus system reforms in selectedAsian cities has been carried out to assess thereform initiatives in their respective cities/countries.

Faislabad (Pakistan)According to Agarwal (1) in Faislabad a public–private partnership– FUTS (Faisalabad UrbanTransport Society) was founded in January1994 to provide public transport. FUTS has thelegal status of an NGO (nongovernmentalorganization). The private bus operators enterinto an agreement under which they makevehicles available to the society. The societyemploys support staff who allocates routes,supervise operations of the entire fleet, enforceregulations, and perform other administrativeduties. The society generates funds throughmonthly service charges and a welfare funddeposited by the operators, in addition to finescollected for violations. Formally, the FaisalabadRegional Transport Authority is responsible forissuing route permits for road-based publictransport operation. In practice, FUTS plans,operates, and controls public transport servicesunder the ‘FUTS flag’. The society specifies the

size and type of vehicles. People who intend tobecome operators discuss with the society thepotential routes, assess passenger demand,and then apply for a ‘permit’ to the FUTS. Thesociety fixes the fares too.

Sri LankaGwilliam (2) in his study on Sri Lanka observedthat bus services in Sri Lanka are provided byabout 9000 private owners of 18,000 vehicles,which provided for 76% of passenger trips, and13 publicly owned “cluster companies” whichcarry 24%. In addition to the total currentoperational fleet size of approximately 22,500,there are a further 6,500 vehicles registeredbut not operational in the public sector. TheNational Transport Commission (NTC) isresponsible for strategic management of thetransport sector and is general policy advice tothe Minister, and the Provincial Councils, whichare responsible for intra-provincial services.The NTC also acts as a quasi-independentregulatory body.

In search of stable and efficient bus transport,numbers of attempts for reforms in theorganizational framework of bus system of SriLanka have taken place since 1942. In lastattempt state monopoly was ended in 1989 andstate owned RTBs (Regional TransportBoards) and central agency SLCTB (Sri LankaCentral Transport Board) involved in busoperation and management, were wind downto replace them with independent buscompanies based on depots. As thegovernment was also interested in encouragingworker shareholding, it gave half of the sharesof each new bus company to its workers. Thegovernment retained the rest of the shares forsubsequent sale to private interest. Thistransformation was called peoplization’. By1994 all the depots (except those in the northernconflict areas) were transformed into 93operating companies at a cost of 4.8 billionrupees.

The private buses are operated by employeddrivers and conductors on the incentive of

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Application of Delphi Technique to Evolve Reform Strategy for Bus System of Delhi

assessment within regulatory limits. Theregulation on operators is very strict. Numberof companies and number of buses assignedto the route and bus specification are strictlyenforced. No subsidies are given to theoperators. Fares are under the control ofregulating authority.

Seoul, KoreaAccording to John Paucher (4), before July2004, the bus services in Seoul were operatedby a large number of private firms, with virtuallyno government control. Only the fares weredetermined by the Seoul MetropolitanGovernment, which also provided increasingsubsidies to cover growing operating deficits.There was no coordination among the differentbus companies; many routes were circuitous,overlapping, and not integrated with metroservices. In addition, bus vehicles were old,poorly maintained. As a result the modal shareof buses which was 67% in 1980 fell to 28% in2002.

Thus, the city relied heavily on cars and metroto meets its transport needs. Increased car usenot only caused severe congestion,dangerously high levels of air pollution, noise,and traffic accidents. All this coupled withincreasing financial burden of operating andexpanding metro network forced the citygovernment to look for more affordable waysto expand urban public transport services tomeet the rising travel demands of a growingmega city. The financial pressure to seek cost-effective alternatives to metro expansion wasthe main impetus to the far-reaching reformsof Seoul’s public transport system.

The reforms were brought in bus system in July2004.Government introduced a “semi-publicoperation system” that retains private bus firmsbut leaves route, schedule, and fare decisionsto the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Theentire bus route network was rationalised forbetter structure and integration of more than400 bus routes.

share in fare revenues. Permissions are issuedto private sector operators by the competentauthorities with limit on number of permissionsissued on a route. The cluster companies havealso self administered controls over crew andvehicle standards.

BangkokA study by Meakin (3) in 2005 stated thatBangkok Metropolitan Transport Authority(BMTA) operates state owned 3600 buses and3200 buses on joint basis with one big operatorand multiple small companies. In addition 8500buses are operated by private operators. BMTAhas been incurring deficits since itsestablishment in 1976. Pressures to reformBMTA have increased with the size of theaccumulated deficit which is now approachingUSD 1 billion. BMTA was created as a stateenterprise by Royal Decree in 1976 to take overbus services within Bangkok and to and fromthe adjacent four provinces from 26 public andprivate companies, most of which were loss-making. Reforms initiative have been plannedto improve public transport system of Bangkok.which includes introduction of nine Bus RapidTransit Lines, establishing a Bangkok andRegional Transit Authority (BRTA) which wouldregulate all public transport modes, establishinga Bus Transit Agency under BRTA which wouldbe responsible for managing the bus systemincluding fares policy, planning, integration withrail and ferry modes, planning and managementof infrastructure and information systems andprocuring services by means of competitivelybid performance-based contracts.

Hong KongIn Hong Kong since the reforms wereintroduced the bus system has organizationalframe work of competition in the market. Toimplement the system there exist a stronggovernment body which deals with planning ofthe system. Small number of companies areoperating large buses including double-deckersand comparatively larger number of companiesare operating minibuses. There are differenttypes of services based on private market

41

To coordinate bus services on system widebasis, the city government set up a new BusManagement System (BMS) using advancedintelligent transport system (ITS) technology.Global positioning system (GPS) terminalslocated in every bus permit a central buscontrol center to monitor all bus locations andspeeds, adjust the number of buses assignedto any given route, and provide real-timeinformation to passengers waiting at bus stops.

In addition to this, the BRT network withdedicated bus median lanes, high-qualitymedian bus stops, and real-time informationfor passengers with state-of-the-art buses wasintroduced. Lastly, to supplement these majorservice improvements, a unified, coordinatedfare structure that integrates both bus and railservices was also introduced.

With the introduction of reforms, on BRTcorridors, there was greatest improvementobserved in speed for buses as well for othertraffic. Daily bus rider ship increased by 14%within a short span of 2 years. Another benefitof the bus reforms was decline in bus-relatedaccidents and personal injuries

3. PUBLIC TRANSPORT SCENARIO INDELHI

Delhi, the capital city of India, is emerging asone of the largest cities of the world. It has anarea of 1483 sq. kms with a population of 13million as per 2001 census, which is expectedto rise to 18.2 million in 2011 and 22.5 million in2021 respectively. The registered vehicles inDelhi have increased significantly over theyears. In 2007 the city had about 48 lakhvehicles of which 65% were two wheelers and30% were cars & jeeps while the share of buseswas marginal at 1%.

At present, the public transport systemconsists of Delhi Metro and bus systemoperated by DTC and private buses. The bussystem has been the life line of Delhi’s transportsystem over the decades. The existing bus

system consists of a fleet of approximately 3500DTC buses and 3849 private buses providingservice on 657 bus routes. The supportinfrastructure includes approximately 6400 busstops and 33 DTC depot & 17 terminals. InJune 2007 only 2631 buses of 3500 busesprovided city bus services and of these anaverage of 1952 buses on road each day.

According to survey conducted by RITES 2001,a total of 17.6 million trips are generated everyday in Delhi. Of these, 11.8 million (67.3%) werevehicular trips. Public transport, viz., buses,auto-rickshaws, trains and other non-motorized modes such as rickshawsaccounted for 7.9 million trips or 67.2% of total.Buses, including chartered and school busesaccounted for 7.06 million trips which is 59.8%of total vehicular trips, 65.6% of total motorizedtrips and 89% of total trips undertaken in publictransport. Chartered and school busesaccounted for about 11% of all bus trips.However, this was the scenario before theimplementation of Delhi’s Metro system. Evenwith introduction of Delhi Metro, buses aremajority of public transport as metro has limitednetwork and carries only 0.75 million trips only.Buses carry 7.2 million passengers of whichDTC carries 1.7 million and private buses carry5.5 million passengers.

Public stage carriage bus operationThe public stage carriage bus operation cameinto existence in 1948 with the formation ofDelhi Transport Service (DTS) under Ministryof Transport, GOI. In 1958 it was shifted underthe control of Delhi Municipal Corporation. Inorder to improve its performance, in 1971Central Government took over DTU and DTCwas formed under Delhi Road Transport LawsAmendment Act 1971 under Ministry of Shipping& Transport. In 1997 DTC was transferred toGovernment of National Capital Territory of Delhi(GNCTD). The Ministry of surface transport(MOST), Government of India in 1996-97handed over DTC to GNCTD with the fleetstrength of 2636 buses and 30799 employeesand wrote off total losses of Rs. 21,230 million


42

so that it could improve its working andapproach financial institutions to raise funds forits various needs. The expectation that DTCworking would improve after the transfer ofownership to GNCTD did not materialize andagain in 2003-04 DTC had accumulated lossesto the tune of Rs. 24,200 million. In 2005-06DTC had vehicle utilization of 225 km with fleetutilization 85% and bus staff ratio as 8.2persons per bus.

Private stage carriage bus operation

DTC could never keep pace with the transportneeds of the people of the city and since 1964private buses have been hired by city authoritieson different basis to provide the services..Private sector came in city transport in big wayin 1992 when Motor Vehicle Act was liberalized.A scheme called Red Line Scheme with 3000buses favoring individual private operators waslaunched in 1992. The 1992 scheme restrictedthe total number of buses per individual to fiveand per company to ten. This feature, on theone hand, limited the scheme to small investorswho could not be expected to hire a professionalmanagement team to run the operations andon the other hand, distributed each routeamongst a multiplicity of different private stagecarriage owners. It also allowed prospectivepermit holders to remain outside the purviewof the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961which defines the working conditions of driversemployed by owners employing five or moremotor transport workers.

There is marked difference observed betweenthe performances of the public and private busoperators. A comparison of the performanceshows that in 2007 a DTC bus achieved autilization level of 131 km /day carrying 814passengers and earned Rs 2600 whereas aprivate bus did 210 km daily carrying 260passengers and earned Rs. 5500 per day. TheDTC operation made a loss of Rs.67/kmwhereas private bus earned a profit of Rs. 7 /km. The main reason for the difference infinancial performance was the manpower cost

which in private operator was Rs 6 /km whereasit stood at Rs 32/km in the case of publicoperator.

4. PROBLEMS AND ISSUES IN BUSSYSTEM IN DELHI

Inspite of fleet of 7000 buses (both public andprivate) in the city, the city bus system doesnot meet its demand effectively. While thecurrent private stage carriage system hasprovided significant addition to transportcapacity in the city, there are a number ofproblems associated with the current systemlargely concerning safety of commuters. Soonafter introduction, these private buses wereinvolved in a spate of accidents, e.g., in onequarter of 1992 alone, there were 134 Redlineaccidents. In the year 2004-05, these privatebuses were involved in 11% of the totalaccidents in the city. In addition to this city trafficpolice prosecuted private buses for 49,000traffic violations in the year 2006.

One of the main reasons for unsafe operatingconditions of the private buses has been thefact that these bus drivers operate in anenvironment of competition on a route whereineach one of them compete for passengers tobe picked up on the road resulting in fast andrisky driving practices. Since drivers have astrong incentive to pick up passengerswherever they can be found, the location ofstops becomes irrelevant and this brings delayand affects route frequency. In addition theundesirable contractual practices are beingfollowed by the private bus owners. There is apractice of giving the buses by their owners oninformal ‘theka’ or rent to the bus drivers/conductors.. As private bus services are byindividual bus operators, they usually do not plyon non- remunerative routes/trips especiallylate evening and early morning trips.

As regards the performance of the public busoperator, it suffers huge losses in providing theservices as per the requirement of its usersincluding its operation on non-remunerating


43

routes and maintaining a reasonable level ofservice expected out of a public serviceprovider. As a result in 2006-07 alone it suffereda loss to the tune of Rs 10000 million. The everincreasing financial support from theGovernment of National Capital Territory of Delhi(GNCTD) to DTC to continue its operations isa big drain on state exchequer. Aging fleet,surplus labor, inefficient practices are some ofthe main reasons for the DTC’s poorperformance. Low fares and manyconcessions to different sections of the societyare contributory factors of DTC’s poor financialperformance.

5. PAST BUS SYSTEM REFORMATTEMPTS IN DELHI

A number of attempts have been made in thepast pertaining to organizational framework toimprove the bus system of Delhi for both DTCand private buses. The latest move to improveDTC performance was handing it over to thestate GNCTD from Central Ministry of SurfaceTransport, Government of India after waving ofall previous debts amounting to Rs. 25,000millions. But DTC accumulated those losseswithin six years of handing it over to GNCTD.There have been some attempts to replace thepresent private stage carriage service in Delhi.The scheme for nationalization of all routes inthe National Capital Territory of Delhi, as notifiedon 15.06.1998 in Part IV of the Delhi GazetteExtraordinary failed as it did not bear legalscrutiny owing to very important procedural andlegal lacunae in the nationalization scheme.Subsequent attempts to attract private corporateentities e.g., the global level notice of August 2000inviting such operators and the national levelnotice of October 2002 by the Department ofTransport, did not elicit much response.

Recently Delhi Integrated Multimodal TransitSystem (DIMTS), a Special Purpose Vehicleset up by the Delhi Government to look after

the transport system of the city, has launcheda new scheme to attract corporate privateoperators on competition in market basis. Thescheme involves operation of buses on clusterof routes by both public and private busoperator. The bus route network has beendivided into 17 clusters and on routes identifiedin a cluster both DTC and private buses willoperate in the ratio of 60:40. The privateoperator has to provide services on identifiedroutes in competition with stage carriage busesof DTC under unified time table, other servicesof DTC such as limited services, universityspecial, and DMRC feeder services. Toexercise operational control performancestandards relating to service levels for theoperations, specification and standards for thebuses and performance of the staff will bespecified in the concession agreement. Inaddition to this the buses are expected to beequipped with certain specific equipments thatmay include GPS for vehicle monitoring, deviceto communicate with control centre, device toissue tickets & record the number of tickets,time, place issued and device to identify thestaff of the bus. The revenue sharingmechanism is such that operators will retainthe on-board collection and off-board revenuecollection (revenue from passes,advertisement etc) mechanism for sharing thesame with the operator has been evolved.

6. APPLICATION OF DELPHITECHNIQUE

Though a number of reform initiatives in bussystem have been taken up in the city includingthe DIMTS proposed scheme, but there hasbeen no scientific assessment of theappropriateness of these reform initiatives. Inthe present study a Delphi survey techniquehas been adopted to evolve appropriatealternate bus reforms strategies for the citybased on the expert response. The purpose ofthe Delphi technique is to elicit information and


44

judgments from participants to facilitateproblem-solving, planning, and decision-making. This technique is designed to takeadvantage of participants’ creativity as well asthe facilitating effects of group involvement andinteraction.

The broad stages of Delphi process adoptedin the present study were:

! Selection of Experts: The panel of expertsformed for the study included people fromall fields including user, operators (bothgovernment & individual, corporate privateoperators) concerned government officials,practicing professionals, academicians.Total 32 experts formed the panel.

! Designing of Stage 1 questionnaire : Stage1questionnaire is unstructured questionnaireto let the respondents express freely on theissues related to Delhi’s bus system thatthey see as important

! Designing of Stage 2 questionnaire: Basedon responses received from respondentsin round 1, structured questionnaire wasprepared to rank the issues in terms ofdesirability and feasibility of the identifiedissues

! Designing of Stage 3 questionnaire : Basedon responses received in round 2, theissues on which consensus of therespondents was reached, a detailedquestionnaire was prepared andrespondents were asked to rank the issuesin terms of varying degree of agreement.

At all stages of the study the data was analyzedusing statistical techniques.

7. RESULTS OF DELPHI STUDY

Round 1

In round 1 a questionnaire was sent to 32respondents in March/April 2008 through emailof which 21 responded to the issues raised inthe questionnaire. The round 1 questionnairewas unstructured to enable the respondentsto express their views on different aspects ofbus system of Delhi and to identify areas wherereforms were necessary. Table 1 gives theissues related to Delhi bus system that needto be addressed and brought under reformpurview. The table reveals that 75 % ofrespondents feel that objectives of reforms inDelhi’s bus system should be to provide safe,clean, comfortable, convenient bus transportsystem which is not only convenient, affordable,efficient and sustainable but also is integratedwith other modes. Organizational form andstructure is the single largest issue(15%respondents) which is the most importantaspect of Delhi’s bus system that needsreforms. Operational issues are next importantissues when clubbed together. In response toquestion related to appropriate Governmentagencies involvement in Delhi’s bus system,15% of respondents feel that government roleshould be in policy making and in settingstandards for operational performancewhereas 33% feel government should exerciseeffective control and ensure level playing fieldfor all the operators. In response to mostsuitable organizational framework for Delhi’sbus system; a majority of respondents (46%)feel that public private partnership is the mostsuitable frame work for bus operation in Delhi.


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Q1 Objectives Of Reforms %

1 Safe ,Comfortable & Convenient, Clean 26.6

2 Affordable, Reliable, Punctual 25.3

3 Efficient & Sustainable Bus Transport Integrated With Other Modes 24.1

4 Provides Maximum Mobility and Encourage Higher Use Of Bus System 11.4

5 Modern, Aesthetically Pleasing ,Disable Friendly buses with PassengerInformation System 7.6

6 Has Clear Roles Of all Service Providers & ensures level Field For All Operators 5.1

Q2 Aspect Of Delhi’s Bus System That Need Reforms %

1 Organisation Form & Structure 15.2

2 Planning (Route Rationalization & Improve Frequency, Fare Fixation On EconomicTerms, Development Of Informational Technology, Disable Friendly Bus Body 31.6

3 Operations(Integration With Other Modes, Setting Performance Standards ForBus Operation & Establishing Effective Operational Control, Driver Training, Discipline& Driving Skills, Safety etc) 49.4

4 Legal (Formation Of Transport Policy, Legislative Reforms & Strict EnforcementOf Existing Acts &Laws 3.8

Q3 Appropriate Level Of Government’s Agencies Involvement In Bus Transport %

1 Policy Maker 15.1

2 Planning 10.1

3 Setting Standards For Bus Operation 15.2

4 Infrastructure Provision ,Operation & Maintenance 11.1

5 Fare Fixation By Independent Regulator 7.1

6 Not To Be Involved In Operation 6.1

7 Mix Operation( Both By Public & Private Operators) 2.0

8 Operational Control & Ensure Level Playing Field For All Operators 33.3

Q4 Most Suitable Organisational Framework For Delhi’s Bus System %

1 PPP With Government To Provide Infrastructure And Private Sector(Large Corporate Operators) To Provide Buses & Operational InfrastructureAnd Manpower 45.7

2 Authority For Integrated Planning & Integration Of All Modes Could Be UMTA 22.9

3 Agency For Enforcement/Control/Monitoring Could Be DIMTS 8.6

4 Mixed Operation Both By Public Private Operators 14.3

5 Department Of Transport- Policy, Strategy, Long Term Planning 5.7

6 Tariff Fixation By Regulatory Body 2.9

TABLE 1: Response from Respondents to Round 1 Questions


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Round 2

The second round aimed at assessing thedesirability and feasibility of options suggestedby various respondents in round 1, the round 2questionnaire asked the respondents to rankthe replies received to questions asked in round1 in terms of desirability and feasibility. Thedesirability and feasibility criteria used forranking is given in Table 2.

DESIRABILITY FEASIBILITY SCALE FOR RANKING

Highly Desirable(HD) Definitely Feasible(DF) 75-100

Desirable(D) Possibly Feasible(PF) 51-75

Undesirable(UD) Possibly Unfeasible (PUF) 26-50

Very Undesirable Definitely Unfeasible (DU) <25

Table 2 Ranking Criteria

The desirability of the option was with respectto effectiveness or benefits of the optionsuggested whereas feasibility was related topracticality of implementation of optionsuggested. The ranking results obtained aregiven Tables 3 to Table 6.

It is seen from Table 3 that 92% and 62% of therespondents respectively were of the opinionthat it is highly desirable and definitely feasibleto have reliable, affordable, and punctual bus

Table 3 Responses to Reform Objectives in Terms Desirability & Feasibility

transport system while 85% feel it is highlydesirable to have safe, comfortable &convenient, clean bus system.

About 92% of the respondents were of theopinion that it is highly desirable that reformsshould be brought in an organizational frame-work which ensures level playing field for allthe operators and 77% feel it is definitelyfeasible to have such reform in Delhi’s bus

system. (Table 4).

It is seen from Table 5 that nearly 85% of therespondents are of the opinion that it highlydesirable that most suitable organizationalframework for Delhi’s bus system is with privatesector participation with government to provideinfrastructure and private sector (largecorporate operators) to provide buses &operational infrastructure and manpower and54% feel it is definitely feasible to have such

HD D DF PF PUF

Affordable, Reliable, Punctual 92 8 62 38

Safe ,Comfortable & Convenient, Clean 85 15 69 31

Has Passenger Information System 85 15 69 31

Modern Buses & Aesthetically Pleasing 77 23 54 46

Has Clear Roles Of Public & Private Service Providers 69 31 31 69

Integrated With Other Modes(Operation As Well As Fare) 69 31 23 69 8

Ensure Level Playing Field For All Operators 69 31 15 77 8

Efficient & Sustainable Bus Transport 62 38 31 69

Disable Friendly 62 38 31 38 31

Encourage Higher Use Of Bus System 62 38 23 62 15

Provides Maximum Mobility 54 46 23 77

% Distribution % DistributionReform Objective


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setup. Nearly 85 % of the respondents feel thattariff fixation should be by regulatory authoritywhile 69 % feel it is definitely feasible to havesuch setup as the same exist in other sectorssuch as telecom and electricity. Nearly 46 % of

HD D DF PF PUF

Bus Infrastructure ( Bus Stops, Terminal , Depot &Maintenance 100.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 0.0

Formation Of Transport Policy 100.0 0.0 69.2 30.8 0.0

Safety 100.0 0.0 46.2 53.8 0.0

Organizational Form/Institutional Set Up Which EnsuresLevel Playing Field For All Operators 92.3 7.7 76.9 23.1 0.0

Passenger Information System 92.3 7.7 76.9 23.1 0.0

Setting Performance Standards For Bus Operation& Establishing Effective Operational Control 92.3 7.7 61.5 38.5 0.0

Driver Training, Discipline & Driving Skills 92.3 7.7 61.5 38.5 0.0

Route Rationalization & Improve Frequency 92.3 7.7 53.8 46.2 0.0

Integration With Other Modes(Operational And Fare) 92.3 7.7 15.4 69.2 0.0

Development Of Informational Technology 84.6 15.4 69.2 30.8 0.0

Bus Body Design( Also Disable Friendly) 84.6 15.4 46.2 46.2 7.7Legislative Reforms & Strict Enforcement of

Existing Acts &Laws 76.9 23.1 46.2 53.8 0.0

Fare Fixation On Economic Terms 76.9 23.1 15.4 61.5 23.1

Database Generation ( Both Public & PVT Operation) 69.2 30.8 46.2 53.8 0.0

Reduction In Subsidy To DTC 69.2 30.8 15.4 76.9 7.7

% Distribution % DistributionAspects of Bus System That Need Reforms

TABLE 4 Response on Desirability & Feasibility of Reform Aspects of Delhi’s Bus System

the respondents are of the opinion that it ishighly desirable and possibly feasible that DTCshould be away from city operation and shouldmanage & commercial exploit its infrastructure(depot / terminal)

HD D UND DF PF PUF

Department Of Transport- Policy, Strategy, Long TermPlanning 92 8 0 69 31 0

PPP With Govt To Provide Infrastructure And Private Sector(Large Corporate Operators) To Provide Buses &Operational Infrastructure And Manpower 85 15 0 54 46 0

Authority For Integrated Planning & Integration Of AllModes Could Be UMTA 85 15 0 23 69 8

Tariff Fixation By Regulatory Body 85 0 15 69 23 8

Agency For Enforcement / Control / Monitoring &Collection Of Data Could Be DIMTS 54 31 8 38 54 8

Mixed Operation Both By Public Private Operators 54 23 15 62 38 0

DTC Away From Operation , To Manage & CommercialExploit Its Infrastructure (Depot / Terminal) 46 15 46 23 46 31

% Distribution % DistributionMost Suitable Organisational Framework For Delhi’Bus System

TABLE 5 Desirability & Feasibility of Suitable Organizational Framework for Delhi’s Bus System


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TABLE 6 Desirability & Feasibility of Appropriate Level of Government Involvement

Policy maker 13(100) 13(100)

Planning 7 (54) 6(46) 7 (54) 6(46)

Setting standards for bus operation 7(54) 5(38) 1(8) 7(54) 5(38) 1(8)

Infrastructure provision, operation &maintenance 5(38) 1(8) 7(54) 5(38) 1(8) 7(54)

Operational control & ensure levelplaying field for all operators 6(46) 7 (54) 6(46) 7 (54)

Provide subsidy if required 13(100) 13(100)

DESIRABILITY FEASIBILITY

Appropriate level ofgovernment’s agenciesinvolvement in bus transport

TD,GNCTD

DIMTS STA DTCTD,GNCTD

DIMTS STA DTC

As regards appropriate level of government’sagencies( Transport Department, GNCTD,DIMTS,STA, DTC) involvement in bustransport, 100 % respondents feel it is desirableand feasible that Transport Department,GNCTD should be involved in policy makingand should provide subsidy if required (Table6) while 54% feel that it should be involved inplanning and setting standards for busoperation. Nearly 54 % respondents haveopined that DIMTS should do operationalcontrol and ensures level playing field for all theoperators.

The results of round 2 established that there isa consensus amongst the respondentsregarding the reform objective to provide safeaffordable and punctual bus service and it ishighly desirable to have an organizational setupwhich ensures level playing field for all theoperators. Further the most desirable andfeasible organizational framework for Delhi’sbus system is to have public private partnership(PPP) with government to provideinfrastructure and private sector (largecorporate operators) to provide buses &operational infrastructure and manpower andtariff fixation should be by independent authority.

Round 3

For round 3 questionnaire, different models oforganization for bus operation and biddingoptions were developed to achieve theobjectives of reforms. In this round therespondents were asked to rank the modelson the basis of agreement.

Models of Organization for Bus Operation

Model 1-Business as usual: Main features ofthe model include that both DTC & privatecontinue to operate as in present arrangement.

Model 2- DIMTS model (Delhi Integrated MultiModel Transit Limited have started the processof inviting corporate operators for city busoperation. The expression of interest (EOI) hasalready been issued. Following are the someof the key features of the scheme of DIMTS forprivate sector participation in city bus system.)

! Private operation on “ competition for themarket basis “

! Private sector participation in form of bigcorporate houses

! DTC to operate on complete route networkin competition with private bus fleet ratio of60:40 on each route


49

! Route allocation to private operators inclusters of viable and non viable routesthrough competitive bidding

! Route allocation to DTC is automatic.

! Strict operational control mechanism forboth operators.

Model 3-Modified DIMTS model: The keyfeatures include that DTC will compete withprivate operators for route clusters allocationwith minimum of 5 clusters and maximum of10 clusters to DTC. Route allocation to bothDTC & private through competitive bidding andstrict operational control mechanism on bothoperators shall be maintained by controllingauthority.

Model 4- DTC interstate service providermodel: The scheme envisages that DTC willnot run city services. It will operate onlyinterstate services. DTC will carry out assets(owned bus depot, terminal, and stops)management & provide services to privateoperators on chargeable basis. City operationshall be by corporate private operators onDIMTS model

Model 5- Modified model 4: The schemeincludes limited city services by DTC especiallyon social routes and other features are sameas that of model 4.

The results of the analysis of round 3 showedthat majority (47%) of the respondents stronglyagree that model 3 i.e. DIMTS modified modelis the most suited model for operation of Delhibus system. All the respondents feel that DTCshould be made more efficient and accountablefor the financial support that is being given bycity government and it should compete withprivate operators in getting the routes/ area foroperation instead of getting the routesautomatically. Strict operational control shouldbe on bus operation both by DTC and privateand punitive measures for non performance toensure level playing field for all the operators.

Four models for bidding options for routeallocations were also tested for response aspart of the Delphi survey. These were:

Model 1 - On route basis (gross costmethod) :Key features include

! Fare revenue to authority, operator paid ontotal cost.

! The authority awards the routes viacompetitive tender to the lowest bidder.

! The revenue risk lies with the govt.preference is given to private operators onthe basis of their track record

Model 2-On route basis (net cost method)Key features include

! Fare revenue to operator paid on (totalcost- fare revenue) operator receives therevenue from ticket sales

! The revenue risk lies with the operator.

! The authority either provide a fixed subsidy,or receives a fixed contract fee (if the routemakes profits)

! Competitive bid awarded to the operatorrequiring the least amount of subsidy orwilling to pay the greatest fee

Model 3-On area basis (gross cost method)Key features include

! Fare revenue to authority, operator paid ontotal cost.

! The authority awards the routes viacompetitive tender to the lowest bidder.

! The revenue risk lies with the govt.preference is given to private operators onthe basis of their track record

Model 4- On area basis (net cost method)Key features include

! Fare revenue to operator paid on (totalcost- fare revenue) operator receives therevenue from ticket sales


50

! The revenue risk lies with the operator.

! The authority either provide a fixed subsidy,or receives a fixed contract fee (if the routemakes profits)

! Competitive bid awarded to the operatorrequiring the least amount of subsidy orwilling to pay the greatest fee

As regards bidding options, the views of therespondents were divided. About 54% of therespondents favored area based tendering onnet cost basis implying that all the respondentsfeel that operator should take the revenue riskand the operator should be subsidized if theoperations do not earn the estimated revenue.Kruskal - Wallis test for k independent sampleswas carried out. The result of the statisticalanalysis shows that p value is less than .05and the null hypothesis is rejected. i.e one ofthe proposed model has higher rank than all.Model 3 has got the highest rank of all themodels with ranking of 53.13 followed by model5 with ranking of 41.80.

The respondents were also asked to rank theimportance of two main aspects of all reformmodels, namely operational mechanism androute allocation mechanism. The respondentshave given equal weightage to both the aspectsof the model implying that both the aspectsshould be given equal importance whilebringing in reforms in the system. MannWhiteny test for 2 independent samples wascarried out to analyse the best ranked aspectof bus operation between route allocation andoperational mechanism. The Null Hypothesisis that both aspects have equal chance ofselection with control value of .o5. In this case

p value is > .05 and null hypothesis is accepted.Both the aspects are equally important forreforms in bus organization

8. CONCLUSIONS

The present study concludes that in spite ofhaving city bus transport system in existencefor last 60 years, the bus system of Delhi needsreforms in all most all aspects of the bussystem. The public transport in present formis far from expectations of people in meetingthe demand efficiently. An alarming increase ofpersonalized vehicles supports this fact. Theexisting form of private sector participation isone of the reasons for its failure in attractingpeople to public transport. A number ofattempts to bring reforms in the organizationalframework of Delhi bus system have beenmade in the past but none could bring thedesired results.

Usage of Delphi technique in the present studyrevealed that there is need to bring reforms inthe organizational structure of bus system. Theexperts were of the view that most suitableorganizational framework for Delhi’s bussystem is to bring public private partnership inthe form of Model 3 i.e DIMTS modified modelwhere DTC, the public operator is proposed tocompete with other corporate private operatorsfor route allocation. Strict operational controlneeds to be exercised by monitoring authoritywith equal penalties to all operators for nonperformance. This model of the organizationfor bus operation is expected to meet theobjectives of the reforms and bring in theefficiency in operations by both by public andprivate operators.

References1 Aggarwal O.P, Public Transport Management Systems: some international examples , Regulatory: Quarterly

review of Regulatory Developments TERI

2 Gwilliam K.M. Study of public passenger transport conditions in Sri Lanka, Report for Public Private InfrastructureAdvisory Facility, February, 2005

3 Richard Meakin, A Study of Urban Public Transport Conditions in Bangkok submitted to World Bank, April 2005

4 John Pucher, Hyungyong Park, and Mook Han Kim, Rutgers, University Jumin Song, University of Michigan,Public Transport Reforms in Seoul: Innovations Motivated by Funding Crisis Journal of Public Transportation,Vol. 8, No. 5, 2005


51

THREE-WHEELED SCOOTER TAXI: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FOR ANEFFICIENT MODE OF TRANSPORT

Dr. DINESH MOHAN *

* Transportation Research & Injury Prevention Programme, IIT Delhi

ABSTRACT

A systematic analysis of three-wheeled scooter taxis in operation, safety characteristics and environmental effectshas been presented. The rollover propensity of the commonly used TST using the latest maneuverability assessmenttests has been assesed using an in-house mathematical model implemented in MATLAB™. Measurements to buildthe models and experiments to validate some of the models were conducted. The optimum configuration of the TWVto minimise rollover propensity was established. It was determined through FE simulations that even if rollover isinitiated, the commercial TST model studied was not predicted to flip over to its side as the vehicle frame acts as anoutrigger. The injury to occupants and pedestrians in the crash incidents was estimated through rigid body simulationsimplemented in MADYMO™. It is predicted that some cost effective safety measures are possible. Operation and costanalysis indicates that a realistic evaluation of fare policies is necessary to make it possible for operators to run theirvehicles with a reasonable profit. Overall, TSTs and vehicles their size with small engines are the ideal taxis for urbanoperations in Indian cities and their use should be promoted in their future with improved design features.

1. INTRODUCTION

Three-wheeled scooter taxis (TST) form anessential part of public transport for the urbanmiddle class population of Asia. Apart from Asia,TSTs are also being used world over for publictransport and for carrying freight. In India over380,00 three-wheelers were sold in India, justslightly less than the number of commercialvehicles, and over 120,000 exported. In Dhakacommercially operated three-wheel diesel-powered taxis (the so-called “baby-taxis”)account for more than one-third of the totalnumber of kilometres travelled by all vehicles.Of this an estimated population of 70,000 areBajaj three-wheelers. In Bangkok 7,400 three-wheelers (the so-called “tuk-tuks”) powered byLPG are on the roads. In Nepal diesel-operatedthree-wheelers (the so-called “tempo”) hasrecently been relocated by government out ofthe Kathmandu valley to encourage the use ofbattery-operated three-wheelers to curb airpollution. Small three-wheelers are preferredin place of four-wheeled vehicles because theycan negotiate narrow lanes; manoeuvrability in

small turn radii road is better and they are easyto handle on crowded roads.

Taxis, whether 3-wheeled or 4-wheeled, arepreferable to personal car use. Ampleavailability of taxis, in addition to efficient busservices, discourages use of private vehiclesas point-to-point transportation is assured forspecial occasions, when one is in a hurry, orin bad weather, etc. Greater use of taxisreduces need for parking places. Every privatecar needs more than two parking places in acity - one at home, one at the workplace, andanother at the destination for other trips.Whereas, a taxi just needs one parking placein the city and some temporary ones for halts.One taxi making fifteen trips a day, wouldreduce the need for over 20 parking places.For example, if a substantial number of shopowners and customers took a taxi, we wouldhave ample space in our shopping areas.

Because of the small size of the engine, TSTscannot go faster than 50 km/h, thus keep withinurban speed limits without need for policing.

I U TJOURNAL


Accident statistics from Indian cities indicatethat TSTs are associated with very few fatalcrashes. Because they travel at speeds lessthan 50 km/h and because of their lightweight,they can’t easily produce fatal accidents amongpedestrians and bicyclists who are the majorityin Indian cities. Some of these issues arediscussed in greater detail in the followingsections.

2. TST OPERATION IN DELHI

A survey was conducted in Delhi (Mohan andRoy, 2003) to understand the daily operationcharacteristics of TSTs and its results arereported below for the situation obtaining in2003.

Vehicle Ownership and Financing

A majority of the drivers (65 per cent) ownedtheir own vehicles and thus the responsibilityof paying for the vehicle and associated loansand interest, maintenance, obtaining permits,etc, falls on them. Most of owners obtained themoney purchasing a TST from a financier oran ‘agent’. None of those responding said thatthey had obtained the loan directly from a bank.The reason given by respondents for this wasthat the Delhi Finance Corporation (DFC)requires an FD of Rs 26,000 and a DD of Rs16,000 (in 2003). In addition, Rs 10-12,000 wasspent in fees given to various authoritiesincluding road tax, fitness certificate, insurance,etc. The private financier on the other handdemanded an advance of Rs 60,000 but madethe vehicle immediately available (as against asix-month delay in the case of DFC) along withall the relevant papers. There are two provisionsto this, though. Firstly, the financier addedanother Rs 60,000 to the cost of the vehicle.Secondly, if the driver-owner defaulted onrepayment of an instalment, the financiercharged 5 per cent additional interest.

A third of the drivers claimed that they paid 10-20 per cent on loans (DFC charges 13-15 percent) and two-thirds said that they have to pay

over 20 per cent interest along with a guarantee(private financiers demand 24 per cent). Mostof them also paid Rs 1,000-2,000 for thetransfer fee. Even when an old vehicle isdeposited with the Transport Department andthe permit is renewed for a new one, the fee ofRs 1,000 is levied for renewal. Thus the costof owning the vehicle including the permit, etc,is much higher than the official sale price ofthe vehicle because of the agents andmiddlemen involved. Officially, in 2003, thechassis costwas Rs 97,000 while theinsurance, taxes, meter, etc, cost another Rs10,000. But the actual price paid by the TSRowner to the financier was as much as Rs1,80,000.These considerations need to betaken into account in estimating the fare to becharged from passengers or the ownership ofTSTs liberalised and limits removed to eliminatemiddlemen.

Daily operation

Figure 1 shows the amount drivers cover perday in km with and without passengers. Theaverage for all the respondents amounts toabout 77 km without passengers and 109 kmwith passengers. More than 25 per cent of thedistance covered is without passengersaccording to this survey. This issue needs tobe factored into the fare calculations also. Itappears that most drivers aim to do at least100 km per day with fare paying passengers.

Figure 1. TST operation with and withoutpassengers in Delhi

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Three-wheeled Scooter Taxi: Problems and Solutions for an Efficient Mode of Transport

prevalence of No Parking signs at far-offdestinations like the airport, Gurgaon, NOIDA,and Ghaziabad (which have now become partof the metropolitan conurbation). Drivers have,therefore, to return empty from these places,especially because these are also locationswhere the traffic police resorts to finingfrequently. These vehicle use statistics arereflected in the earning per day responses bythe drivers. The average earning as reportedis about Rs 200-250 per day.

Overcharging

Even if one assumes that running a TST costsa minimum of Rs 1.50 per km, the TST drivercould not be earning more than Rs 100 per day(approximately Rs 3,000 per month). Thisshows that the TST drivers are working at closeto minimum wages, and therefore it is notsurprising that they resort to overcharging. Asa matter of fact 72 per cent of the driversmentioned that the fare being unreasonable isa reason for overcharging and 95 per cent saidthat the fare rates are too low. Of thoseresponding to the question on overcharging, 18per cent admitted to doing so. Similarly, 19 percent of the drivers admitted that they refusepassengers often. Approximately half of themsaid they refused when they had to go home,and the other half explained their reasons forrefusal being located in the time of day (lateevening or night) when a drunk or aggressivepassenger demanded to be taken to remotedestinations. It is not surprising that half thedrivers said that they had an argument withpassengers and a similar number claimed thatpassengers had tried to cheat or fight with them.

Fare meters

All the drivers who had experience withelectronic meters were very unhappy with themand found them unreliable and prone tomalfunction. This was supported by evidencefrom at least two technical institutions thattested these meters and found them to beerratic and sensitive to rain, temperature,

electrical disturbances, and mechanicalshocks. When the meters malfunction, thereis no facility where they can be speedily andefficiently repaired. Some respondentssuggested that if the meter malfunctions, it isnot the TST driver who should be heldresponsible, but the meter manufacturer orregistered repair shop.

Pre-paid booths

Most of the drivers were not in favour of pre-paid booths, as they seem to have a great dealof problem with the operation of the same.Many respondents claimed that the booth in-charge demands an extra Rs 10 for giving themtheir place in the line or threatens to fine them.Even though most of these booths had beeninstalled at regular stands, the TST drivers hadno security at these places and there was noprovision of even minimal facilities such asdrinking water and toilets.

Fare structure

There seems to be an agreement amongst therespondents that if the meter-down fare isreasonable, then the TST will not be averse totaking passengers for short distances. Fortyper cent of the drivers suggested a meter-downfare of Rs 10 and 53 per cent indicated Rs 10-15.

1 Ninety-one per cent of the drivers indicated

they would like the fare to be Rs 6-10 per kmafter the first km. In fact, the Rs 10 meter-downfare would have been a realistic option (inn2003) as no citizen is able to hire a TST forless than Rs 15 at present. Thus, a de factometer-down fare of Rs 15 already existed in2003.

3. SAFETY ASPECTS OF TST

3.1 Rollover Stability

The rollover stability of TST is generallyperceived to be poor based on anecdotalaccounts. However, police data from Delhi(Ojha, 2002) and Hyderabad (Dandona and

This survey was done in 2003. The amounts would have to be adjusted for inflation

54

Mishra, 2004), does not show a greater injuryrate for TSTs. One of the issues addressedhere is to understand the anomaly betweenpublic perception and statistically reportedresults of injury probabilities. A studydetermined through finite element simulationsthat even if rollover is initiated, the commercialTST model studied is not predicted to flip overto its side as the vehicle frame acts as anoutrigger at normal driving speeds (Gawadeet al., 2005). The following issues wereaddressed in this study:

TWV 7.98 9.00

2001 Chevrolet Blazer 17.29 16.09

2001 Toyota 4 Runner (VSC) 22.04

2001 Toyota 4 Runner (no VSC) 20.49 16.76

1999 Mercedes ML320 (ESP) 22.62 22.18

1999 Mercedes ML320 (no ESP) 20.04 20.62

Vehicle NHTSA J-turn (m/s) RER (m/s)

Tabel 1. Minimum manoeuvre entrance speed resulting in one/two wheel lift

! What is the rollover propensity of thecommonly used TST using the latestmanoeuvrability assessment tests andhow does it compare to conventionalvehicles?

!· What is the optimum configuration of theTST to minimise rollover propensity?

! Even if rollover is initiated, under whatcondition does the TST roll over?

!· What are the measures of injury tooccupants and pedestrians in the crashincidents?

The Slowly Increasing Steer Manoeuvre,NHTSA J-Turn, and Road Edge Recovery,were used to characterize the lateral dynamicsof TST vehicle. The Slowly Increasing Steermanoeuvre is the reference manoeuvre for theNHTSA J Turn and Road Edge Recoverymanoeuvres. The TST was simulated atmaximum speed (55 km/h) to obtain the linearrange of lateral acceleration. Half way between

the linear range lateral acceleration 1.26 m/s2

corresponds to 0.74 degrees of steering angle.NHTSA J Turn and Road Edge Recoverymanoeuvres were simulated to determine theminimum speed at which wheel lift off occurs.These speeds are 7.98 m/s for NHTSA J Turnand 9 m/s in case of Road Edge Recoverymanoeuvres.

Table 1 shows a comparison of the TWVperformance with four SUVs available inForkenbrock G.J. et al. (2002).

Clearly the rollover inducing speeds of the TSTis 2 to 3 times lower than that of four wheeledvehicles. However rollover speed limit of about30 km/h is not very unfavourable whencompared to the top speed of about 55 km/hfor the TST.

The above simulations were conducted usingthe FE package PAMCRASH

TM to study the

crash event. The TSTs bottom portion of thefront shield acts like as an in-built outrigger,forcing the vehicle out of the turn even in spiteof the steering input, thus restoring the vehicleto an upright position. The simulations indicatethat it is improbable that on a flat level road theTSTs would flip over due to a manoeuvre atspeed up to 9.5 m/s (34 km/h). Runs of thevehicle with simulated potholes up to15 cm indepth and vehicle on the turn also failed to flipover. A significant lateral impact might berequired to flip the vehicle over. This leads tothe interesting observation that users sense thepropensity of the TST to have wheel lift-off andhence are uncomfortable with it. Since the


55


vehicle does not flip over in spite of a liftoff, therecorded crash statistics does not show anyadded rollover tendencies.

3.2 Pedestrian and occupant safetyissues

Simulations for pedestrian impact with frontaland side of the vehicle were developed and runwith varying offset at vehicle speeds of 10, 20and 30 km/h with braking of 0.2 g. The injuryseverity of different body parts for pedestrianas well as occupant was estimated throughthese simulations. Analysis indicates that smalldesign changes could significantly enhancesafety of occupants and pedestrians.

Pedestrian injuries become significant at impactspeeds above 30 km/h in direct impacts whenthe pedestrian impacts near the centreline ofthe vehicle. When the pedestrian is offset thehead injuries are significantly less as the shielddeflects the body sideways. In the centralimpact case, the lower torso impacts the stifffront surface below the windshield andexperiences forces which could cause injury.The lower leg experiences higher impact forcesin offset impacts as the pedestrian twists onimpact and could cause lower limb fractures.With changes in stiffness of the areas wherethe head makes contact by padding the headinjury level can be reduced significantly fromthe critical level and made tolerable at 30 km/himpacts.

In case of frontal rigid barrier impacts at 30 km/h, both the driver and the passenger have avery high probability of suffering serious headand upper leg (femur) injuries. The knees ofpassengers and the driver impact rigid surfacesinside the vehicle. It is possible to significantlyreduce severity of upper leg injuries by providingpadding at the contact points. Head injuryseverity can be reduced by providing less stiffimpact surfaces at the contact point for thepassengers and with similar modifications inthe driver cabin windshield area. Provision oflap and shoulder belts for both the driver andthe passenger show major safety benefits.

Enabling shoulder belts would require inclusionof load bearing structures for anchoring of theshoulder belts which is not present in currentmodels.

The data available and modelling studiesindicate that the TST is already a relatively safevehicle partly because its low capacity enginedoes not allow speeds grater than 50 km/h. Withsome changes in design the TST can be mademuch safer for the occupants and for impactswith pedestrians.

4. ROLE OF TST IN URBANTRANSPORT

TSTs should be preferred transportation modesas compared to personal modes of transportand should be encouraged in urban areasprovided they run on LPG/CNG or 4-strokepetrol engines equipped with catalyticconverters. Ample availability of TSTs (and taxis)has the following benefits:

! Encourages public transport use as onecan easily get to one’s destination from theend point if in a hurry, or it is raining, etc.

! Encourages non-ownership of privatevehicles as point-to-point transportation iseasily available for special occasions.

! TST/taxi drivers do not cheat when supplyis abundant and fare structure isreasonable, and so passengers are notscared of hassles and arguments.

Greater use of TSTs reduces need for parkingplaces. A private car needs a minimum of twoparking places – one at home and one at thedestination. A TST just needs one parking placein the city and if it does ten trips a day, it reducesthe need for nine parking places at home andthe destination. A car needs about 20 sqm forparking whereas a TST needs only about 6sqm. Therefore, when a car is given up fortravel by TST for business purposes, then ispossible that the presence of each TSTreduces parking space need by more than 200sqm in the city (assuming a minimum of 10business rips a day.

56

A TST is preferable to a car as a taxi as it carriesthe same number of people on an average,takes one-third the parking area and one halfthe space while moving as a car. Therefore, atleast twice as many people can be transportedby TSTs on the same road space as comparedto a car. Since it weighs one-third of a car itwears out the road much less, has less tyre/rubber use, and uses one-third of nationalresources to produce it. All this reduces indirectpollution. Since TSRs have a small engine (175cc vs 800 cc for Maruti) they pollute much lessper passenger than a car. TSTs in this situationbecome an urban vehicle of the future in theface of threats of global warming (IPCC, 2007).

5. CONCLUSIONS

The long-term vitality of a city will be decidedby the amount of business and cultural activitythat can be generated without poisoning its air,water and soil. In India global warming concernswill force us to restrict CO2 emissions asbusiness, cultural, sports and other leisureactivities expand. For this it is essential thatsafe and convenient public transport , safewalking and bicycling facilities be available atall times so that we can reduce CO2 emissionsper passenger km. Public transport includesbuses, taxis (three and four-wheeled ones),shared and route-taxis and cycle rickshas.Even when a family owns a car or a two-wheeler, only one person has access to it mostof the time. The other family members are lefttransport-less. This is why the success ofentertainment business, restaurants andshopping areas is critically dependent on publictransit.

However, most of our city governments havesystematically worked against the availabilityof affordable taxis, TST, “vikrams”, “tempos”and cycle rickshas under one pretext or another.Unless this trend is reversed our cities willbecome much less vibrant and attractive overtime. Many cities have targeted TSTs for controland their numbers have reduced over the pastfew years. However, as shown above, the

TST’s size, weight, and a low power enginemakes it the most efficient vehicle for urbanuse, especially as a taxi. The low cost of theTST makes it possible to provide transport ataffordable prices in India. We have a home-grown solution staring us in the face but weappear not to have noticed it.

The first step to encourage use of suchvehicles as taxis would be to removerestrictions on their numbers and leave thesystem to market forces. Once that is done,only then would it be possible to set reasonablefares to make driving a TST an attractiveprofession. An objective formula should thenbe devised taking into account realisticexpenditures of TSR operators – purchaseprice, actual interest rates, maintenanceexpenses, realistic daily operation distances,empty operation, fuel costs, etc. Fare revisionsshould be automatic and should be done everyyear on July 1 based on cost of living index,and latest budget recommendations. The fareshould be revised automatically following fuelprice changes.

Spaces should be provided for standing andparking for TSRs at convenient places nearoffices, places of business, bus stands,schools, residential areas, hospitals, markets,airport, etc. Use of intelligent transport systems(GPS, internet, mobile phones, smart cards,etc.) should be incorporated to give operatorsand users opportunities to optimise the system.The main considering being minimising kmtravelled per day for the same number ofpassenger trips and maximising occupancy pertrip. ITS can help in this by making it possiblefor the nearest TST to respond to a call,minimise unoccupied travel and make itpossible for people to share a trip if they sodesire. Such operations would also make thetrip safer from crime as the vehcice locationwould be known at all times.

The rollover propensity of the commonly usedTST using the latest manoeuvrabilityassessment tests was assessed and the


57

optimum configuration of the TSS to minimiserollover propensity was established. Even ifrollover is initiated, the commercial TST modelis not predicted to flip over to its side as thevehicle frame acts as an outrigger. The injuryto occupants and pedestrians in the crashincidents was estimated through rigid bodysimulations implemented in MADYMO™. Thiswork supplemented the findings of urban trafficcrash studies showing that the TST is a relativesafe vehicle to travel in. Sensitivity analysis fordifferent vehicle characteristics including itsdimensions indicates that the design can befurther optimised to make the vehicle safer.

Three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles, thesize and power of the present TST, must beencouraged as taxis in all our urban areas topromote a cleaner and more sustainable future.This will be possible if one makesimprovements in the design and operation ofthese vehicles as suggested in this article.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The data and information presented in thisarticle is the result of many studies done overthe past decade with my colleagues AnoopChawla, Dunu Roy, Geetam Tiwari and SudiptoMukherjee.

References

Dandona, R., Mishra, A., (2004). Deaths due to road traffic crashes in Hyderabad city in India: Need for strengtheningsurveillance. The National Medical Journal of India 17, 67-72.

Forkenbrock G.J., Garrott W.R., Heitz M., O’Harra B.C., (2002). A comprehensive experimental examination of testmaneuvers that may induce on-road, untripped light vehicle rollover Phase IV of NHTSA’s light vehicle rolloverresearch program. Department of Transport, Washington DC.

Gawade, T. R., Mukherjee, S., Mohan, D., (2005). Six-degree-of-freedom three-wheeled-vehicle model validation.Proceedings of the I MECH E Part D Journal of Automobile Engineering 219, 487-498.

IPCC, (2007). Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva.

Mohan, D., Roy, D., (2003). Operating on three wheels: auto-rickshaw drivers of Delhi. The Economic and PoliticalWeekly 38, 177-180.

Ojha, A. K., (2002). Road Accidents in Delhi 2001. Delhi Traffic Police, New Delhi, pp. 1-189.


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1. INTRODUCTION

In urban areas, there is a positive correlationbetween accessibility and income security.Accessibility not only determines the place ofwork and time taken to reach the place but also,in many cases, the type and availability of work.With fast urbanization in low income countriesin general and India in particular, the demandfor a whole new set of services is increasing.These service providers belong to both theorganized and the unorganized sectors, thelatter being more in numbers. Many of thesepeople either walk to work or use bicycles tocommute to work. It generally involvestravelling short and medium distances (5-10kilometres). Short and medium distances alsoincludes commuting, going to school, highschool or college, running errands, anddelivering goods or services. Howeverbicyclists presence is often ignored by policymakers, planners and engineers. Thereforegenerally there are no policy, programs andplans for bicycle commuters in Indian cities.

Bicycles are an important means of transportin almost all urban areas in India. Bicycle usersmake journeys between the same kinds ofplaces for the same purposes as users of othermodes of transport. For all transport modes,

BICYCLES IN URBAN INDIA

Dr. GEETAM TIWARI* HIMANI JAIN**

the most direct, feasible routes betweenhousing areas, shops, work places, schoolsand places of leisure activities are usuallyserved by existing roads. However, the layoutof all-purpose roads combined with the quantity,size, speed and complexity of maneuver ofmotorised traffic can have a huge impact onthe convenience and safety of cycle users.Cyclists need to be able to proceed to theirdestination with minimum efforts,inconvenience and danger. (BMP, 1998)

2. BICYCLES IN INDIAN CITIES

This study covers 19 cities from variousgeographic regions with differentcharacteristics. These include Delhi, Pune,Indore, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Amritsar,Bhopal, Patna, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Jaipur,Nagpur, Jabalpur, Hyderabad, Mysore, Alwar,Nanded, Vijaywada and Pimpri Chinchwad.Amongst these, Delhi being a mega city hasthe largest population of 16 million and Alwaris the smallest with 0.23 million. Populationsand classification represented in Table1 givesdetails based on the census definitions. Variousfactors like population, slum population, areaof the city, per capita trip rate, total vehiculartrips, modal share, cycle related crashes, shorttrips and average trip lengths have beencompared for these cities.

* Department of Civil Engineering and TRIPP/IIT-Delhi, India** Research Scholar, TRIPP/IIT-Delhi, India

Table 1 - Size classification of the various study cities

City size Category Total Numbers and Names of city

100,000 - 1m Small city

1m – 3m Medium city

3m – 5m Large city

5m and above Mega city

5- Mysore, Rajkot, Alwar, Nanded, Bhubaneswar

10- Vijaywada, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Patna,Jabalpur, Bhopal, Indore, Jaipur, Pimpri Chinchwad

3- Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad

1- Delhi

Metropolitan

city

I U TJOURNAL


3. BICYCLE MODAL SHARE

The large cities have a bicycle modal sharevarying from 9% (Hyderabad) to 18%(Ahmedabad). The medium and large citieshave a typical bicycle modal share of 13%-21%.(see Figure 1) Nagpur being a very unique casewith a large number of cyclists (34%), morethan walk trips (24%). While Bhopal is anotherextreme case city with only 4.3% cycle tripsand 49% walk trips. Typically the walk trips, inthe mega-city, large, medium and small citieshave been ranging between 27%-38% of totaltrips; in the case of Bhopal it is 49%, PimpriChinchwad (42%), Chandigarh city (15% walktrips).

Figure 1 - Modal share in Medium and LargeIndian Cities

The time trend analysis in various cities showa sharp decline in cycle trip share during the80’s and 90’s. Figure-2 presents the share ofbicycles in 8 cities from the 1980s to 2000.

During this period all these cities experienceda high growth rate of motorized vehicles, roadinfrastructure improvements and high cyclefatalities. However despite the hostileinfrastructure and hostile policy, cycle trips havenot disappeared. There is always a substantialsegment of the population which is captive riderand for whom even the highly subsidized faresof public transit is unaffordable.

Cycle trips might be as low as 6-8% in megacities however the absolute numbers are abouta million bicycles. The cycle trips are estimatedto be about 0.70 to 1.0 million in most of thelarge cities. In the city of Delhi about 0.9 -1.2million trips and in the city of Pune about 0.75million trips are estimated to be on cycleeveryday. In the medium size cities ofBhubaneswar (0.2 million), Nagpur (0.86million), Indore (0.32 million), the cycle trips arein between 0.2 to 0.4 million.

4. BICYCLE OWNERSHIP AND PERCAPITA TRIP RATES (PCTR)

The bicycle ownership is very high in all thecities. Most of the medium and large cities have35% - 65% households owning one or morecycles as per Census 2001. where as in thesmaller cities, it varies between 33% – 48%(the exceptions being Mysore with only 27%households owning bicycle). There are 54.43%

Figure 2 - Declining trends of bicycle modal share in various medium and large cities

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Bicycles in Urban India

households in Ahmedabad and 63.4%households in Chandigarh owning one or morebicycle (Census 2001). In Delhi there are anestimated 0.96 million households (37.6%)owning bicycles in 2001. While expertssuggests that bicycle use may decline over theyears, there will still be a large number of nonmotorized trips at the rate of 8% modal shareby 2021 (MPD-2021). There is a significantreduction in non-motorized mode shares overthe years — in Delhi, bicycle trips fell from 36to 7% of trips by all vehicular modes betweenthe years 1957 and 1994.

In the smaller cities the PCTR (excluding walktrips) varies from the 0.7-0.92. In medium andlarge cities the PCTR is 0.85-1.1, with Bhopalbeing an exception at 0.72.

5. TRIP LENGTH FREQUENCYDISTRIBUTION

The average trip length for all vehicles excludingwalk in small cities varies from 2.5 to 4.8 km.About 70 - 90% of the trips are less than 5 kmor are short trips. Such short trips are ideal fornon-motorized modes like bicycles. Theaverage trip length for bicycles in small citiesvaries from 1.9 to 3.1 km.

The average trip length for all vehicles excludingwalk in medium and large cities varies from4.2- 6.9 km; with the exception of Jaipur

(8.6km). It is observed from the trip lengthfrequency distribution that 56% to 72% trips areshort trips (below 5km, cyclable distance). Theaverage trip length for bicycle in medium andlarge cities varies from 3.1 to 4.5km. In Delhithe average trip length of all vehicles excludingwalk is 10.66 km and for bicycle is 5.1km. About35% of the total vehicular trips are short trips.

6. CYCLISTS FATALITIES / INJURIES

It is observed that cyclists are involved in 5%to 10% of total road related fatalities in mediumand large cities (except small cities where thereis no data available). It is observed that about20% to 32% cyclists are involved in crashesleading to severe injuries in these cities. Figure3 shows the involvement of cyclists of variouscities in fatal road crashes (2001-2006). Theextreme variation is in Ahmedabad andChandigarh which show an increase from 0.5%-2.0% in bicycle related fatalities and Nagpurand Jaipur show decrease from 8% to 5% inbicycle fatalities. (NCRB 2001-06)

It was observed in the detailed qualitative surveyof students and parents (TRIPP, 2006) that18% bicycle using students met with anaccident some time or the other while cycling,mostly by M2W and cars, sustaining injuries in1/3rd cases. 66% of current bicycle usingstudents didn’t feel safe on roads for the fearof accidents by other vehicles.

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Figure 3 - Bicycle related fatalities in medium, large and mega cities

Though pedestrians continued to be the largestcategory of victims [900 people (49%)] of roadaccidents during 2004 in Delhi, bicyclistsconsists of 6% of all fatal crashes. (NCRB,2004) Safety benefits estimated for a typicalarterial in Delhi show 46% reduction in accidentcosts owing to segregation concept. This isbecause segregated facility reduces injuryaccidents by 40% and fatalities by 50%. (BMP,2007)

7. OTHER NON MOTORIZEDVEHICLES (NMV)

Many medium and large citiies in India typicallyhave other kinds of NMV as well. This includesanimal driven vehicles, handcarts (goods),victorias (hand rickshaw), cycle rickshaws andvarious kind of hawkers. Pune does not havecycle rickshaws while city like Nagpur has about2/3

rd of the total NMVs to be cycle rickshaw.

Other than bicycles, it is estimated that Delhihas about 300,000 cycle rickshaws and400,000 hawkers and around 20,000 additionalpeople are servicing this sector. It is ofimportance that along with bicycles in the city,the other NMV should also be taken cognizanceof in planning and design of our roads In citieswith populations up to 1.5 or 2 million, in whichpublic transit plays a limited role at best,

because it cannot be sustained at the level ofdemand existing in these cities, M2W and for-hire M3W vehicles and tempos, as well asbicycles and cycle rickshaws, tend to accountfor a significant share of passenger trips (Tiwari,2002).

8. BICYCLE USERS

The share of bicycle trips of the total trips hasdeclined over the years. However, despitehostile infrastructure for non motorizedtransport, use of bicycles has not disappeared.This shows that current bicycle users usebicycle not out of choice but because they haveno other viable option. Low income householdsare dependent primarily on either bicycles orwalking for daily commute. Motorized publictransport system is not an attractive option. Forexample in Delhi, the fare per km is Rs. 0.60 inmetro and Rs. 0.20 per km in buses for longerdistances (>12km). The DTC bus service isthree times cheaper than metro. However eventhis system remains cost prohibitive for asignificant segment of the population. (Singh1997; Tiwari 2002). It is observed that 17% -30% of the households have monthly incomeless then Rs. 5000 in medium and large cities.The average monthly expenditure on transporthas been estimated to be 12% -15% of the total


62

income. Thus these households cannot spendmore then Rs. 750 per month for all members.An average trip of 6 km everyday requires Rs600 /month for one person, therefore walkingor bicycling are the only options for thesehouseholds.

It is observed in various studies that thesecaptive riders are predominantly poor workersand students. In Slums 25% of the householdsown vehicles, which are predominantly NMV(21% h/h own bicycles). (TRIPP, 2005b). Asurvey of 2000 low income households in Delhishowed that all age groups are active bicycleusers. Cycle ridership decreases withincreasing levels of literacy and income.Amongst the informal sector workers, workplace and its type are the biggest determinantsof the ridership; almost all the people whosework involved distribution activities (eg painters,plumbers, electricians, gardeners, courierdeliverers, postman, milkman, newspapermanetc.)use bicycles; above 80% of factory / shopworkers and 73% of office workers usebicycles. (TRIPP, 2006)

9. BICYCLE AS A FEEDER MODE

Public transit systems play an important rolein the urban transport network. Public and para-transit systems carry about 14% -25% of thetotal trips in medium cities. This shareincreases to 40% in Delhi. The various factors(e.g. access, egress, cost, age, income etc.)affecting the trip profile of a person determinepublic transit use. The access and egress linksin a public transport chain greatly determine itsridership and success. Mostly these trips are

made by non-motorized modes like walk, cycleor pedal rickshaws.

The results of bus users survey (TRIPP, 2005a)in Delhi shows that of 3600 of the buscommuters surveyed, 20% owned cycles, butonly 1% uses it for access trip. 48% walk morethan 500 m but less than 1 km and 9% walkmore 1 km distance (because most of themare from the lower income group whosehousehold income ranges from 1000 Rs. to10,000 Rs.). If a bicycle friendly infrastructureis created, these 57% commuters can usebicycles for their access trips reducing traveltime by approximately 33%. Also 91% of bicycleowners and 45% of the total bus commuterswho do not own bicycles are potential users ofbicycle for access trips, if a bicycle-friendlyinfrastructure is provided. It is also observed inthe survey that 7% of bus commuters travelfor short distances (access + main + egress <5km). These people are likely to shift to thebicycle. (Advani ,Tiwari ,2006).

The survey of metro users (TRIPP, 2005b)shows that the metro user makes 3 accesstrips per metro trip, of which only 19% trips arewalk trips. The non-walking access tripcomponent (secondary access trip) is indistance, cost and time as compared to bususers. (Table 2) 19% of the metro users paymore on access, 67% spend more time inaccess trips and 27% have higher access tripsdistance to metro as compared to main linehaul (MLH). The dependency of public transiton access/egress trips is significant and thebicycle can serve as a sustainable low costfeeder mode.

Table 2 - Ratio of access trips to Main Line Haul trips

Parameter Metro users Bus users

No. of trip segments 3 1.6

Travel distance 1.3 0.3

Travel time 3.2 0.6

Travel cost 0.7 0.2

Source : Arora, 2007


63

Multimodal bicycle / transit trips expand thecatchment area of public transit stationswithout the large expense and spacerequirements of automobile parking. Overlonger distances, using the bicycle as a feedermode for public transit can result in shorter triptimes. If the public transit system transportsbicycles, then a passenger’s bicycle may alsobe used at the egress end of the trip (Allen,1999). If the bicycle has to be promoted as anaccess mode to public transit, all facilities likesecure parking at bus stops and safe cyclingpaths have to be considered.

Integration of the bicycle with the public transitnetwork can enhance the travel potential forboth modes of travel by offering a number ofadvantages. Bicycle-to-transit services (trails,on-road bike lanes, and bike parking) enlargethe transit’s catchment area by making itaccessible to travelers who are beyond walkingdistances from transit stations.

10. POLICY OUTLINES

The tenth 5 year plan (2003-07) for Indiaemphasizes the issue of road safety and energysavings / planning, because transport is thesecond largest consumer of energy (GoI, 2005).The other national and city level policydocuments are being made within theframework provided by this broad national policydocument.

The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP)acknowledges the fact that there are certainsections of society, especially the non-motorized commuter groups which faceproblems of mobility. The cost of travel,especially for the poor, has increasedconsiderably. This is largely because the useof cheaper non-motorized modes like cyclingand walking has become extremely risky, sincethese modes have to share the same right of

way as motorized modes. Further, withpopulation growth, cities have tended to expandin size and increased travel distances havemade non-motorized modes difficult to use.This has made access to livelihoods,particularly for the poor, far more difficult.According to NUTP this target of equity can beachieved by reserving corridors and lanesexclusively for public transport and non-motorized modes of travel. The CentralGovernment decided to give priority to theconstruction of cycle tracks and pedestrianpaths, under the Jawaharlal Nehru NationalUrban Renewal Mission* (JNNURM), toenhance safety and thereby enhance use ofnon-motorized modes. (NUTP, 2005)

This policy ensures the support of the centralgovernment in the formulation andimplementation of specific “Area Plans” incongested urban areas with an appropriate mixof various modes of transport includingexclusive zones for non-motorized transit. Alsothe central government decided to partiallyfinance the pilot projects which demonstratethe improvements through the enhanced useof bicycling, for possible replication in othercities. (NUTP, 2005)

The city level policy documents do not, however,incorporate such NMV friendly policies. Forexample, Tackling Urban Transport -Operating Plan for Delhi (Transportdepartment under the NCT Delhi government)does not give due importance to cyclists, NMTand pedestrians. It only seems to give left-overspace to NMT instead of integrating it as anessential component in the system as a whole.Though the policy mentions of the Bus RapidTransit on selected corridors, it fails to considerthe physical segregation of slow movingvehicles, which is a precondition for asuccessful BRT corridor.

* The aim is to encourage reforms and fast track planned development of identified cities. Focus is to be on efficiency in urbaninfrastructure and service delivery mechanisms, community participation, and accountability of ULBs/ Parastatal agencies towardscitizens. The main thrust of the Sub-Mission will be on infrastructure projects relating to water supply and sanitation, sewerage,solid waste management, road network, urban transport and redevelopment of old city areas etc. (time frame 2006-2013) Assistanceunder JNNURM is additional central assistance, which would be provided as grant to the implementing agencies for select 63cities.


64

Plans and various other Transportation Plansfor respective cities, which fail to provide anysignificant bicycle-friendly infrastructureguidelines in detail.

11. INTEGRATION OF BICYCLE WITHBRTS

Presently in the absence of segregated bicyclelanes bicyclists use the curb-side lane. Thismakes it impossible for buses to use the left-most lane, in spite of repeated attempts atenforcement by the Traffic Police. Segregatedbus lanes as part of the Bus Rapid TransitSystems (BRTS) under the JNNURM withcentral government aid, are already underconstruction in many cities to meet theincreasing travel demand and to improve thepublic transport service. As a matter of fact,the presence of bicycle lanes is a necessarypre-condition for establishing such bus lanes(curb side or central/ median side). (BMP, 2007)In Delhi, 14.6 km long corridor is underconstruction with segregated bicycle lanes andcentral bus lanes. 5.8km has been completedand has been operating since May 2008. Thecorridor has excellent details at T junctions andintersections for calming down traffic speedsand ensuring bicyclists safety. Internationalstandards have been followed for signage andsafety. 99% of the bicyclists on this corridorare using the bicycle tracks.

12. NATIONAL ROAD DESIGNSTANDARDS

Some of the important design standards thatdiscuss bicycles in urban infrastructure arelisted below.. However, these need to bereviewed in the context of research resultsavailable internationally regarding lane capacityand safety requirement.

• Guidelines for capacity of urban roads inplain areas (IRC: 106-1990)

• Guidelines on regulation and control ofmixed traffic in urban areas (IRC: 70-1977)

• Recommended practice for the design andlayout of cycle tracks (IRC: 11-1962)


The budgetary outlay for transport in the Delhigovernment plans has been increasing over theyears. However, the fund allocation towardspedestrian, cycle and NMT improvement is amere 0.6% of the total Annual Budget Outlay2006-07 (NCTD, 2006).

The Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) - 2021 hasestimated that the total number of trips will riseto 28 million by 2021, of which 2.3 million (8.2%)will be non-motorized trips. It has proposed theroad hierarchical system, which includesseparate cycle tracks (wherever possible) onprimary collector roads/ sub-arterial roads withrecommended R/w 30-40m (minimum 45m inurban extensions). The master plan does notpropose segregation of NMV on Arterial roads(>45m, ring radials, SH, NH, bridges etc., withhigh speeds) or other important roads.(MPD-2021)

The MPD-2021 policy pertaining to bicycle /cycle rickshaws claims it to be an importantmode of travel for short and medium distancesbut identifies it as unsafe in the presence offast moving and mixed traffic. The policyproposes the following actions. (notmandatory):

! Wherever feasible, fully segregatedcycle tracks should be provided alongselected traffic corridors with provisionfor safe parking.

! In new areas/ urban extensions, asalready indicated, cycle tracks shouldbe provided at the sub-arterial and locallevel roads and streets.

! In specific areas, like the Walled Cityetc., the use of bicycles / pedal rickshawas a non-motorized mode of transportshould be consciously planned andpromoted along with pedestrianisation.

The non-mandatory suggestions areoverlooked by planners and these are lostopportunities for NMV integration during theplanning and designing phase. There are otherComprehensive Development Plans / Master

65

• Geometric design standards for urbanroads in plains (IRC: 86- 1983)

• The space standards for roads in urbanareas (IRC: 69-1977)

• IRC guidelines for the design of at gradeintersections in rural and urban areas

• Cyclists crossing (IRC: 35-1970)

• Guidelines for the design of interchangesin urban areas (IRC: 92-1985)

• Recommended practice for traffic rotaries(IRC: 65-1976)

• Code of practice for road markings (IRC:35-1997)

• Code of practice for road signs (IRC: 67-2001)

• Guidelines on accommodation of utilityservices on roads in urban areas (IRC: 98-1997)

13. CONCLUSIONS

The tenth 5 year plan (2003-07), National UrbanTransport Policy (NUTP, 2005) provides

guidelines for the other regional and city levelpolicy documents. They acknowledge the factthat there are non motorized commuter groupswith the mobility and safety concerns whichneeds to be addressed by encouraging theconstruction of segregated rights of way forbicycles. There are other city developmentplans and various transportation plans /projects, which fail to integrate the bicycleplanning.

It is found in the comparative study of citiesthat most of the medium and large cities haveabout 50-75% trips below 5km trip length. Thatmeans there is a considerable number of tripswhich have the potential to be shifted to thecycle. Even in Delhi it is estimated that morethan 45% of the trips of privately owned modesand 38% of the trips by public mode are lessthan 5 km (RITES, 2001). The conversion ofpotential cycle trips from other modes is highlylikely, if a favorable cycling infrastructure ismade available. This requires revising thecurrent design standards to make them bicyclecompatible and sustained efforts of capacitybuilding of implementing agencies likemunicipalities, transport department and publicworks departments to implement the bicyclefriendly infrastructure.

References

Advani M., Tiwari G, ‘Bicycle – As a feeder mode for bus service’, Proceedings of VELO MONDIAL Conference, CapeTown, South Africa, 2006.

Allen J., Multimodal bicycle / transit trip, 1999 [Online]. Available: http://home.swbell.net/mpion/multimodal.htm.[accessed on 1 November 2005]

Arora A., Transportation Projects and their effects on the poor: Integrating a Social Impact Assessment Methodology(PhD thesis), Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP) IIT Delhi, 2007

BMP, Bicycle Master Plan for Delhi – proposed network plan and detailed design, Transportation Research andInjury Prevention Program (TRIPP) IIT Delhi, for Transport Department, Government of Delhi, 1998

BMP, Bicycle Master Plan for Delhi, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP) IIT Delhi, 2007

Census, Population and household tables, Census of India, Registrar General of India, Government of India, 2001

GoI, Tenth five year plan (2003-07), National road transport policy, Government of India- policy document, 2003

Knaap S., Gerrit and Arthur C. Nelson, The Regulated Landscape, Lincoln Inst., ISBN 1-55844-120-4, 1992.

MPD 2021, Master Plan for Delhi –2021 (MPD-2021), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi, 2006

MPD-2001, Master Plan for Delhi- 2001(MPD-2001), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi, 1991


66

NCRB, Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, (Annual reports 2001-2006), National Crimes Record Bureau(NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 2001-06.

NCTD, Annual Budget Outlay (2006-07), Transport department, Government of National Capital Territory (NCT) ofDelhi, 2006

NCTD, Tackling Urban Transport - Operating Plan for Delhi, Transport department, Govt of NCT Delhi, 2003

NUTP, National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP), Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, 2005

RITES., Report on Multi Modal public transport network for Delhi, for Transport Department, Govt. of Delhi, 2005

Singh R. B., “Urbanization, Environmental Crisis, and Urban Planning in India”, The Geographer, Vol. XLIV, No. 2,1997. 21 pp.

Tiwari G, “Urban Transport Priorities – Meeting the Challenge of Socio-economic Diversity in Cities; A Case Study ofDelhi, India”, Cities, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2002, pp. 95-103

Tota K., The role of non-motorized transport in sustainable urban transport systems: A preliminary analysis of costsand benefits of non-motorized and bus priority measures on Vikas Marg, Delhi, prepared for TERI, April 1999

IRC Codes -

IRC:106, Indian Road Congress -code 106, Guidelines for Capacity of Urban Roads in Plain Areas, New Delhi,India, 1990

IRC: 70, Indian Road Congress -code 70, Guidelines on regulation and control of mixed traffic in urban areas, NewDelhi, India, 1977

IRC: 11, Indian Road Congress -code 11, Recommended practice for the design and layout of cycle tracks, NewDelhi, India, 1962

IRC: 86, Indian Road Congress -code 86, Geometric design standards for roads in urban areas, New Delhi, India,1983

IRC: 69, Indian Road Congress -code 69, space standards for roads in urban areas, New Delhi, India, 1977

IRC: 35, Indian Road Congress -code 35, Guidelines for cyclists crossings, New Delhi, India, 1970

IRC: 92, Indian Road Congress -code 92, Guidelines for the design of interchanges in urban areas, New Delhi,India, 1985

IRC: 35, Indian Road Congress -code 35, Code of practice for road markings, New Delhi, India, 1997

IRC: 67, Indian Road Congress -code 67, Code of practice for road signs, New Delhi, India, 2001

IRC: 98, Indian Road Congress -code 98, Guidelines on accommodation of utility services on roads in urban areas,New Delhi, India, 1997

Indian Road Congress, Guidelines for the design of at-grade intersections in rural and urban areas, New Delhi,India

Survey data and documents -

TRIPP, Survey report, Bicycle use and barriers to use, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program(TRIPP) IIT Delhi, Institute of Democratic Studies (IDS) for LOCOMOTIVES (I-ce) project, 2006.

TRIPP, Onboard Survey of bus commuters, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP) IITDelhi, Institute of Democratic Studies (IDS), 2005 a.

TRIPP, Metro users Survey, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program (TRIPP) IIT Delhi, Institute ofDemocratic Studies (IDS), 2005 b.

Comprehensive Traffic and Transport Studies (CTTS) and other reports** -

Bhopal Municipal Corporation, Draft Detailed Project Report, Volume - I Main Report on Consultancy Services forPreparation of Detailed Project Report for Bus Rapid Transit System at Bhopal, 2007

Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), Final Report, Volume II of Comprehensive Traffic and Transportation Planfor Nagpur, 2000.


67

CRISIL, Project Report-Draft Report for Discussion on Bus Based Rapid Transport System of Pimpri-ChinchwadMunicipal Corporation, 2008.

Dr. K. R. Rao, Report on Planning of Mass Transit System for Shimla Town, 2007.

IDECK, Detailed Project Report, Volume - 2,(Survey Results) and Volume - 3(b) on Introduction of Bus Rapid Transitsystem in Mysore, 2007.

Jaipur Development Authority, Final Detailed Project Report Part 1, Executive Summary on Preparation of DetailedDesign & Engineering Report for Bus Rapid Transit System, Jaipur (Overall Design of BRT System)

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Executive Summary of Bus Rapid Transit SystemIndore, 2006

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Traffic Report on Detailed Project Report forNanded City Roads under JNNURM, 2008.

Lea Associated South Asia Pvt. Ltd. and CRRI, Final Report on Comprehensive Traffic and Transportation Study forBhopal Urban Area, 2001

Rajkot Municipal Corporation, Detailed Project Report 1 for Rajkot Bus Rapid Transit System, 2008.

RITES ltd., Comprehensive Traffic & Transportation Study of Municipal Corporation Amritsar, Final Report, 1998.

RITES ltd., Feasibility Report of High Capacity Mass Transport System For Pune Metropolitan Area, Interim Reportof Municipal corporations of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, 1998

RITES ltd., Mass Rapid Transit System for Chandigarh Urban Complex, 2006

Span Travers Morgan, Draft Final Report, Volume - I on Comprehensive Traffic & Transportation Study for Pune City,2004

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, VIZAG, Bus Rapid Transit System, 2006.

Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Hyderabad Bus Rapid Transit System, 2007

Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, Comprehensive Traffic and Transportation Study for Vijayawada City, Bus RapidTransit, Project Report, 2006


** NOTE: Detailing in the section of bicycles in Indian cities, Modal share, ownership and per capita trip rates, Triplength frequency distribution have been based upon facts and figures provided by the selected studies.

68

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF WALKABILITY FORPEDESTRIAN FACILITIES IN DELHI

Dr. PURNIMA PARIDA * PROF. NAJAMUDDIN** Dr. M. PARIDA***

* Scientist, TPE Division, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi [email protected]

** Emeritus Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee.

*** Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee,. [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Within the urban areas to meet the increasing volume and speeds of motorized vehicles, the pedestrian facilitiesare encroached upon leaving the pedestrian-vulnerable. Encroachment on sidewalks varies from 11% to 38%.Pedestrian space has commonly been thought of as merely the strip of concrete between roadway and the buildings.There is hardly any effort to make pedestrian’s journey safe, convenient, comfortable and enjoyable. In this paperan attempt has been made to develop a methodology for the qualitative evaluation of sidewalk facilities in Delhi. Inthis method various subjective parameters were used to evolve a concept of level of service for sidewalks. Primarysurveys were conducted for pedestrians using sidewalks in different locations in Delhi. For qualitative assessmentof the sidewalk facilities a questionnaire-based survey was conducted. The pedestrians using the sidewalk facilitywere asked a set of questions; with a view to ascertain the level of service the pedestrians are experiencing byusing the particular sidewalk facility. Using the satisfaction rating and relative weight of attributes included inquestionnaire walkability scores were calculated. These scores were later divided into different grades which isalso known as different levels of service. Walkability score is a function of the value of different design inputs forpedestrian facility and response of pedestrians towards these inputs. This model takes into account qualitativeevaluation of pedestrian facilities and can be used to demonstrate sensitivity of walkability towards variousindependent variables. Sensitivity analysis carried out for ten independent variables are presented in this paper.

1. INTRODUCTION

Inadequate pedestrian facilities in Indian citieshave resulted in a high rate of pedestrianfatalities. With increased motorizationpedestrians are pushed to a corner. Thegeneral status of pedestrian infrastructure is ina poor state. As a mode it supplements publictransport network. Besides its inherent qualitiessuch as non fuel dependent and non-polluting,makes it environment friendly and does not putany additional burden on exchequer. Walkingis an ideal mode for a trip length of 3 to 4 km.To promote walk trips as well as to provideadequate pedestrian facilities the preferencesand perceptions of the pedestrians need to beunderstood in a rational manner. Capacity ofpedestrian facilities normally takes into accountconventional quantitative modeling approach.In a quantitative model speed, flow and density

are used for the characterization of pedestrianflow similar to capacity analysis of motorizedtraffic. A quantitative model is useful inascertaining minimum width requirement of thepedestrian facility. In contrast to this approach,qualitative evaluation helps to understandwalkability of pedestrian facilities as a functionof physical characteristics and usercharacteristics. A qualitative model cangenerate walkability scores on the basis offootpath surface, footpath width, obstructions,encroachment, potential for vehicle conflict,continuity, pedestrian volume, safety, comfort,walk environment. Sensitivity analysis ofwalkability scores towards these design inputscan be useful for the planning, design andoperation of pedestrian facilities. In this papera simplified model for walkability along with thesensitivity analysis has been presented forsidewalks in Delhi.

I U TJOURNAL


2. SURVEY DESIGN FORWALKABILITY

With a view to develop walkability scores forpedestrian facilities, 12 locations for qualitativeassessment of the sidewalk facility wereselected. The locations were selected on thebasis of varying sidewalk width, pedestrianvolumes and spatially distributed all over thecity of Delhi. For qualitative assessment of thesidewalk facilities a questionnaire-based surveywas conducted. The pedestrians using thesidewalk facility were asked a set of questions;with a view to ascertain the level of service thepedestrians are experiencing by using theparticular sidewalk facility.

2.1 Measurement of PsychologicalEntities

The essential problem of quantitativemeasurement in psychology is that of inferringnumerical values from behavior. Measurementof a physical property of a person or of anobject, such as his (or its) height, requires onlypassive participation by the object ofmeasurement; we simply lay the ruleralongside the object being measured and readoff the result. On the other hand, psychologicalproperties such as the amount of mechanicalability that a person has, or the amount ofsensation generated by a pin prick administeredwith a certain amount of pressure, are implicitor latent properties. The evaluation of theamount of such psychological propertiesrequires the active participation of the subject;he must behave in the presence of one or morestimuli for us to be able to infer the amount ofpsychological property either possessed by thesubject himself or perceived by him aspossessed by the stimulus. Presumably, thebehaviors of one or more subjects faced withone or more stimuli contain a great deal ofpotential information about both the subjectsand the stimuli. The way in which we gatherand extract this information and, in particular,the way in which behaviors are interpreted,dictates how values on the psychological

property will be obtained. Psychologicalmeasurement techniques, or scalingprocedures, thus differ according to (1) thebehavioral task given to subjects, (2) theinformation implicit in the behaviors that areactually called forth, and (3) the things that areassumed about the factors underlying theobserved behaviors.

2.1.1 Psychophysics and psychometrics

Conventionally, psychological measurement isdiscussed under two main headings,psychophysics and psychometrics.Psychophysical methods were originallydeveloped to study between the physicalproperties of objects or stimuli and thesensation they produce that is, the length,weight, numerosity, frequency, wavelength ofobjects, and the magnitude of sensation evokedby each. Historically psychophysics deals withthe translation of physical characteristics ofstimuli into their corresponding psychologicalcharacteristics. On the other had,psychometrics traditionally deals with individualdifferences among people, in terms of purelypsychological characteristics such asintelligence, introversion-extroversion, degreeof anxiety and attitude-position. However, inmodern psychological work, this distinction hasalmost broken down, since it is recognized thatindividual differences can be studied bytraditional psychophysical methods and thatcertain methods growing out of the theory ofmental tests apply quite well to problems ofquite different stimulus and responserelationships.

2.1.2 Rating Scales

One of the simplest and most used of thedevices for psychological measurements is thenumerical rating scales. The rater is simplygiven a set of ordered categories or intervals;each associated with a numerical rating and isasked to place the object of judgment in themost appropriate category or at the mostappropriate point on a graphic scale. His rating

70

Sensitivity Analysis of Walkability for Pedestrian Facilities in Delhi

is then taken to indicate the amount of thepsychological characteristics he perceives inthe object. Thus, for example, the quality oforganizing ability is to be rated. The rater maybe given a graphic scale consisting of a straightline marked off into seven equal intervals. Onthe boundaries between the intervals mayappear the number 1 through 6. Some timesthe rater is simply presented with such a scale,and his ratings are treated as the amounts ofthe psychological characteristics shown by theobjects. The implicit assumption is made thatthe rater is somehow able to translate hisperception of the object directly into a number.

One of the oldest and simplest assumptionsmade in collecting and analyzing rating data isthat of equal-appearing intervals. The rater istold explicitly that the intervals into which therating, scale is divided should bepsychologically equal. That is, the rater is toadopt the attitude that an object rated exactly 1is psychologically just as different from anobject rated 2 as the object with rating 2 is froman object rated 3. The assumption is that therater can indeed hold this instructional set inmind and can assign objects accordingly. Inassigning any given object along the scale, therater is presumed to compare the perceivedstatus of the object to the idealized valuesrepresented by the boundaries of the equalintervals. Furthermore, it is assumed that ifvariability occurs among the ratings of a givenobject across a group of judges, this variabilityreflects disagreements about the status of theobject but does not reflect any disagreementabout the boundaries of the intervals into whichobjects may fall.

2.2 Survey Design for PedestrianPerception

For qualitative evaluation of pedestrian facilitiesa proforma was designed using rating scaleconcept. The survey design in this case islargely based on the theoretical footing of‘psychological measurement’. The initial stageof this method involved the identification of

parameters for inclusion in a questionnaire,reflecting the important aspects of level ofservice experienced by pedestrians. Based onresearch review and brief pilot study 10parameters were identified to be included in aquestionnaire. Six parameters were pertainingto the physical evaluation of the sidewalk facility,which included sidewalk width, sidewalksurface, obstruction, encroachment, potentialof vehicular conflict, and continuity. The fouruser factors were pedestrian volume, safety,comfort and walking environment. Pedestrianswere asked to rate both the performance(indicating “bad” or “good” condition) andimportance (how important good performanceis to them) on a five-point scale. A total of 6740pedestrians in 12 different locations in Delhiwere interviewed for this survey. All interviewswere conducted by direct interview method.Respondent’s ratings of importance andperformance were obtained for each of theparameters.

The factors affecting the walkability of sidewalksfor pedestrians were classified as physicalcharacteristics or design factors of the sidewalkand the user factors. The factors identified,totaling ten, include the following.

2.2.1 Design Factors (PhysicalCharacteristics)

! Footpath surface: a smooth surfacewithout any cracks or bumps forcomfortable walking.

! Footpath Width: a measure in metersof the width of the sidewalk available tothe pedestrian.

! Obstructions: The obstruction can bean electric pole, tree, and garbage bin,and hoardings. The number ofobstruction per kilometer of thesidewalk was assessed.

! Encroachment: The informalcommercial activities are an integral

71

part of the sidewalk environment in India. Thepedestrians also need them as theycater to their day-to-day needs, butsometimes the extent of encroachmentrises to a level that the sidewalk facilitybecomes inaccessible/ usable by thepedestrians. The extent ofencroachment was assessed.

! Potential for vehicle conflict: Thesidewalks need to be segregated fromthe roads, where fast moving vehiclesply. The two ways to protect thepedestrians from vehicle conflicts is theraised footpaths and the guardrails. Thesafety of pedestrians from the hazardof conflicting with vehicles wasassessed in the terms of these twofactors.

! Continuity: The continuity of thepedestrian facility is very important forthe pedestrians with disability and of oldage. The continuous ups and downsmake the sidewalk uncomfortable touse by the pedestrians especially theold and forces the pedestrians to sharethe carriageway along with the vehicles.

2.2.2 Design Factors (UserCharacteristics)

! Pedestrian Volume: A count orestimate of the number of pedestriansusing the sidewalk .As the number ofpedestrian increases on the sidewalkthe feeling of crowdedness isexperienced by the pedestrians, and thelevel of service goes down.

! Safety: The feeling of being safe is themost important governing factor. Apedestrian should feel safe during theday as well as night while using asidewalk. Characteristics of this factorinclude provision of adequate streetlighting, police patrolling during thenighttime, sufficient activities on thesurrounding areas to ensure safety.

! Comfort: A pedestrian needs to becomforted from the inclement weatherlike harsh sun and rain. The treesprotect the pedestrians but if planted ina unplanned manner also acts as anobstruction. The location of tree and thespecies need to be carefully planned.The curbs ha to be mountable so thatthey can be climbed upon and downeasily. Provision of chairs /benches andrest rooms is another factor that addsto the comfort of pedestrians.

! Walk Environment: Walk environmentis governed by the surroundings of thefacility. The walking should be a pleasantexperience. The sidewalk should beclean and free of foul smell.

2.3 SURVEY PROCESS

A detailed proforma was designed, which wasdivided into three sections:

(i) Pedestrian characteristics

(ii) Evaluation of design factors

(iii) Evaluation of user factors.

The inclusion of different variables in thequestionnaire has been based on sound logic.The simple random sampling strategy wasemployed to select a respondent from thepedestrian stream. The details of locations aregiven in Table 1.

Table 1: Details of Locations for QualitativeSurvey

S.No. Location Land use type

1 CRRI – Okhla Tank Institutional + Residential2 AIIMS Institutional3 Azadpur Commercial4 Ashram Residential5 Janakpuri Residential6 ITO Public-Semi Public7 Cannaught Place CBD8 Hauz Khas Institutional + Residential9 Vivek Vihar Residential10 Rohini Residential11 ISBT, Ajmeri Gate Terminal12 Shahdara Residential + Commercial


72

2.3.1 Pedestrian Characteristics

In this category the information about age, sex,income, occupation, purpose of the trip,frequency of the trip, trip distance, availabilityof footpath, if footpath is available, and stillwalking on the carriageway then the reason fornot using the footpath were included. Anendeavor was made to interview people ofvarying age group, gender, income andprofession. The survey was conducted onworking days from 6.00 am to 10.00pm, so asto capture people using the footpath withvarious purposes.

2.3.2 Evaluation of Design Factors

There were six parameters that were identifiedfor evaluation of design factors of a sidewalk.The pedestrians were asked to first assignweights in the scale of 1–5, where 1 isimmaterial and 5 is most important, to theparameters as per their perception regardingthe pedestrian facility. Then they were askedto tick the rating of the pedestrian facility theyare using in terms of the parameters given alsoon a scale of 1-5. Where 1 is poor operatingcondition of the particular parameter, while5 means excellent operating condition of aparameter.

2.3.3 Evaluation of user factors

The respondents were asked to assign weightsto the four parameters identified in this categoryaccording to their perception of importance ofthe parameter. After assigning weights theinformation was gathered on the rating of eachparameter as experienced by the respondent.Psychometric method has been adopted to

develop relative weights of ten attributes ofsidewalk facilities and satisfaction rating ofpedestrians. Self onsite assessment of the 18sidewalk facilities was carried out in variouslocations in Delhi On the basis of the weightsachieved from primary surveys and the scoresassigned by the pedestrians and self onsiteassessment, attitudinal scores have beenestimated for these locations. Finally thesescores have been analyzed to generatewalkability scores and define five levels ofservice (LOS) i.e. LOS A to LOS E. LOS Aindicates best level of service and LOS Eindicates poor quality of operation for sidewalkfacilities.

The performance of various attributes over fivepoint rating scale (Immaterial, Least Important,Important, Very Important and Most Important)shows that safety is rated as most important(Rating scale =5) attribute by highest numberof respondents. ‘Continuity’ has highestresponse in the importance category Immaterial(Rating scale =1).

2.4 QUANTIFICATION OF RELATIVEWEIGHTS FOR TRAVELATTRIBUTES

Relative weights of various attributes based onperceived relative importance ratings areobtained using scaling theory of successivecategories (Guilford, 1954). The assumptionmade in this analysis is that distribution ofresponses to a stimulus is normal on thepsychological continuum.These scale valuesare then taken as relative weights for travelattributes. Relative weights of attributescomputed based on category meaningapproach for all 12 locations are shown inTable 2.


73

Table 2 : Quantification of Relative Weights for Sidewalk Attributes

ATTRIBUTES L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 L9 L10 L11 L12 RelativeWeights

Footpathsurface 3.69 4.08 3.43 4.05 4.35 4.00 3.79 4.00 4.02 4.00 3.86 3.65 3.92

Footpathwidth 3.65 3.73 3.14 4.15 3.89 3.93 3.69 3.76 4.27 3.61 4.14 3.96 3.80

Obstruction 3.06 3.08 2.57 3.15 3.17 3.12 2.85 3.07 2.98 3.11 2.83 3.61 3.06

Encroachment 3.91 3.57 4.62 4.45 3.45 3.88 4.41 3.83 4.27 3.96 4.69 3.78 3.93

Vehicleconflict Pot. 3.90 3.47 4.86 4.20 3.21 4.05 4.26 4.24 4.27 3.96 4.62 3.83 3.92

Continuity 2.17 2.48 1.57 2.25 2.29 2.17 2.08 2.51 2.20 1.96 1.97 2.39 2.23

Pedestrian vol. 3.90 3.81 3.90 4.15 3.91 3.98 4.03 3.76 4.57 4.07 4.14 3.65 3.97

Safety 4.71 4.64 5.00 5.00 4.91 4.87 4.90 4.90 4.95 4.96 4.83 4.91 4.81

Comfort 2.99 3.70 1.52 3.40 4.05 2.98 2.49 3.76 3.08 3.07 2.34 3.17 3.18

Walkenvironment 3.91 3.62 4.24 4.30 3.80 4.07 3.85 3.90 4.40 4.14 4.07 4.00 3.94

3. MEASUREMENT OF WALKABILITY

Walkability of a pedestrian facility can beexpressed in terms of Level of Service (LOS)and there is a range of LOS for pedestrians.These LOS definitions describe the adequacyof pedestrian facilities and have been evolvedutilizing the ten factors affecting pedestrianLOS. It is understood that LOS A provide bestwalking conditions for pedestrians in terms ofwide sidewalk, good surface quality, separationfrom fast moving vehicles safety and comfort.LOS E is opposite end of the scale and maydepict narrow sidewalls, encroachment,unpleasant walk environment, potential ofconflict with motorized vehicles. With thisunderstanding five levels of Service have beenworked out.

i. LOS A is a pedestrian environment whereideal pedestrian conditions exist and thefactors that negatively affect pedestrianLOS are minimal.

ii. LOS B indicates that reasonable pedestrianconditions exist but a small number offactors impact on pedestrian safety andcomfort. As LOS A is the ideal, LOS B is anacceptable standard.

iii. LOS C indicates that basic pedestrianconditions exist but a significant number offactors impact on pedestrian safety andcomfort.

iv. LOS D indicates that poor pedestrianconditions exist and the factors thatnegatively affect pedestrian LOS are wide-ranging or individually severe. Pedestriancomfort is minimal and safety concernswithin the pedestrian environmental areevident.

v. LOS E indicates that the pedestrianenvironment is unsuitable. This situationoccurs when all or almost all of the factorsaffecting pedestrian LOS are belowacceptable standards.

3.1 Walkability Score

In model for quantifying performance ofsidewalks in terms of level of service wasdeveloped based on the measurement offactors affecting LOS. Relative weights forthese various attribute were developed throughprimary surveys carried out for pedestrianfacilities at different locations in Delhi. A numberof steps need to be completed for evaluating


74

level of service of a sidewalk. To evaluate thesidewalks the assessment of ten identifiedparameters were done by employing twomethods; one through primary surveys andsecond by self onsite assessment. In primarysurveys pedestrians were stopped for a whileand asked to give their response pertaining totheir perception regarding the sidewalk facilitythey were using with respect to the tenparameters. They were also asked to give theimportance rating of those ten parameters asper their needs and requirements. Theimportance ratings were called weightsattached to the parameter. The weightsassigned to each parameter were multiplied tocorresponding satisfaction rating of the sameparameter to arrive at cumulative weights orwalkability scores. The same process wasapplied to ranks achieved by employing boththe methods. The frequency distribution of thecumulative weights was done and on the basisof mean and standard deviation the level ofservice models were developed and theindividual location were assessed and assignedthe level of service grade at which it is operating.The satisfaction rating for each attribute ismultiplied by the relative weight given to eachattribute. The individual weighted score for eachattributed is added to get a total weighted scorefor each of the location. Frequency distributionsof these scores are presented in Figure 1.Since this distribution resembles the Bellshaped curve, properties of normal distributioncan be applied to these weighted scores.

Figure 1: Frequency distribution of walkability scores

After the calculation of total weighted scoresgrading operation has been carried out to definefive ranges representing five different LOS.Initially grading has been worked out takingmean and standard deviation as two referencefigures. Mean plus one standard deviation i.e.,139 has been defined as the upper limit andany score above this shall qualify for LOS A.The lower limit is mean minus twice standarddeviation i.e., 64. Any score less than 64 shallbe designated as LOS E. For LOS B to LOS Dan interval with a range equal to one standarddeviation has been used. With this schememore than 50 percent locations were qualifyingfor LOS A and B for the 30 sidewalks selectedfor onsite assessment. It is desirable thatlocations in LOS A, LOS B and 50 percent ofLOS C should lie within 50 to 60 percent. Inview of this the intervals for cumulative scoreswere marginally modified. These gradingschemes are indicated in Table 3.

Table 3:Grading Scheme for Defining Walkability

A > 140 3 10

B 120 – 140 9 30

C 100 – 120 9 30

D 80 – 100 7 23

E 60 – 80 2 6

Total 30 100

WalkabilityGrade / LOS

CumulativeScore of

Walkability

No. ofSidewalks

% age


Cumulative Weights

% o

f Lo

cati

on

s

75

4. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OFWALKABILITY SCORES

Level of service model developed throughqualitative analysis designates a sidewalkdepending on the attributes. Application of thismodel can easily be explained by studying theeffect of change in sidewalk attributes on thelevel of service of sidewalks. This sensitivityanalysis has been carried out for ten sample

Table 4: List of Sample Locations for Sensitivity Analysis

Code Location Land Use

L11 ISBT Terminal

L12 Azadpur Subzi Mand – Outer Ring Road Commercial

L13 DU – Main Approach Rd Institutional

L14 Chandni Chowk Red Fort – Fatehpuri Commercial

L15 Punjabi Bagh NH 10 Residential

L16 Chelmsford Road – CP Terminal / commercial

L17 Azadpur Intersection – H Point Ring Road Residential / commercial

L18 West Patel Nagar Road Residential / commercial

L19 Vikaspuri DG2 – Police Lines Residential

L20 Janakpuri Tihar Gate 5 – Pankha Road Residential

locations as given below in Table 4. The Presentlevel of service for these locations is shown inTable 5. This level of service is denoted a LOS(0) i.e, LOS corresponding to do nothingscenario. Subsequently the sidewalk attributeshas been upgraded to the highest satisfactionlevel of five for all locations simultaneously, andcumulative walkability scores have beenestimated. Using the scores revise level ofservice has been calculated.

Table 5 : Level of Service at Sample Locations Under Do Nothing Scenario

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20

Footpath surface 4 4 4 5 4 1 3 3 4 4

Footpath width 3 2 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4

Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3

Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5

Vehicle conflict Pot. 3 1 3 4 3 1 3 3 3 3

Continuity 4 1 3 3 3 1 4 2 3 4

Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1

Safety 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 2 3 3

Comfort 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 3 3 3

Walk environment 2 1 4 2 4 1 1 4 2 1

Score 95 59 134 105 133 62 81 118 111 112

LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C C

* This is cumulative walkability score derived from satisfaction rating and relative weights of attributes.


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4.1 Effect of Improvement in FootpathSurface

Footpath Surface is the first sidewalk attributeincluded in the proforma. To start withsatisfaction rating for footpath surface wasraised to five for all the ten locations. Aftercalculating walkability scores, level of servicehas been estimated. In this process it wasobserved that LOS of L18 has changed fromLOS C to LOS B. Sensitivity analysis of location11 to 20 to the change in this attribute is givenin Table 6. It shows that while LOS at locationL18 is sensitive to footpath surface while otherlocations are not sensitive to this parameter.

4.2 Effect of Improvement in FootpathWidth

Footpath width is the second sidewalk attributeincluded in the proforma. In second scenariosatisfaction rating for footpath width was raisedto five for all the ten locations. After calculatingcumulative scores, level of service has beenestimated. It was observed that LOS of L18has changed from LOS C to LOS B. Sensitivityanalysis of location 11 to 20 to the change inthis attribute is given in Table 7. It indicates thatwhile LOS at location 11 and 18 are sensitiveto footpath width while other locations are notsensitive to this parameter.

Table 6: Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Footpath Surface) on Walkability

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20Footpath surface 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Footpath width 3 2 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5Vehicle conflict Pot. 3 1 3 4 3 1 3 3 3 3Continuity 4 1 3 3 3 1 4 2 3 4Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1Safety 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 2 3 3Comfort 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 3 3 3Walk environment 2 1 4 2 4 1 1 4 2 1Score 99 63 137 105 138 78 89 126 115 116LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C CLOS (A1) D E B C B E D B C C

Table 7: Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Footpath Surface) on Walkability

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20Footpath surface 4 4 4 5 4 1 3 3 4 4Footpath width 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5Vehicle conflict Pot. 3 1 3 4 3 1 3 3 3 3Continuity 4 1 3 3 3 1 4 2 3 4Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1Safety 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 2 3 3Comfort 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 3 3 3Walk environment 2 1 4 2 4 1 1 4 2 1Score 103 71 137 112 137 77 93 126 115 116LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C CLOS (A2) C E B C B E D B C C


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4.3 Effect of Improvement inObstruction

Obstruction is the third sidewalk attributeincluded in the proforma. In this scenariosatisfaction rating for obstruction was raisedto five i.e., no obstruction at all, for all the tenlocations. Level of service has been estimatedon the basis of cumulative scores achieved. Itwas observed that LOS of L18 has changed fromLOS C to LOS B. Sensitivity analysis of location11 to 20 to the change in this attribute is given inTable 8. It shows that while LOS at location 11and 18 are sensitive to obstruction while otherlocations are not sensitive to this parameter.

4.4 Effect of Improvement inEncroachment

Encroachment is the fourth sidewalk attribute

Table 8 : Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Obstruction) on Walkability

included in the proforma. Functioning ofinformal sector on sidewalks is an integral partof the sidewalk system. They cater to the needsof pedestrians and to some extent provide asense of security to the pedestrians.Satisfaction rating for encroachment wasraised to five, which implies no encroachment,for all the ten locations. Cumulative scoreswere calculated and level of service has beenestimated. The improvement of footpathconditions by removing encroachmentculminated in change of LOS of location 18from LOS C to LOS B. Sensitivity analysis oflocation 11 to 20 to the change in this attributeis given in Table 9. It shows that while LOS atlocation 11 and 18 are sensitive toencroachment other locations are not sensitiveto this parameter.

Table 9 : Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Encroachment) on Walkability




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4.5 EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENT INPOTENTIAL FOR VEH. CONFLICT

The fifth sidewalk attribute included in theproforma was potential for vehicle conflict.Satisfaction rating for potential for vehicle conflictwas raised to five for all the ten locations. Aftercalculating cumulative scores, level of servicehas been estimated. It was observed that LOSof L13 and L15 has changed from LOS B toLOS A, and L 18 has changed from LOS C toLOS B. Sensitivity analysis of location 11 to 20to the change in this attribute is given in Table10. It shows that LOS at location 11,13, 15 and18 are sensitive to this parameter while otherlocations are not sensitive.

Table 10: Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Potential for Veh. Conflict) on Walkability

4.6 EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENT INCONTINUITY

Continuity is the sixth sidewalk attributeincluded in the proforma. Satisfaction rating forContinuity was raised to five for all the tenlocations, and cumulative scores wereestimated, with this changed scenario. On thebasis of cumulative scores the level of servicehas been estimated. It was observed that LOSof L18 has changed from LOS C to LOS B.Sensitivity analysis of location 11 to 20 to thechange in this attribute is given in Table 11. Itshows that LOS at location 18 sensitive toContinuity while other locations are notsensitive to this parameter.

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20Footpath surface 4 4 4 5 4 1 3 3 4 4Footpath width 3 2 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5Vehicle conflict Pot. 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Continuity 4 1 3 3 3 1 4 2 3 4Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1Safety 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 2 3 3Comfort 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 3 3 3Walk environment 2 1 4 2 4 1 1 4 2 1Score 103 75 141 109 141 78 89 126 119 120LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C CLOS (A5) C E A C A E D B C C

Table 11 : Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Continuity) on Walkability

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20Footpath surface 4 4 4 5 4 1 3 3 4 4Footpath width 3 2 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5Vehicle conflict Pot. 3 1 3 4 3 1 3 3 3 3Continuity 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1Safety 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 2 3 3Comfort 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 3 3 3Walk environment 2 1 4 2 4 1 1 4 2 1Score 97 68 138 109 137 71 83 125 116 115LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C C

LOS (A6) D E B C B E D B C C


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4.7 EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENT INPEDESTRIAN VOLUME

The effect of improvement in pedestrian volumeon level of service was observed. Satisfactionrating for pedestrian volume was raised to fivefor all the ten locations. After calculatingcumulative scores, level of service has beenestimated. It was observed that LOS of L18has changed from LOS C to LOS B. Sensitivityanalysis of location 11 to 20 to the change inthis attribute is given in Table 12. It shows thatLOS at location 18 sensitive to pedestrianvolume while other locations are not sensitiveto this parameter.

4.8 EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENT INSAFETY

Safety is the eighth and most importantsidewalk attribute included in the proforma.Satisfaction rating for safety was raised to fivefor all the ten locations i.e., the location is safeto walk during day as well as night. Aftercalculating cumulative scores, level of servicehas been estimated. It was observed thatexcept for locations which have level of serviceE, all other locations responded positivelytowards the improvement in this attribute. .Sensitivity analysis of location 11 to 20 to thechange in this attribute is given in Table 13.


Table 12 : Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Pedestrian Vol.) on Walkability

Table 13: Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Safety) on Walkability

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20Footpath surface 4 4 4 5 4 1 3 3 4 4Footpath width 3 2 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5Vehicle conflict Pot. 3 1 3 4 3 1 3 3 3 3Continuity 4 1 3 3 3 1 4 2 3 4Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1Safety 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Comfort 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 3 3 3Walk environment 2 1 4 2 4 1 1 4 2 1Score 114 79 143 124 143 77 96 133 121 122LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C CLOS (A8) C E A B A E D B B B


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4.9 EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENT INCOMFORT

Comfort is the ninth sidewalk attribute includedin the proforma. It is also one of the importantuser attribute because the pedestrians belongto all age groups and gender. The old peopleespecially need comfort while walking on afootpath. Satisfaction rating for comfort wasraised to five for all the ten locations. Aftercalculating cumulative scores, level of servicehas been estimated. It was observed that LOSof L18 has changed from LOS C to LOS B.Sensitivity analysis of location 11 to 20 to thechange in this attribute is given in Table 14. Itshows that while LOS at location 18 sensitiveto footpath width while other locations are notsensitive to this parameter.

4.10 EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENT INWALK ENVIRONMENT

Walk environment is the tenth sidewalk attributeincluded in the proforma. Satisfaction rating forwalk environment was raised to five for all theten locations. After calculating cumulativescores, level of service has been estimated. Itwas observed that LOS of L18 has changedfrom LOS C to LOS B. Sensitivity analysis oflocation 11 to 20 to the change in this attributeis given in Table 15. It shows that while LOS atlocation 18 sensitive to walk environment whileother locations are not sensitive to thisparameter.

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20Footpath surface 4 4 4 5 4 1 3 3 4 4Footpath width 3 2 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5Vehicle conflict Pot. 3 1 3 4 3 1 3 3 3 3Continuity 4 1 3 3 3 1 4 2 3 4Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1Safety 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 2 3 3Comfort 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Walk environment 2 1 4 2 4 1 1 4 2 1Score 98 72 146 108 139 65 88 125 117 119LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C CLOS (A9) D E A C B E D B C C

Table 14: Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Comfort) on Walkability

Attributes/Location L11 L12 L13 L14 L15 L16 L17 L18 L19 L20Footpath surface 4 4 4 5 4 1 3 3 4 4Footpath width 3 2 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4Obstruction 2 2 5 2 4 2 2 4 2 3Encroachment 3 2 5 2 4 3 1 4 3 5Vehicle conflict Pot. 3 1 3 4 3 1 3 3 3 3Continuity 4 1 3 3 3 1 4 2 3 4Pedestrian vol. 1 1 4 3 4 1 2 4 3 1Safety 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 2 3 3Comfort 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 3 3 3Walk environment 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Score 107 75 138 117 137 78 97 122 123 128LOS (0) D E B C B E D C C C

LOS (A10) C E B C B E D B B B

Table 15: Effect of Change in Sidewalk Attribute (Walk Environment) on Walkability


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References :1 Gallin, Nicole. (2001), “Quantifying Pedestrian Friendliness-Guidelines for Assessing Pedestrian Level of

Service”, Road and Transport Research, Vol.10, No.-1, 47-55.

2. Guilford J P (1954),’Psychometric Methods’, McGraw Hill, New York.

3 Indian Roads Congress, Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities”, IRC: 103-1988.

4 Parida,Purnima (2006) “Planning, Design and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities in Delhi”, unpublished Ph.D.Thesis submitted to Department of Architecture & Planning, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee.

5 Parida, M., Jain, S.S., Bhavanarayana, K. (2001), “A Level of Service Concept for Capacity Analysis of Stairways”,Urban Transport Journal, Institute of Urban Transport (India), Vol. 2, No.1, March, pp. 74-92.

6 Sarkar Sheila (1993), “Determination of Service Levels for Pedestrians with European Examples”, TransportationResearch Record 1405, 35-42.

7 Transportation Research Board (2002), Highway Capacity Manual, National Research Council, Washington D.C.

8. Parida, P., Najamuddin and Parida, M. (2007), “Development of Qualitative Evaluation Methodology for Sidewalksin Delhi”, ITPI Journal, Vol. No. 3, July – September.

5. GUIDELINES FOR IMPROVINGWALKABILITY

The change in the LOS grades of the samplesidewalks by improving an attribute to the bestconditions (5) is related to the weights attachedby the pedestrians. When safety as an attributewas upgraded seven locations respondedfavorably. The sensitivity analysis is a tool forevaluating alternative proposals for improvingpedestrian facilities. An overview of the aboveten sample pedestrian facilities cutting acrossdifferent landuses indicate that only two of themare in walkability grade ‘B’ and six havewalkability grade ‘C’ and above. As a designnorm if we specify that all facilities need to bedesigned for a minimum walkability grade ‘C’at least 40% of the pedestrian facilities studiedwould need improvement. Pedestrian facilitiesaround transportation terminals and majorcommercial centres are not properlydeveloped. To upgrade the walkability for thesepedestrian facilities, improvement can be madefor footpath surface, footpath width, minimizingobstructions, removing encroachment,vehicular conflict potential, maintainingcontinuity. On the user front safety, comfort andpleasing walk environment can enhancewalkability. While efforts should be made todesign a new pedestrian facility for a level ofservice ‘B’, under no circumstance it shouldattain a level of ‘C’. In the sensitivity analysisfour locations were observed to be sensitive tothe parameter “potential for vehicular conflict”,

indicating a need for complete segregation ofpedestrian facilities from motorized trafficnetwork. Eventhough the sensitivity analysis forwalkability has been shown for single variable,walkability scores can be raised throughimprovement of multiple variables. It is possibleto combine improvement of more than oneparameter i.e. both physical characteristics anduser characteristics to raise walkability scoreto exceed 120, thus improving the level ofservice of the pedestrian facility as ‘B’.

6. CONCLUSIONS

The study presented in this paper shall be isuseful for the planning, design and operation ofsidewalk facilities. Qualitative walkabilitymodels developed in this study are effective tocompare different input scenarios for planning,design and operation of sidewalk facilities. Levelof service model developed through qualitativeanalysis designates a sidewalk in terms of awalkability score depending on the ten identifiedattributes. Application of this model has beenexplained by studying the effect of change insidewalk attributes on the walkability scores andfinally walkability grade of the pedestrian facility.Walkability score presented here is a functionof both design factors and user characteristics.This model shall be useful to evaluate existingpedestrian infrastructure in metropolitan citiesalong with evaluating alternative proposal forimproving pedestrian facilities.


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FINANCING URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT

P.S. KHAROLA *

ABSTRACT

The importance of public transport systems is well understood today. Despite this, the condition of public transportsystems in Indian cities is not what it ought to have been. This sector has not been able to attract appropriateinvestments nor generate enough financial resources and this has manifested in the weak financial position ofalmost all urban transport utilities. In spite of their rather poor performance in the past, the urban transport utilitieshave certain inherent strengths and this coupled with the rapidly growing urban economies have thrown up a hostof opportunities which can be tapped so as to generate resources for the development of this sector. This paper hasattempted a survey of all the financing tools that can be made use of. Notwithstanding, the new methods offinancing, the paper has emphasized that the conventional tools cannot be overlooked and all these need to beused in parallel. The analysis is in primarily in the context of bus based public transport systems, as they stillcontinue to dominate the urban transport scenario.

1. INTRODUCTION- CHALLENGES INFINANCING URBAN PUBLICTRANSPORT

Urban public transport systems present a multidimensional challenge- for the government toprovide a congenial environment so that thetransportation system can survive and grow,for the planners to design an effective andefficient transport system, for the operationalmanagers to run the system optimally and forthe financial managers to ensure availability ofadequate funds. The public transport systemshave generally been found to be lacking on allthese fronts-planning, operational and financial.The urban public transport scenario has beenanalysed by a large number of researchers andalmost all of them have arrived at a conclusionthat the condition of urban public transportsystems is far from satisfactory. Thisunfortunate condition of the urban publictransport systems is attributed to a largenumber of causes – improper policyenvironment, fragmented institutionalarrangements, unscientific planning, pooroperational efficiencies, outdated technology,

shortage of capital, managerial inadequacies,labour unrest etc. These notwithstanding, thelast decade has seen several importantdevelopments in this sector. Government ofIndia announced a Transport Policy which apartfrom underlining the importance of publictransport systems broadly spells out themeasures required to ameliorate the problemsbeing faced by this sector. There have beenseveral successful examples- though small inscale- of public private partnerships. Publictransport undertakings are striving to explodethe myth that urban public transport systemsare born to make losses. A substantial amountof investments are being routed to this sectorby the Union as well as the State Governments–the JNNURM

1 is a very good example.

The problem of urban public transport is quitecomplex and therefore simple straight forwardsolutions are not possible. Interventions arerequired on the policy front, the legalenvironment requires changes, new institutionalarrangements have to be established, thecapability of the organizations as well asindividuals staffing these organization needs to

I U TJOURNAL

* Administrative Reforms Commission, Government of India

1 The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission


be enhanced, a slew of measures that wouldgive priority to public transport are required tobe put in place, modern technology needs tobe resorted to, the quality of services needs tobe improved followed by sustained marketingefforts and last but not the least the operationalefficiencies have to be increased. An underlyingnecessity for undertaking these measures(apart from legal and institutional measures) isthe requirement of financing. Indeed one of themost important causes of the unsatisfactorystate of public transport systems in India hasbeen inadequate investments coupled withpoor internal generation of resources.

Any ‘economic firm’ uses four basic factors ofproduction-natural resources, humanresources, capital and entrepreneurship. Thefirm’ ‘pays for each one of these resources,consumes them and produces goods orservices, for which it charges a price. Normallythe price charged for the ‘goods or service’brings enough revenue to the firm so as to payup for all the factors of production. The publictransport activity could also be modeled as an‘economic firm’ as it also requires all the fourbasic factors of production and converts theminto ‘transportation services’ for which it charges‘fares’ from its users. There are however threebasic differences. First, unlike a generaleconomic firm, the transportation firm doesnot own the first factor of production – the roadspace is not owned by the transport utility andit has to share it with other modes of transport

2.

Second, the transport utility does not have achoice of determining the price of its services.Because of reasons of equity and the largerimpact the transportation industry has on theoverall economy of a region, the fares areusually determined by a governmental authority.This indeed poses a dilemma for thetransportation utility-whereas it has to buy thefactors of production at market prices, it cannot

charge a market price for its services. Third,the public transport system generates largeamount of positive externality, whose benefitsit normally cannot reap

3- extension of transport

system to any area raises the value of realestate in that area. The benefits go to theresidents and also to local bodies which cannow mobilize more taxes from these properties.It is these three differences that make financingof urban public transport systems morechallenging.

2. THE FINANCIAL STREAMS OF ANURBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTSYSTEM

As mentioned earlier all the factors ofproduction need to be paid for in any economicsystem and public transport systems are noexception. In an ideal case, the revenuegenerated by transportation activity should havebeen able to finance all the factors ofproduction. But almost all urban publictransport undertakings run under heavy losses,therefore expecting that revenue streams canadequately fund all the factors of production

2 However in case of rail transport, the land on which the system runs is owned by the rail utility.

3 Transportation systems also produce negative externalities, but as compared to personalized modes oftransport these are very less.

4 Source : Central Institute of Road Transport

would be inappropriate (Figure 1)4. Therefore

different financing tools are required for funding

Figure 1 : Profit/Loss of Bus Based UrbanTransport Organisations (2005-06)

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Financing Urban Public Transport

different activities of public transport systems.The activities to be funded can be broadlyclassified as follows:

a. Infrastructure.

b. Movable assets.

c. Operations.

2.1 Infrastructure

All urban public transport systems havevehicles which move from one place to anotherthus providing mass mobility. In cities, thismovement has to take place on roads or rails.Rail based system, though emerging in somemetropolis are not common in most Indiancities. Thus proper roads are a basic necessityfor any vehicular transport. Apart from roads,public transport systems require other supportinfrastructure like interchange points,pedestrian facilities, maintenance depots,workshops and wayside pick up points. Allthese infrastructure facilities requireinvestments.

2.2 Movable assets

As mentioned in the previous paragraph,vehicles constitute the most importantconstituent of any public transport system.These vehicles reflect the technology that is inuse. Apart from vehicles, a large number ofequipments are required to support the runningof the system. This includes fare collectionmechanisms, control systems, InformationTechnology etc. Paucity of investment in themovable assets manifests in the form of higheroperational costs and poor quality of services.

2.3 Operations

Public transport systems-especially roadbased ones – are highly labour and fuelintensive. Indeed these two elements puttogether account for about 80% of the totaloperational costs. Outdated technology andimproper maintenance practices coupled witha fuel pricing mechanism which does not giveincentives to public transport systems hasplaced a huge burden on the public transportutilities. Besides, insufficient investment in thehuman capital has lead to low morale and poorlabour efficiency. Therefore the need to fundthese components adequately.

2.4 Outputs of transport systems

Transport operations have several streams ofoutputs. The major output, of course beingmobility to commuters and therefore the mostimportant stream of revenue is the fare boxcollection. Besides, the transportation activitygenerates different taxes the proceeds of whichgo to the local government, the StateGovernment and the Union Government.Transport systems also generate severalstreams of non traffic revenue. Advertisementrevenue, parking revenue, rentals fromcommercial properties developed at theinterchange points etc are some of these.Positive externalities are an important outcomeof the transportation system. Increase in thevalue of land and buildings along the transportnetwork is an important resource which canbe tapped to generate revenues for thetransport system. The financial input and outputstreams of a transport system areschematically depicted in Figure 2.

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86

3. WAYS OF FINANCING DIFFERENTACTIVITIES/COMPONENTS

As indicated in Figure 2, there are differentactivities/components which would require tobe financed. Each activity has its own typicalcharacteristics and lends itself to differentmodes of financing. These modes of financingare summarized as follows:

1. Financing infrastructure

a. common infrastructure like roads

i. investments by governmentalagencies

ii. Financing through levy of cess.iii. use of FSI and TDRs

b. exclusive infrastructure

i. using internal surplusii. market Bonds-Escrow Accountiii. tapping the advertisement potential

of transport infrastructureiv. development of major interchange

points –bus stand complexes-asincome generating assets

2. Financing movable assets

a. using internal resources

b. borrowings-term loans, bonds

c. policy measures to reduce capital costs

d. inviting private capital-PPPs

3. Financing operations

a. conventional techniques

i. Rational fare policies

ii. Reducing operating costs

iii. Increasing operational efficiency

iv. Route optimisation

b. non conventional techniques

i. Maximising non traffic revenues

ii. Rationalization of taxes

iii. Marketing -exploiting typicaldemand characteristics of urbancommuting.

iv. Creation of Urban Transport Fund.

v. Congestion levies

4. FINANCING INFRASTRUCTURE

4.1 Financing Common Infrastructure

Infrastructure required for urban public transportcan be broadly categorized into two types –common infrastructure and exclusiveinfrastructure. Roads, flyovers, parking lots-which are shared by the public transport utilitywith other modes of transport- would qualify tobe termed as common infrastructure whereasbus stations, way-side pick up points,maintenance depots and workshops would fallin the latter category.

Urban roads are usually provided in all countrieswithout levy of any user charge-they are treatedas ‘free goods’. Indeed, in India all the Municipallaws stipulate that providing and maintainingroads is the primary duty of a municipalgovernment. Thus expenses towardsconstruction and maintenance of roads are tobe met through the general revenues of themunicipal government. These generalrevenues are proceeds of various taxes leviedby the municipal government. Because of theprecarious financial condition of most municipalgovernments several important roads withincity limits are maintained by the StateGovernment’s PWD Department. StateGovernments also provide financial assistanceto the municipal bodies for development ofroads within their jurisdiction. Thus roads area classic example of separation of responsibilityfor providing transport infrastructure fromproviding actual transport service. The formervests with the municipal government/stategovernment while the latter with the urbantransport utility

5. Indeed this represents the

typical scenario in an Indian city where differentagencies are responsible for differentcomponents of urban transport function.

5 However in states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, there is convergence between providing infrastructure facilitiesand providing actual transport services as both are the responsibility of the urban local governments.


87

Levy of user charges for financing of urbanroads is not a practical proposition and henceis never resorted to. But municipalgovernments have taken recourse to raisingcapital for road development by way of termloans or even by issuing municipal bonds. It isexpected that road development would providea fillip to economic activities, thereby boostingthe revenue inflows to the municipalgovernment and these enhanced revenuescould then be used to repay the debts.

Another method of financing urban transportprojects is through levy of cess. A cess, like atax is a statutory levy but the proceeds have tobe used for a pre-determined purpose. A verygood example is the Central Road Fund. Thisfund has been created under the Central RoadFund Act, 2000. The proceeds of levy ofadditional duty on diesel and petrol are thesources of revenue for this fund. This fund isbeing used for development of the road networkin the country. A more relevant example of levyof cess for development of urban transportsystem is the cess levied in the city ofBengaluru on certain financial transactions -like sale of petrol, diesel, sale of land etc. thislevy has generated substantial revenues for the

Box 1 Municipal Bonds for Road Development

Accessing the Capital Market

The most notable initiative in the municipal sphere has been the emergence of a municipal bond market.Propelled by the report of the Expert Group of Commercialization of Infrastructure Projects in 1996, whichproposed adoption of a commercial approach to municipal infrastructure and the follow-up groundwork,the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation became the first municipality in the country to issue bonds of Rs100 crore at 14 per cent interest payable semi-annually. Following this example, a number of municipalentities and parastatals have since accessed capital market funds, with the back-up of CRISIL and twocredit rating agencies, namely ICRA Ltd. and CARE, who have developed systems for evaluating thecreditworthiness of municipalities. The nine municipalities, which have accessed the capital market havethus far been able to raise Rs 618.5 crore, by issuing bonds. An important feature of municipal bonds isthat with the exception of bonds issued by the Bangalore Municipal Corporation and Indore MunicipalCorporation, other bonds have been issued without a state government or a bank guarantee. Traditionally,lenders to municipal entities in the infrastructure sector have sought a state or a sovereign guarantee asan important security mechanism.

Source: Urban Finance-O P Mathur: India Infrastructure Report ; 2006

Bangalore Metro Project. Cess is an effectivemethod of mobilizing funds for capital intensiveprojects.

Besides common infrastructure, publictransport systems also require exclusiveinfrastructure like maintenance facilities(depots), interchange points, way side busstops etc. These facilities are not provided bythe municipal government and the transportutility has to provide these facilities through itsown resources. Interchange points andwayside bus stops are frequented by a largenumber of people daily and therefore have agreat potential for generating commercialrevenue. Similarly, depots usually have largechunks of lands in different parts of the city.Commercial exploitation of the air space abovethese depots offers an excellent opportunity forrevenue generation.

4.2 Use of FSI6 and TDRs

All municipal governments have BuildingByelaws that regulate the construction activity.One of the important stipulations under theBuilding Byelaws is the Floor Space Index (FSI).It indicates the amount of floor space a builder

6 Another term in use is the FAR-Floor Area Ratio.


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can build on a unit area of land- a smaller FSImeans a few floors in the building and a largerFSI means a tall multi storey building. A buildernormally seeks to have a higher FSI, as he canbuild larger floor space and thereby increasehis revenues per unit area of land. As thebuilding bye-laws are quite old, they normallyprescribe a low FSI. The intention behind thiswas to allow the city to grow horizontally rathervertically. However, now it is realized that withrapidly increasing urban population, it would beeasier to provide services-transport, water,sewage- to the citizens if population density isreasonably high rather than dispersed.

The value of any parcel of land is linked to theFSI permissible on it. An increase in the FSIwould bring in more revenues to the owner ofthe land – as he/she would be able ‘build’ moreon it and thereby derive more income. Thisincreased value of land could then be sharedby the owner and the municipal government.The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad usedFSI as a resource for widening its roads. Landused for road expansion was not compensatedmonetarily, instead the land loser was givenpermission to utilize more FSI than is normallypermissible. This had the twin advantages ofroad widening on the one had and densificationof the corridor on the other – ideal for publictransport systems. And all this at no extra costto the local government.

A related concept is Transfer of DevelopmentRights. Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)means making available certain amount ofadditional built up area in lieu of the arearelinquished or surrendered by the owner of theland, so that he can use extra built up area eitherhimself or transfer it to another in need of theextra built up area for an agreed sum of money

7.

TDRs could be used as tool to finance exclusivebus-ways.

Thus FSI and TDRs have the potential ofbecoming a major tool for financing road

development projects especially in larger citieswhere the land prices are exorbitantly high.

4.3 Financing Exclusive Infrastructure

Financing tools like cess, FSIs, TDRs areavailable to the local governments. Publictransport utilities do not have direct access tosuch tools. However, the public transportutilities can always partner with the localgovernments to avail benefits of such tools. Sofar as the exclusive infrastructure for publictransport utilities is concerned- bus stations,way-side pick up points, maintenance depotsand workshops- this would have to be financedby the utilities themselves. In the past the utilitieshave financed such exclusive infrastructurethrough their internal revenue generation orborrowed capital.

4.3.1 Market Bonds-Escrow Accounts

Public transport utilities borrow funds frombanks/financial institutions. As their balancesheets are not very healthy, the financialinstitutions charge a higher rate of interest orinsist for government guarantees. All thisreduces the attractiveness of such term loans.Some states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu haveestablished Transport Finance Corporations(as non banking financial companies) to meetthe capital needs of the state public transportutilities. These companies mobilize funds frompublic or other investors through deposits andvarious other schemes. These funds are thengiven to the state transport utilities throughdifferent instruments. Recoveries of such loansto the transport utilities have been good . Insome cases, the revenue generated by theoperations are directed to an ‘escrow account’which ensures that the finance corporations getthe repayments on time.

Just as municipal bodies have been raisingfunds from municipal bonds, there is potentialfor the public transport utilities to raise funds

6 http://www.bmponline.org/eng-dept/program-of-works/madivala/TDR-website%2001.pdf


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by directly accessing the bond market as hasbeen done by several municipal bodies. Thereare two categories of municipal bonds- taxablebonds and tax-free bonds. In the latter category,the interest earned by the depositers in notsubject to income tax and consequently thereturn to the depositor is higher for a prescribedinterest rate. Thus the municipal bodies areable to borrow capital generate revenue at alower cost. This option of tax-free bonds is notavailable to public transport utilities, as underthe guidelines issued for raising tax free bondspublic transport utilities are not included.Furthermore, though urban transport projectsqualify as a permissible activity under such taxfree bonds, a condition has been added thatthe proceeds of tax free bonds can be used forurban transport projects only if urban transportis a municipal function under the state laws.

4.3.2 Tapping the AdvertisementPotential of TransportInfrastructure

Transport infrastructure has very high ‘visibility’.Especially the bus stands, where usually alarge number of commuters gather. Theseplaces are excellent locations for the advertisingcompanies to propagate their products. Theassignment of advertising rights on theselocations can be a very good source of revenuefor the transport utilities. Delhi TransportCorporation has assigned the construction ofits bus shelters on a BOT

8 basis to private

bidders. By doing so not only has it been ableto provide modern amenities to its commutersbut it has also generated substantial revenuesfor itself by assigning the advertisement oncommercial basis.

4.3.3 Development of Major InterchangePoints –Bus Stand Complexes-asIncome Generating Assets

Transport systems in many cities is organizedon the hub and spoke principle. The hubs

become centres of major commercial activitiesbecause of the large section of populationhaving to pass through these. Theseinterchange points could be developed in amanner so as to ensure seamless transitionfrom one bus to another on the one hand andcommercial development of the property onother. The Shivajinagar Bus Stand complex inBengaluru, is an example of a modern welldesigned hub. The basement has aunderground network of pedestrian subways.The ground level is earmarked for buses whichmove in and out without any hindrance. Thefirst and second floor is reserved for parkingand office space. Costing about Rs 8 crores(year 2000), the rentals from various facilities,when capitalized exceeds the investment. Butthe most important benefit is not the commercialrevenue, but the savings in turn around time ofbuses. Thus the prime land resources availablewith the public transport utilities offer anexcellent opportunity for mobilization ofrevenues. This can be achieved by eithertransport utilities undertaking such developmentthemselves or by involving the private sectorthrough the public private partnership route.

5. FINANCING MOVABLE ASSETS

Bulk of public transport in cities in India isprovided by the government undertakings.These government undertakings areestablished as body corporates under the RoadTransport Corporation Act (A Central law). Insome cities public transport is under the controlof the local urban government (e.g. Mumbai,Ahmedabad), in some states the serviceprovider is organized as a fully state ownedcompany under the Companies Act (TamilNadu) and in some states the service provideris organized as a government department. Insome cities, private operators ply their busesin the cities. These may be either under apermit or sometimes even illegal. A largenumber of cities in India are served by private

8 Build Operate and Transfer


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mini-buses, maxi-cabs, tempos and vans.These operations run solely with profit motivecannot be said to be an organized system ofpublic transport.

The most important movable asset in urbantransport is the vehicles (buses). There arevarious methods in which the buses could beprovisioned. The method of provisioning wouldalso depend upon the institutionalarrangements and the legal requirements.These modes of provisioning could be arrangedin a continuum ranging from ownership of thebuses at one extreme to complete laissez faireoperations at the other extreme Figure 3.

Figure 3: Different Modes of Provisioning of Buses

5.1 Augmentation through acquisitionof buses by the GovernmentCompanies running publictransport:

In several cities, the government organizations-state transport undertakings- running buseshave a monopoly. Under these conditions, thegovernment companies have to procure buses.Same is the case where the city governmentsare incharge of providing public transport

services. The performance of theseorganizations, a stated earlier, has generallybeen in the red and they do not have surplusfunds to finance acquisition of new buses.Moreover, the fear of making further lossesdeters them from borrowing capital. Thus thisoption also has limited potential. Theseorganizations do sometimes borrow funds –on government guarantee- to fund acquisitionof new buses.

5.2 Hiring of buses

The monopoly operator-the governmentundertaking- need not necessarily own theentire fleet of buses. It can take the buses on

hire from a private owner along with the driveron a long term contract and compensate theowner on the basis of distance run. Such busesare normally taken on ‘wet lease’ for a longperiod (wet lease means alongwith the crew).The fare box revenue comes to theGovernment undertaking. The advantages ofthis arrangement are while private capital isbrought into the system by the private operator,the bus operates exactly as if it is owned bythe government undertaking. The private


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operator also feels secure as he/she isinsulated against the vagaries varying loadfactors and uneconomical fares.

A difficulty in this mode of financing is that theprivate owner of buses has to approach termlending institutions who in turn insist for a longterm contract with the pubic transport utility.Though there are no problems per se inexecuting a long term contract, but the ratepayable per unit distance traveled by buscannot remain fixed for a long period. Thisintroduces an element of discretion in theadjustment of the rates payable in future. Theprivate owners are wary that the legitimateincrease in the cost of inputs over a period oftime would not be compensated in a fairmanner by the public transport utility. On theother hand, the public transport utility normallyhas a feeling that the private owner-operatormay indulge in profiteering. This divergence ofperspectives results in fixing of unrealisticallyhigh or low rates of payment. However thisdifficulty can be overcome by having ‘passthroughs

9’ for costs of inputs. This would in

effect mean that the rate payable is determinedby a formula which has the different costs asinputs. A slight variation of this model was theKM scheme of DTC and the Hiring of Busscheme of BMTC.

5.3 Tendering of Routes:

Operating stage carriages requires a permit tobe obtained under the Motor Vehicles Act. Inmost cities such permits are not given to privatebus owners. Even where they are given theyare in the form of permissions to run a bus ona fixed route. State Governments haveauthorized the State Owned Public Transportutilities to operate buses within the limits of acity.

A simplest way to get public vehicles on roadis to allow private owners to run their publictransport vehicles in the city on designatedroutes and allowing them to retain the fare boxcollections. This methodology is adopted insome cities and is more popular for longdistance inter-city routes. Under this system,the vehicles are totally financed through privateinvestment, indeed the government getsincome in the form of license fees. The BlueLine buses running in Delhi are under thissystem. Attractive though this system mayappear, it has certain disadvantages. Itbecomes difficult to regulate the private busesespecially when their number is large. Moreover,with the regulation regime in Indian cities beingrather ‘soft’, these private operators often showscant regard for rules as well as variousconditions imposed in their contract/permit.

Box 2 The Indore Model of Public Private Partnership

“Indore City transport services Ltd” has been incorporated to operate and manage the public transportsystem. The company surveys and identifies routes. These routes are then tendered and the private operatorsoffer a premium and the highest bidder gets it. The main sources of revenue for the system are the fare boxcollection, advertising and passes revenue. The fare box revenue goes to the private operator. Theadvertisement revenue is shared between the operator and the company and 80% of the pass revenue goesto the operator. At present there are about 100 buses operating under the system. Thus with no majorinvestment from the government the system has proved to be self sustaining. The very fact that the operatorsare offering premium on routes establishes that running buses is a profitable venture for them.

(Source: Extracted from the website of ICTSL: http://www.citybusindore.com/default.aspx)

9 Pass through means a clause that automatically varies the rate of compensation as the cost of any input -which is beyond the control of the private operator- changes.


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Consequently the quality of services providednormally are far below expectations.

Another variant of this system could be wherethe state owned public transport utilities mayallow private owners to run their buses oncertain routes/cluster of routes. Here, insteadof charging a fixed license fee, the utility mayask the private operators to bid for a premium,and the highest bidder gets the authority tooperate on the prescribed routes. Theadvantage of this system is that the marketforces determine the payment to be made bythe private operator to the utility. Severalconditions may imposed in the contract suchas – the operator has to adopt the given farerates, he has to follow a prescribed time table,he has to adhere to certain quality of servicestandards etc. The profit maximizationapproach of the operator may clash with theobjective of providing good quality service. Avariation in the cost of inputs may affect theviability of the scheme. Thus there is a highdegree of uncertainty in this scheme. Moreoverthe scheme may not work in case of un-economical routes, where complex subsidymechanism would have to be worked out. Thissystem also suffers from the same drawbackas mentioned in the preceding paragraph. TheIndore model is a variant of this system.

5.4 Disinvestment of Shares

As stated earlier, most of the urban transportutilities are incorporated under the RoadTransport Corporation Act, (1950). Utilities inTamil Nadu are registered under the IndiaCompanies Act, whereas utilities in Maharshtraand Gujarat are a wing of the urban localgovernment. There is no private shareholdingin any of these utilities and all investments areby the Union and the State Governments – orthe local governments. Offering shareholdingto members of public or to financial institutionscould bring in the double benefit of increasedliquidity on the one hand and moreaccountability and hence better managementon the other. The fear expressed sometimes

is whether these loss making entities would beable to draw public investment. Howeversupporters of this proposition argue that themarket value of the ‘real estate’ owned by theseutilities is much more than what is reflected intheir books of accounts and this would in turnboost the confidence of the investors.

So far no public transport utility has attemptedto raise resources through this route. But thisroute has good potential. However, the publictransport utilities may have to restructurethemselves as companies before they adoptthis route. Also a series of approvals would berequired from the Union and State governmentsas well as various financial regulators. Last butnot the least the standard of accountingprocedures and financial discipline within theorganization would have to be raised.

6. FINANCING OPERATIONS

The term ‘financing operations’ is not a commonterm in the public transport industry. It broadlyconnotes generation of enough resourcesthrough transport and allied activities so as tomake the entire public transport systemfinancially sustainable. On the operationalfinance side, public transport systems have twoinherent strengths – (i) the working capitalrequirement is virtually zero and (ii) theaccounts receivables are almost zero. Thebasic reason for this being that all revenuesare realized either before the transport servicesare given or during the period of provisioning ofthe services.

Enhancing traffic revenues and reducingoperational costs have been the mostimportant tools for financing transportoperations. Their relevance continues eventoday also. A wide array of tools available forincreasing traffic revenue, including – keepingthe fares abreast with the increase in cost ofinputs, route optimization, checking pilferage,improving workers’ performance etc. Similarly,the cost reduction side also has a wide varietyof options like effecting savings in critical inputs


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like fuel, fleet modernization, adoption of bettermaintenance techniques and infusing disciplineamongst employees etc. The thrust in thispaper is on new financing techniques, thereforethe conventional methods are not beingelaborated. But this in no way dilutes theirimportance. Some of the non conventionaltechniques which are used or can be used bytransport operators are:

i. Maximising non traffic revenues

ii. Reducing the burden of tax on publictransport utilities

iii. Marketing-exploiting typical demandcharacteristics of urban commuting.

iv. Creation of urban transport fund.

v. A more equitable tax regime

6.1 Maximising Non Traffic Revenues

An idea about the magnitude of traffic and nontraffic revenues can be had from Table 1.

Table 1: Revenues of Urban TransportUtilities -YEAR 2005-06 (Rs in lakhs)

BEST{Mumbai} 79457 5307 6.7

DTC(URBAN){Delhi} 27555 3859 14.0

MTC(CNI){Chennai} 41200 1009 2.4

BMTC{Bengaluru} 62333 3568 5.7

CSTC{Kolkata} 6912 350 5.1

PMT{Pune} 14532 664 4.6

TRAFFICREVENUE

NONTRAFFICREVENUE

Thus the non traffic revenues constitute onlyabout 5% of the total revenues (on an average).The major components of the non-trafficrevenues are rentals from properties andadvertisement charges. The issue of rentalsfrom properties has already been described inparagraph.

A major source of non traffic revenue couldthe use of public transport vehicles for displayof commercial advertisement. Unlike, the longdistance transport systems, the vehicles usedin urban transport remain confined to the urbanand suburban areas. All these areas aredensely populated which in turn enhances theadvertisement potential of the vehicles. Theurban transport utilities have been tapping thisrevenue potential but not to its fullest extent.The commonly adopted methodology is fixinga uniform rate for display of advertisement onpanels on the earmarked exterior of the vehicles(buses). The revenue inflow through thismethod is quite low and often erratic. Anothermethod could be the auctioning of theadvertisement rights on all or a cluster ofvehicles. Established advertising agenciesnormally prefer the second option. Thisensures better and an assured stream ofrevenue for the utility. Though the second optionis definitely better but care needs to beexercised to formulate the contract so as toavoid any ambiguity and legal complicationsafterwards. Advertisement panels could alsobe created inside the vehicle where moderndisplay techniques like LCD and televisioncould be used.

6.2 Reducing the Burden of Tax onPublic Transport Utilities

The public transport organizations have toundertake several activities in order to providethe transport services to the people. Several ofthese activities fall within the tax ambit of thetaxation authorities – Union Government, StateGovernment and City Government. The taxeswhich the public transport organizations aresubjected to can be broadly classified asSource : CIRT


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follows10

:

1. Taxes on acquisition of immovable property

a. Tax on acquisition of land (Stamp Duty-levied by the State Government)

b. Property tax (levied by the MunicipalBody)

2. Tax on acquisition of movable property i.ethe buses.

i. Value added Tax (Levied by the StateGovernment)

ii. Central Excise (Levied by the UnionGovernment)

iii. Customs Duty in case of imports(Levied by the Union Government)

iv. Entry Tax/Octroi (Octroi levied by theMunicipal Authority, and Entry Tax leviedby the State Government).

3. Taxes related to operations i.e on use ofvarious inputs.

a. Excise Duty on consumables (Leviedby the Union Government)

b. Value Added Tax on consumables(Levied by the State Government)

c. Excise Duty and VAT on spare parts

4. Tax on use of vehicles for transportingpassengers.

a. Motor Vehicles Tax (Levied by the StateGovernment)

5. Other levies:

a. Advertisement Tax (levied by the CityGovernment)

Though these taxes are a source of revenuefor the government, but they impose a heavyburden on the public transport utilities. Theimmediate effect of taxes on public transportis that either these have to be absorbed in thefares and thus passed on to the passengersor the transport utilities have to bear these

10 P.S.Kharola and G. Tiwari, Urban Public Transport Systems – are the taxation policies congenial for theirsurvival and growth? Economic and Political Weekly-Issue : VOL 43 No. 41 October 11 - October 17, 2008

11 ibid

levies out of their revenues. With the farestructure strictly regulated by the stategovernments, the latter generally happens andthis is one of the main reasons for the financialunviability of the transport utilities. These taxesaccount for nearly 20% of the gross operatingcost (Figure 4

11). If one looks at a macro picture

of urban public transport in India, the extent oflosses in these organizations is in the range of20-25% of their gross operations. Thus a waiveror reduction of these levies would leave thetransport utilities with enough liquidity so as tofinance their operations.

6.3 Marketing-Exploiting TypicalDemand Characteristics of UrbanCommuting.

Marketing can be an important tool to increaserevenue inflows to the public transport utilities.These utilities do use tools of marketing but toa very limited extent. Marketing in real senseencompasses all activities right from identifyingthe needs of people to creating and providingsuitable products and services to meet theseneeds. Most public transport utilities presumethat there are uniform characteristics ofcommuters’ demands. This is in turnmanifested in the form of identical services forall clientele at all times. This approach of


95

providing a uniform service at uniform ratesmay be ideal from the operational efficiencypoint of view but it does not cater to the varieddemand that exists in the passenger transportmarket. The result is that a large proportion ofthe clientele switches over to other modes oftransport leaving the public utilities with lessattractive routes and passengers who cannotafford any other means of transport. Examplesof such switchover are – almost all big schoolsrunning their own bus services for theirstudents, a large number of industrial unitshaving a exclusive transport service facility fortheir employees, a fleet of ‘chartered buses’providing highly specialised services to theoffice goers. This parallel fleet of vehicles aregrossly underutilized as they run only two tripsa day. Another important feature of this parallelfleet is that their timings do not clash with thegeneral peak of passenger transport – thetimings of schools are different from office, theindustries are run in two or more shifts.Therefore if public utilities could conceptualisespecial services to meet the demands of thespecial clientele, not only would they ensurebetter utilization of their own fleet but also gethigher revenues. Some transport utilities aretaking steps in this direction by inductingdifferent types of services to meet variedpassenger demand, but this needs to bestepped up further.

Pricing of the services is an important aspectof the overall marketing strategy. Almost allpublic utilities have linear stepwise fares. Anda common perception is that the public utilitiesdo not perform well financially, because thefares are too low to make the operations viable.This argument is correct but only up to a point.A readjustment of fares -with probably somedecrease in a few stages and increase in other-could help in increasing the patronization of thepublic transport system on the one hand andincreased revenue on the other. There is thusneed to fix the fares rationally based onelasticity of passenger demand.

6.4 Creation of Urban Transport Fund

The problem of multiplicity of agencies in Indiancities handling different aspects of urban publictransport is very well known. The urbantransport sector generates various streams ofrevenue like taxes, fines, license fees apartfrom the user fees. But all these streams arerouted to different governmental agencies.Similarly, the transport sector gets investmentsfrom various agencies. An associated problemof this fragmented responsibility is the absenceof planned allocation of financial resources tothis sector. The National Urban Transport Policyhas suggested the setting up of a UrbanMetropolitan Transport Authority in each majorcity to bring in the required convergence ofefforts. There is need for pooling of all revenueswhich are generated by transport relatedactivities. These pooled funds could then beused for development of truly integratedtransport systems in the city.

Table 2 Comparison of externalities(per person carried)

caused by different vehicles (ratios)

Congestionper passenger 7.02 15.93 1.00

Pollutionper passenger 13.35 15.99 1.00

Road damageper passenger 0.90 16.00 1.00

Externalityparameter

Twowheeler

Car Bus

6.5 A More Equitable Tax Regime

A case has been made for reduction of taxburden on the public transport utilities. Thiswound need to be supplemented with a morerational tax on the personalized modes oftransport that would internalize the cost ofexternalities produced by such modes. The factthat the personalized modes of transport are


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taxed at a relatively low rates is brought out inTable 2

12. The High Powered Committee on

Financial Position of the Oil Companies hasrecommended a levy of a ‘Metro Extra Tax’ atthe rate of Rs 2 per litre on diesel in allmetropolitan cities. The objective of levying the‘Metro Extra Tax’ is to capture the use ofsubsidized diesel by the personalized modesof transport like cars. Likewise there is a strongcase for levy for congestion charges. But theproblem of administering a congestion levy inIndian cities is a challenging task. Though thishas worked extremely well in cities likeSingapore. Similarly, levy of realistic parkingcharges can mobilize substantial funds on theone hand and also dissuade people from thepersonalized modes of transport. Theproceeds of these levies could be credited tothe ‘Urban Transport Fund’ proposed above.

7. CONCLUSION

This paper has analysed the large number ofoptions available for financing the urban publictransport projects. Some of these could beadopted by the public transport utilitiesthemselves while others would require certainstatutory changes. While some could beimplemented in the short run some wouldrequire a long term perspective. An idealsituation would be to make use of thesemeasures such that they supplement oneanother. It should be understood clearly that inno way can the conventional measures ofincreasing traffic revenues and reducingoperating costs be given a good bye. Indeedthe non conventional measures would yieldbest results only in conjunction with theconventional measures.

12 A study carried out by the Karnataka Tax Reforms Commission


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INSTITUTE OF URBAN TRANSPORT (INDIA) was established in May, 1997 as a premier professionalnon-profit making organization and registered under the Societies Registration Act. The membership ofthe Institute comprises Academicians, Architects, Economists, Engineers, Transport Planners, TownPlanners and professionals from various disciplines. The Institute has on date 1026 Individual Members,70 Associate Members and 49 Institutional Members. The Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development,Government of India, is the ex-officio President of the Institute and its Governing Councill has membersfrom various premier organizations connected with Urban Transport. The Institute has Chapters atBangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Roorkee.

OBJECTIVES

The aim and objective of the Institute is to promote, encourage and coordinate the state of the art ofurban transport including planning, development, operation, education, research and management andalso to organize lectures, seminars, workshop, conferences, etc on subjects pertaining to urban transport.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

With the growth of cities and increase in travel demand combined with poor or almost non existentpublic transport facilities in most of the cities, the number of private vehicles is growing exponentially.Thus to develop not only proper transport infrastructure but also the sustainable public transport systemsfor all types of cities, the institute endeavors to address the problems of infrastructure and sustainableurban transport systems in the country.

The institute has been organizing various national and international Conferences, Seminars, Workshop,Lecture Meetings at regular intervals.

The Institute is now organizing a Conference & Exhibition on Urban Mobility from 3rd to 5th December2008 at Pragati Maidan which will be inaugurated by Hon'ble Minister for Urban Development Shri JaipalReddy.

DATABASE

It is managing National urban Transport Centre (NUTIC), established by the Ministry of Urban Development,Government of India, to compile a reliable and comprehensive database for proper planning and policymaking at the government level as also in the conduct of meaningful research. The Institute is strivingto serve as a storehouse of information on the various public transport technologies being used indifferent parts of the world and act as a comprehensive repository of the best practices in the field.

TRAINING

Institute of Urban Transport also provides for training needs of the government officials and practitionersin the field of urban transport. The Institute has already successfully conducted training programmes ofUrban Transport for government officials and proposes to organize similar programmes as a part of thecapacity building programmes sponsored by the Ministry.

NATIONAL LEVEL INSTITUTE

The Institute, with active support and guidance of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government ofIndia, has been actively involved in a variety of professional activities to promote and develop the state-of-the-art of Urban Transport in the country. The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) document,brought out by Government of India in April 2006, emphasized that IUT would be suitably strengthenedto serve as a National Level Facility to provide continuous advice and guidance on the principles of goodurban transport planning as emerges from its research. The Capacity Building Programme envisagedfor the Institute provides for creating a knowledge management center, sponsored research, building upof database for use in planning, research, training and skill development of public officials.

INSTITUTE OF URBAN TRANSPORT (INDIA)

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