Sustainable Urban Mobility: Urban Public Transport Systems Sustainability Assessment

Abstract

Urban public transport systems have become an inevitable choice to promote sustainable urban mobility in almost every city in the world. In India, buses are the most popular and convenient mode of transport in urban cities. However, the bus transport was unable to cater to the increasing urban travel demand and of late, unsustainable urban transport trends led to a wide range of economic, social, and environmental costs impacting quality of life. In this regard, along with rapid urbanisation, motorisation, and urban sprawl, it has become imperative to invest in mass rapid urban public transport systems as sustainable urban transport strategy. Sustainable urban transport systems are critical for tackling global climate, reducing local air pollution, improving road safety and well as quality of life. In this regard, it has become imperative for the decision makers to assess the sustainability of urban public transport systems from the perspective of social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. However, literature review suggests a lack of comprehensive approaches and empirical validations in assessing the sustainability of urban public transport systems. Assessment methods in literature mainly focussed on cost-benefit analysis, travel demand models, multi-criteria analysis to assess the sustainability dimensions. Further, there is a dearth of research studies and empirical validations exploring the influence of urban public transport systems’ transitions on sustainable urban mobility. Towards bridging the above research gaps, we propose, develop, and validate (with applications) a set of analytical frameworks to assess the sustainability of urban public transport systems. The first part of the research aims to conceptualize sustainable urban public transport systems and we develop an analytical model to analyse the variations in modal split for different Indian cities through the Markovian model. The second part of the research focuses on developing set of evaluation models to assess the sustainability of urban public transport systems with Bangalore city as a case study city. We propose a spatial model to examine the effect of key factors (demographics, land use and public transport) on the urban public transport systems sustainability. We estimate the cost and benefits of alternative fuel technology for urban public transport systems over the lifetime based on total cost of ownership model. We examine the impact of modal shift from existing to new urban public transport system while considering the first and last mile connectivity options. Findings reveal that it is important to assess the sustainability of urban public transport systems while planning, implementation, and operation of urban public transport systems.