Evaluating Sustainable Transport Measures Towards Fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Transportation system generates significant negative externalities such as air pollution, traffic congestion, road‑traffic accidents, and substantial greenhouse‑gas emissions, that if left unaddressed, threaten to undermine progress toward the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and stall the transition to a sustainable future. Achieving the SDGs adopted under the UN’s 2030 Agenda in September 2015 demands that transport’s hidden costs be internalized and that mobility systems be both low‑carbon and inclusive. To this end, measuring the sustainability of transportation systems and tracking their contributions toward SDGs using Sustainable Transport Indicators (STIs) is crucial for evidence‑based policy and timely course corrections. This thesis develops a methodological framework to construct SDG‑aligned composite Sustainable Transport-SDG Progress Indices (ST‑SDG Progress Indices) at three levels. At the national level for India, at the city level for twelve Indian cities such as Chennai, Lucknow, Mumbai etc, and at the metropolitan level for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR). These indices quantify annual progress toward various SDGs such as SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), using different STIs to serve as both performance metrics and monitoring tools. National Sustainable Transportation-SDG (NST-SDG) Index is developed for India for seven selected SDGs namely goal 3 (Good Health & Wellbeing), goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth),goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and goal 13 (Climate Action) for the period of 2012 to 2018. About 42 STIs ranging from transport emission indicators to transport energy consumption indicators to road traffic fatalities, are utilized to assess India’s progress to these global goals through sustainable transport. These 42 STIs are mapped to these seven SDGs and indicator weights are obtained using principal component analysis (PCA). Further aggregated to form the composite NST-SDG Index. The results reveal that from 2012 to 2018 India has seen declining progress to these goals from bad progress to worst progress towards these seven SDGs. Similarly, ST-SDG indexes are developed for twelve Indian cities and Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR), providing evidence on their relative achievements toward the selected SDGs. Building on these measurement cum monitoring indices, the thesis then develops an assessment framework for scenario analysis, evaluating how different sustainable‑transport policies would influence the ST‑SDG Progress Index for a designated horizon year. Towards this end, this thesis proposes a methodological framework for assessing the impact of sustainable urban transportation interventions using 29 Sustainable Transport Indicators (STIs), defined under three main pillars of sustainability (environment, social, and economic). While some indicators (vehicle kilometres travelled, mode share, average trip length) are output variables from the conventional four-stage Travel Demand Model (TDM), some (vehicular emissions, fuel consumption) are estimated using TDM outputs, and a few (vehicle ownership, drunk driving cases) are collected through secondary sources. The intended framework is explained using Bangalore Metropolitan Region as a case study. Initially, the data is modelled and analyzed for the base year (2022) and target year (2031). Later, scenario analysis is carried out to compare the results between Business-As-Usual (BAU) 2031 and Sustainable Transport (ST) 2031 scenarios. Two potential sustainable development strategies are tested in the ST scenario: (1) Metro Rail Project 2031 (317 km), (2) Bus Priority Corridors, and NMT Infrastructure 2031 (149 km). Finally, the indicators are normalized, weighted, and linearly aggregated to develop the Composite Sustainable Transportation Index (CSTI) and compare sustainability progress for BAU and ST scenarios and progress made to the selected SDGs from the transportation sector. The results explain that significant progress towards SDGs and sustainable development can be attained in all three pillars of sustainability by focusing on urban transport interventions such as advancing metro network coverage, enforcing bus priority corridors, and enhancing NMT infrastructure. By integrating data‑driven indicators with scenario planning, this research equips policymakers with a rigorous tool to design transport interventions aligning with global development goals. The development frameworks, indices, and other findings of this thesis contributes to both research and practice, offering both a rigorous methodological contribution to composite‑index construction and scenario evaluation in academic research, and a practical decision‑support tool for planners and policymakers seeking to align transport strategies with global sustainability goals.