Your Commute in 2030
[Applause]
hi there
i made sustainability my default choice
in 2015
and as a transport mafioso my vision for
2030
is that our cities will have no more
traffic
and there will be no more need for us to
commute
my vision for 2030 for sustainable
transport in our cities
is that we should not be commuting like
we do right now for two
three hours a day stuck in traffic
staring with dead eyes
at the dull gray concrete mushroomed
around us as we painfully
inch through kilometer long traffic jams
surrounded by a cacophony of honking
my vision is that transport in our
cities should be humane
and considerate and for this we should
not be commuting at all
why do we commute it causes untold hours
of lost productivity that’s three hours
in a day
that you aren’t getting back if you
think about it it adds up to nearly 30
days worth
every year that you spend just in
traffic it causes a severe health impact
mental and physical and not just while
you yourself
are stuck in the traffic jam but for
everyone else
because the particulate matter the suit
the greenhouse gases they persist in the
air
damaging all of us over time let me
share with you my example of bangalore
traffic
the famous silkworth traffic jam i live
about six kilometers across from where i
used to work
and this had me crossing silk board so
every day i had to cross silver
and then on the way back cross sidewalk
and this
used to take me one hour just to cross
silport i left the job after about a
year and
in part because of this famous traffic
jam and moved to another job
up north of bangalore this was 25
kilometers away from my residence
the time that it used to take me the
same
one hour one week this is what traffic
does to us
and my vision for 2030 is that our
cities will not
need such long transport commutes we
will not need to transport ourselves for
so long
we would live in cities that are
organized in a way
that everything that we need whether
it’s school or workplaces
whether it’s parks or recreation shops
or essential services
leisure and entertainment will just be a
walk or a bike ride away
my vision is that changing our cities
this way
would open up unimaginable real estate
in our cities that we can dedicate
to rich biodiverse lung spaces
tree filled boulevards and lush green
walkways and bike lanes
and so that anytime we do need to
transport something
it is done in an efficient and in a
humane way
to reach um this extremely
achievable vision by 2030 we just need
to do
three small things one avoid transport
avoid transport at any time two
transform transport
and number three overhaul our cities and
i hope that at the end of these 15
minutes you will have three simple ways
in which you can transform
transportation
and our cities starting today step one
avoid transport and when you do do it in
an efficient
and in a humane way because of
congestion
we all know congestion on our roads
indians spend
more time on our daily office commute
than people
in most countries in the world a study
by move-in sync
in a bangalore-based company across
multiple cities in india in the i.t
corridors
found out on the office travel time that
we average
more than two hours every day on our
roads
that’s seven percent of your day and if
you want to think about it that’s
ten percent of your waking hours that
you’re spending
just in transport and are we getting
anywhere fast
no we average a less than three minutes
a kilometer
another study by bcg found out about the
cost
cost of traffic jams in just four indian
cities
is 22 billion dollars a year
where does this cost come from it comes
from fuel waste
it comes from reduced productivity it
comes from air pollution
and it comes from accidents just in one
of these four cities which is delhi the
9.6 billion dollars of cost
is about 12 of its gdp
think about peak hour congestion peak
hour congestion is the additional time
that you take
to travel any given distance during the
peak hour traffic time
versus any other time in indian cities
we spend
149 percent on an average more
during our peak hour congestion and this
is against a 67 percent on average in
other asian cities
and these are not just any asian cities
these are highly congested
densely populated urban urban centers
like hong kong and manila
kl and bangkok these are not open cities
these are not less
congested these are very densely
populated which
leads to situations like this
which brings me to step two we need to
transform our transport because
of our health and the air pollution and
the impact of air pollution
on our health vehicular tailpipe
emissions
are a major cause of pollution in our
cities
anywhere between 14 to 43 percent
right air pollution is linked directly
to diseases
that kill life expectancy in indian
cities
is down by 2.6 years just because of air
pollution
and a recent study found out that when
pregnant women
breathe polluted air the particles
are able to
enter the placenta and reach a placenta
via the bloodstream
the famous delhi pollution that happens
every year around
diwali a day outside at this time
in delhi is equivalent to smoking 50
cigarettes
what can you do right now to transform
this
go electric a petrol scooter
costs two rupees a kilometer versus
30 pisces a kilometer for an electric
scooter
saving you 1.7 rupees for every
kilometer you travel
so this is for everyone who counters me
saying that you know
electric transport is expensive on the
other hand you might counter by saying
oh no you know we don’t get enough range
75 of all of us in indian cities
commute less than 35 kilometers a day
that’s 35 kilometers up and down
so if you find yourself an electric
vehicle that gives you a range of
anything 60 to
80 kilometers that is largely sufficient
for our needs
so this is about personal transport what
about b2b transport
right what about the commercial vehicles
it has been found out over multiple
studies
that intra city transport within 150
kilometers a day
is already economically viable to go
electric
so who are these b2b players i speak
about these are high utilization
vehicles
so um people like last mile connectivity
uh delivery companies logistics
companies
transport companies anyone who does
within 150 kilometers a day
can already go electric and it’s already
economically viable for them to do so
continuing on the previous example of my
transport and travel
and commute in bangalore the travel that
i used to do whether it was
across silkworth or when i used to
travel up to the bank
north of bangalore all of that was done
in me and my
little yellow eevee bangalore is a very
hilly city it has a lot of ups and downs
and it is it has quite a number of
flyovers as well
so over every 25 kilometers that are
used to travel
i used to regen five kilometers so evs
in themselves
are so much more efficient than petrol
vehicles i would regen five kilometers
for every 25 kilometers that i would
travel
i still travel between 40 to 70
kilometers every day
uh depending on my meetings on my
customer visits or any other
visits that i have i’m still traveling
40 to 70 kilometers a day
i add to the congestion yes
i agree that i add to the condition on
the roads because i travel by car
but i do not add to the vehicular
tailpipe
emissions this brings me to step three
we need
to overhaul our cities right
we need to overhaul our cities because
on one hand
we’re solving for climate change all of
us here are here at this event
because we’re trying to solve for
climate change on the other hand
we’re trying to build cities for three
billion people it’s a doubling of the
urban environment
it is estimated that by 2050
70 of humans will be living
uh in cities that’s seven billion people
seven billion people will be living in
cities and our current
model of transport in cities of
urbanization in our cities
is broken we cannot handle this doubling
of the urban environment
over the last few months we’ve all been
in this pandemic and we found out that
you know that meeting could have been a
phone call or an email
or most of us most of our work does
allow us to do remote work
i believe that this is the best moment
to redesign
our urban and our mobility future
because we don’t want
cities that are built for cars if we
continue to add
fleets and fleets of conventional cars
to our roads and then cutting down all
the trees on our roads to expand them to
meet these fleets of cars
our cities will become unbearable to
live in
we want cities where we can walk
we want cities where kids can bike we
want cities
where we have public transportation lots
of it and public transport that’s clean
and dignified in conclusion i want to
leave you
with three things walk
there is no great city that you don’t
enjoy walking in
you don’t go there the places you go on
vacation are the places
you want to walk whether it’s avinu the
champs-elysees in paris
or la ramblas in barcelona the places
you want to vacation in are the places
you can walk
why not make it everywhere and what is a
walkable city
walkable city has been defined as a city
where there is a proper reason to walk
the walk has to be safe and it has to
feel safe
whether it’s for women or children or
seniors
the walk has to be comfortable and it’s
interesting
because of air quality we found out over
the pandemic that the air quality index
across all of our cities improved
remarkably why don’t we just stop
polluting
why not use our feet and our bikes more
and that way the way we move can keep us
healthier as well
we want public transportation clean and
dignified
public transportation for the longer
distances and until
uh we reach this place please use fully
electric
battery operated electric vehicles there
are no tailpipe emissions or direct
emissions
this means that there’s no smoke there’s
no unburned carbon or soot there are no
carbon oxides and sulfur oxides and
nitrous oxides and no particulate matter
that come out of the vehicle while it’s
being driven
so three steps that you need to do to
transform transport
and overhaul our cities starting today
while you are in cities for anything
less than five kilometers
bike or walk for anything that’s between
five and ten kilometers
use electric transport and for anything
more than
10 kilometers choose public transport
always and make our cities more livable
for anything less than five kilometers
walk or bike as often as you can
and convince as many people as you can
this will not just keep you healthy
but it will reduce the congestion for
essential services
like ambulances it will also give those
people with limited mobility like
seniors or people
who are differently abled more space on
the roads
for anything between 5 and 10 kilometers
choose electric
always over ice transport for as
many city travel points as you can for
anywhere you need to go between five and
ten kilometers use electric transport
there are many
mobility providers right now who give
you
electric true wheelers on rent choose
them
and talk to your fleet operators talk to
your delivery companies
ask them to shift to electric
and for anything that’s more than 10
kilometers use
public transport as often as you can
metros in the indian cities are already
clean and dignified they’re
air-conditioned they’re comfortable our
air-conditioned buses are comfortable
there is still a ways to go for last
mile connectivity
and i will agree there is still a ways
to go for this but
if there is more and more utilization of
public transport
then more and more options will
definitely come up for last mile
connectivity
so in conclusion if i got to summarize i
would say
for livable cities bike or walk
for anything less than five kilometers
use electric transport for anything less
than 10 kilometers
and always try to choose public
transport for anything more than 10
kilometers
and make your city a city where someone
else would want to vacation in
thank you
[Applause]