The road to clean air

Scientists recently released a report which says we have 12 years to prevent the worst effects of rising temperatures. On the ground, the problem is going in the other direction at a fair clip. Air quality has been deteriorating in India over the past few decades. With India still focussed on creating large-scale manufacturing jobs and relaxing environmental laws this is only slated to get worse.

Beyond industrial causes, the contribution of the fossil fuel-based transportation system to bad air quality is not insignificant. In 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forests found pollution due to motor vehicles as one of the leading causes of deteriorating air quality. Vehicles contribute 42 per cent of the particulate and 67 per cent of nitrogen oxides. The situation is deteriorating in Bengaluru and is alarming in Delhi. Against the backdrop of the World Health Organisation’s first ever international conference on air pollution and health, it is important to highlight that cycling and walking have long been obvious solutions.

That, combined with mass public transport based on renewables, will save the day for populated cities in India and other parts of the world.

Seen as anti-development

But in a growing economy, the society has classified the bicycle as an inferior good and walking as something for the poor. In India, talks of cycling and walking are seen as anti-development while the motor vehicle is seen as a symbol of upward mobility. The efficiencies of cycling and walking might be theoretically understood but the political economy finds it outside the Overton window to take action.

The hope is that the availability of bicycle as a last-mile option will move people to public transport and some more to complete trips on the bicycle.

Bengaluru has taken off with about 4,500 bicycles on the road. The impact will come when it is 100,000 and covers a broader geographical area. Investments in walking and bicycling infrastructure still remains a distant dream. Some cities produce a few kilometres of walkable footpaths and cycling lanes only to see it abused by motor vehicles.

The road to change then comes down to the people who are at the receiving end of poor air quality. It’s important for them to take to cycling as a popular rather than radical idea in order to effect change. Cycle Day was one such idea thought up five years ago. The programme recognised that traffic is a collective action problem and needed to be solved as a collective effort.

Since October 2013, 35 communities and 400 cycle days have made it the longest running community-led open streets programme in the country. It chose the neighbourhood path rather than a central event to catalyse communities to make short trips and introduce equity into their streets.

Yet another programme launched in Bengaluru in September 2018 is the #CycleToWork campaign. It recognised that work commute was a major contributor to air quality issues. It has already seen 75 companies within a month of launching and moving to other cities nationally and internationally.

The clock is ticking, and we don’t have a planet B. Each person’s choice will be the difference between destroying permanently what we have and buying time so our children can fix the mistakes we have made so far.

The writer is co-founder of online advocacy platform Praja RAAG and also of Citizens For Sustainability, which works on urban interventions.

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