Bengaluru: Designing mobility for liveable and social cities

Once a pensioner’s paradise and a city of lakes, Bengaluru is now the Silicon Valley of India and one of the largest metropolitan cities in the country. With immense growth of its population and hence travel needs, the demand for public transport has increased. But despite efforts, many challenges remain unresolved. Dependence on private vehicles, insufficient public transport, the lack of safe, reliable, and sustainable mobility options, extremely high air and water pollution levels and increasing external costs of congestion such as health burdens, accidents and reduced life expectancy, all contribute to low rates on both social and ecological ratings.

The silver lining is a shift in focus from “predict and provide” (road infrastructure) to mass transit systems, electric vehicles, sustainable development models and shared (smart) mobility. Also noteworthy for Bengaluru is the active participation of citizen groups in development projects and processes because they want environmentally sustainable development. Karnataka State, where the city is located, is pioneering environmental change: It is the first Indian state to adopt an electric vehicle policy, the benefits of which Bengaluru will share.

Urban mobility specialist Dr Yamini Jain analyzes the mobility sector of Bengaluru and the city’s efforts to shift to safe, inclusive, affordable, equitable, and sustainable mobility systems through different policy measures with active involvement of the private sector and various citizen and advocacy groups.