Reducing the number of private vehicles in Dhaka – one of the most polluted capitals in the world – could go a long way in dropping carbon emission levels to make the 400-year-old city liveable again.
At least 10 million people are living in approximately 300 square kilometres of the city, which regularly makes its place in the list of the most densely populated cities across the world.
According to the Strategic Transport Plan in Bangladesh, around 1.48% of the city's population use cars; but in reality the number of private vehicles is estimated to be as high as 300,000 as most vehicle owners have more than one car.
Traffic congestions reach a frightening level when such a huge number of vehicles operate on the narrow city streets every day.
Studies on transport sector suggest that the demand of private vehicles would be reduced if there was enough pedestrian space on the city streets.
The strategy plan also reads that 78% of the city's bus service run as short trips that are less than 3 kilometres.
On the other hand, the long route buses — that run more than three kilometres – are managed wrongly.
The increase of private vehicles is unlikely to see a remedy any time soon as 855 vehicles – especially private cars – are being registered with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority everyday.
Khondoker Neaz Rahman, an urban planner in Bangladesh, said, “By increasing the number of private cars eventually increased the amount of carbon emission. Ironically, the number of private cars are now dominating about 70% of total carbon emission in the country's transport sector,”
He suggested to implement the recommendation of the strategic plan which includes reducing the number of private cars in the city and improving the mass-transport service.
Rahman also suggested to introduce innovative and low-carbon technology in the transport sector to remove traffic congestion and reduce carbon emission.
The government of Bangladesh is also thinking in a similar line, as it declared in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) that the transport sector is the major sector of carbon emission.
Therefore, it decided to reduce carbon emission by 5% from businesses by 2030.
Global scenario
The transport sector is currently responsible for 13% of GHG emissions (IPCC, 2007) and 23% of CO2 emissions from global energy consumption (IEA, 2009).
Provided that current trends are preserved, transport energy use and CO2 emissions are projected to increase by about 80% by 2050.
Best practice
Days before the Paris Climate Conference, the results of a five-year project delivered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) shows how India achieves a sustainable transport system and build cities’ capacity to improve mobility while lowering CO2 emissions.
Launched in 2010 by UNEP and implemented by the UNEP-DTU Partnership and key partners in India, the project, Promoting Low Carbon Transport in India, concluded on November 26, 2015 with a workshop held as part of the 8th Urban Mobility India conference in New Delhi.
The low carbon transport pathway mapped out by the project consists of interventions in sustainable mobility, fuel economy, freight transport, promoting biofuels, and cleaning electricity that together have the potential of reducing India’s CO2 emissions by 13 billion tonnes between 2010 and 2050.
One of the project’s key components was the development of a methodology for creating Low Carbon Comprehensive Mobility Plans for cities and its implementation in three pilot locations – Visakhapatnam, Rajkot and Udaipur. The process included analyzing trends in mobility demand and charting sustainable pathways for increased accessibility and inclusiveness of the transport system, which would, at the same time, reduce CO2 emissions.
For example, the Udaipur comprehensive mobility plan, developed under the project, employed a mixed land-use approach, including measures to increase residential density along public transit corridors and create non-motorized-transport-friendly neighbourhoods. The plan intends to increase the safety of walking and cycling, increase the accessibility to public transport from 69 to 83 per cent, and reduce CO2 emissions by a million tonnes.
The plan developed by Rajkot, based on identification of the city's priority routes, envisions a 20 percent decrease in traffic accidents, a shortening of average travel time by 36 per cent, and a decrease in CO2 emissions of 600,000 tonnes by 2031.