Affordable and sustainable transportation: Key drivers and policy choices for a megacity in India

The city of Bengaluru is one of the latest entrants to the list of 33 mega cities in the world. The transportation infrastructure of the city is expanding to accommodate the rapidly increasing population. As such, there is a need to reevaluate public transport policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 11.2. In this study, we conducted a socio-economic survey of 1350 households belonging to the low and low-middle income categories in Bengaluru city to understand their travel behaviour and transportation mode choices in the event of changing transport infrastructure dynamics of the city. While two-wheelers are the dominant mode among employed working males in the age group of 18-45 years, buses are preferred for long-distance travel. Metro ridership is low even where metro stations are accessible at the start of the journey because low- and middleincome groups are unable to afford metro services. Additionally, we used Random Forest model to assess the contribution of each explanatory variable in mode choice determination. The results shows that travel cost followed by travel time and travel distance are the most important explanators in determining the mode choice for our sample population. Based on these findings, the authors have created two scenarios to assess the impact of metro fare rationalisation on metro ridership. This study quantifies the co-benefits of the proposed policy changes in terms of economic benefits to the operators and the avoidance of air pollution and CO2 emissions.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the transportation infrastructure dynamics of Bengaluru city and conducted a survey of low and low-middle income households to understand their travel behavior and transportation mode choices. The findings show that travel cost, travel time, and travel distance are the most important factors in determining mode choice. The study also quantifies the economic benefits and environmental benefits of proposed policy changes through assessing the impact of metro fare rationalization on metro ridership.