KARACHI: The city experiences severe traffic congestion on all main roads throughout the year. Roads, like M.A. Jinnah Road, Sharea Faisal, I.I. Chundrigar Road, and University Road remain clogged with vehicles while Saddar is in perpetual state of traffic congestion.

Causes of traffic congestion include increased car ownerships, in-disciplined and disorderly traffic, poor condition of roads, insensible traffic management, and a relatively new cause, sewage on roads.

According to the American Federal Highway Administration, congestion usually relates to an excess of vehicles on a portion of roadway at a particular time resulting in speeds that are slower — sometimes much slower — than normal or ‘free flow’ speeds. Congestion often means stopped or stop-and-go traffic.

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Vehicles emit a large variety of air pollutants, like particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic compounds.

Multimodal transportation, development of ‘complete streets’ can reduce traffic congestion, environmental pollution in city

PM includes PM10 (particles of size less than 10 microns in diameter, and PM2.5 (size less than 2.5 microns).

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), PM is capable of penetrating deep into the lung and enters the bloodstream causing cardiovascular (ischemic heart disease), cerebrovascular (stroke) and respiratory impacts. Long-term exposure has been further linked to adverse perinatal outcomes and lung cancer. In 2013, it was classified as a cause of lung cancer by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Three very recent studies link PM2.5 exposure to Alzheimer’s disease. The exhaust from diesel-powered vehicles (water bowsers, trucks, buses and mini-buses) is even more deadly.

The diesel particulate matter (DPN) is small enough to be inhaled into the lungs, and some are deposited on the lung surface, and in the deepest regions of the lungs where the lung is most susceptible to injury. California has classified DPM as a toxic air contaminant. IARC has listed diesel engine exhaust as ‘carcinogenic to humans’.

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It is estimated that in California, about 70 per cent of total known cancer cases are attributable to DPM.

In Karachi, some measures were adopted in the past, like signal-free roads, one-way couplet system, and U-turn infrastructure. But, nothing worked to ease congestion. In Saddar, a huge parking building was constructed, which is now used by drug addicts.

The 2021 Urban Mobility Report of the Texas Transportation Institute gives out a useful guidance: “The right solution to a mobility issue, however, is not the same everywhere all the time. Every solution is targeted somewhere to accomplish a specific goal, but every solution is not right for every location, opportunity, or problem. Context is the important starting point for identifying mobility solutions.”

To ease congestion in London, congestion pricing (charging for entering congested areas) was introduced. The result, according to a blogger, “London cars move no faster than chickens. Cars in central London now travel at the speed of a running chicken, instead of a running house mouse.”

Consider this simple arithmetic: assuming there are 50,000 cars in Karachi. If 40,000 cars are taken out, the remaining 10,000 will not cause traffic congestion.

How can that be done? Simple, all that is required is the strong political will, and hard work on part of the Sindh transport department.

Ban car parking spaces in new buildings, and ban on street parking. This will put a squeeze on car ownerships, forcing car owners to leave their vehicles in residences.

Parking reforms and cost can be important policy variables. But there has to be a viable alternative to the cars (transit, bicycles, and walkways) for the people.

Minneapolis, a city in the US state of Minnesota, has banned parking space requirements in new buildings. Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh announced the ‘People Over Parking’ legislation. He said; “These mandates also often force people to build far more parking than they need, and they’re especially burdensome to renters.”

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The Norwegian capital, Oslo, developed a strategy with objectives of reducing car traffic by 33pc by 2030 (compared with 2015 levels). The city administration set an ambitious agenda to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, become fossil fuel free by 2030 and to make Oslo an even better place to live. Transport accounted for some 60pc of the city’s carbon dioxide emissions with almost 40pc coming from private cars.

In Austin, Texas, authorities are advocating public transportation usage, pedestrian walking paths, and carpooling schemes that would help reduce clogged-up streets across Austin’s suburbs. This could be an effective way for residents to lower their contribution to traffic.

Austin is implementing transit-oriented development, which is expected to generate a range of benefits, including reducing car use and relieving traffic congestion. The city is striving to have multimodal transportation (walking, biking, transit, rail, cars and trucks). Multimodal access supports the needs of all users whether they choose to walk, bike, use transit or drive. It means more connections and more choices, with easy access to move from point A to point B.

Parking reforms have been undertaken in Oregon, Colorado, San Francisco, Atlanta, Portland and Hartford.

A number of studies have demonstrated that constrained parking forced households to drive fewer miles. Conversely, the researchers at State Smart Transportation Initiative of University of Wisconsin-Madison found that parking increases citywide car use.

In Nottingham, UK, a Workplace Parking Levy led to mode shift away from the car use.

Another paper examined the traffic congestion in London, Stockholm and Singapore. It was found that upon the imposition of congestion charges, after an initial decrease in traffic for a brief period, the traffic returned to the initial state, forcing the authors to conclude that, “evidence from these cities provides little support for the general use of congestion charging to limit demand for car use in urban areas”.

Karachi’s traffic should be designed for multimodal transportation. The streets need to be designed as complete streets (complete streets are developed for use by people and not just cars. And has convenient connectivity with bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, transit-friendly mode and sidewalks).

If nothing is done, then, perhaps, people will be left, in the words of Joni Mitchell’s song: Big Yellow Taxi — they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

The writer has a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2024