It Still isn’t Fast Enough
6 years, 4 months, 28 days, 19 hours
24 February 2023
Motorised transport has been one of the great enablers of progress and quality of life for humanity.
It has propelled isolated, subsistence economies into globally-connected supply chains, and brought affluence (though also inequality) in place of poverty. It has widened the consumer and employment catchment areas of universities, hospitals, industrial and commercial centres, accelerating the pace of innovation and improving life outcomes for billions of people. It has broadened our physical horizons, and therefore our understanding, of nature and of other people’s history and cultures.
But all this has come at a terrible cost, principally in carbon emissions, where transport is responsible for about 16% of the world’s total, but also in pollution, with 7 million dying each year from concentrations of exhaust and tyre particulates in choking city air, car accidents which kill a further 1.3 million people and thousands of millions of animals each year, and the noise, chaos and joy-sapping congestion of our car dominated cities.
Imagine a world in which we have all the benefits of transport but none of these disbenefits. That world is within our grasp today. Electrification, digital platforming and automation technologies offer a future where our cities and rural roads are quiet, safe and pollution free. If the electricity is renewable, then we solve the carbon emissions too. If public transport is clean, safe, quiet and efficient, and we design space for people not cars, and plan our trips digitally, then congestion can be conquered.
Recently in Delhi I was deeply encouraged by the breadth, pace and determination of a programme that the Indian government, states and cities have launched to drive electric vehicle adoption. In 2022 5% of all vehicle sales in the country were electric – a doubling on the year before. Battery-swapping provision for two and three wheelers is being rolled-out. Programmes of education have been launched to drive consumer behaviour. Digital platforms are being built to show where chargers exist. Huge public funding investments anticipate 50 million new jobs, and export potential, from the supply chain of this new green industry. Battery circularity is being seriously investigated, to manage the demand on rare earth metals. Electric buses are appearing on the streets of Delhi, which also has a plan for an EV charger within 3km of every building.
Even better, everyone understands that great as this all is, it still isn’t fast enough, and are working together to increase the pace. One day soon there will be fresh air in a quiet, traffic-free centre of Delhi.