Assessment of Policies toward an Environmentally Friendly Urban Transport System: Case Study of Delhi, India.

Urban transport plays an important role in city development and is also a leading sector in energy consumption and air pollutant emissions. To examine the effectiveness of policies in reducing transport influences on environment and energy use, this paper takes passenger transport system in Delhi as a case and develops a system dynamics model for scenario analysis from the base year 2006 to 2020. It is found that the implementation of certain policies will lead to a significant reduction of energy use and emissions of CO2, CH4, CO, NMVOC, and SO2 by 7–14, 7–15, 4–9, 12–23, 12–24, and 11–23%, respectively, in 2020. Bus, car, and two-wheeler need particular attentions to mitigate their environmental impacts while MRTS would be an effective solution to restrict the booming energy demand and associated air pollutant emissions. The implications for policy are that accelerating the development of railway network, together with decreasing the fuel intensity, slowing down road network extension, and imposing fuel taxes will be effective instruments to build an environmentally friendly urban transport system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]