Loksatta | Mumbai's Traffic Congestion Woes: Is Proof-of-Parking the Solution?

Mumbai, one of the most vehicle-dense cities in the country, is considering policy solutions to tackle growing traffic congestion. One of the solutions that the Maharashtra government is considering is to mandate a parking space to buy a car.  In this proposed policy, an individual must own or secure a private or public parking space to buy a car. The Maharashtra Government is considering deploying this policy in the next 100 days, taking inspiration from the Japanese-certified parking area policy, which banned free street parking to create a market for parking spaces and reduce car ownership in cities. However, it is unclear how this policy will address road congestion when it only applies when buying cars and not restricting where the vehicles are parked once bought. The policy comes with other challenges - its high state capacity requirements make it difficult to execute, and potential consequences, such as rent-seeking and false certifications, might follow. The policy's success will depend on whether it can create a market for parking spaces in the city.  

Vehicular congestion is increasingly becoming a problem in Indian cities. Although Mumbai reduced its average travel time by 20 seconds, it slipped from 39th in 2023 to 52nd in 2024 in its average travel time position worldwide as per the TomTom Traffic Index. Bengaluru ranked 1st and Mumbai 6th on congestion in megacities (population greater than 8 million) worldwide. It is well established in economic theory that one vehicle on the road causes a negative externality on every other vehicle. Pollution and the probability of accidents also increase as cars increase. An ITDP report states that congestion in Mumbai causes the city productivity and fuel losses of more than Rs 36000 crores and time losses of about 85 minutes a day. This is even though only 19 per cent of trips in Mumbai are made using taxis and private vehicles, compared to 51 per cent by walking and cycling and 30 per cent via public transport. These problems stem from Mumbai's 2300 cars/km car density, the highest among the Indian cities. Private cars occupy almost 50 per cent of Mumbai's road space. The parking shortage is a symptom of this density, hence the proposed policy. 

This policy was inspired by a similar one introduced in Japan in the 1950s, and to some extent, it was successful.  However, this will be tricky to execute in India. Firstly, it would require the individuals to showcase parking space availability before purchasing a car. This may lead to rent-seeking behaviour, providing false certificates, etc. 

Secondly, mandating space requirements doesn’t solve congestion due to street parking. Japan outlawed free street parking and leased those spaces to car owners to show as proof. People also might provide proof of a parking space in non-congested areas and use cars in congested ones. 

Thirdly, the demand for in-built parking space could increase the cost of urban real estate, making homes unaffordable for many. In India, it is already mandated that apartment buildings provide parking spaces. A policy like this could come with increased mandates, which have been shown to distort land markets. In Japan, such parking mandates excluded small buildings and were purposefully low (approximately one parking space per 3230 sq ft). Moreover, the parking space supply might not meet the vehicles already on the road in a land-scarce city. 

Finally, this proposed policy would require massive state capacity. It would require a comprehensive survey to identify available parking spaces, assigning them unique identifiers linked to specific vehicles via registration numbers. Additionally, vehicles registered outside the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) would incur a daily fee to operate in Mumbai under the proposed policy. This necessitates significant human and technological resources to execute the policy effectively.

A better and simpler alternative is congestion pricing, a toll on the most congested roads in the city. It has been shown to reduce congestion and car ownership. Studies have already been done to implement this in Mumbai, and large cities like Singapore, London, Tokyo, New York, etc., already implement such charges. India's FASTag toll collection system can be used for this purpose. The government isn't opposed to this and is trying to develop congestion pricing as a package deal with the proof-of-parking system. Surveys suggest that a significant majority of Mumbaikars, around 75%, support congestion pricing. The critical difference between a proof-of-parking policy and a congestion price is that the latter doesn’t disincentivise one from buying a car but just from using it on congested roads. Solutions to better control traffic management, including real-time traffic mapping, dynamic signals, and Tokyo-style visual mapping to inform traffic management, can also be considered.  

Ultimately, any policies that try to reduce the number of cars on the road must be accompanied by expansion in public transportation. Many cities in India have seen a fall in the share of public transport use, fuelled by a massive rise in private vehicles. India faces an acute shortage of buses in cities. Even though most attention is grabbed by metros, buses are essential to urban transportation. As Enrique Penalosa, Bogota's ex-mayor, once said, "An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport".

By Miheer Karandikar & Anisree Suresh

Read the Marathi version of this article here.

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