Sustainable transportation infrastructure in Indian cities of different size-class: towards a research and policy agenda

Abstract

Owing to the fact that the planning and management of urban transportation systems are convoluted ventures, a sound number of cities in India, especially those lacking strong institutional and financial means – principally small and medium-sized cities – have become incapable of efficiently addressing their transportation challenges. Drawing on a pan-India comparative research on 54 cities, the present study well-demonstrates a previously undetected relationship between size-class of Indian cities and their existing state of sustainable transport infrastructure development. The results speak in accordance with the notion that betterment in non-motorized and public transit infrastructure is typically associated with increasing size of cities. Accordingly, this research argues that with regard to the production of knowledge in the field of urban transportation and associated policymaking, academicians and planners can rethink and branch out the understanding of transport sustainability beyond big-metropolises of the country. This study, therefore, enunciates in support of the need for a small and medium-sized city-based research and policy agenda that can focus on eliminating the ‘sizism’ which has conventionally influenced urban theory and policymaking in India and has led to the condition of such cities as the least understood and perhaps least studied element of urban and regional transport systems.