22/09/2026
Statement on World Car-free Day.
22 September 2026
The Problem
The purpose of a transport system should be to enable everyone to have access to livelihood, education, health-care, markets, and recreation safely and affordably. It should not be to make private vehicles travel farther or faster. Yet, in the name of solving traffic congestion, saving fuel and travel time, and improving transport, governments and planning agencies continue to build and propose too many access-controlled roads, those that benefit only private vehicles, such as coastal roads, tunnels freeways, elevated roads and flyovers. These include tunnels under Sanjay Gandhi National Park, coastal roads in the mangrove coastal ecosystems of Mumbai, Mira Bhayandar, Navi Mumbai and Thane, as well as the Mumbai Eastern Freeway, the Orange Gate - Marine Drive tunnel and other roads through densely populated areas.
These projects impose environmental, social and economic costs that are rarely included in claims about time savings. There is increasing inequality in access to transport as well as in economic conditions, as public money is spent for the benefit of a few already benefitted people. The Thane - Borivali tunnel alone has an administratively approved cost of approximately ₹166 billion. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority allocated ₹18.13 billion for the Orange Gate -Marine Drive road tunnel, ₹20 billion for the Uttan - Virar coastal road project, ₹12 billion for the Gaimukh - Fountain Hotel tunnel and ₹10 billion for the Fountain Hotel - Bhayandar elevated road, to name some.
The environmental impact of such projects includes heat, air pollution, floods, noise, removal of trees and destruction of spaces with plants. They consume enormous quantities of resources such as metal, concrete, sand, energy and water. They have harmful physical health impacts from heat, air pollution and noise. Their social impact includes worsening safety due to increased risk of crashes, reduced mental peace and reduced usable public spaces. Streets are not merely for transport of vehicles, but public spaces used for walking, resting, meeting, shopping and shaping civic life. When most street space is allocated to moving or parking private vehicles, people who walk as a mode of travel, cycle, use buses, run shops or work as street vendors are treated as secondary to private vehicle users. Car-centric planning also reduces walkability by creating wide and difficult road crossings, high-speed traffic roads and fragmented footpaths around stations, markets, houses, schools and hospitals. Such changes in transport are not of any benefit to those who cannot afford to use private vehicles or taxis. Private automobile dependence and private automobile-centric planning is environmentally and socially destructive.
Why road-capacity expansion cannot solve congestion
Congestion cannot be reduced by continually expanding road capacity such as by these projects because of induced demand phenomenon. Such projects encourage more private vehicle use. New roads, tunnels, flyovers or elevated corridors may reduce traffic congestion in the short-term but they increase and worsen traffic congestion in the long-term. In some cases they displace the congestion to a different junction or road. Along with increasing congestion, they also worsen the environment. In spite of this decades-old knowledge, the agencies and politicians in power continue to pretend to not know this and disproportionately spend public money on such projects for private vehicles, resulting in increasing share of private vehicle trips and decreasing share of public transport trips. In Mumbai, the combined share of suburban rail and BEST bus trips decreased from 74% in 1998 to 56% in 2018, while the share of private two-wheelers and cars increased from 13% in 1998 to 27% in 2018. The continued spending on such projects in combination with the reducing number of buses, closing down of bus routes and privatization of BEST services has resulted in this situation. Calling a corridor ‘signal-free’ does not make it congestion-free. It means prioritizing uninterrupted motor-vehicle movement at the expense of pedestrian crossings, local access, buses, cycling and neighbourhood life.
The Solution
There is need for sustainable affordable public transport - expansion of bus services, train services, trams, and good non-motorized transport - footpaths and segregated bicycle lanes. There need to be bus lanes segregated from other lanes, on the major roads, with predominantly non-AC buses and with services at good frequency, in all the public bus operators like BEST, NMMT, TMT, KDMT, MBMT and VVMT. For this the bus undertakings have to be funded well and the workers in them have to be paid rightful wages with the necessary job facilities. Buses need to be well maintained. It is unfortunate that not a single road has segregated bus lanes in MMR, though they are very cheap to create. A lane carrying buses can move many more people than a lane carrying private cars. Reallocating a traffic lane to buses is using scarce public road space more efficiently. The experimental bus lane in Worli has proven that bus lanes can function very efficiently at transporting people, with the support of authorities in ensuing lane discipline. Not only are they very cheap to make but can be made much rapidly and without the harmful environmental and social effects that road-capacity expansion projects have.
Congestion pricing should be applied on private vehicles to discourage their use, along with affordable sustainable public transport at reliable frequency. Pedestrianization of streets such as market areas and heritage areas needs to be seriously considered, as it drastically improves the quality of life. Some streets can be made with dead-end to reduce traffic through them. Prohibit road-side parking where necessary to run buses efficiently or to make bus lanes. Strictly prohibit parking on footpaths as well as in any way that obstructs walking paths, buses and bicycles. Stop making car-parking in eco-sensitive areas or gardens, or at the cost of using space for public transport. Those in power should stop promoting and building false solutions like metros and pod taxis in the name of public transport and misleading people. Instead, they should strengthen such public transport which is affordable and sustainable. Capital-intensive show-off projects are not substitutes for ground surface public transport such as buses. Buses, railways, cycling and walking infrastructure should not be neglected. Authorities should also stop advertising and announcing ‘signal-free corridors’ as an unquestionably public benefit. They benefit only rich people. Stop neglecting those without private vehicles or the money to afford them.
The Benefits
The kind of vision that World Car-free Day promotes is not the elimination of cars or private vehicles but the prioritization in urban planning infrastructure of public transport and non-motorized transport (walking, cycling, skating). Cities with public and non-motorized transport on priority are better for all, especially children, elderly, poor people and people with disabilities. Transport is important for all including them to access education, health-care, livelihood and markets for buying necessities. Public transport is a much more efficient way for people's movement, than private vehicles. It leads to reduced mental stress, better health due to better air quality and less heat, improved walkability, increased safety, and more liveable and better environment. It saves public money that can be used for other purposes. If instead of spending money on private vehicle centric projects, it is spent on improving public transport and walkability, there would be savings which can be spent on education, health-care, public sector employment, housing and flood resilience. There is massive need for improvement in all these fields, and that will greatly improve people’s lives. BEST's deficits would reduce. The car-free cities vision saves resources like metal, concrete, fuel and water which reduces the burden on rural areas, forests, lakes and other places from where resources are obtained. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and contributes to more and equitable economic activity by encouraging more customers for shops, and allowing the possibilities for allotting space for hawkers, which supports livelihood.
Transport justice lies in ensuring affordable transport for the poor and most vulnerable people i.e. those who are excluded from transport, rather than in making roads for private/personal vehicles to speed up the transport of rich people, who already have means of transport. People with disabilities and emergency vehicles will actually have faster and convenient movement, if the traffic created by the road expansion is absent. Environmental justice is also ensured when common people don't have to suffer from the environmental impacts of private vehicle centric urban planning, and when there is a shift to greater share of public transport trips and reduced share of private vehicle trips, which benefits everyone. People must also have meaningful participation in decisions about transport projects and policies, and shaping the city in which they live. Local communities, public transport users, pedestrians, cyclists, workers, street vendors, persons with disabilities and affected groups must have an effective voice in shaping the city in which they live. Democratic planning requires transparency, accountability and the right to challenge projects that impose serious social, health, livelihood, economic or environmental costs. Cities’ governance should be in favour of everyone who uses and resides/works in it.
Cities should be designed for all people, rather than for vehicles and only those who can use them. On World Car-Free Day, we call for a fundamental change in the urban planning of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Progress in it must instead be measured through affordable access, shorter necessary journeys, cleaner air, safer streets, reliable public transport, protected ecosystems, integration of ecosystem services and increased livelihood.
We, Fridays For Future Mumbai, urge the government of Maharashtra, MMRDA, government of India and all municipal bodies in MMR to take note of this and move away from the car-centric model of urban planning. If governments continue to impose this model without meaningful democratic consultation, affected communities and concerned citizens in the coming months will continue to organise, campaign and use peaceful democratic means to oppose this model and the projects that worsen congestion, inequality and environmental damage.
We, Fridays For Future Mumbai, urge people to join us in bringing about a transformation from car-centric to people-centric, environment-centric urban planning in our cities. If you are a student, commuter, cyclist, sportsperson, researcher, artist, teacher or just a concerned person, message us here or at [email protected] to join our mission. Fridays For Future Mumbai is a youth led environmental movement of Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Reshma Shelatkar Yash Agrawal Rajesh Desai
