Here’s why Uber wants to further 'Decongest India' and curb pollution

Uber India today launched a national campaign 'Decongest India' - a nationwide effort to identify and curb causes of congestion, starting with New Delhi.

The campaign reaffirms the firm’s resolve to make a difference to congestion by harnessing the promise of shared mobility and will be focusing on driving data-backed conversations on solving for congestion across Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore in the future.

With studies suggesting that a private car remains unutilised for 96% of its time and average occupancy rates around 1.14 people per car, re-imagining utilisation of existing resources can help build a real alternative to a world that moves like a jam and looks like a parking lot.
Emphasizing the need to address the congestion bred mobility crisis and service the city's growing economic, social and environmental needs, Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Head of Public Policy for Uber India & South Asia, told Business Insider, “When it comes to disruption, technology will always outpace regulation. We work very closely with governments to formulate regulations and policies that help keep up with positive changes that can come about with effective technology.”

Kohli did not out rule the possibility of Uber embracing other modes of transport in the future but maintained that bike-sharing will be the focus for the company, “Bike-sharing provides first-mile and last-mile more than any other vehicle. The focus will be to expand it in more cities over the next few months.”

In terms of including second-hand vehicles and using the existing private vehicles on the road, Kohli thought that it’s a great idea, “Private ride-sharing is not allowed in India and while we’d like to introduce the concept with a monetary incentive to help scale-up, the government still has to embrace the idea. We saw that Pool has been a huge success in apprehensive markets like Delhi which accounts for the world’s third largest market for UberPOOL.”
Calling such initiatives micro entrepreneurship opportunities, Kohli said that the company welcomes any car that is well maintained on its platform and partnership with second-hand vehicle dealerships could be a possibility. The company helps its driver partners with financing and vehicle purchase so this could be revolutionary in utilizing the existing cars on the road, if implemented.

According to the Delhi Parking Policy, released in June 2017, the city has more than one crore registered vehicles, of which over 90 percent are private vehicles.

More than 30% of Uber’s total trips in Delhi are POOL trips. Over time, UberPOOL riders in Delhi have contributed to save over 19 million kilometres driven, which equals to saving of 936 kilo-litres of fuel and cut over 22 lakh kgs of CO2 emissions. As more people in more cities use pooling services, it will help contribute to the envisioned future of more people in fewer cars, fewer people owning cars and fewer cars on the road.
While several studies have indicated how the car-to-people ratio is on the lower side in India (20 cars for every 1000 people), an equally compelling fact unique to emerging markets like India is the shrinking speed of traffic. As of 2016, Delhiites spent 3.43 hours on the road for a distance of 40km in comparison to 1.36 hours in 2011.

Transportation regulation plays an important role in ensuring affordable, safe, smart and sustainable mobility infrastructure Some of Uber’s key recommendations to the government are:

1. Tapping the potential of using existing motorcycles for bikesharing services for last mile connectivity
2. Streamlining the processes for converting existing private vehicles into commercial vehicles as well as for obtaining requisite licence
3. In step with the times, promote technology based solutions over analog based hardware
4. Liberalising antiquated permit processes by utilising the proposed amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act