Traffic and Pollution in Asian Cities ^{CEFR B2}

Traffic congestion across many Asian cities reflects rapid economic growth, but it also generates harmful greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants that reduce living standards and impose large economic costs. Road congestion is estimated to cost Asian economies 2 to 5 per cent of GDP annually. At the same time roughly 44 million people are added each year to Asia's cities, where most jobs are located, increasing demand for mobility.

New Delhi has adopted strict measures to cut pollution: diesel vehicles older than ten years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years are being seized and destroyed. Over the last two years five million vehicles were removed from the roads, a drop of about 35 per cent. The city is switching to electric transport — 800 of 3,700 state-owned buses now run on electricity — and aims for at least 25 per cent of new vehicle registrations to be electric by the end of 2024. Delhi is also expanding the metro, which has 288 stations on 392 kilometres of track and carried an average 2.5 million passengers daily in 2022. Officials warn that growing preference for personal transport has undermined some efforts and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Elsewhere, Bangkok has seen rising car ownership replace some bus and bicycle use; authorities are improving bus fleets, extending the metro and better integrating road, rail and river services while trialling pricing measures such as higher parking charges and inner-city tolls. The Philippines is upgrading metro lines and buses with support from the Asian Development Bank, which has urban transport lending portfolios worth US$11.48 billion and has committed a US$1-billion loan for Metro Rail Transit Line 4, a 13.4-kilometre line with ten stations. Metro Manila is building a US$7 billion, 33 kilometre subway expected to serve 800,000 passengers a day when completed in 2027, with the first phase due around the second half of 2025. Jakarta is improving rail and bus integration and plans to convert fleets to electricity.

At regional scale, 54 per cent of the global urban population — more than 2.2 billion people — live in Asia, and UN Habitat expects this to rise by 50 per cent to 3.4 billion by 2050. New sensor technologies and wireless networks have improved traffic management through real-time maps and congestion indicators, and app-based services such as Google Maps, Uber and Grab offer cheaper, more convenient rides than car ownership. Planners can use these technologies and continued investment in safe, affordable public transport to reduce emissions, but significant political and financial challenges remain.