MOBILITY(XS): A ROAD AHEAD FOR URBAN TRANSPORT

Author: Chandra Vikash Position: Practice Leader Intelligent Transportation Systems Organization : Tata Consultancy Services Mailing address : C-56, Noida Ph. II, U.P. - 201305 TEL : +91 120 246 1943 FAX : +91 120 246 1521 E-mail : chandra.vikash@tcs.com

ABSTRACT
Urban Transport is at crossroads. Users do not get the level and quality of service that they pay for by direct or indirect means in a fair and equitable way. One road leads to MobilityXS. This is based on a pathbreaking review of our usage and attitude, environmental constraints and a comprehensive study of enabling technologies. It metamorphoses the public-private transport categories. In turn, users have a wider choice of the travel experience that they co-create and customize to personal preferences. They avail of vastly superior travel experience at a given price point in this model than at present. In a wholesome approach to our needs of a livable society, users can choose to walk or cycle comfortable distances in a friendly environment that is sequestrated of motorized traffic. Fast moving motor vehicles run uninterrupted of slow moving traffic and move much faster than at present with a combination of innovative traffic control measures and in-vehicle navigation sensors in the new system.

INTRODUCTION
Urban transport is at crossroads. Problems such as traffic congestion, vehicular pollution, road accidents, market distortions in road usage, parking, auto insurance and in vehicle fuel have reached alarming proportions in many to most urban areas across the world. They affect our lives in direct as well as indirect ways. It is evident that our current approaches to solve these problems have not worked. Interestingly, the approach to solving problems is itself, unwieldy. We need to distinguish problem solving from creating in a meaningful way. Problem solving seeks to make things we dont like go awayCreating seeks to make things we care about come into being. This is a vital distinction for innovation. When problem solving dominates an organizational culture, life is about survival rather than about bringing things into
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reality that people care about. Recent research on leadership among entrepreneurs and scientists reveals a particular creative capacity sensing and actualizing emerging futures. Successful leaders see the world as open, dynamic, interconnected and full of possibilities. They are both committed and in a state of surrender, as cognitive scientist Francisco Varela expresses it. (1) How do organizations in a variety of industry achieve this seemingly un-businesslike result when in general, they are steeped in a quick fix culture? For Interface, it means shifting from selling carpets to providing floor-covering services, automatically taking back worn carpet tiles or replacing entire sections if a customer wants a different color. For Dow Chemical, it means leasing dissolving services, then reusing the solvents. For Carrier, the worlds leading manufacturer of air-conditioning equipment, it means renting cooling services rather than selling air conditioners. For IKEA, according to its published mission statement, it means providing services to help people make a house or apartment into a home rather than selling furniture. All these firms believe that higher profits will come from providing better solutions rather than selling more equipment, in the words of Natural Capitalism authors Amory and Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken.(1) Consumers have a relatively wide choice of a variety of goods - food, clothes, housing etc. that follow an efficient market mechanism. However, a good choice does not exist for transportation services, due to severe distortions in the transportation market worldwide. For instance, even the company that sells the highest premium segment car does not provide a high quality travel experience that extends beyond the vehicle. Telematics equipped vehicles such as GMs OnStar etc. provide limited extensions such as phone, emergency response etc.. The complete travel experience for a customer includes many other services. This also requires a different approach necessary to deliver these services. Public Transport services such as high capacity buses or trains, on the other hand, do not provide door-to- door mobility, take longer time, are not always comfortable to ride and are not efficient and environment friendly as it is generally believed. Most of the companies in this space try to sell equipments or services that they can do away with - solving problems temporarily or locally such as selling stock quotes and email services to captive consumers trapped in longer traffic jams or broadcasting traffic reports without guiding them on the appropriate route at that time for their journey, or electronic signboards without catering to their need to access the bus stops, which may be far or to provide vehicles with optimal seating capacity that fill up faster, have fewer stoppages and have overall lower travel time.
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There is little attention to what people really care about time, safety, health, nature, social needs - and equally low regard to carefully listen to what they would be willing to give up in return empty seats, unused car space, pollution, physical inactivity, road rage etc.. Constraint and creativity are always connected. No artist paints on an infinite canvas. The artist understands that rather than just being limits, constraints can be freeing, especially when those constraints that have genuine meaning are recognized. (1) A better and finer understanding of constraints such as those imposed by the nature have led to startling results in other industries. Growing transparency already has led to the inclusion of voices traditionally outside the inner circle. Several years ago, Greenpeace objected to the chlorides IKEA used in the printing of catalogs. Few in the industry thought there was any cost-effective alternative. But working together, Greenpeace and IKEA found a Finnish printing company that could produce catalogs without chlorides. IKEA presented its chloride-free catalog at an environmental conference in Washington and set a new industry standard. This experience showed that Greenpeace and IKEA could work together productively by focusing on tangible problems and by believing that breakthroughs were possible. Such trust can only be built over time.(1) The lessons for the urban transport eco-system are important particularly as the constraint of nature applies in a large variety of ways limited landspace to expand roads, landfill for automobile and electronic scraps, air quality, public health, maintain proportion of green space, etc.. Sensing and actualizing the emerging future of urban transport and to innovate a system that creates travel experiences fast, clean, safe, healthy, useful, economical etc. - that we care about come into being is the keynote of this paper. We have devised a new name for it MobilityXS. It stands for abundance of mobility (excess) for a commodity that has generally been scarce with traffic congestion, road rage etc.; access for a cross-section of people in the way of being a door-to-door mobility service as well as access to the physically incapable; extended services beyond mobility driving by choice, rear seat telematics, favorite co-traveler etc.; and as an axis for mobility denoting its hub and spoke arrangement.

REVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES

THE CURRENT ROAD TO NOWHERE
There is a widespread consensus that we are moving towards a blind alley. Apart from
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deepening social, cultural, health, psycho-spiritual and economic concerns, there are physical and behavioral limits to travel in the same direction as the road taken so far to build more and bigger cars and buses, build more roads and fly-overs, build more mass rapid transit capacity, extend urban boundaries, build more parking space, enhance vehicle fuel efficiency or increase fuel subsidy etc. Typically the approach is to find a solution away from the problem, as cited earlier. In various studies (2), such an approach is shown to cause a Rebound Effect (also called a Takeback Effect or Offsetting Behavior), which poses the behavioral limit. This refers to increased consumption that results from actions that build more capacity, increase efficiency and reduce consumer costs. With greater fuel efficiency, people tend to drive more. With more roads and parking space, more people will buy cars and existing car owners will make more trips. With extended urban boundaries, more people will buy bigger homes in suburban areas where more land is available at lower cost, is likely to have more parking space. They will buy more and bigger cars in the family and take more journeys on more roads. They will need more fuel to run these cars and in turn will need to import more fuel. To meet the spiraling demand, there will be more dependence on oil producing regions till all oil reserves are exhausted. They will begin to drain economies and scuffle economic growth much sooner than we may be prepared to believe. "Oil prices are likely to rise to triple-digit territory $100 a barrel at a minimum, and probably higher by the end of the decade and possibly sooner."(3) The situation is especially critical in the US. With barely 4% of the worlds population, the US consumes 26% of the worlds energy. But the US produced only 9 MBD in 2000 while consuming 19 MBD. It made up the difference by importing 10 MBD, or 53% of its needs. By 2020, the US Department of Energy forecasts domestic demand will grow to 25 MBD but production will be down to 7 MBD. The daily shortfall of 18 MBD or 72% of needs, will all need to be imported. (4) THE CASE OF LONDON: PIECEMEAL APPROACHES FAIL TO DELIVER That is where this road takes us in a broader way. Efforts to solve problems are mostly reactive and piecemeal, such as the much publicized attempts in London to charge a flat day charge for unlimited entries into a central area that rides on deep discounts of 90% to residents of this area to make it socially acceptable. The scheme has been described as a blunt instrument (5) in the way it cuts traffic congestion. In sum, even as it cuts congestion, one, it is unfair and inequitable in the way it charges. Two, it has failed on its objective to raise funds for public transport as targeted. In the absence of a comprehensive approach to create a new system, lots of heat and controversy is generated by inflammatory and irresponsible comments such as follows that
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points fingers at owners of large private vehicles called SUVs: The Government's most senior adviser on transport hit out at the owners of urban four-wheel-drive vehicles yesterday, branding them irresponsible and dangerous. Professor David Begg suggested that their drivers should pay higher car tax and congestion charges. "If people want to cause damage to the environment, create congestion and continue to threaten the safety of other road users by driving these vehicles around then they should be made to pay for it," the chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport said. Falling prices and cheap finance deals have led to a record number of 4x4s being sold in Britain, with more than 77,000 bought in the first five months of this year, compared with 67,000 in the same period in 2003. Opposition to the bulky vehicles, which can weigh up to two tonnes, has grown in tandem with the boom, as environmentalists and road safety campaigners voice their opposition. Only last month the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, branded parents using these "status symbols" for school trips as complete idiots.(6) It is unwarranted on part of the most senior adviser to pass the buck of the government or the road service providers discretion to charge every car for its full cost of consumption of scarce road space and other incidental costs for air quality, road safety etc. to the user who may have just exercised his choice to buy a bigger car to feel more secure and protected for themselves and their children in the event of an uneven collision or for some other off-road use of the car that they may have envisaged in future.(7) What is achieved by threatening the user to charge more than to actually quote the right price for their usage? In effect, such patronizing behavior creates a negative spillover and backlash to meaningful and responsible measures.

TRANSPORT DEMAND MANAGEMENT

Approaches based on transportation demand management (TDM) go a long way in suggesting a better approach to solve transportation problems. Cited as the Next Big Thing in Transportation(8), TDM shows us the way but does not take us there. One, it has not moved towards an approach to create and is as yet stuck with problem solving. Two, it does not comprehend all the enabling technologies which create altogether newer possibilities at once, than have been so far been incrementally imagined.
Perhaps the NEXT BIG THING in transportation is not a new mode or service, perhaps it is a new paradigm, that is, a new way of thinking about transportation problems and solutions. Perhaps it is an incremental approach that consists of management innovations that result in more efficient use of existing transportation systems.
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This means that the best solutions to transport problems may consist of management innovations that encourage efficiency and improve basic mobility services (walking and cycling conditions, road system management, public transit services, delivery services, etc.), rather than a new mode or breakthrough technology. Transportation Demand Management is the general term for strategies that achieve this. In other words, TDM can be the NEXT BIG THING in transportation.

OTHER ROADS - TELECOMMUTE, TELEPORT AND THE AERIAL ROUTE

Telecommuting seemed a likely road. It has already made a significant difference to the overall travel pattern. Yet, evidence and experts suggest that this does not take us far. It has behavioral constraints and other broader concerns including the rebound effect. Its net effect on managing or reducing urban transport problems is doubtful. Today, world citizens move 23 billion km in total; by 2050 that figure grows to 105 billion.(9) More importantly, experts argue that face-to-face interaction that requires physical travel is at the heart of the urbanization process (10), its buzz. Face-to-face interaction is an especially rich and efficient technology of communication in many areas of today's economy and society. Moreover, it is a form of relation, which overcomes certain key moral hazard and confidence problems at the heart of the contemporary economic and social process, and under in certain circumstances, it raises effort levels above what they would otherwise be. It allows efficient selection and matching processes to occur, so that effective partnerships can be formed. A third road of teleporting and the fourth road taking the aerial route or very high speed surface transport (e.g., TurboHawk flying cars at www.turbohawk.com, and the High Speed Ground Transportation Association at www.hsgt.org) are far too remote on this day and beyond the scope of this paper.

A DEEPER SIMPLICITY
What do you think leads to the flagrant incongruence of the simultaneous occurrence of traffic congestion and empty seats on vehicles in the same traffic? Could these people have a choice to travel in fewer vehicles with seats occupied to capacity, if they are on identical routes, with easily accessible start and end points of journey? In general, at different times, you may believe that the deeper cause for the urban chaos at the surface is the wide disparity in private and public transport facilities. How to move people out of their car and make them take the public transport? This is often a refrain at a number of transportation conferences and in the media. The deeper cause, in a systemic view, is that the classification of private transport and public transport are illusory, mere figments of our imagination. When we wake up, we will realize
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that what urban transport users really want is personalized access to high quality and cost effective travel experience. Once the option is made available to them, a vast majority will not care whether it is private transport or public transport. Understanding this deeper simplicity enables us to bring to reality new travel experiences that mimic what people care about. This road takes us to MobilityXS.

MOBILITYXS CO-CREATING A PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE THAT PEOPLE CARE ABOUT

TRAVEL

MobilityXS is based on a fresh and objective look into our usage and attitude, environmental constraints and a comprehensive study of supporting technologies. In this scenario a Mobility Service Provider offers a range of travel experiences at multiple market driven price points. A key element of MobilityXS is the sequestration of slow moving and fast moving traffic in a new urban design that matches slow moving traffic to shorter trips and fast moving traffic to longer trips. Slow moving vehicles walking, cycling, and solar-electric powered vehicles, etc. which are non-polluting is used for short trips on Streets within an assigned zone or to adjacent zones. For longer trips, the slow moving vehicles feed to a hub, where faster moving vehicles are stationed. Faster moving vehicles run on Motor Roads, uninterrupted of pedestrian crossovers with grade separation and run on motorways that are sequestrated of slow moving traffic. They are further aided by a combination of innovative traffic control measures to achieve significantly higher levels of speed, fuel efficiency as well as speed than at present. (See Figure 1). In heavy rains or inclement weather conditions, exception is made in which motor vehicles are allowed to drop people up to their residence.

Figure 1: MobilityXS: Sequestration of Modes and Routes

The key proposition of MobilityXS is that it offers variegated value plans of price-level of service packages Platinum, Gold, Silver, Blue, Economy etc. - that are designed to closely match the demand for such services. They mimic a market mechanism for a comprehensive travel experience as described above much closer than at present. TRAVEL TIME ASSURANCE A wider repertoire of services includes travel time assurance services in which customer can choose their travel time. With fewer vehicles and an optimal mix of vehicles of different sizes, the traffic flow will be lot smoother. In a new scenario, individual vehicle speeds can be set to user preferences and needs using a combination of traffic control measures, in-vehicle navigation assistance and an innovative management approach to vehicle driving. ON-ROAD SAFETY AND ROAD QUALITY SERVICE ASSURANCE This will enhance passenger safety even as it intelligently responds to users varied demand for travel speed. With fewer vehicles, fewer drivers will be needed. In-vehicle sensor technology can measure driving proficiency and send the records to a computer center over the communication network. Accordingly, the system can identify better drivers and offer them the choice and incentives to drive from amongst those who travel on the same route? The system allows only safer vehicles to ply on the roads. Together, this creates a safer passenger environment on roads. Users pay for using the road for the number of miles that you ride at a rate that closely reflects your consumption of the road infrastructure and allied services. In this way, you can look forward to good roads built and maintained with this money and high availability of road space just where you need them. CLEAN ENVIRONMENT ASSURANCE With fewer vehicles, pollution will be lower. As every vehicle carries more people than earlier, more money will be available for vehicle upkeep and upgrade to cleaner fuels and/or vehicle technologies. This clears the path for faster absorption and hence commercialization of alternate fuel technologies and vehicles such as hybrids, fuel cells, solar-electric, bio-fuels etc.. Users are assured clean air services for stretches where customers may choose to walk (for health reasons) or need to walk in areas where there is no motor vehicle access. FAVORED CO-TRAVELER SERVICE Users can also choose whether they want to travel alone or select their favored co-traveler. For this service they create a list of people. Or users can enter profiles of people; they would like to travel with. The favored co-passenger list is prepared with mutual consent. The list can be edited, updated by the users.
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PORTABILITY Users may not find it feasible carry their private car to distant cities or overseas. However, With the MobilityXS service, the user can avail of personalized services in other cities in which it is on offer. NATURAL IN-VEHICLE ENVIRONMENT Air-conditioning in vehicles becomes redundant except in extremely hot or cold conditions and for vulnerable users. One, the pollution emission and dust levels are significantly lower. With windows rolled down, the draft of air in a moving vehicle creates a naturally pleasant ambience. The vehicle body materials and the in-vehicle air circulation system create a natural and pleasant travel environment. HEALTHY AND WHOLESOME In a wholesome approach to the users overall needs, they can also choose to walk comfortable distances in a pedestrian-friendly environment that is included in the overall travel experience. Amongst the physical activities that are most health promoting are walking and cycling. By characteristic, they are moderate, habitual and not seasonal. (11) FLEXIBLE PAYMENT OPTIONS
Users have a range of payment choices including periodic post-use payment. The travel experience at a given price point in this scenario is vastly superior to what is available today at a corresponding point. This includes an option to own or rent the vehicle for exclusive personal use at a higher price point that reflects its actual cost to the system. FREEDOM!

You get the freedom to choose when to drive and when to travel as a passenger. With this freedom, if you like driving and you qualify as a good driver, you could be paid for your service to your fellow passengers and to yourself. Sometimes, you may be tired or for any other reason may not like to drive. You can just take a ride, with the comfort that the driver has been selected by the system to provide you a safe ride. While riding, you can also choose from a host of telematics services listen to music with your headphones, watch a video on demand, talk to a friend on phone or with your co-passenger, who you have selected as your favored one and do more with your hands free. With this freedom to choose, if you do not like driving or dont make to the selection, you can always take the ride with all the comfort and benefits as mentioned above. If you also choose to carry more people than you alone, you earn in proportion to the higher
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value of your driving service. The better you drive, the higher you get paid and the better your chances to be assigned a driving service on your choice. In addition, customers do not have to take their vehicles for refueling. The service provider constantly monitors vehicle performance than it can be done in private ownership. This minimizes the chances of a vehicle break down. In case, it happens or in case of an accident, the service provider promptly arranges for an alternate vehicle to reach the point of incidence, which minimizes the inconvenience for the user. The service provider handles the insurance work.

COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF MOBILITY OPTIONS

In a conventional comparison, MobilityXS is a variegated system of Mass Rapid Transit. The key proposition of MobilityXS is that it provides the comfort and convenience that closely matches (and even betters on certain counts) that of private vehicles and at the same time matches the economy and efficiency of conventional mass rapid transit systems. It offers variegated value plans of price - level of service packages that are designed to closely match real user needs and expectations. For instance, door-to door travel time with the MobilityXS service is significantly lower than what exists today. This is achieved by a combination of measures based on a keen understanding of user needs. TRANSPORTATION SURVEY FINDINGS A survey was conducted on a random sample of 20 respondents to analyse how they perceived their travel experience in the MobilityXS system vis--vis their current experience. The key findings are as follows: There is a high level of dissatisfaction with current travel experiences vis--vis an envisaged travel experience in the MobilityXS system. On a scale of 1 to 5 ( 1 being high satisfaction and 5 being very low satisafaction, the average response was 3.7. The average reduction in travel time perceived by respondents in the MobilityXS system over the existing system is 46%. Self-driven private vehicles was the modal choice for 50% of respondents. The average occupancy is 1.5. A large majority of respondents would like to take a walk often or very often in the MobilityXS scenario.
The average rating of various attributes of travel experience in the MobilityXS System 10

is as shown in Table 3. (The rating is on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 is Very Important. 5 is Least Important.) ATTRIBUTES
Faster Travel Better traffic flow optimal traffic volume, good roads, better drivers, separation of motorised and non-motorised vehicles, very few stoppages, better incident management Safer better traffic flow, proficient drivers, road worthy vehicles, separation of motorized and non-motorised traffic - no pedestrian crossovers etc. Freedom of Access no more traffic jams Prioritised Faster Travel for all subscription levels in case of Emergency 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.5

RATING

No unsafe/unhealthy walking or cycling amidst large motorized high speed/polluting vehicles. 1.6 Freedom of Access - for the physically disabled who cannot walk or climb stairs Freedom of Access - for children and for elderly who cannot drive No long or uncertain waiting at bus/transit stops No waiting for taxis, no overcharges or difficulties with payment Healthier Allows you to walk or cycle comfortable and safe, zero pollution in streets and very low pollution on roads with better absorption of low polluting alternative fuel technologies by the MobilityXS system No repair & maintenance No exorbitant charges for taxis at night Freedom of Access Road Safety - no more bad drivers, no driver distraction Personalized services in whichever city that you go (Even where your private car cannot go with you) Walk or Cycle short, comfortable distances in a safe and clean environment Cheaper better value for your money as waste such as fuel lost in idling in traffic jams or junctions, empty seats, pollution and auto-dependency impacts on health etc. are eliminated and new services are introduced; some of which turn bugs into features No parking Freedom of Access different vehicles for purpose and time (better and more than what you can own) No auto-insurance Navigation assistance for the best route at your time of travel No refueling visits to the gas station No waiting to pay for road tolls No more hiring chauffers and pay them for waiting Driving by Choice and Proficiency
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1.7 1.7 1.8 1.8

1.8 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9

2.1 2.1 2.1 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.6 2.6 2.6

Favored Co-passenger Make your list based on mutual consent Rear seat telematics phone calls, play music, multi-player games, internet, video etc.

2.8 2.8

Table 1: Approval Ratings of Various MobilityXS attributes

CONCLUSION
The above survey clearly indicates a strong preference of travel experience brought to reality in the MobilityXS system over current experiences. A universal appeal for MobilityXS in my broader observation and dialogue, revolves around a wide and growing acceptance that the future lies with a seamless integration of the transportation system with communication devices and networks. This will facilitate the development of a fast and efficient feedback mechanism between demand and supply by carrying information about position, time, preference, price and payment for people, goods and vehicles.

The {SCARCE} road space wasted to carry [EMPTY] seats on running vehicles - and as corollaries, the foregone opportunity to carry three more people in a 4-seater vehicle and to select a driver from amongst the passengers based on their choice and proficiency, to improve road safety and/or in turn, to improve traffic flow is the most significant wastage in urban transport. Vehicle ownership for masses is an idea that this planet is not equipped with, in the way that we define good life. Down the road on auto history, it was an unfortunate "tweak" that has carried too far, in spite of very early warnings portending its "Frankenstein" proportions, if we did not check this trend. The very limited private ownership of aircraft or of island resorts are just a few cases in example, where we did not make this mistake. In near future, following are the key drivers for a similar approach to city transport: 1. Rising cost of ownership and single/low occupancy usage - telematics add on, rising oil prices, high ownership cost of alternative fuel vehicles, emission taxes etc. 2. Technology that enables variabilisation of all costs of vehicle ownership and usage 3. Changing preferences - once the options of a branded class-seat-trip car usage experience are available, people would feel the same about "sharing" a car as they do about "sharing" a restaurant, theatre or an aircraft today - from ownership to access 4. Growing awareness towards the environmental conservation now and for our children
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The accepted thresholds of traffic congestion and perceptions about its severity vary widely from region to region and in developed and developing countries. Similarly, perception varies about acceptable limits of pollution, safety and affordability.
At the surface in different areas, these problems have been overwhelmingly complex to be managed and solved locally. I argue that in spite of seemingly wide differences, it is important to channelise global efforts to address the deeper causes, which are strikingly universal and simple. One, an understanding of the deeper causes creates the large-scale strategic conversations and is the key to establish global standards and practices to create a new system that delivers better, cheaper and faster travel experience. The basic solution can further be nuanced to local preferences. Two, technology and infrastructure needed to

deploy the solution are largely available today and further development rests on economic incentives and political consultation (such as the synergistic inter-operability of US and European GPS/GNSS, a final agreement on which has just been concluded on 26th June,04). (12) It is not bounded by any scientific or technological constraint, only by our imagination and willingness.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In this journey to conceptualise the MobilityXS system, I have built on the work of noted scholars from a variety of disciplines beside management. I can quote the works of Peter Senge, Todd Littman, Randall Pozdena, Susan Shaheen, Peter Drucker, Jeremy Rifkins, Amory Lovins amongst those on whose shoulders this work stands. It would not have been possible without the support of my colleagues Jayant Krishna, Jyoti Srivastava, Sandeep Jain and Arun Mokashi, Vivek Singh who have at various times lent their support to make this work possible and to enrich it with their insights. Sudhakar Ram and Gopinath at Mastek supported this work at a critical juncture. I am greatly indebted to my start-up team at India Dynamics Yatin Shirur, Vinod Kumar, Gaurav Srivastava, Zafeer Alam, N. Srinivas, Chandra Abhishek, G. Ramachandran whose motivation and enthusiasm nurtured these ideas at their very inceptions. Sing Mong Kee, Dr. Kennedy Chew and Peter Knwee at Stratech Systems have lent valuable advice and feedback for this work. Jack Opiola at Hyder Consulting convinced me that the future laid with satellite-based systems, despite my apprehensions as I shared with him. Phil Jeanes at PA Consulting and John Dowson at IBM have been particularly helpful in this work in various ways and I look forward to a fruitful association in future. A. Subhash Babu at IIT Bombay valuable resource support at IIT Bombay and inspiration allowed me to carry on this work in trying circumstances.
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My parents, my wife Alka and my sister Vinita have been constant support and help. By taking a disproportionate part of the duties of parenting, Alka gave me the privileg of time and the peace of mind needed for thinking deep and far. My lovely daughter Akarshita is a great source of delight every evening I return home, dissipating my worries and stress of work. She as all children in the world, who deserve why we should think not just for today but also for day after tomorrow, is a prime motivation for this work.
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http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm64.htm (3) The Coming Energy Crunch - A $2 gallon of gas is just the beginning. Available at http://www.nypress.com/17/22/news&columns/AaronNaparstek.cfm?page=4&last=1 (4) Freeman, Robert, Will The End of Oil Mean The End of America? Available at http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0301-12.htm (5) Dalton, Alastair, Executive admits road charging will prove a headache Available at http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=477&id=723432004 (6) Judd, Terri, Urban 4x4 drivers should pay more tax, says transport chief, June 28,2004. Available at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/story.jsp?story=535763 (7) Moon, (8) Litman, Aaron, Todd, Why The we love all-wheel Big Thing driving, in June 30, 04.
Available at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/londonnews/articles/11660847?source=Evening%20Standard

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http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm51.htm (9) Andreas Schafer, David G. Victor, MIT, Robert W. Johnson, Jr. The future mobility of the world population. Available at http://www.skyaid.org/Skycar/future_mobility_of_the_world.htm (10) Storper, Michael and Venables, Anthony J., Buzz: The Economic Force Of The City Available at http://www.druid.dk/conferences/summer2002/Papers/STORPER.pdf (11) Roberts, Ian, Owen, Harry, Lumb, Peter, MacDougall, Collin, Pedalling Health Health benefits of a Modal Transport Shift. Available at www.cycling.bham.ac.uk/pdf/cyhealth.pdf (12) EU and US sign final agreement on Galileo and GPS. Available at http://www.itsinternational.com/news/article.cfm?recordID=6191

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