Sustainable Transport Solutions for the Concept of Smart City

In the year 2008, the world faced one of the worst economic recessions. At this point in time, the idea of a smart city was floated by IBM which was a part of the smarter planet initiative (Paroutis et al. 2013). As per various definitions, a smart city is an urban development that takes the help of technology to manage its assets like its infrastructure, important buildings, community services, transportation. The concept of smart city was welcomed by China, UAE, Korea and others. There are six indicators of a smart city, namely “smart economy, smart governance, smart citizen, smart living, smart environment and smart mobility” (Kumar and Dahiya 2017)—mobility or transportation takes the most important position due to its influence on all the other indicators. Statistics show that millions of dollars are invested in research and development of new sustainable modes of transportation systems all over the globe. There are innumerable examples of sustainable smart transport all over the world like Paris, Boston, Germany, Singapore. Each one of these examples lays emphasis on the fact that a well-designed and efficient transport system contributes to economic growth and helps in refining the quality of life of the people, thereby becoming one of the most important sectors of urban development. Post-studying these examples, one can realize that sustainable transportation system contributes to all the different indicators or aspects of a smart city. It is projected by the United Nations that in the coming 15 years the population of top 100 cities of India will grow by 60%. Also with growth in opportunities and increase in the buying capacity, personal motor-vehicle ownership doubles every decade. Land is a precious resource, and utilizing it for making roads to meet the needs of the motorized vehicles is not a solution. This chapter examines the Indian scenario and smart city dream and various successful models of sustainable transportation addressing issues similar to the existing Indian cities, and makes recommendations for the same.