Private SUV or Carpooling?—Investigating Impact of Choices on Indian Roads

There is an increasing tendency to buy bigger cars, especially SUVs, as a status quo symbol. Automobile companies observed an increased demand this year. This is likely to aggravate the already congested roads in most Indian metropolitan cities. Many signalized intersections are experiencing long queues and longer waiting times. Unlike public transport, which carries more passengers for the space it occupies, SUVs have a lower vehicle occupancy. Many studies have been conducted on SUVs based on the safety, environment aspects while there is a gap in studying the impact of SUVs on traffic. This study proposes an impact assessment of the penetration of SUVs through simulations. Vehicle pooling is also assessed as an alternative. The study has been conducted on Silk Board junction in Bangalore with peak hour and off-peak hour traffic. It was observed that up to 3 min in peak and 4 min in non-peak hour per vehicle for a 4 km ride can be saved if all cars are pooled while up to 2 min in peak and 5 min in non-peak hour per vehicle can be saved if only SUVs are pooled for the same journey. The results showcase that penalizing buying private SUVs as a mode of transport and incentivizing carpooling or adopting high occupancy vehicles to make them a lucrative option need to be done to improve the overall sustainability of urban transport. The study could help the policymakers to address the issue of this new trend of buying bigger private cars such as SUVs.